Journey as a first generation lawyer: Challenging but filled with rewarding milestones- Sanjay Jain, Sr. Adv. and former ASG of India

Starting as a first-generation lawyer, you faced the challenges of building your practice from scratch. Can you share a turning point from those initial years that significantly impacted your professional trajectory? Could you share some insights into your early school days and college life journey, the struggles you faced during your studies, and what motivated or inspired you to pursue a career in law?

As a first-generation lawyer, building my practice from scratch was indeed a challenge, but it was also a journey filled with rewarding milestones. We all know that the legal profession was not very rewarding for beginners, particularly in the 1980s, resulting in a significant number of lawyers leaving the profession within five years of joining it. Naturally, I, too, needed a turning point to stay put in the profession. In 1989, in the aftermath of a long-drawn lawyers’ strike in Delhi Courts, I was in two minds about continuing my independent practice. Then came a phase when, within a period of a few months, in three different matters in Delhi High Court, I received appreciation from the Bench for my performance as a lawyer in open court. Encouraged by the same, I banished all thoughts of quitting the profession and kept looking for opportunities to improve myself as a lawyer of substance. In my free time, I would prefer to go and sit in any courtroom randomly and watch the proceedings. Many tools in the kit that I possess as a lawyer today were picked up from watching other lawyers, which later got chiselled with experience.