"Law is a jealous mistress," says Pallavi S Shroff, the managing partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, who pursued law from Government Law College after being a MBA graduate only to be able to spend more time with her husband Shardul Shroff, executive chairman of the largest and oldest law firm in the country since 1917.
"Practicing law is very taxing on time, the reason work-life balance becomes difficult, so in order to be able to do that I pursued law even though I had no intention to," said Shroff who took her daughters Natasha and Shweta to courts since there were kids.
Such acclaim has come after arduous hours of work, sometimes at the cost of her family and leisure.
"For many years we had no social life; people stopped calling us, because I was either working, or wanted to spend what time was left with the children," recalls Pallavi.
It wasn't easy. That was a time when very few women lawyers were actually in the profession, who took it seriously and did the practise. Since it was a full time profession, it was difficult.
In the early 80s when she practised she faced prejudices from the clients who would any day prefer Shardul over her. "I remember clients used to sit outside Shardul's office for hours, preferring to meet him rather than brief me," she recalls.
The resistance was from the clients as they were not used to dealing with the women lawyers - whether for litigation or corporate matters; they were not used to dealing with women lawyers. I had clients who would say, "We want to meet Mr Shroff and we will wait."
Then Mr Shroff used to respond, "I am not dealing with this case, she is and you will have to meet her."
She got her first client- Synthetic & Chemicals who trusted her ability to win them their case which she eventually won. "I had a back surgery during that time and they flew me in a chartered plane because they didn't not want anybody as my replacement. It was a big booster for me in my early practice days," said Shroff with pride.
Therefore, it was a good challenge for me to appear and argue. I had faced difficulties when I had to stay back with my children when they were not well, but I never took these pleas before the court. So for me, it was not that easy. It was my family - my husband, my mother-in-law, who supported me tremendously. So I would say, if one has a determination, one can do it.
Being the daughter of former chief justice of India, PN Bhagwati, Shroff was destined to spearhead the firm turning it into a largest and most profitable firm along with her husband Shardul who has had her back all along.
An eminent litigation lawyer and an authority on competition law, Shroff with her broad and varied representation of public and private corporations and other entities has earned her way to being top lawyers in the country along with her contemporaries Zia Mody.
Shroff has represented several companies including Apollo Tyres, Coal India, ACC Limited and Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital (to name but a few) in competition law cases before the Competition Commission of India and the Competition Appellate Tribunal.
It was the recent split in Amarchand Mangaldas that broke the glass ceiling. Shroff recently took over as managing partner of the firm. Shroff came up against the glass ceiling in more ways than one. "As a woman you have to work twice as hard to prove you are half as good," says Shroff.
