Legal luminary, Zia Mody shared her journey and experience while
establishing herself in the legal arena alongside the male counterparts. She
managed to earn trust, build credibility and rise to the top, all the while
balancing a very demanding career and her personal life. Zia discussed about
her marvellous achievements as a one of the foremost Indian lawyers in a candid
conversation with FLO, the Women’s Wing of FICCI. This was
the first interaction under the “Eminent Women” series started by FLO.
Zia Mody is a founder & Managing Partner of AZB & Partner and
daughter of former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee. She grew up
seeing her father as a lawyer and at the age of 9 years only she decided to
become a lawyer. She decided to study law outside India . After coming back to India , lot of multinational companies gone back
including Coke, and they only returned to India when Manmohan Singh opened
the economy, which was very exciting for her.
When she started her practice, there were very few women who stood up in
the in court to argue. “We worked with integrity, passion and of course
you have to be intelligent. In the first 5 years we didn’t had any Indian
clients, we decided to be modern and payed higher to our people to get the best
talent”, she said.
Zia said “Being a woman, success is not easy and being
a mother of three children, I know how multitasking can be so challenging. I
got all my motivation from the women in my life, my mother-in-law,
sisters-in-law and my own mother”.
She got inspiration to write her book “10 Judgements that Changed India ” by
Shobha Dey. She also recalled cases of Indira Gandhi, Palkhivala, Shah bano and
Judgement of Justice Verma, which later became the law for sexual harassment.
Jahnabi Phookan, National President FLO said, “FLO has
initiated Eminent Women Series this year, to create an inspirational learning
platform for the pan India
members. We aim to make a difference by creating an opportunity to interact
with eminent women leaders like Zia Mody, to learn from their experiences, help
face challenges better and bring out the leader in them.”
The session was moderated by day Chair Dr Aarti Gupta, Chairperson of
FLO Kanpur Chapter along with other FLO members as active listeners.