This interview has been published by Anshi Mudgal and The SuperLawyer Team
I will start backwards. I’ll not start with the very first question, why you chose law, but I would request you to answer first why and when you decided to start Juris Summit, what was the reason that you started it so soon? What are your plans? How are you going to work on the cross border business laws, and what do you see and where do you see yourself and Juris Summit in next, let’s say five years and a decade?
I’m so thankful and grateful for all of the SuperLawyer team for bringing this opportunity to me. And yes, I’m looking forward to collaborating with you people and also to giving guidance to all the newcomers who are wishing and willing to start their career on an international platform.
So, yeah, you know, there are some things, like we said, we get it out of WhatsApp chat.
So me and my partner Sohan, we met in a WhatsApp group, like in a freelancer group, and at that time, back after two years, we had started our individual freelancing journey. So, we individually found that startups, they struggle, particularly startups, they struggle a lot because there are two things.
First thing is, particularly I’m talking about the US startups. The United States law firms charge a lot. I would say 800 dollars per hour, and even beyond that. So I was like, what is this? Why are they charging this much?
Of course, they provide services and they do everything that needs to be done, but we also are authorized to do that, and we can also do it at a lesser price. So that was the first point. And the second point, startups, they want everything fast. They approach any lawyer or somewhere that gives us a template, we will do it ourselves. And in that template, the alignment of business, the clauses, they’re not properly as per their business. They’re not aligned with their business.
So these are the two things which I felt that I needed to bridge a gap between this thing. So at that time, I had a talk with Sohan. Sohan, this is the problem, we need to fill it out. So he said, so let’s go, let’s build an agency. Then let’s work together.
And I said, yeah, let’s do it. Why not? And then without a second thought, it was just like bam! Out of a WhatsApp chat. We set up an agency.
Amazing journey. Amazing start. So let’s now get back to the basics. How did you become convinced that you have to do law as well as company secretaryship?
And with this kind of dual qualification, how did you pave your way towards not only being an Indian lawyer, but also a lawyer who’s internationally acclaimed and who has moved to Germany and is working from there?
So, the thing is, I wanted to become a chartered accountant firstly, so I started my journey back then. I’ve cleared my CPT, and after that I could not understand what was happening, but suddenly in that period of time, my interest was very much into law. Then I thought of the professional course of company secretary, and without second thought, again, I enrolled myself into company secretary and successfully I’ve completed everything in the first attempt. And side by side, as this is a law field, I also enrolled myself for an LLB course, a three years course. So I’ve also completed my LLB, and fortunately in the last year of LLB I topped the university, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University.
So, this is how I wanted to prepare myself fully, and after all these things were done, still I felt like something was missing. Then I found courses like US corporate laws, then diploma in international business laws.
And that thing fascinated me. I said I want to do this. I want to set up a remote practice for myself. I wanted to do this thing. So without a second thought, I enrolled myself. And today I’m here so that I can work from Germany with US law firms, and not only US, all over the world, I can work with every country’s client.
So, with all these things, which you decide on a first go, what kind of experience do you have of the transition that you have done from traditional legal practice to starting, founding and running a specialized legal agency, which is right now catering mostly to international clients, particularly in US, like you already have explained about startups. How is your experience about the agency and how does it work for you and your partner and the kind of challenges that you see in having Indian laws, having international laws and their comparison? How does that work for you?
I would start with the traditional law firms in India or wherever we can say. So, at the law firm I had access to a predictable environment, and consistent staff support was there. Then we had a particular library where we can read and where we can update ourselves. But mostly there were domestic clients, and there were Indian timelines, as you must be aware of, then billing expectations. And so all these things were somewhere I feel they’re keeping me down, they’re setting up boundaries for me.
So, when I started a legal agency, these were not the things. There were, obviously, challenges because time zone and communication are the biggest challenges when we start an agency that is hundred percent remote and which deals with international clients.
So, we have staff, obviously we have staff, and what we do is someone between us is always awake at US time zone so that we can grab all the opportunities, so that we can reply to all the clients. And even if he’s not there, what do we do, because we use technology, right?
