Let's stay together
The little firm that I was was part of setting up in March 2000 now has over 600 lawyers and is heading towards having one hundred partners. Its place in the top echelon of the Indian law firm world is well established. It is an admired employer, trusted by clients and seasoned lawyers see it as the platform to burnish their already successful careers.
I'm often asked how, in a country in which even brothers in business fight and have bitter, litigious break ups, a motley crew of six young lawyers with no godfathers in the profession managed to stay together for such a long time.
Consultants will happily take your rupees/dollars/euros to provide an analysis of Trilegal's success. At some point, the firm should allow itself to be the subject of a case study - interesting insights will no doubt emerge to explain its success and durability.
Until that happens, allow me the indulgence of a homespun, experiential perspective.
Let's first agree that luck is essential for the success of any endeavour. We had lots of it.
Beyond that, what enabled us stick together, more than anything else, is that each of the founders, at various moments in time, gave up something that was very important to them - because it was even more important to one of the others. This was done on the belief that the other guy (for alas, we were all guys) would do the same when required. And, more or less, this is what happened.
Some call this the art of compromise, but it's deeper than that.
The rustic distillation of this for me is: be sincere, think about what is important for you, think about what is important for others and don't let your ego get in the way.
It works.