Name of the Legal Stalwart: Adv. S. Venkatesan
Interviewed by: Ms. Mukhil Malar J K
Designation: Advocate at Madras High Court
Bar Council No.: 4/19/1985
About: Adv. S. Venkatesan is a lawyer who is enrolled in the Madras High Court who has been in the legal profession for more than 30 years. He area of practice is predominantly civil matters and arbitrations. He has been an arbitrator for several company disputes and the civil matter he deals with also mostly stem from corporate and company disputes.
Q.1: Please tell us about your journey of being an advocate.
Ans: I did my law degree in Ambedkar Law University. When I was doing my degree, back in 1982, it was called Madras Law College. I finished my degree in the year 1985.
Q.2: Are you a first-generation lawyer?
Ans: Yes. I am a first-generation lawyer.
Q.3: How do you think that Law School education has changed since then?
Ans: I finished my law degree in 1984. At that time, the course for law was three years long. You had to finish your under graduation and then do your law degree. Now, most students prefer doing a 5 years long course that gives them an undergraduate degree and a law degree. And back then, not a lot of us knew what we were doing when we picked law. People who could not make it into medicine or engineering ended up doing law. But now we see students particularly aiming for law and preparing for entrance examinations to get into the top law universities in the country.
The number of law colleges has also seen a substantial increase in the last few years. When I was doing law, there were barely 3 law colleges in Tamil Nadu. Now there are multiple colleges and every city.
Technology has immensely changed law education. We had to go through pages and pages of legal texts to find the judgments we needed. Nowadays manupatra and casemine have made legal research much less tedious. This new condition has its drawbacks. We used to read through multiple judgements as we searched for the one we needed and as a result, we had more exposure. These online legal tools have made it too easy and the scope of gaining knowledge from legal research has reduced.
Q.4: What principles and values do you preach and apply in your professional life, especially since there is a conception that law is not the most “ethical” profession out there?
Ans: Ethics are extremely important in the practice of law. Discipline and punctuality are indispensable if you want to make it in the legal world. Adhering to deadlines and timings is extremely important and especially nowadays, I see many young lawyers faltering there. If you are supposed be somewhere at a given time, you are supposed to be there ten minutes early.
I do not advise lawyers going to their client’s place for briefing. The client must come to the lawyer’s office. That is a principle I adhere to strictly.
And if you have a bad case tell your client it is a bad case. Do not promise that you will win it. Tell them you will do your best but do not promise victory. Also, never lie to your client.
These are the principles I adhere by in my professional life and I advice all young lawyers to adhere by these principles too.
Q.5: Litigation is a full-time profession, so how do you balance both personal and professional life?
Ans: Litigation is a big commitment. Before, there were law offices which opened at 6 in the morning and went on till 11 at night. I have seen advocates who give appointments for meetings as late as 11 at night because they did not have time during the day. The legal profession has become much less taxing.
In the beginning, few years are going to be very busy. It gets better as years pass and you become more established. The profession gets more flexible. The first few years might need your 100%, but it is all worth it in the long run.
Q.6: What challenges do you see in the legal world for young lawyers?
Ans: There are several law schools and there are a large number of advocates starting practice every year. You have to be very smart and work hard to establish a name for yourself. It is extremely hard for these young lawyers to make it in the world. You may not be able to make anything in the first few years and may have to struggle hard to make a living. But, once you get established, only sky is the limit. You have to stay dedicated to your job and stay disciplined if you want to make it.
Q.7: What will be your advice for law students and younger generation of lawyers?
Ans: They only impart theoretical knowledge of the law and most student pass out of these prestigious universities with very little to no knowledge on the basics of practice of law. Practical exposure is extremely important to law students. I would advice students who have free time to attend the office of a lawyer from their second year and intern regularly to understand how law works in the real world. Exams or moot courts cannot imbibe real knowledge about law practice in the students. Being a first-generation lawyer, I found it very difficult in the beginning. So, I’d advise students to expose themselves to law practice from the very beginning and have a lifestyle of discipline and consistency.
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