We have to use technology. We set auto replies to that particular person. In that way, we don’t push the client, we can’t talk right now, and it’s not our time zone. This is how we work.
So even if there is any urgent matter or something because we see clients that want something within 24 hours, within a few hours we actually do that. We don’t say we can’t do this. This is not a timeline to deliver everything, nothing like that. We’ll do everything.
Someone from us will have to do that. And we have set our agency like that only. So these are the challenges: timeline and communication.
So, talking about communication, recently we had a client from Saudi Arabia, and I personally had to deal with him.
So, the first time I didn’t understand what he’s talking about, his accent was so difficult to understand. But thanks to the notes we take, whenever we start a meeting, on the other end we start taking notes. So thanks to all these things, thanks to technology, we understand these things.
So these are the challenges we overcome, and that’s how it works.
This shows that the kind of work that you are doing is getting more and more reach, and that is something which is the value addition to your work at Juris Summit. So the kind of driving force that you, your partners and the people who work with you have, what kind of gaps or insufficiencies or legal issues you have seen in US business laws as compared to Indian business laws? And the kind of observation that has helped you overcome those challenges and help US companies or businesses have their legal work done with you.
Okay, so, I mentioned this before, that for billing, the US firms charge a lot. So this is the first thing that we wanted to fill the gap to provide services at a lower price than the US law firms.
The second thing, obviously, about the DIY route you know, templates from online platforms and Reddit forums they get. So these are the gaps Juris Summit set out to fill. We offer a third party responsive, startup-savvy legal support delivered by us. Like we are experienced, we have an experienced team and at a cost that makes sense for early-stage companies.
I’m talking particularly here about the early stage because businesses which are already set, normally, they don’t hesitate or they don’t struggle this much. So, we focus on flat fees. Not an hourly basis. There’s no surprising billings and nothing like that. Scope-defined engagements and what we call it legal sprints.
So, founders know exactly what they are paying for. So for example, what if there is a review document with us, we have to review that document, we make sure we provide another document that we just don’t review it and tell him that these are the findings and these are the loopholes that we need to fill.
And these are the liability clauses and everything. Not like that. What we suggest from the very first clause, to try to make him understand in a simple language. We make a document and we write it in a simple language, clause to clause, that you should know what you are signing. So this is our approach to make him understand everything.
We speak their language in short, I can say we speak their language. We don’t just recite, deliver code or GDPR clauses, we explain what it means for their product, their fundraising, or any contractor agreement. So this is how we work.
And Juris Summit is all about delivering clarity, speed, strategy at the point where founders need it most. We don’t just drop documents, we help build legally sound businesses one decision at a time. And that’s the gap we saw and the reason we are here.
So on that note, how do you guys keep yourself updated with the new changes in laws in different jurisdictions. Not only the US, like you just now said that you dealt with a client from Saudi Arabia, then other jurisdictions also. So what is your way of keeping yourself updated and keeping your team updated as well?
So, what happens is normally when we start our day, normally, we start our day at 9:00 AM.
So for the first half hour, particularly of mine, I look for all the US jurisdictions, the updates and everything. There are many newsletters which I have subscribed to. Then I also have many attorneys. Like we have a group with US attorneys to get the updates. Hey, what’s going on? What’s new? We talk normally like that. So I get updates from them. And on the other hand, Sohan, he handles Indian jurisdiction, all the Indian and Asian. So basically our first hour or half an hour is only to update ourselves with all the knowledge.
And apart from this, what we do is set a meeting every 15 days or weekly, biweekly. And, we exchange each other’s knowledge. Hey, what’s new? What did you see? What did you see in the last 15 days? Please share with us what’s up? And everything is online, so we keep a very friendly manner, very relaxed atmosphere, everyone shares his or her thoughts. So like that we exchange our thoughts and we keep updated.
Are there any specific reading materials or any channel which you especially look out for? Because there are so many of them. If you could name a few, it would be very helpful for the learners as well.
