Founding Partner in AZB & Partners (Law Firm)
NAME: Zia Mody
PROFESSION: Corporate Lawyer, Businesswoman, Author
BORN: 19 July, 1956 (64 age)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Mumbai
FATHER’S NAME: Soli Sorabjee (Former Attorney General of India)
SPOUSE: Jaydev Mody (Chairman of Delta Corporation Limited)
SIBLINGS: 2 brothers (Hormazd Sorabjee, Jehangir S.Sorabjee)
CHILDREN: 3 daughters (Anjali Mody, Aarti Mody, Aditi Mody)
EDUCATION: Law from Selwyn College, Cambridge; LLM from Harvard Law School
AWARDS: Profession of the year at UK India Awards – 2017, India Managing Partner of the year – 2016, Life Time Achievement Award at the Euromoney Asia Women – 2015, Legal Icon of the Decade – 2013, Outstanding Women Business Leader of the year – 2013, and M&A (Merger and Acquisition)Lawyer of the year- 2012.
SPECIALISATION: Corporate Merger and Acquisition Law
COMMITTEE/PANEL HEADED: Zia Mody was a part of the expert committee set up by the Law commission of India on ‘Amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996’.
She was a member of the Reserve Bank of India Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households in 2013.
She was also the member of Godrej Committee on Corporate Governance set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (2012).
She was a member of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal, Washington D.C. (2008-2013).
BACKGROUND: Zia Mody is a single daughter of Soli Sorabjee , a former Attorney General of India. She did have a law background due to her father. She was just nine, when seeing her father she decided to choose law as her profession. She is married to Jaydev Mody, a business tycoon. She has three daughters: Anjali Mody, Aarti Mody and Aditi Mody.
UPBRINGING & EDUCATION: Zia Mody has done her schooling at Elphinstone College, Mumbai. She went to study law at Selwyn College, Cambridge. She received her Master’s degree from Harvard Law School. After that, she passed the New York State Bar Examination, to become an Attorney in the state of New York.
WALK OF LIFE AS A LAWYER: She worked as an attorney at Baker & McKenzie for 5 years. After that, she started her career in Mumbai as a junior barrister under Obed Chinoy at the Bombay High Court in 1984. Zia started AZB Partners in 1995 and chose to become a corporate lawyer after her stint at the counsel.
She has worked with G.E., Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group and the Vedanta Group. She also advises large private equity houses including KKR, Bain Capital and Warburg Pincus. She also served as the Vice President and Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) (2010 -2013). She wrote a book named “10 Judgments That Changed India” in 2013.
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS: She has featured in the Forbes list of “Power Women in Business and in the Top 50 Most Powerful Women list published by Fortune India.
She was also named one of India’s 100 Most Powerful CEOs by The Economic Times in 2004 and 2006.
She is also the recipient of the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence as the Businesswoman of the Year, 2010.
Zia is recommended for M&A, Securities Law, Private Equity and Project Finance in the RSG India Report, 2017.
Clients commended Zia as “one of India’s foremost corporate attorneys”,”problem solver”.
She was recognised as a Top 13 female Acritas Star globally by Acritas Star 2018.
She was also recognised as “Leading Lawyer”, one of the 300 leading female transactional experts by Women Leaders 2018.
Zia Mody is classified as a ‘Leading Individual’ for Banking & Finance, Corporate and M&A and Investment Funds in The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific 2018.
She is ranked #1 in the most powerful women entrepreneurs by Fortune India in 2018 and 2019.