Law and justice are significant parts of any society. India has some influential lawyers who can hold the court in awe with their strong arguments. Lawyers are hired by big clients or companies to handle their corporate, criminal, or civil cases and are paid heftily for their services. In this article, we have listed some of the best lawyers in India who also have a big name in the legal domain. 

Ram Jethmalani

Ram Jethmalani is recognized as one of the ‘best lawyers of India‘. He received his LLB degree at the age of 17 from the Government Law College at Mumbai. A special resolution was declared so he could earn his degree because, at that time, the minimum age to acquire the law degree was 21 years. He later earned his LLM degree from SC Shahani Law College, Karachi. 

Jethmalani rose to become the most successful civil and criminal advocate in the country by taking up several politically sensitive cases. From leading politicians like LK Advani in the hawala case to smuggler Haji Mastan, Harshad Mehta in the stock market scam, the assassins of prime minister Indira Gandhi and later her son Rajiv to Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal murder case, the eminent lawyer defended people from various walks of life.

Fali Sam Nariman

Fali S Nariman is one of the best lawyers in India, recognized nationally and internationally. He has been a senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India since 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. He was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and Padma Vibhusan in 2007 and was also awarded the Gruber Prize of Justice in 2002. 

Nariman has been practicing law since 1971. At present, he is 92 years old and still holds the designation of a senior advocate. He even served as a Member of Parliament since 1999, being appointed by the President to Rajya Sabha for a six-year term. Apart from this, he has held numerous positions of leadership in the legal community, both within India and internationally. These include, “President of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA)”, “Member and Honorary President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration”, “Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Commission of Jurists” and many others. Some of the major cases that he led were SP Gupta, Golak Nath, TMA Pai Foundation, etc. 

Harish Salve

Harish Salve was born in Nagpur, who is now based in Delhi. He is among the highest-paid lawyers in India and has handled many high-profile cases over the years. He mainly practiced at the Supreme Court of India but also appeared in various High Court cases and in international arbitration.

H. Salve served as the Solicitor General of India for three years. He argued the first anti-dumping case in the Supreme Court of India. In 2015, he was awarded one of India’s highest accolades, the Padma Bhushan. He had a diverse clientele including, Tata Group, ITC Limited, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited, and Salman Khan. He also defended Kulbhushan Jadav, who was accused of being a spy and was sentenced to death by the Pakistani military. 

KK Venugopal

KK Venugopal is one of the top lawyers in India and a constitutional expert. He started his career in 1954 and practiced in Chennai. Then in 1972, he moved to the national capital of India, where he was appointed as a senior advocate and handled several important cases. 

On 1st July 2017, he was appointed as the 15th Attorney General of India after Mukul Rohatgi stepped down. And due to his firm grip on the Indian Constitution, the Royal Government of Bhutan appointed him as an advisor for drafting the country’s constitution. Venugopal led several high-profile cases like the Babri demolition, where he represented the BJP leader LK Advani. For his remarkable services in the legal field, he was awarded the most prestigious award in the country, Padma Vibhushan, by the Indian government in 2015. 

Mukul Rohatgi

Mukul Rohatgi is one of the famous lawyers of India who completed his law degree from the University of Mumbai and started practicing right after college. He practiced under Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, former CJI in the High Court, before starting his own legal practice. 

M. Rohatgi is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India and has earlier served as Additional Solicitor General of India. The lawyer held the office of AGI for three years, starting from 2014 to 2017.

The 66-year-old senior advocate has represented several high-profile and crucial cases in the court, including the 2002 Gujarat riots and allegedly false encounter deaths, the Ambani brothers’ gas supply case, Jharkhand Assembly floor test case. The case related to the National Judicial Appointment Commission is also a landmark judgement by Rohatgi. 

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