There are many channels, newsletters. See, it depends upon the learner, how they find it, how easy it is to get the knowledge from that particular newsletter or particular journal or everything.
So it depends upon the learner, there are many. If you Google it, you will find it. And there are many AIs. Research tools or even if you go to LexisNexis or Westlaw websites. These are the websites where you get all the knowledge.
Even if you type, what’s the update here tonight? If you even Google it, you’ll get an idea. You will get a list thoroughly. So not a particular channel or anything I follow, but it depends upon, what exactly I want to see on that particular day, that’s how I Google it. And there are a number of websites and journals and everything.
So let’s move ahead and understand how you help the startups and SMEs, especially those that are led by non-US founders, but they are being navigated by US federal laws or state laws. How do you make sure that you explain those things, especially tax compliance and other overwhelming aspects of law to your client and make sure that it has been taken care while you help their startup being established in us from scratch until the time they need your help.
Yeah, as you mentioned that US Federal and tax compliance may be overwhelming and to simplify this is our job, so we simplify US federal and state tax compliances for non-US founders by removing the overwhelm and breaking everything into clear and actionable steps. So for example, we begin with a founder friendly roadmap. We draft a simple PDF, a simple agreement or like an information document and that outlines all the key tax obligations across federal or state levels. So this includes important filings like the EIN, then form 5472 then franchise tax and sales tax registration with its timeline and responsible parties that is clearly indicated in that particular document. So since we don’t use a client portal, we ensure accessibility and clarity by sharing checklists and guides over email and tools like Google Drive, we use that. So, you know, founders can track their progress step by step.
We provide all necessary templates where it’s 83 B, election letter or a sales tax exemption certificate with instruction return in plain English. This is how we manage it. And for ongoing compliances as well, we partner with experienced CPAs.
Like we have many CPAs in our touch and bookkeepers who specialize in cross-border entities. So this is how we provide all the information to them. And once introduced, we stay in loop to ensure filings are accurate, then deadlines are met. And the startup stays in solid ground.
So, as I mentioned earlier, our goal is very simple. Remove all the complexities, bring structure to compliances and let non-US founders focus on building and remove that overwhelmingness.
How do you manage your physical and mental health while you are doing all of this in different timelines?
Because obviously sitting in one timeline and working. But managing different timelines, having that presence all the time, that all 24 hours we are available for clients. How do you manage that particular aspect of your life where you have to take care of your physical health as well as your mental health?
Yeah, start your day with meditation. And hitting a gym, that thing keeps me going all day because, as you have also already mentioned, I have to keep aligned with every time zone and everything. So obviously, this is hectic, this is not easy. But if you manage things properly, it’s all about time management.
We can’t say we don’t have time, we can’t say that. We have to manage the time, and then we’ll have time automatically. And for my mental health, I walk a lot. It gives me clarity when I walk. It clears my mind. Take a walk in nature for, let’s say, 15 to 20, even 20 minutes, just one round or something.
It’ll help you boost your thinking and give clarity on what you are doing. And after every two hours, take a break of 10 minutes. It’ll boost your productivity, we would say. So we have to manage. I don’t say no to anything.
I say I can do it. So there is nothing that you can’t do, I feel. You have to do it. If you decide, there will be a way. You will have to find a way and you can do it.
You can do everything with an amazing understanding and the way you are doing it, may you have all the success that you have planned for yourself. It’s an amazing experience to understand how you have gone so far, just by the sheer willpower of being able to do anything and everything under the sun.
It’s an overwhelming thought as well that you carry forward yourself with the thought of being able to do it.
One more thing. It’s not easy to keep motivated and to stay positive all the time. Because there were times in my life as well where I started this freelancing journey, there were times where I didn’t get clients. I had to struggle. But the thing is we have to keep going without giving up.
This is the mantra. Don’t give up. Stand back. There will be your time. You can’t give up. That’s it. You can’t give up. You have to keep putting in the hard work.
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Very good 😊
👍👍