Sawant Singh

March 18, 2009

What were the best and worst points at your work in 2008?

An emotional and perhaps not my best moment was leaving my close friends and colleagues at Trilegal.

The satisfaction of co-founding Phoenix Legal and see it burst onto the Indian legal scene has been the highlight of 2008.

Where your first job and what was were your reasons for leaving it?

My first job was at Lex Inde, a boutique corporate advisory firm co-founded by Akshay Chudasama. I left to be a founding member of an organisation whose objectives, principles and values were aligned with mine.

If not for a career in law, what would you have been?

An actor.

You are driving back from work on a Wednesday. What song are you listening to?

Since the ride from the office to my house is very short, it is normally some old Hindi song from my chauffer Ram’s collection.

What’s your favourite drink?

Single malt whiskey.

Which is your favourite restaurant?

Not Just Jazz by the Bay in Churchgate, Mumbai.

If you could work under any lawyer in India today, who would it be? Why?

Cyril Shroff since he is regarded and consistently rated as India's leading corporate and finance lawyer.

What is the best book you read in the past year?

Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Where did you go on your last vacation?

Turkey

What is the most significant change that you would like to see in the law school experience?

Improvement in the quality of the teaching staff-there is no dearth of intelligent young law graduates who would like to take up teaching as a career but for the relatively low starting salary levels. Perhaps better remuneration packages would serve as a catalyst to attract talented young professors and make the law school experience more enriching.

(Sawant Singh is a partner based in the Mumbai office of Phoenix Legal and a part of the firm’s banking and finance practice group. Before co-founding Phoenix Legal in October last year, Sawant was a partner and the head of the securitisation practice at Trilegal, a leading Indian corporate commercial firm.)