In Conversation with senior counsel Mustafa Doctor

Mustafa Doctor, a senior counsel of the Bombay High Court, talks about the attractions of the Bombay Bar, life as a lawyer, and more..“Working with people like them is intimidating. You realize how insignificant you are in the scheme of things.”.This is no false modesty. The words come out too naturally, too quickly for it to be anything but the truth. And then, just like that, senior counsel Mustafa Doctor launches into the next answer, and then the next. The answers are quick, sharp and disarmingly honest..Law runs, so to speak, in his blood. Son of senior counsel, Saleh Doctor, and grandson of Hooseini Doctor, there were signs of the lawyer-to-be in young Mustafa Doctor as well..“I found myself getting more and more naturally inclined towards law. In school, I would take part in debates, elocutions, dramas.”.But alongside the family blood, also ran a few streaks of the unconventional..“While I was studying law, I worked for an advertising agency for around 2-3 years as a trainee. It was probably because of a streak in me to do something rebellious against what the family was doing that drew me towards advertising.” .The advertising stint clearly meant a lot to him..“It was great fun, though people used to say that there was no connection between law and advertising. I would say that, eventually, it is the same thing. You are selling an idea to an audience. Whereas in law it’s the judge, in advertising it is the public at large. To some extent, this just may be me clutching at straws to find similarities (pauses) I never regretted those three years. I never regretted making the switch to law either.”.Completing his law in 1993, the one thing he was sure of was that he would not be a solicitor like his grandfather..“I’ve always enjoyed litigation, the argument, the action. I never saw myself sitting in an office and doing corporate work and things like that.” .On the first day of September in 1993, Mustafa Doctor joined the chambers of senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina. Less than eight weeks later, Andhyarujina was made the Advocate General of Maharashtra, effectively meaning that less time would be spent on private matters..“At the AG’s chamber, you cannot have your junior appearing for you in a matter; either you are an empanelled government lawyer, or you aren’t. Though it was a bit unsettling, I don’t regret a single day I spent in his chamber, because I learnt so much from him. You cannot find a man who puts in more industry in his preparation. To be of any assistance to him in a matter, you had to read every word in every page.”.The respect is still there. And it’s not too difficult to see why..“I remember this matter he was arguing that had come up twice before and I saw him in court reading the papers yet again and marking something, even though he was thoroughly prepared. I asked him why he was reading it again. He said, ‘I always have a fear of being under-prepared, so I keep preparing till the end.’ That is what made him such a perfectionist.”.Barely three years into the profession and still finding his feet, Mustafa Doctor found himself without a chambers to be attached to after Andhyarujina was appointed as Solicitor General of India and moved to Delhi. Initially, he thought he would simply wait for Andhyarujina to come back..“So I hung around for one and a half years after he left, doing very little work. Then Navroz Seervai came up to to me one day and said, “You’re committing professional hara-kiri. You have to join somebody else’s chambers.” When it became apparent that Andhyarujina wasn’t coming back, Navroz took me under his wing.”.Although once again in the chambers of someone he deeply admired (“Navroz can rattle off a list of twenty dates without looking at any notes, and virtually every important judgement he has read he can cite from the top of his head”), it wasn’t a particularly easy time. Since there was initially insufficient space in Seervai’s chambers, Mustafa Doctor found himself practicing out of the High Court library..“There were some very demotivating moments.” .How did you deal with that?.“I try not to think about them.”.What did help was a certain Bombay Environmental Action Group. Founded by Shyam Chainani, son of the second Indian Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, the BEAG has been one of the most influential environmental groups in the country..“Everyone from Atul Setalvad to Iqbal Chagla to Navroz Seervai to Darius Khambata to Justice Gautam Patel (in his days as a lawyer) worked with Chainani; that’s how inspirational he was. .Doing pro bono work for BEAG kept me going and gave me some of the best experiences and exposure that I could have ever hoped for in my junior days.”.The desire to work pro bono continues. In fact, Mustafa Doctor also advises his juniors to always do some amount of pro bono work. Eventually, Mustafa Doctor did manage to do well for himself. And the recipe for his success seems to be rather straightforward..