'A Lot Of Well Known Lawyers Had A Long Waiting Period; There Are No Shortcuts At All' : Sr Adv Arvind Datar

The Madras Tax Bar held a webinar wherein Senior Advocate Arvind P. Datar was invited to share his experiences on his lessons from 40 years of his professional journey comprising of successes and setbacks. Datar commenced the address by remarking that every setback had one silver lining. "I was looking back at my life, and I realized that every success was after a setback. So, it was a cycle of successes and setbacks. Nobody has only successes and nobody has only setbacks." He further commented on how there was a striking change in the way practice was conducted in the last 40 years, i.e. from 1980 to 2020. "When I joined the Bar, there was no concept of a computer. There was no question of any kind of mobile phone, technology, WhatsApp. And, today, it's difficult to imagine how we conducted our practice without these." Datar stated that the life of a lawyer was never really easy and that the term "briefless lawyer" was part of the daily lexicon. LIFE AS A LAW STUDENT AND AN ADVOCATE Due to strikes in the 1970s as a consequence of Indira Gandhi losing the election and the Emergency ending, the classes of Datar's college, Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College in Chennai, were held intermittently. Datar took this as an opportunity to visit the Madras High Court. "The advantage of that was that I was able to see very many senior lawyers practice. That was a phenomenal learning experience. I remember listening to Seervai for half a day." Datar continued, "One lesson that can be learnt here is that watch the greats arguing. I made it a point to listen to them, and I tried to observe what were the plus points and what were the minus points." Therefore, the first lesson here is to keep observing people and be like a sponge in court as every day is learning experience. It is important to learn from the Seniors. For instance, Datar learnt from Sr. Adv. Soli Dastur was to never interrupt a judge. Datar, when not attending court proceedings, spent his time at the Connemara Public Library, where he read selections of legal biographies. "I got to read the biographies of great lawyers. There were biographies from England, from US, from India. India has so many interesting biographies. There is Roses in December, that's just one book. I don't know how many of you have read the autobiography of Justice KN Katju? It's a slim volume packed with wisdom, worth its weight in gold." Therefore, the second lesson is to "devour biographies" due to the amount of learnings that can be imparted through these. "This is not only for young lawyers, but for the seasoned ones as well. There's a lot to learn from these biographies." Datar wanted to pursue tax law, however, he had been advised to practice civil law before doing so. The example of renowned Senior Advocate and Indian parliamentarian, Ashoke Kumar Sen, was cited to showcase that he had also pursued civil law, before taking up any specialization. Accordingly, Datar also decided to practice one year of civil law, and then work for three years on the tax side, before going independent. LESSONS FROM A 40 YEAR PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY Datar then displayed a slideshow to impart lessons he had learnt during his professional journey to law students and junior advocates. He initiated the lesson by stating that the initial years of practice are very important. "If you are blessed with a good senior, good colleagues, that in itself is a great, great blessing. I had wonderful seniors and colleagues at the Bar. The sheer help and encouragement pushed me along the way." In 1984, after four years of practice, Datar decided to go independent, and to his horror, he realized that no work was coming in. However, he made it a point to go to Court every day. "I was told to never sit at home. Whether you have work or not, go to Court every day. Go to the Court, walk around and go to the library." Datar then started taking up civil cases and gave lectures to keep the money coming in. He remarked that he used to get Rs. 60 for rent control cases and Rs. 90 for appeals in those days. "Things often go wrong. I thought I would leave Ramamani's office and do tax work. But, I had zero tax work coming in. And things just went on. But, my love was tax." Datar had further set a target to write a nationally known book by his 30th birthday. He managed to do so by the age of 32. "You see we can't advertise, we can't solicit work. The only way to get known is to write. I would write articles, take part in seminars, but how to get to the next level? That was the problem. So, I said let me write a book on a national level. The book was meant to be a stepping stone to be get into practice and be more well known in the profession." However, from 1984 to 1986, Datar's writing efforts met numerous hurdles in the form of copyright problems, figuring out a topic to write on etc.; this was ...

'A Lot Of Well Known Lawyers Had A Long Waiting Period; There Are No Shortcuts At All' : Sr Adv Arvind Datar

Radhika Roy

Single-minded focus is extremely important, he said.

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