India is home to some very influential and powerful lawyers who can hold the entire court in awe with their fabulous argument skills. Sujit Ghosh is one such lawyer who practices on indirect tax mandates, including customs, excise, service tax and VAT. He was graduated in the year 1995 from National Law School, Bangalore. While at campus, he was hired by one of the big 6 accounting firms, i.e., Arthur Andersen, in their tax practice and was positioned in Bombay. That was the time he got initiated into the realm of tax more specifically with indirect taxes. Sujit in his 23 years of experience has specialized in all Indirect Taxes specifically Customs duty, Excise duty, Service tax, VAT, GST and has catered to clients in various sectors.
The economy in his earlier days of practicing was buoyant considering the liberalization policy that was launched in the early 90s by the, then dispensation at the federal level. This essentially increased the trade flows into India which brought in its wake myriad tax issues pertaining to imports as also domestic sale, construction and manufacture by multinational companies.
An Absolute Coincidence of Fate
Sujit’s decision to become a lawyer was neither a distillate of a planned process nor borne out of any active dream harbored and nurtured since the childhood. It was a sheer quirk of fate that amongst the many competitive exams he sat for, the NLS entrance exam was the one he seemed to have cleared and that initial success (without knowing what it meant) led him to board a train to Bangalore to join a fledgling law university back then which has now come to be known as the most premier law school in India donning the number one position for the longest time – the Harvard of the East.
After spending sometime in Bombay, Sujit was transferred to the Delhi office and worked in that office for as long as Arthur Andersen existed before its global disintegration in the year 2002. Thereafter, he was hired by Ernst and Young in their indirect tax practice and stayed with them honing his skills until 2004. In the autumn of 2004, Sujit turned entrepreneurial and joined hands with some of the ex-Arthur Andersen tax partners to form a boutique tax consulting firm by the name, BMR. It is at this firm that he diversified from infrastructure projects to other sectors such as aviation, defense, railways, and the technology sector.
Pursuing Career in Law
In his new journey, Sujit spend five years in law school which was not meant to be a platform to dream or even make a guess work of what lies ahead, post his graduation. Those five years were spent (and was probably meant that way) to scratch the surface of what law meant and learn the art of corporate living in abundance and hone the skills in team work. Thus, in those five years, speaking for himself, he had no expectation from the career in law. However, as Sujit made his foray in tax consulting, and after looking around partners’ of the international accounting firms operate, the only expectation he had of his career was to gather enough skills and the right attitude to become “a trusted business advisor” for his clients. This has helped him to mold himself into one of the many tax partners, whom Sujit idolized in the firm, where he worked.
Yearning and Chasing his Dream of being a Tax Litigator
In 2010, having spent 15 years in tax consulting, Sujit decided to chase his dream to make a shift to tax litigation. Thus, he gave up the reasonably successful tax consulting career and admitted himself at the Bar Council of Delhi and started his journey as a ‘rookie’ tax litigator. Ever since then, in the past 8 years and through the birth of Advaita Legal (which he had founded in the year 2013 as a boutique tax litigation firm) Sujit has focused on tax litigation appearing mostly before constitutional courts and tax tribunals. He has also had the opportunity to brief several Senior Counsels of repute, who continue to be his role model.
Substantive Legal Expertise in a Diverse Array of Disciplines
Advaita Legal was set up in September 2013 by its national head and partner, Sujit Ghosh, with a vision to provide workable legal solutions attuned to the requirements of its clientele. While originally set up predominantly as a ‘tax’ firm, over the last four years the firm has expanded its practice to corporate and M&A, corporate and secretarial compliance services, contractual/commercial dispute resolution (including arbitration/mediation), employment and labour laws, intellectual property, international trade/WTO, projects and energy, restructuring and insolvency, banking and finance, anti-trust and competition laws.
