Talware Thakore and Associates Recruitment Form

JOB APPLICATION POSITION APPLIED FOR : Associate PERSONAL INFORMATION NAME : Apurva Ranjan Shukla EDUCATION List all educational institutions from secondary school onwards attended and the overall grades achieved. Period

Name of the Institution

Grades

2011-2015

National Law School of India University

4.48/7

ISC (2009-10)

St. Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun

93%

ICSE (-2009)

St. Joseph’s Academy, Dehradun

90%

List any achievements (from secondary school onward) which have brought you any scholarships, exhibitions or prizes. Please give brief details. 

Mooting

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25th Kerala Law Academy Constitutional Law Moot  Winner  Best Team  Second Best Advocate  Second Best Memorial Kerala Law Academy is the oldest moot in India and receives the maximum participation amongst all moots in India. o Second Rank, Intra Batch Mooting Competition, 2013. Co-authored a paper on ‘Castration to the body: Criminological Implications’ for a conference on Re-framing Punishment at Oxford University, organized by InterDisciplinary.net. Cleared Common Proficiency Test (CPT) for Chartered Accountancy with 96 percentile.

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House prefect in Class 12th, a position second in hierarchy to the head boy/girl.

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Active member of the Economics and Business society. I lead a project team of 5 to school cafeteria more efficient. We worked on both demand and supply side considerations resulting in a net increase in sales of around ~25%.

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Was involved in the production of 2 theatre plays in school. In one play, I was the lead actor. The same play was later staged in New Delhi as part of a larger cross cultural program.

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If you believe that extenuating circumstances prevented you from getting the grades you expected, please tell us about them here.

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WORK EXPERIENCE/INTERNSHIP Period Jan ’15 -Mar’15

Organisation Deutsche Bank

Position held and nature of work • An investment banking internship in the UK M&A team in the corporate finance division. • Prepared a pitchbook as part of project assignment. • Learnt financial modeling, merger strategy, discounted cashflow valuation, merger model analysis with accretion/dilution of EPS and ROIC.

Oct’15

AZB & Partners

• Subject of research included securitization regime for NBFCs, “prior consent” requirement in EIA for augmentation of sanctioned capacity, license requirements by shipping concerns and jurisdictional issues in arbitration. • Drafted a brief on Guerilla Tactics by Recalcitrant Parties in Arbitration for Mrs. Zia Mody. The revised brief was presented by her at HKIAC.

Jan’14Mar’14

Mr. Venkatesh Dhond, Senior Advocate, Bombay High Court

• Researched and drafted a notice of motion in the matter relating to defamation in Reliance Industries v. Aam Aadmi Party. • Researched on issues of salvage claims, arrest of ships, anti-suit injunctions, enforcement of foreign arbitral awards with specific reference to maritime law. • Authored a legal opinion to the Registrar of the Bombay High Court on how to remove cybersquatters from other related domains like ‘bombayhighcourt.com’, ‘bombayhighcourt.in’.

Jan’13 – Mar’13

Mr. Jayant Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court

• A litigation internship in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. Work included research for cases up for hearing, court-visits and preparation of oral arguments. The primary areas dealt with were civil disputes and arbitration. • Close interaction with Mr. Bhushan helped me pick up skills of court craft and client negotiation.

June’11

Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra

• Field trips to villages of Uttarakhand where aspects of beneficial legislations were taught to women. I personally made presentations on Domestic Violence Act and Dowry Prohibition Act. • Work at the office related to collation and analysis of data collected during visits, preparing reports for UN and Ford Foundation grants.

