Nazneen Ichhaporia, Chair-Corporate Commercial & Private Equity at ANB Legal

Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?

Nazneen Ichhaporia: I come from a family of entrepreneurs. Also, after having worked for a while as a legal professional with various law firms, the idea of having my own practice with a view to gaining more flexibility, independence and eminence, was very appealing.

I started off earlier than what is usually the trend, however I may add that this has turned out to be one of my best decisions so far.

Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by ANB Legal?

Nazneen Ichhaporia: We are a full-service commercial law firm. Our key practice areas include (a) Domestic/International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution; (b) Joint Ventures/ Private Equity/ Mergers and Acquisitions; (c) Regulatory/ Foreign Exchange Practice; (d) Private Client Practice (Wills/ Trust and Succession Planning); (e) Intellectual Property Rights; (f) Real Estate; and (g) General Corporate Practice.

I head the Private Equity, M&A and General Corporate vertical of our firm.

Since we believe in nurturing and supporting young talent, our Firm also operates a dedicated Start-up Cell, through which we cater to early-stage start-ups, emerging growth companies, incubators, accelerators, angel investors, family offices and venture capital/private equity funds.

We have serviced investors, including domestic/offshore funds and HNI investors, and advised them on various aspects of the fund related rules & regulations; structuring any proposed investments into target companies; carrying out legal due diligence on such target companies; and drafting the investment documents in relation to such investments.

Great Companies: What makes ANB Legal different from hundreds of other similar service providers?

Nazneen Ichhaporia:

Attention to detail, empathy with our clients and more so, giving our clients honest advice and practical solutions, disregarding any commercial loss which would be caused to us as result, would be our main differentiating factors. We believe in building relationships with our clients, whereby we grow along with them.

We also have several companies for whom we act as ‘in house legal’ counsel and work on an assignment specific model for them, thus offering them the best of both worlds, as legal professionals.

Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?

Nazneen Ichhaporia: We, being a traditional minded firm, in that sense have not engrained the ‘new-age marketing trends’ which are prevalent today. We believe in the old-school ideology of letting our work speak for itself. Hence, we have not indulged in splashing deal announcements across social media platforms and publish the number of transactions or kind of transactions done in a year.

We also do not encourage winning awards by paying donations or any other form of monetary contribution to the organisations. So, we may not appear to be buzzing in the media on a regular basis, like many legal firms today. If you see our LinkedIn page, it has information only on legal topics and sessions where our colleagues would be addressing audience to enhance legal knowledge.

Having said that, the clients whom we work with, are very encouraging and supportive and thanks to their faith, we have managed to scale up our practice with honesty, integrity and conviction, without compromising our beliefs. We started off initially with our Mumbai office, way back in 2013, and today we have our offices in Goa, New Delhi, Kolkata and Kochi, besides the principal office in Mumbai, with some offices coming up in a couple of more cities as well.

Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for ANB Legal?

Nazneen Ichhaporia: Our growth has always aimed at keeping our colleagues engaged with new and challenging work and offering them a happy and inclusive work-environment. We are aware that once we do that, our trajectory will automatically shoot upwards.

As for 5 years down the line, we would like to do what we have been doing since the past 8 years, i.e. keep our services to the best of industry standards and maintain our relationship with existing clients, while catering to the new ones. Rest all will follow.

We also hope to diversify more, by growing our niche practice areas such as privacy and data protection, advising emerging businesses in the space of crypto-currency, fantasy sports and online gaming.

Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Nazneen Ichhaporia: Be passionate and honest to your work, your word and your colleagues. Never forget you are in the service industry, which revolves around building relationships and connections. These are all the help you would need in this practice.

Further, get out of the ‘imaginary -growth trap’. In the sense, you may feel you are growing, but keep on the lookout for various scenarios around you while you assess your expansion opportunities.

Website - www.anblegal.in

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/anb-legal

Twitter - https://twitter.com/anb_legal

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/anb_legal_india/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/anblegall