Banthia and Co. Advocates is one of India’s oldest and most successful law firms. With its headquarters in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, the firm has around 16 offices that are spread throughout the country. The firm was founded in 1953 by Late Shri Nihal Singh Ji Banthia, the great grandfather of Neelesh Banthia, and is serving the legal services for more than 6 decades.
The law firm has a reputation in providing exceptional services to the clients of business, litigation, property and real estate matters. The other professional services of the firm include drafting of agreements, contracts; legal suggestions to various State Governments of India; negotiations and consultations and many more.
With the help of technological advancements in all their offices around the world, all their staff is trained to provide services with international quality of standards.
Late Shri Mishralal Ji Sb Banthia practiced law in British ruled India as early as 1927. The legacy was carried forward by Late Shri Nihal Singh Ji Banthia, when he established the firm Banthia and Co. Advocates in 1953, in his home town Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The firm was established to bring together specialized advocates and provide the best law services to the people. The law practice was carried on forward by his son and now today it rests in the hands of his son and grandson, Mr. B. S Banthia and Neelesh Banthia.
Neelesh Banthia, the millennial workforce, that has carried the firm forward, was a pilot before he took on to the firm. He aimed to provide the best legal service throughout the world and take it to new heights.
“I realized that I could provide a new direction and work environment to the firm and make it reach greater heights”, he said.
The profession had a great potential to encounter dynamic changes in the services provided, and to cater to these changes and to continue the family legacy, Neelesh Banthia took the operations of the firm in his hands. Very rightly, the firm today has more than 300 advocates associated and they have about 23 offices in the world. To change the conventional ways and practice the legal services with commitment, honesty, and obedience and provide the best quality of service in the least possible time is what the firm is working with.
The firm today specializes in the fields of property law and real estate matters across the country. Their legal services have also spread internationally.
Journey from 3 to 24 offices was not easy to accomplish and certain challenges faced by the company and Mr. Neelesh Banthia were:
The biggest challenge before them was entering in the field of the Catholic system. Being a non-Catholic, he had to face many problems. The head-fast attitude and resilience pushed them through the difficulties and today the firm represents many Archdioceses and Dioceses across the country and the Religious Congregations of Roman Catholic Church in India.
Mr. NeeleshBanthia decided to continue the Head Office in Bhopal (M.P.) where his grandfather practiced, instead of shifting his office to a metro city; at that time even though it was a common perception in the business and legal field that there are not many opportunities in a non-metro city.
But with his zeal, commitment and having a trait of positive thinking he converted the same to be his best decision, as he understood that the expenses in Bhopal are minimal and traveling is less time consuming as compared to the metro city. He joined a number of professionals with him from across the world who possess expertise in varied fields and provided world-class services to his clients while being based in Bhopal, which in itself is worth the praise.
Until Neelesh Banthia got on board, the firm only practiced litigation, which was the conventional method of legal practice. Convincing the advocates to turn from the conventional practices and explore other areas of practice such as the consultancy was a real challenge. Even with all the different areas where one could practice law, the inclination of the lawyers was towards litigation only, and very less believed in out of court settlement. This was another task before Neelesh Banthia, to change and widen the course of the law practices.
Equipped with state-of-the-art professional services & communication facilities, Firm pinpoints ‘expertise in local laws’ as its forte. Ensuring maximum competency along with adding benefit to have an easy access to local resources for in-depth research and investigations, the company pledges to deliver various inputs and valuable insights for the development of economic & commercial condition of the country. Spotting ‘Regularisation of Properties’ as their flagship offering they also deal in international investment & property matters.
“Diversifying the legal profession by imparting discipline, commitment & honesty and the ability to deliver the work as fast as possible”, is what the firm believes in.
The firm specializes in Property Law and Real Estate matters across the country and majorly serves Archdioceses/Dioceses and Religious Congregations of Roman Catholic Church spread across the globe. Due to presence nearly in all the states of India, expertise in local laws becomes their forte, thus ensuring the maximum competency in legal solutions.
