Known to his clients as the “big picture guy” Raian Karanjawala is the co-founder and managing partner of Karanjwala & Co, which he started with his wife Manik.

Read his amazing journey from a barsati (a one-room apartment on the terrace with a verandah outside) in Maharani Bagh,
New Delhi, with two desks, to one of India’s most influential law firms, serving everyone from governments and companies in trouble to celebrities and street vendors in distress.

ON HIGH-PROFILE CASES

High-profile cases not only consume the client but sometimes the lawyer himself as they can often make or break the lawyer’s practice because these cases are fought not only in the court room but also in the public domain.

  In these kinds of cases, the lawyer has to be skilled not only in the court room but also before the camera. 

I have noticed several cases which have taken an adverse turn for the client merely because of the manner in which the lawyer represented the client’s point of view in a TV debate or because the lawyer permitted the client to appear in public when he would have been better advised not to speak. 

The important thing to remember is that in these high-profile cases sometimes it is better to say nothing at all rather than rush forward with one’s viewpoint.

One such case which we had to handle with a considerable amount of delicacy was the Tarun Tejpal case, in which, I recollect that for the first week I had virtually kept my phone on silent so that I would not be inundated with calls from various parts of the Press. 

There will be occasions in such matters when you have to come out but sometimes it is a better strategy rather than face a TV camera to just issue a written statement, so that whatever you want to say is said in a precise way. 

These are all things that you learn as you go along and frankly there is no one formula which succeeds in every case.

Next: Corporate clients & pro bono causes                                          

In conversation with Sangeeth Sebastian

Follow sangeeth @sangeethspeak