Media Popular Advocates
Parthasarathi Loganathan
(Querist) 08 October 2010
This query is : Resolved
Though this is not the forum to take up this exercise. I want our experts to sincerely participate in this thread and post their honest replies as to how special are these Advocates. I have been regularly following the career of the following advocates for the last 20 years. I found many aspects are Very Very Special in them in their own way.
1. Ram Jethmalani
2. Harish Salve
3. Arun Jetley
4. Manish Tewari
5. Ravi Shankar Prasad
6. Majid Memon
7. Jayanthi Natarajan
8. Abhishek Manu Singhvi
9. Mahesh Jethmalani
10.Kapil Sibal
11.Soli Sorabjee
12.Shanthi Bhushan
Experts need to clearly spell out as to:
(a) Why they are best?
(b) What is their success formula?
(c) Who are all their mentors?
My honest intention of this post to benefit upcoming lawyers who can take a cue from the experiences and feedbacks shared by our beloved experts.
M/s. Y-not legal services
(Expert) 09 October 2010
Nice query mr.partha.. Am also very eager to know the expert's opinion for this query.. So sweet query in l.c.i's history. Please keep it up
s.subramanian
(Expert) 09 October 2010
The list is never ending since there are still more excellent judicial brains operating in India. We can be proud of these doyens for the service they have rendered to our judicial system. I don't know why you have left out Mr. Shanthi Bhushan, who always stands on a special pedestal for his honesty,integrity and courage.
Parthasarathi Loganathan
(Querist) 09 October 2010
Pardon me Sir. I was listing only Media Popular Advocates. OK I now include Mr.Shanthi Bhushan in my list. Many of our LCI members must have had an opportunity to witness the arguments or worked with these eminent advocates.Experts can extract the best qualities of each and every one in this list and share in this forum so that our young and aspiring lawyers in the country can emulate to become highly successful in making Judicial Reforms. As a result, our young and brilliant judicial brains can pave way to fight for Judicial Reforms simplyfing the long drawn legal process so that every citizen in this county should never wait for Justice.
DEFENSE ADVOCATE.-firmaction@g
(Expert) 09 October 2010
In my opinion the deference between them and others is that they study the law and cases most minutely and bring out the face which was not known earlier.
I will give just two recent examples.
1) When the whole media was crying foul for the parole of famous haryana minister son and alleged killer of THE hotel bar girl , Jethmalani gave a very nice argument to the public, law and media. HE SAID THE FACILITY OF PAROLE IS TO KEEP A CONVICT HUMAN SO THAT WHEN HE RETURNS BACK AFTER JAIL TERM HE CAN BE A ACCEPTABLE CITIZEN.
2) SIMILARLY MR MAJID MANOM IN A GANG RAPE CASE DECIDED ON 7-8 TH OCT 2010 AT MUMBAI , HE JUST DUG OUT THE MOBILE RECORDS OF THE RAPE VICTIM AND SHOWED TO THE COURT THAT THE VICTIM WAS TALKING TO DOZS OF PEOPLE DURING THE PERIOD WHEN SHE CLAIMED OF BEING GANG RAPED. RESULT THE CASE AGAINST ALL THE ACCUSED WAS DISMISSED.
Parthasarathi Loganathan
(Querist) 09 October 2010
Superb observations. Truly a real-opener to one and all. Keep going. At the end of this thread I will draw conclusions to list out the best qualities that any advocate should possess to revamp the judicial process in the best interest of the society. LCI can provide a seperate section titled Debates (in the tab menu) so that many such discussions can emanate with the exclusive participation of Experts. More experts need to whole-heartedly participate in this thread and spell out only the Positives only. Please keep going and enlarge this thread to spend our week-end holidays in a purposeful manner.
Uma parameswaran
(Expert) 09 October 2010
Succes of a lawyer shall depends upon her/his dedication and hard work.My view is that the factors such as Legal knowledge ,Interpretation and argument skill,writing skill,responsibility towards the client and court may be the reason for their popularity.
James Arun
(Expert) 09 October 2010
This is a very interesting topic Mr. Loganathan.
In my opinion, media-savvy advocates, or media popular advocates become who they are because of their command over the subject, and their attention to detail, and thereby their competency or ability to bring required relief to their clients.
These "victories" are noticed by the media, and it is no secret that media thrives on such information for its own survival. And after getting such good "bytes", whenever in future, the media needs some legal inputs, it is easier for them to go back to the same advocates for their opinions/thoughts.
While media helps some advocates to become popular, the media also benefits by expert legal opinions given by these learned advocates. There is nothing wrong where everything is above board, and such interactions between media and advocates are usually good for the development of law as a sought after profession.
Having said that, there can be some advocates who come to the forefront due to the fact that they are handling sensitive or media friendly matters. There is nothing wrong in this as well. All advocates may not get the same opportunity. It is just a question of some learned advocates being in the right place at the right time. You can call it luck, or you can call it good preparation to attract such attention. There is nothing illegal in this. Other than blatant advertising, which is prohibited by the Bar Council, (I have my own thoughts on this, maybe we will reserve it for another discussion), the learned advocates can explain the law, the process, or the procedures for the benefit of all the public. They should restrain on attempting to influence the course of an ongoing trial, a matter sub-judice, by their comments/opinions, etc.
If advocates want to appear in media, and become "media popular", it is extremely important for them to have great subject matter expertise, and equally great communication skills to tackle often uncomfortable questions by the anchors/public.
This does not mean in any way, that those advocates who do not appear in media or who do NOT WANT TO appear in media are bad or incompetent. It may be that some advocates do not get an opportunity, though they want it desperately. And it may be that some advocates do not WANT to come into the media glare for a variety of reasons.
Law is considered as a noble profession, and many lawyers still maintain the nobility of the profession through their actions. Whether such advocates choose to be media friendly or not, they should always at all times, uphold the dignity of our profession. As long as they do that, the few of us who represent the advocate community, will bring the rest of us great repute, respect and dignity. If not, all of us will be put to shame. This should be avoided.
I want to give a couple of examples. We all have seen Mr. Arun Jaitley, Mr. Kapil Sibal, Mr. Soli Sorabjeee, etc., come on screen and talk their hearts out on various issues. It is always interesting to see these learned advocates speak. Mr Sibal has gone from addressing the Parliament in the only judicial impeachment matter till date, to being a minister in the UPA government. While his rise may be metamorphic, he would not have grown to this stature without expertise in his subjects. Further, as soon as he became the HRD Minister, we have seen the Right to Education get implemented. Such acts make the presence of good advocates felt and seen in the political arena as well, giving credence to the maxim that "Justice should not only be done, but SEEN to be done". The public at large will know that a person with good knowledge can do a lot good to the society than those with just a large fan following. Mr. Jaitley is another stalwart who speaks very fluently on a wide variety of subjects, and holds the attention of the audience. If one sees the Bhopal Gas case, Mr. Sorabjee as the Advocate General did a great job. At the same time, some of his decisions have gone against him. For example, he advised the Government at that time to drop proceedings against an American Company, which could have got us a great deal of compensation. We could have instead used the Alient Torts Claims Act (ACTA) in the USA, by which we could have claimed billions of dollars as compensation. I am not sure why we did not use that law, which specifically provides for torts of American companies in alien locations.
Such advocates with great command over their subjects, and having great communication skills, and being in the right time at the right place, and more importantly, having the intention to be seen in the media, become very popular in the media. Some actions of these popular advocates are appreciated while some may not be appreciated.