As a growing young firm, the lawyers at Advaita are staunch believers of going beyond the call of duty. The firm consists of a young, passionate and driven team of lawyers mentored by well-established leaders across its chosen practice areas. A lot of emphasis is placed on the quality and value of the deliverables being sent across to the clients and the teams achieve this by ensuring significantly higher, senior lawyer’s time spent on assignments as compared to its peers. The firm has now grown into a mid-size firm and has achieved several marquee clients across all its areas of practice.
Exponential Growth of Lawyers and Law Firms
The only change that has happened is the scale of operations of the law firms as also the scale of fresh lawyers entering into the professional life have both grown exponentially. Sujit states that the growth has essentially been fueled by a vibrant economy that one has seen post the liberalization. In other words, the growth has not happened because of any structural changes in the legal service in the market, that is to say back then it was a restricted market for Indian players and it continues to be so even today. In the initial years, a litigating lawyer would have a hard time to earn their living and that situation has not improved much until now.
Advising the Young Lawyers
“Every branch of law is as exciting or as boring depending upon who you are working with, that is to say – no branch of law can be termed as better than the other and the likeability of any given branch of law solely depend upon the stature of the person under whose tutelage you begin your career.”
Sujit suggests that making the correct choice of that one person or institution which could form stepping stone into the legal career is the only crucial decision that one must make. In law schools, all subjects are taught with equal importance but often students tend to gravitate towards only a few subjects presumably because they find such subjects interesting and exciting. However, that interest or excitement ought not to be the litmus test for making a decision as to which branch of law one must adopt after completing law school. Unless one finds an appropriate senior or an institution which believes in imparting knowledge and training to a young and impressionable lawyer in that branch of law which may have excited him during his academic life, the situation would be akin to a ‘square peg in a round hole’.
Achievements and Contribution as a Tax Professional
Sujit recounts three achievements which he believes are the most gratified ones
In the last 23 years, there have been several tax professionals who have trained under him and today all of them without exception have become icons in their own right in their chosen field. Some have become partners in international accounting firms; some have become partners in law firms including being elevated to the judiciary. It surely makes him happy to see that somewhere in their journey towards growth and excellence; he may have had some contribution, albeit small
The second achievement would be his decision to jettison the reasonably successful tax consulting practice and take up litigation as a full time career, at a very ripe age of 40, without being flustered with the possibility of failing as a litigator. The achievement lies in overcoming the fear of failure and being able to chase the dream.
The third achievement would be, to have been able to contribute in the development of tax law through some of the landmark decisions where he had the privilege to appear as the lead counsel.
“Lawyers spend a great deal of their time shoveling smoke”
Sujit states that these famous words of the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr is somewhat true that law, in fact, appears to be a maze of words (to the common man) and lawyers do make the most of it with the various interpretations that come by simply juggling words. In fact there have been several instances when critics have been very vociferous against the long and verbose judgements given by the Indian judiciary. Well, to sum it up, he sees this as a double edged sword. Sujit says that as judges and lawyers aren’t we required to read in between the lines so as to ensure justice is duly done?? But then we also need to restrain from reconstructing interpretations in different guises without conveying a singular meaning.
Awards and Accolades
Sujit has been recognized as the “Tax lawyer of the Year, 2016” by the Indian National Bar Association and as “Star Tax Lawyer of the Year” by Legal Era in the year 2017 as also 2018. Sujit has been awarded the Leadership Excellence Award, 2017 for “Practice Innovation in Taxation Laws”. He has also been ranked as one of the leading indirect tax professionals in India in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 by International Tax Review.
Advocating for the Independence of Judiciary
Passion for excellence, innovation, hard work and self-belief – when combined together creates a formidable concoction which, Sujit calls as the one thing which drives him every moment in his professional life. Sujit would like to see that the Indian Advocates Act is changed in keeping with the times that we live in. He would also like that more debate takes place for consideration or otherwise of a Uniform Civil Code. Sujit Ghosh expresses that he would also like to see independence of judiciary is not compromised by any attempt by the executive.
Sujit Ghosh: A Pioneer in Indirect Tax Laws in India
