The Mumbai born international lawyer, Sarosh Zaiwalla, Founder and Senior Partner of Zaiwalla and Co., is among one of only three Indian origin men to be featured in GQ UK's '100 Most Connected Men in 2016' list.
Also named on the prestigious list are Rishi Saha, the Head of Public Policy at Facebook UK, and Samir Desai, Director at Funding Circle.
The magazine has collaborated with Hobsbawn's networking business and editorial intelligence to compile the list. The list does not rank its entrants, but has simply chosen people based on their networking ability and philanthropic activities.
Embodying this ethos of effective networking is Sarosh Zaiwalla, who in 1982 was the first Asian man to establish a London City law firm. Born and raised in Mumbai, the lawyer left India for London to become a solicitor, just like his father.
After qualifying, he trained at Stocken and Co., a maritime law firm in Fleet Street. Among Zaiwalla's most renowned early interns was a young Tony Blair. Over the course of his illustrious career, Sarosh Zaiwalla has represented a number high profile names, including the Gandhi family, the Dalai Lama, Benazir Bhutto, the Ruler of Dubai, Tchenguiz brothers and the Chinese government to name a few.
Sarosh Zaiwalla successfully represented the case between Iran's largest private bank, Bank Mellat in its highly-profiled sanctions litigation with the European Council. Zaiwalla's firm had successfully challenged the ruling, whereby the European Court of Justice upheld the decision that Bank Mellat did unfairly have sanctions placed upon it by the European Council. The European Court of Justice confirmed the annulment of the fund-freezing measures in place against Bank Mellat since 2010 and also ruled that the European Council failed to provide sufficient grounds or evidence.