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FURTHER INFORMATION Please give details of your interests and achievements (not academic or work related) to date. Photography, as an art form, interests me. A few of my pictures were vetted and uploaded on India’s sole independent artists online marketplace recently. Moreover, I have established myself as an active member of the competitive Bangalore’s music photography circuit. In college, I also passionately took to long distance running. I ran my first half marathon in December and am preparing for a full marathon in June. The emerging technology and startup industry interests me a lot. I invest a significant proportion of my time in reading about emerging players, studying how and why certain firms become successful and what individual skills lead one to convince others of a belief. As a student of law, I am particularly interested by the immense M&A/capital raising/debt restructuring opportunities which lie in this area, in future. Please choose a significant achievement or example of when you felt you demonstrated initiative, pro activity, drive and commitment. Please specify exactly what you did and why you consider it to be relevant. A specific incident which comes to my mind is when my team emerged victorious in the 25th KLA Moot competition last year. Undoubtedly a team effort, there were several moments wherein I assumed leadership roles to achieve this end. At the beginning, everybody in the team knew each other only cursorily and had never worked together. Early on, I ensured that clear and frank communication channels were established so that the team was on the same page in terms of expectations and goals from the moot. Like all moots, this was long term exercise with no immediate results. Inevitably it resulted in the team temperament going through emotional downswings. It was at these crucial junctures that I stepped in to increase the morale. I achieved this mainly through small gestures, all the while ensuring that my mental strength was never diminished. I displayed proactivity in setting the tempo of work and maintaining the highest goals. This required me to adopt a balancing role between getting the team to deliver the best, and making sure that a positive and open work environment could be cultivated at the same time. All of the above got tested most during the final days of the moot where it was necessary that all feedback was appreciated and worked upon, and the pressure of performance was utilised constructively. I constantly worked to maintain a casual but purposeful attitude to get the best out of our team. These efforts yielded success at the end. This experience highlighted to me the key skills required in being a team player and also assume leadership roles in such a setup. Please describe a situation where you have worked with group of people and you have used your ability to engage, challenge and convince others. Please give detail on the skills you demonstrated in this example. I head a 15 member Strawberry Fields Committee that was responsible for organising the Strawberry Fields, one of India’s biggest musical events for independent artists. The show had suffered financial set backs in the past few years and its sustainability was in question when I

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assumed my role. Early on, I had identified that the show had not been dynamic to adapt to changing market needs. The show was being run on certain assumptions that had, unfortunately, not been challenged recently. I leveraged my experience and role within the committee to garner support for changing our operating and financial model. Both were significant changes and I faced challenges from peers and seniors who felt that this was a departure from the spirit and character of the show. In these consultative processes, I had to be a patient listener to grasp the sensitive emotional reasons underlying certain concerns. To address these, I provided deft and practical solutions. There were times when I even gave personal representations. There existed a fear that the financial situation could possibly worsen, I had to demonstrate that my team understood and was willing to undertake the risks but was not reckless. I had to be certain that my demeanour was always humble and I never got carried away from listening to critics. The effort of the team and the support of others were critical in making the show successful. For the first time in 5 years, the show ended with a positive net cash position and we were able to set off some old debt. Several new initiatives started by my team and I, like the new financial model, are expected to be sustainable going forward. What in particular interests you about pursuing a career in commercial law, what factors and influences have affected your choice, and what specifically appeals to you about working in a global environment? Companies fascinate me. I’ve had this realisation only at my most recent internship, when I realised the extent and the significance of the role corporations have in our everyday life. Following from this, my study of law has made me comprehend that companies are able to contribute so much value to society by virtue of robust and sophisticated legal structures backing them. My substantial interest in commercial law stems from this realisation. I want to be an agent whose work has tangible impact on society. Apart from this compelling reason, aspects such as the past paced nature, professionalism, intellectual rigour and precision are particularly appealing to me. Overall, it is an environment where I think my strengths can be harnessed and my abilities sharpened. My reasons for liking commercial law and working in a global environment overlap in certain ways. Like I mentioned, they both create an opportunity where I see myself grow. Additionally, the idea of experiencing diverse work cultures, being able to offer counsel universally and, generally, seeing myself navigate through the challenges of a global work environment is highly appealing to me. Please state what in particular attracts you to Talwar Thakore & Associates. My exposure of a financial side of an M&A transaction at Deutsche Bank has only piqued my interest to learn the legal aspects of it. Considering that TT&A has a strong focus area on corporate, private equity and banking law, it aligns best with my interests. Considering that TT&A has a focussed office size, an associate will get the opportunity to be exposed to cutting edge corporate deals and contribute value really early in their career. The close relationship with Linklaters LLP provides anyone working at TT&A with a great platform for global exposure in terms of variety of deals to be involved in. As an associate, one gets a chance to learn from the best in the industry. This relationship also provides TT&A with a unique style of

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working compared to other Indian firms which makes it particularly attractive to me. The kind of work culture that exists at TT&A, which Mr. Feroz Dubash described during his visit to NLS, particularly appealed to me. His focus on how TT&A encourages associates to grow, especially since associates are not given specific teams but are expected to diversify their exposure on all the focus areas of the firm, is aligned with how I imagine my initial career growth to be. Please use this section to supply us with additional information relevant to your application. I was elected to the placement committee of my batch with the second highest number of votes, securing 77% of the total votes cast. We would like to take two academic/work references. Please provide contact details for your referees. Neha Mishra,

Himanshoo Tembe,

B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), NLSIU,

Senior Associate,

LLM, LSE,

AZB & Partners.

Master’s, Public Policy, NSU. Taught Law, Poverty and Development, Contact: [email protected]

Worked with at AZB & Partners. Contact: [email protected]

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