London based Zaiwalla and Company won the 2016-17 Best International Arbitration Law Firm of the Year honor at the 6th Annual Legal Era Awards held on February 4, 2017 at Hotel Taj Lands End, Bombay. Instituted by Legal Era magazine of the Legal Media Group, the other nominees vying for this award were Herbert Smith Freehills, Kelley Drye and Warren LLP (Limited Liability Partnership), White and Case LLP, Shearman and Sterling LLP, Stephenson Harwood LLP, Squire Patton Boggs Singapore LLP, Baker and McKenzie and Reed Smith LLP, notes a press release.
Three months prior, the founder of Zaiwalla and Company, Sarosh Zaiwalla was honored with the Life-Time Achievement Award for Legal Excellence by the Indian National Bar Association, the largest voluntary bar association in New Delhi. Suresh Chandra, law secretary of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, presented the award to Zaiwalla at a function at Shangri-La’s, Eros Hotel, New Delhi on November 26, 2016.
Sarosh Zaiwalla (right) receiving the Legal Era award
An accredited mediator for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, Zaiwalla as the senior partner oversees the 35-year-old firm’s different activities. Reputed to have handled over 1,000 international arbitrations with a successful track record for public and private sector clients from India, China, Middle East, Far East and Africa, in recent years the firm "was consulted by the Russian Federation in respect of challenges to awards made by the Permanent Court of Arbitration Tribunals in The Hague against the Russian government in the sum of USD 50 billion," notes a communiqué from the company.