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ng14ZCC Celebrati
Making the transition from having been
trained in Mumbai to working in London
was difficult. “In India, we were taught
the more you write and the more case
law you quote, the better. In London it
was just the opposite – drafting had to be
neat, sharp and concise. I remember my
initial drafts being returned with red ink
all over and only “a” and “the” left behind
in the document – so it was a question
of unlearning and starting at the very
beginning”.
Through her years in London, Sherina
faced many hurdles including sexism.
It would have been easy to throw in the
towel and head home to walk a well-
trodden path within a legal community
in which she had grown up in. But “the
tougher it became the more I wanted to
try to reach the top on my own – to break
the glass ceiling and to make a difference!! Sterling, when Sherina moved to Norton
Decemb
W
ber 2014
er Years Decem
2000 -
It was during my time at Shearman & talent who gives her all to every case. She
Sterling that I started thinking – If I am has great strategic and technical skills, as
to make it, I need to create something and well as being incredibly hard-working and
distinguish myself from others and that’s immensely personable.”
when the idea of setting up a practice to
work with clients who are based in or It hasn’t been an easy path that brought
have business interests in India came Sherina to where she is today but she
about. It was also a way to ensure that I attributes it all to hard work, believing
could keep coming home. The experience in oneself and her values of honesty,
of strategizing and building an India integrity, loyalty and the support of her
practice along with working 15-hour parents and friends.
days on multi-billion dollar disputes for
the world’s largest companies and banks Life really has come a full circle for
was second to none. I just soaked it all Sherina where she has proved that being a
up – exhausted but happy”. As part of woman and particularly an Indian woman
the India practice initiative, Sherina was in a foreign country did not stand as an
later seconded by her firm to the legal impediment to becoming a woman of the
department of the Tata Group and the Taj world – a partner in London at a leading
Group of hotels in 2008 in Mumbai. law firm and to pursuing her dreams. And
to her – this is just the beginning…
Finally, after 6 happy years at Shearman &
“I was lucky enough
Rose Fulbright as a senior associate,
she knew exactly how to help them to to have the best set
build on their already existing India and of parents, who gave
arbitration practice. She was lucky enough me roots and then –
to be recruited by and to work directly as difficult as it was
with the global head of international for them - wings.
arbitration Joseph Tirado, who eventually After coming from
became her mentor and who believed that a very sheltered
she was good enough to be fast tracked to background in
partnership. On 1st May, 2012, Sherina was Bombay, it was
elected as the only female partner in her exciting to be out
team in London. Sherina is today actively in the world and to
involved in coordinating the arbitration learn to struggle on
and India practice of her firm and spends my own”
her time between London and Mumbai.
Sherina is a published writer and speaker
on international arbitration and India
and has recently co-authored a chapter
of a leading book ‘Arbitration in England’.
She was appointed as the Secretary to the
ICC UK Task Force on the revision of the
ICC Rules of Arbitration and is a member
of the managing committee of The B.D.
Petit Parsee General Hospital in Mumbai.
She also sits on the panels of numerous
arbitration institutions around the world.
Sherina is ranked in several leading legal
directories including Chambers Asia
Pacific (2013), which describes her as
‘highly recommended by several sources,
with clients particularly noting her ability
to understand the client’s needs’ and in
Chambers & Partners Global (2014) in
which sources describe her as offering
“splendid advice, thoroughness and a
quick turnaround” and a “phenomenal
December, 2014 SynergyZ 63