Joseph Pookkatt
What are the best and worst things about your job?
The best –the opportunity to interact with several interesting and intelligent persons from different professions and vocations and the opportunity to deal with a wide variety of issues and human concerns. The worst – the work pressure which comes with all of the above.
Who was the first lawyer you ever worked under? What is the most important lesson that you learnt from him/her?
Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Sr. Advocate.
That there is no substitute for hard work. He also instilled in me the importance of treating every individual with respect, patience and empathy.
If a seventeen year old came to you and asked you whether he/she should consider a career in law, what advice would you give?
Go for it… if you have the capability to think and reason logically, the ability to find solutions instead of problems and, last but not least, the stamina to stomach long hours at work.
What was your first car? When did you buy it?
A Maruti 800 – I bought it immediately after my second year of practice.
Which is your favourite restaurant?
Varq, Taj Mansingh and Swagat at Defence Colony market in New Delhi.
What is the best book you read in the past year?
Honestly, last year was very busy and I didn't get any time to read many books. Surprisingly, a non-fiction book, viz., Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” was my favourite. The book analysed how unusual trends, ideas and social behaviours cross a threshold, tip and then become a rage, the world over.
Where did you go on your last vacation?
Kovalam Beach, Kerala in May this year.
Which historical figure would you invite for dinner? If you could only ask one question of him/her, what would you ask?
Clarence Darrow.
What gave him the courage and determination to argue for the separation of Church and State (In the "Scopes Monkey Trial") in an era when any such utterance was nothing short of blasphemy and treason.
What is the most significant change that you would make to the law school curriculum?
Would make “quizzing” compulsory – Law schools need to churn out more lawyers who have knowledge of varied subjects, exposure to good literature, arts, music and not just rote learning.
What is the most significant change that you would like to see in the legal industry in the next five years?
Far greater uniformity of laws across the principal trading countries and freer movement of Indian lawyers world-wide.
(Joseph Pookkatt is one of the founding partners of the New Delhi-based APJ-SLG Law Offices, and heads their corporate, FDI, media and aviation practices. He also serves as consulting editor to indlaw.com, a prominent online legal database and is the managing trustee of the Consumer Online Foundation, an advocacy group engaged in research, information dissemination and litigation support to voluntary organisations and consumers.)
