By Mihir Srivastava
Renowned lawyer, Sudhir Mishra, is a multifarious personality with multiple interests. The founder and managing Partner of Trust Legal–a leading law firm-and is also a Door Tenant with No5 Barristers’ Chambers in the UK–which was founded over 100 years, a forward-thinking group that has a reputation for breaking new ground. Recipient of a host of awards, most recent being the Environmental Lawyer of the Year Award 2022 bestowed to him at the House of the Lords, Westminster in London. He’s a media personality in his own right, a columnist and a podcaster. Interested in nature and history, and an informed witness to the unfolding of our times as a cognoscente.
Seated in his chamber, he exudes an air of calmness and jauntiness. He’s informed and curious at the same time, a family man with a simple lifestyle, yet aspires to make the world a better place to live. An environmentalist to the core and pragmatism in him is laced with compassion. The most admirable quality to me is that he’s proud of his humble beginning. And life is his greatest teacher. Learning about him teaches me a significant lesson: efforts done with good intentions are always fruitful.
Sudhir was born into a humble family in Ramnagar, Varanasi. His father was a lecturer of mathematics at a local college. The going was tough. In 1977, his father joined the state civil service of Bihar. Unlike the usual practice, where the family settles in Patna, his family shifted whenever the father was transferred every few years. Sudhir studied in various ramshackle schools in small, dusty towns of Bihar. In the initial years of his schooling classes was held under the sky since there was no building and he carried a piece of bora (sackcloth) to seat himself since there was no furniture.
His reformative years were spent in Dhumrao-Buxar, Chaibasa–where he witnessed Santhal Andolan–agitation by tribals. His father who was the district supply officer and was untraceable for 20 days, the family was clueless about his whereabouts. Sudhir recounts, “tribal kids would come armed with bows and arrows to school.”
He passed the secondary examination from Siwan. Mohammad Shahabuddin, the notorious politician who recently died of Covid, was his senior. He did his higher secondary from a school in Banka, he had science subjects but the school didn’t have a laboratory. He secured 59 percent, and was considered one amongst the brightest students.
After finishing school, he was dispatched to Delhi to secure admission in a Delhi University college "I didn't get admission in any college," he says as a matter of fact. Finally, mother luck smiled at him, and, by a whisker, managed to get a seat in History Honours course at Deshbandhu College.
He was advised, time and again, to take some less demanding course as his language skills, both English and Hindi, were abysmally bad. It is hard to believe it now while he narrates his story with the facility of an orator. He’s an incredible story teller.
He didn't deter and his friends, a group of five-Manish Prabhat, Avinash Pandey, Rajesh Dwivedi, Shishir Kumar—lived together in Vinoba Puri in a one room apartment with Rs 800 as the rent. They were a unit and helped each other deal with challenges that Delhi had to offer to these newcomers. It's not a coincidence that they all went on to do very well in life.
Sudhir proved all the sceptics gloriously wrong, he topped in the third year of graduation and secured 68 percent in Mughal India paper, which is a record. While studying in Deshbandhu College, he witnessed the Mandal agitation’s most spectacular spectacle, when a disgruntled student, Rajesh Goswami, who felt was denied his right, self-immolated in public.
He enrolled in law and devoted the next five years of his life appearing for the civil services. That was a popular pastime for young men from Bihar, a gamble that every son of the soil was forced to take. He nearly made it in 1998, when he was interviewed. The gamble didn’t pay off and turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Sudhir. Life had something much better in store for him.
As the famous line from a poetry of Harivansh Rai reads man ka ho to achha, na ho to aur bhi accha (if you get what you desire is good, if you don’t it's very good). This realisation happens only in the retrospect, not when life is challenging with some insurmountable hurdles.
In 1998, he was out looking for a job desperately and no law firm would hire him. Finally, he met up with Ashok Kumar who was then with Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), and was offered a job that had distinct risk of collateral damage. He was to appear against the bail applications of poachers and wildlife criminals.
As expected, he was threatened with dire consequences but it didn't deter him. He did very well, and within a few years was a leading environmental lawyer representing 7 leading NGOs like, WTI, WPSI, Corbett Foundation, WWF, Freeland Foundation, and different state governments. His body of work in environmental litigation was second to none. In 2005, Sudhir was invited for the International visitor leadership programme nominated under Fulbright Act.
After ten years of practice, he founded Trust Legal in 2009 and saw a meteoric rise. He diversified, Trust Legal deals with wide ranging cases and clients; are not just NGOs but also corporate and civil society–including the big names like Tata, Adani, US Embassy, Cadbury, Amazon. Also, in the past few years, Trust Legal specialise in media broadcasting and entertainment firms with clients like ABP, TV9, Business World, Exchange for Media, ZEE Entertainment to name a few. He has been rated as one of the top 100 lawyers in India by Forbes Magazine and India Business Law Journal
I met Sudhir on a rainy day. We had home-made pakoras. Delhi could change his inherent self, but he did make Delhi adjust to his own persona and way of functioning. Paradoxical it may seem, but a Hindi medium student went on to become one of the most celebrated Indian lawyers in London--and it didn't take him long.
Recently, he visited his school in Siwan. Not much has changed, the school remains almost untouched by time. In some ways also, Sudhir. Success hasn’t changed the person he is. And, I get this strong feeling, he is on the cusp of a bigger change.