Blog Post

2021 was one of the most challenging year for mankind. Lalw firms were one one of the worst affected. However in these challenging times our Mamaging Partner led us with courage and calrity and his efforts were recognized by eminent jury at Fobes India Legal Powerlist awards held recently.

Here is what our Manging Partner Priyank Gupta has to say about 2021.

I am happy to announce that Forbes India Magazine along with Legitquest has featured me amongst the “Top Managing Partners of 2021”. I am delighted that, I excelled in a year which was toughest for bare survival.  I motivated my team to remain positive and productive during the pandemic. Being in Maharashtra the most affected state, it was difficult to bring people back to office, but as a leader I took this challenge and brought them back to office in November 2020 and this created a positive impact on younger team members who learnt a lot during the next few months, before the lockdown was announced again. My expertise in Biotech and Intellectual Property Law brought me to the centre of attention for the Molecular Diagnostics companies that were making RTPCR faster and cheaper backed with loads of Innovation. Together with my team we filed nearly 200 Patent Applications, out of which 15% were relating to Covid related products (Diagnostics, Oxygen and Disinfectants etc.). I believe that our country could do better than most western countries since a lot of innovation made testing really cheaper and faster. I was fortunate to work with these prolific inventors who worked behind scenes to make big impact on humanity. While all of this was happening, we were nearing possession of a new premises where office would be housed in. It was an achievement for me as a leader that we constructed and moved in our own office during this time which was very challenging and unthinkable. While most Law firms were cutting down renumeration we rewarded the retainers with appraisals. This was possible since IPR law related work did not shrink during the pandemic. Indeed, we saw that most business were restructuring themselves and they require the Intellectual Property lawyers more frequently than before. The profile of the firm kept enhancing with word-of-mouth publicity and through references that clients kept making. We kept recruiting younger talent and continued to provide internships to law students. Basically, we kept things simple and stuck to the same old phenomenon “How can we add value to client?”. This led to an automatic growth. In addition to this we got a few opportunities relating to driving a few cross-border litigations, I would not say that we got them because we were lucky, we got them because Chance favours prepared mind, and our clients felt that we were totally prepared to take up Whatever said and done Pandemic affected every individual on the planet. My partners, associates and their families were affected as well. We stuck to our philosophy that we practiced even prior to pandemic “Health and Family comes first”. If someone was in trouble, we divided the workloads. This way everyone was honest and committed. This work culture was automatically imbibed by new joiners and interns. As a leader this was also my toughest test, I had to be physically fit as well. I exercised routinely and followed the Covid-19 related protocols religiously all through. I also cut down all my travel. This ensure continuity of the practice and I am sure I inspired the team members. I remained empathetic towards those who could not perform because they were serially sick or took longer to recover fully. To sum up, doubled the strength of the firm from 20 to 40 during the pandemic. This is a testimony to the success of the work culture and growth strategy of the firm that I manage. Sincere thanks to my wife, Vithika, my teacher Nandi sir and my colleagues at Stratjuris as well all the clients.