Over the years, individuals have taken note of the fact that leadership has enhanced, modified, shaped, and redefined inspirational personalities. These are the people who transform other entities’ lives by striving to make a difference with their mentorship traits. Such few people have the zeal and perseverance to make a difference in the world. One such individual who is looked upon as a torchbearer of excellence is Mr. Neelesh Banthia, Owner of the prestigious law firm in India, Banthia & Co. Advocates.
Being the owner of one of the leading law firms in India, he acquires position amongst the youngest firm owners in India and his consistent perseverance, persistence, commitment, and vision has assisted Banthia & Co. Advocates to emerge as a multifaceted law firm in the nation and the world at large.
At present, Mr. Neelesh Banthia & his father, Mr. B.S. Banthia (Supreme Court Advocate) are running the firm with utmost dedication and strengthened adherence throughout the country. The consistency in regard with bringing in the best legal minds under one roof is showcased through the efforts put in by Mr. Neelesh and his father. A firm that ventured out in 1953, with merely 10 advocates and 3 offices, that very same firm in today’s paradigm has more than 400 legal practitioners working under its banner in 23 offices spread globally.
The Inception Story
Legal transcendence has been an integral part of the Banthia family for decades. Late Shri Mishrilal Ji Sb. Banthia, great grandfather of the Owner, Mr. Neelesh Banthia, began his career in 1927 at Baran, Rajasthan where he exercised his judicial powers during the British period. This legacy was taken over and continued by his grandfather late Shri Nihal Singh ji Sb. Banthia, who established Banthia & Co. Advocates in 1953 with the offices headquartered at Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) India.
Mr. Neelesh started his career as a Pilot and then worked in various countries at dynamic legal positions. In the succeeding years, he realised that he could provide a new direction and a strategized work environment to the firm and make it reach greater heights. After gaining work experience in various countries beyond the borders of India, he mastered the traits of professionalism and started displaying this through his work in India. Furthermore, he chose this profession to carry on the familial legacy and bringing a necessary change in this profession with a dynamic approach and by opting means to reorient the conventional ways of legal practice. He started the journey with commitment, honesty, obedience, and the ability to deliver the work in the least possible time.
Professional Services
The firm focuses on property law and land matters across the country and majorly serves archdioceses/dioceses and non-secular congregations of the Roman Catholic Church spread across the world. Thanks to the presence of the firm in nearly all the states in India, expertise in local laws has become its forte, thus ensuring utmost competency in availability of legal solutions within every being’s proximity.
The firm’s passion towards serving the legal profession has stimulated its activities even internationally, currently having six international offices in Dubai, Japan, Singapore, Turkey, the U.K., and the U.S.
Aside from this, the firm also operates two Delegate International Offices in New York and Chicago. The cumulation of all these establishments affirms that Banthia & Co. Advocates provides a multitude of services concerning legal outsourcing, paralegal, and secretarial services with a team of over 400+ advocates working under the firm’s banner.
Mr. Neelesh Banthia believes in maintaining friendly and cordial long-term relationship with his clients, which is a skillset that majority of the lawyers lack in today’s legal milieu. This definitely provides him with an edge over other people who are putting in their efforts in the field.
The Inspirational Saga
Mr. Neelesh Banthia being a seasoned lawyer and bearing experience in handling legal matters across the world, has more than 20 years of legal wisdom and professionalism to his name and is currently managing a team of around 350+ lawyers. He is specialized in handling variety of legal works from different jurisdictions across all continents.
Rewards and Awards
Following are the rewards of the company:
- Banthia & Co. Advocates has been recognized among the TOP 10 PROMISING LEGAL CONSULTANTS IN INDIA by Legal Consultants Magazine, September 2017.
- Reviewed as one of the 50 MOST PROMINENT CONSULTING COMPANIES in 2018, January edition.
- Reviewed as the CONSULTANT OF THE YEAR in 2018 by the CEO MAGAZINE 2018.
- Reviewed as the CONSULTANT OF THE YEAR in 2018 by SILICON INDIA 2018.
- Acknowledged as the BRAND OF THE YEAR in 2018 by BUSINESS CONNECT.
- Reviewed as MOST ADMIRABLE COMPANIES to watch in 2018 by PRIME VIEW MAGAZINE.
- The firm has started its new office recently in Tokyo, Japan as an Associate Office with HARAGUCHI Law of Nations OFFICE.
- Banthia & Co. Advocates has recently carried out a tie-up with a Mexico based Company MAKILATE GLOBAL BUSINESS.
Achievements
- Banthia & Co. Advocates has successfully completed 64 years in the legal profession.
- Banthia & Co. Advocates is the first firm in India having established a tie-up office in Turkey and Japan.
- The firm has made a mark by opening eight international offices across the globe and serving clients across the world.
- The firm is serving around 20 archdiocese/diocese and 80 religious congregations globally, in the current scenario.
- The firm has started a UK based KPO company within the name and elegance of Banthia Legal Services UK Ltd.
