"Talk less, devote more thought to case at hand:" Fali Nariman to young lawyers

Lawyers in India and elsewhere are by habit loquacious, Senior Advocate Fali S Nariman opined on Monday. .Hence, he had a word of advice for young members at the Bar.“Talk less, devote more thought to the case at hand. Listen and learn from the senior brethren speaking in court and outside.”The eminent jurist shared his wisdom on the topic "Striving for excellence" at the award ceremony for the Prathiba M Singh Cambridge LL.M. Scholarship 2021 held on Monday evening..The Senior Counsel stressed that in India, as in the rest of the Commonwealth, language and law are closely interlinked and interrelated. Therefore, to excel in law in India one must first be proficient in English.“In India, striving for excellence in the law can only be achieved by striving for and achieving some degree of proficiency in the language of the law. In colonial times, for over 200 years, English, as spoken and written in British India, had always been looked upon as a foreign language, but no longer. English has now become a language in independent India we have now accepted as our own by choice,” he said..He shared that anyone practicing the law will commit mistakes often and to reach excellence one must attempt to admit and correct such mistakes.“Another important thing in the law is the willingness to learn from ones own mistakes, cultivating a cult of humility. If you take up the practice of law, you will often be mistaken in your views or in your assessment of men and matters and a small step towards excellence in the law is to be able to admit to and rectify the mistakes you may have made.”.Emphasising on the vital role of advocacy in the outcome of a case, the seasoned legal practitioner shared insights on what “good advocacy” truly meant."It is an illusion to think that great cases are won or lost because of their inherent strength or weakness. Advocacy plays a crucial, nay, a vital role. Good advocacy consists how much and how well you have thought about and how ultimately you have presented your case in Court.".Before concluding, Nariman cautioned young members of the Bar to be smart, but never too smart! Followed by this, the Senior Advocate read a quote from the Oxford Book of Quotations which reads, “How man could have excelled had he chosen to suppress his cleverness rather than indulge in it.”.Read interview of Fali Nariman here..[Read full account of event below]