“There is no substitute for hard work in this profession. You have got to be meticulously well prepared in all your matters. As a junior if an attorney sees that you are well prepared, he will brief you for every matter of his. .You must also take pains in checking the facts your client gives you; don’t blindly follow what you are told. .When you draft a plaint, if you make a mistake, [the client] will be stuck with that mistake in a litigation which may continue for the next thirty years.”.He also took inspiration from some of the greats of the Bombay Bar..“Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have worked very closely with Counsel like Aspi Chinoy, Darius Khambata and Fredun De Vitre. When I see what they bring to the table in terms of preparedness, the ability to delve deep into the matter, the ability to grasp and develop a point, I feel that I have to work ten times harder in order to try and keep up with them.. Working with people like them is intimidating. You realize how insignificant you are in the scheme of things.”.There is that modesty once again. It is a curious mix of someone who is self-effacing yet extremely driven. Extremely. One gets a fairly good idea of the kind of lawyer Mustafa Doctor is when he is asked what keeps him motivated..“[It] is not the fee I get, but the satisfaction of having convinced a judge on a difficult point. But I think that’s true for every lawyer. I personally think that you should be motivated by preparing every case meticulously, and presenting it in the best possible way. At the end of the day, whether or not a judge decides in your favour, you go home with the feeling that you have done your job well. .If he decides in your favour, it’s a bonus; it’s the icing on the cake. Unfortunately the truth of the matter is that one tends to bite of that little bit more than one can chew, and sometimes therefore the quality of what you are able to deliver gets affected by this. ”.The conversation drifts towards the junior system followed by the Bombay Bar, a system that is unlike that which is practiced anywhere else in the country. It is a system that Mustafa Doctor believes in..“It is a reciprocal system, where you start off as a junior in somebody’s chamber and you learn from your senior. You are not employed by your senior; you are not answerable to him in any way. .As a senior, you are mentoring another lawyer, you are giving him a place to sit, and exposing him to solicitors whom he would not otherwise meet. At every stage in your career as a counsel, you are an independent entity. You are even entitled to take briefs where you are opposing your senior in court. You mark your own fees on the briefs that you get from various attorneys and solicitors. That is the source of your income. If you don’t understand this background, people will think it is exploitative.”.It is a system that he follows, and his juniors (he has four) have only two rules to follow..“One, you cannot file a vakalatnama, because you practise in a counsel’s chamber, and two, don’t call me “Mr. Doctor” or “Sir”. You have to call me Mustafa. In fact, at the Bombay Bar, all juniors call their seniors by their first name. It’s been the tradition from time immemorial . It is considered rude to do it any other way.”.There is a definite sense of the old-school in Mustafa Doctor, even though he is one of the most approachable seniors at the Bombay Bar. Ask him about the “nobility” of the legal profession, and he says that this is something he strongly believes in..“If you don’t believe in it, how will you ensure that it remains? How can you ever hope for this profession to maintain a standard unless you believe that it is part of your duty as an advocate? Having said that, you do find people who are not bothered with maintaining standards anymore and for whom it has become all about pleasing the client. I have been fastidious in always keeping at the top of mind my duty to the Court. I don’t ever want to be viewed as a lawyer who is willing to do absolutely anything for the client. At the Bombay Bar, counsels maintain a code of ethics and I wouldn’t want to be the one to break it.”.Being a designated senior, says Mustafa Doctor, comes with its own additional set of ethics or rules..“Sometimes as a junior, you may argue a point which you feel is a little dodgy, but you try your luck with it. As a senior, you become a little more circumspect about things like that; you don’t want to waste the court’s time and spoil your own reputation by arguing something that isn’t sustainable.”.Quite clearly then, the senior counsel has found his calling. And there is no other profession he would rather be in. Nor any other place. He would later tell me that the Bombay Bar is one of the finest places to practice..“There is a certain grace associated with [the Bombay Bar]. As counsels we are, in a sense, all competing with one another and appearing against each other in Court everyday. Nonetheless we are all great friends; some of my closest friends are my colleagues at the Bar. It is as if we are one big extended family.”.Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.