The Highest Paid Indian Lawyer Till Date

A lawyer by profession who would charge up to 25 lakh rupees for one appearance. The advocate who went on to become the highest paid lawyer till date was none other than Mr. Ram Jethmalani. Here's how the educationist, active politician and a sharp commentator of Indian political bedrock became the man who changed the political course of the country with his sharp legal acumen.

Mr. Ram Jethmalani addressing a press conference in 2017; Image Source: India Times

If it’s a high profile controversial civil case being run for trial in an Indian court, Ram Jethmalani is the name you'll come across. Born on this day in Shikarpur, Sindh province of Pakistan in 1923 Ram Boolchand Jethmalani has always found himself in a controversy of dialogue or a court procedure.

A meritorious lad who completed his Matriculation at the age of thirteen and obtained his LL.B. degree at the age of seventeen. He started practising law in his teens after winning a judgement in his favour against the Bar Council of Sindh which allowed only twenty-one-year-old law graduates to begin their career in advocacy.

His first case on independent Indian soil was in the Bombay High Court against the Bombay Refugees Act, used incessantly for the misconduct against refugees from Pakistan post-independence in 1947. Mr. Jethmalani also took refuge in the camps with his family of two wives, as polygamy was common pre-independence.

A prolific writer and an enthusiastic educator, he penned down famous books like Big Egos, Small Men; Justice: Soviet-Style; Conflict of Laws; Conscience of a Maverick; Maverick: Unchanged and Unrepentant. He also taught students in Government Law College of Mumbai, Wayne State University (Michigan) and several law schools as an emeritus Professor.

His political interests took a leap when he was supported by the Bhartiya Jan Sangh Party and Shiv Sena’s Bal Thhakrey, who was rising as a leading politician in Maharashtra. Though he couldn’t win a seat in the Lok Sabha Elections he won the chairmanship of the Bar Council of India for four tenures. He also got elected as the President of the Supreme court Bar Association in 2010.

His political career began after the gap of Emergency of 1975 under the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi. His heavy criticism of the Prime Minister led to issuing of an arrest warrant against him from Kerala. This was met with a group of some three hundred united angry lawyers led by Nani Palkhivala who went to the Bombay High Court against his warrant and stayed it. During this time Jethmalani fled to Canada and continued mocking the actions of the Government of India then against the Democratic foundation of the nation.

In 1977 after the end of the Emergency he returned to India and took part in the General Elections against the incumbent Union Law Minister, H.R. Gokhale from Bombay. This kick-started his career in Parliament as a politician.

He became a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1988. In his political career, he not only criticized the opposition but also the party he was associated with. Known for his sharp and witty statements on several occasions he had bitterly slammed Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister for the Bofors scam after his return from Sweden. This infamously sparked a row between him and Late Rajiv Gandhi. His first cabinet position was under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996 as the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Corporate Affairs. Later under the second tenure of Vajpayee Ji, he was given the responsibility of the Ministry of Urban Development and Employment. In 1999, marking another chain of controversy and differences with the then CJI Adarsh Sein Anand and Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, he was asked to resign from his ministerial post.

To some it came out as an eccentric statement when Ram Jethmalani announced, he will someday run for the candidature of the post of the President of India. Noted for his knowledge of the law he was popularly known as the “Devil’s Advocate” and an opportunist who took up several high-profile civil cases to defend some controversial faces. The case of Nanavati, defence of Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lall case, L.K. Advani in Hawala case, Harshad Mehta in scam case, Underworld don Haji Mastan, Lalu Yadav for the fodder scam case, J. Jayalalitha, the convicts of Indira Gandhi assassination, the convicts of Rajiv Gandhi assassination and against the death sentence of Afzal Guru, Asaram Bapu, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal etc. Mr. Jethmalani states that everyone deserves an advocate and he is completely against the death sentence of convicts even after being held guilty of the charges.

He had won the International Jurist Award and also the Human Rights Award for his conduct in the cases of convicts and their rights in jail. He announced his retirement from law practice in the year 2017 and breathed his last just a week before turning 96.