- Neelesh Banthia was awarded with the membership of the prestigious International Council of Jurists.
Hurdles in the Expedition
The journey from 3 to 24 offices wasn’t easy to accomplish and certain trials and challenges faced by the establishment and Mr. Neelesh Banthia were:
- Neelesh Banthia was getting into a distinct segment field within the catholic system, which proved to be a massive obstacle since he is a non-Catholic individual and had to beat unidentified barriers of competition.
- Neelesh Banthia took the decision to continue the top office in Bhopal (M.P.) where his grandfather practiced, rather than shifting his office to a metro city. At that point albeit and even today it is a standard perception within the business and legal field that there aren’t many opportunities if operations are from a non-metro city. However, his zeal, commitment and the consistent trait of positive thinking converted this deed to be his best decision. He contemplated and realised that the expenses in Bhopal are quite minimal and travelling consumes low amount of time as compared to metro cities. He took onboard a number of professionals with him from across the world who possess expertise in a variety of fields. They provided world class services to his clients while being based in Bhopal, which is definitely worth the praise.
- One of the major hurdles for Mr. Neelesh Banthia was to alter the conventional and conformist approach pertaining in regard with practice in the legal field. He faced the challenge of turning the direction of the firm towards being formulated into a legal consultancy firm instead of a litigation firm. Since the time he joined the firm, the inclination of majority of the lawyers was towards practicing litigation, and not many understood the importance of consultancy and out of the court settlement. The culture of looking beyond a certain pigeon hole with a broad perspective was instilled by him into the individuals of Banthia & Co. family and hence the series of transitions and plans that have been executed by him have cumulated into the excellence possessed by the firm.
Journey towards Success
Equipped with state-of-the-art professional services and communication facilities, the firm pinpoints ‘expertise in local laws’ as its forte. Ensuring maximum competency, in addition to the multitude benefits that propagate a simpler access to local resources, an in-depth research and investigation mechanism opted by the firm curates a knowledge bank that assists in the understanding and implementation of local laws. Spotting ‘Regularization of Properties’ as firm’s flagship offering, Banthia & Co. Advocates also deals in international investment and property matters.
As per Mr. Neelesh Banthia, the credit for the success of the firm goes to the whole team who has worked with him day and night for the rising of this firm not only domestically but internationally as well. The establishment has diversified the legal profession by imparting discipline, commitment and honesty and has instilled the ability to deliver work as fast as possible.
Creativity and Innovation
Banthia & Co. as a law firm does not believe in designations or labels and always tries to bridge the gap between senior and junior advocates. They recently took note of the fact that though senior lawyers have the required necessary work experience, junior lawyers have a very promising command over technology. The establishment tries to bring together and fuse these two together in order to provide the best possible results to clients in a variety of sectors.
Within the periphery our workspace, we encourage the development and visualization of new business ideas for the expansion of the firm in different fields and places and also the growth of all associated individuals, whilst maintaining a pressure-free environment to enable everyone to work and deliver to the optimum level of their productivity.
Strategies to Follow
Driven by the motto to ensure the availability of prompt legal services wherever and whenever needed, Banthia & Co. Advocates believes in the adoption of dynamic alterations brought forward by the transformations, instead of following the traditional and conventional methods of advocacy.
It fosters to maintain a long-term, comprehensive relationship with its esteemed clients. They believe in the commitment and energy of the youth, as to how they draw inspiration from their surroundings and how they channelize their thought process and for that very reason, most of the advocates in the establishment are below the age of 50 years.
Opportunities Ahead
At present, maximum advocates across the nation are bound to the archaic methods of practice. They’re unable to adapt to the dynamic environment and accept the technological advancements that have popped up within the profession.
In Mr. Neelesh’s opinion, the Indian paradigm lacks the prowess of professionalism, organization, and management techniques and for that very reason, most of the time, the clients are unsatisfied and international community look down upon us Indians.
By changing the scenario in the firm, Mr. Neelesh is trying to include a little initiative by providing a far better, healthier and trustworthy environment to his client. Alongside this, a growth oriented and a friendly and responsive atmosphere to young advocates and budding lawyers of the country ensures that the firm and all individuals working under its name attain growth mutually.
As of now, the firm is planning on expanding globally in more countries. Apart from that it has already entered into other ventures like knowledge process outsourcing through its registered company in UK with the name of Banthia Legal Services UK Ltd. The team has also started enhancing on the due diligence and compliance in reference to property and investment matters.
Future developments may be inclusive of starting an office in Canada, Australia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, France, and venturing into more legal fields.
With the opening of top notch law schools in India, which deliver the humblest possible education to youth alongside building their other skills. The team surely can foresee a bright future in this field. The field, as a fraternity have to understand its responsibility in imparting the best training to its future generations in order to ensure that the upcoming advocates are much more competent, knowledgeable, and professional.
People need to understand that advocacy is a service-oriented field and with the evolving dynamic environment, it needs to accept the changes in the legal field as well.
