Ten Questions

With Kartik Ganapathy

What are the best and worst things about your job?

Best: Intellectual satisfaction, the ability to help companies and the economy, the challenge of finding solutions and the joy of closing deals.

Worst: The occasional stress of meeting the odd tight deadline and having to put personal matters on hold as a result.

Who was the first lawyer you ever worked under? What is the one important lesson that you learnt from him/her?

Satish Kishanchandani (then with Arthur Andersen, now a partner @ DSK Legal)

“Always stand up for your people, as your people come first”.

If a seventeen year old came to you and asked you whether he/she should consider a career in law, what advice would you give?

Certainly – there are few other professions in which you have the ability to have a wide variety of experiences, conquer a wide variety of challenges, travel and have fun.

What was your first car? When did you buy it?

A Maruti Suzuki Zen, bought in 1999.

Which is your favourite restaurant?

Harima and Zen in Bangalore .

What is the best book you read in the past year?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Where did you go on your last vacation?

Thailand

Which historical figure would you invite for dinner? If you could only ask one question of him/her, what would you ask?

William Shakespeare.

Question: Was it writ by you or Francis Bacon?

What is the most significant change that you would make to the law school curriculum?

A quantitative course on mathematics and basic accounting and an increased focus on commercial laws.

What is the most significant change that you would like to see in the legal industry in the next five years?

A commonality of rules and regulations across countries, and a change in the archaic restrictions on lawyers in India .

(Nishith Desai Associates was founded in 1984. A legal and tax counseling law firm with offices in Mumbai and Bangalore in India , Palo Alto ( Silicon Valley ), USA and Singapore . Associates have an excellent reputation locally and internationally for the quality of its advice and approach to global business. Kartik Ganapathy , head of the Corporate and Securities practice, answered our ten questions.)