Their passion towards serving the legal profession has stimulated their activities even internationally, currently having 6 International offices in Dubai, Japan, Singapore, Turkey, U.K (BLS- Banthia Legal Services- a UK based Knowledge Process Outsourcing Company and a subsidiary of BCA) and U.S. Apart from this the firm also operates 2 delegate International offices in New York and Chicago; BCA provides multiple services pertaining to Legal Outsourcing, Paralegal and Secretarial Services with a team of over 400+ advocates.
“We believe in perfection, punctuality, sincerity, and commitment in work and believe in maintaining friendly and cordial long term relationship with clients which gives us an edge over other law firms”
Competition is a part of the journey in this hard and fast world. To have a success story it is necessary that you stand out from the others and present the world with something unique. But in the law world, there are hardly any ideas one can think that will make you stand out.
“If we have to mention one thing that makes us unique is that we believe in maintaining a personal relationship with clients and are not limited to professionalism”, says Neelesh Banthia.
At Banthia and Co. Advocates, they do not believe in designations and always try to bridge the gap between senior and junior advocates. They have recently noticed that where senior lawyers have the experience, junior lawyers have a very good command on technology and thus they try to bring these two together to provide the best possible results to clients in various sectors.
In the workspace, they encourage new business ideas for the expansion of the firm in a different field and places at the same time maintaining the pressure-free environment to enable everyone to work and deliver best of their productivity.
Banthia& Co. Advocates believe in excellence, growth, and perfection in the work entrusted to them. Driven by the motto to ensure prompt legal services wherever & whenever needed, the firm believes to adopt the dynamic changes brought forward by the transformations rather than following the conventional methods of advocacy. They foster to maintain a long-term, comprehensive relationship with their esteemed clients.
The firm believes in the commitment and energy of the youth and for that reason, most of the advocates in the firm are below the age of 50 years.
Their approach towards their clients is another reason for their huge success, and that is also the reason they stand out from their competitors. They provide easy access to the clients, with their round the clock and professional services, it becomes feasible for the clients to reach out to them at any given point.
Mr. Neelesh Banthia- The Dynamic Driving Force
Mr. Neelesh Banthia is a seasoned lawyer and well experienced in dealing with legal matters across the globe. He has around 20+ years of experience and currently managing a team of around 350+ lawyers, specialized in handling a variety of legal works from different jurisdictions across continents. Being the owner of one of the leading law firms in India, he also acquires the position amongst the youngest law firm owners in India. His commitment, vision, dedication, and persistence have helped Banthia& Co. Advocates to emerge as a multifaceted international law firm.
The Future Ahead-
At present maximum advocates across the country are following the conventional methods of practice and are not able to adapt to the dynamic environment and accept the technological advancements in the profession for that reason there are only handful of Indian advocates who have made their mark at international level and most of them are still stuck on the conventional ways. In my opinion, we in India lack the professionalism, organization and management techniques and for that reason, most of the time the clients are unsatisfied and International community look down on us.
By changing the scenario in our firm we are trying to incorporate a small initiative by providing a better and trustworthy environment to the client along with a growth-oriented and friendly atmosphere to young advocates and budding lawyers of the country.
We are planning to expand ourselves globally in more countries; apart from that, we have already entered into other ventures like Knowledge Process Outsourcing through our registered company in the UK in the name of Banthia Legal Services UK Ltd. We have also started working on due diligence and compliance in relation to property and investment matters.
Future developments may include starting an office in Canada, Australia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, France and venturing into more legal fields.
With the opening of the best law schools in India who deliver the best possible education to youth along with building their other skills, we surely can foresee a bright future in this field. We as the fraternity have to understand our responsibility in imparting the best of training to our future generations to make sure the upcoming advocates are much more competent, knowledgeable and professional.
We need to understand that advocacy is a service-oriented field and with the dynamic environment we need to accept the changes in our field as well.
A Word for the New Entrants–
“At present the people have become aware of the laws and their rights in society and due to which they are conscious about the tedious litigation they get involved in case they have to approach court for litigation, and for that reason there are alternative dispute resolution strategies being evolved and everyone prefers out of the court settlement instead of going for litigation.
That the international boundaries have become faint and there is a whole new world opened for advocates to practice alternative dispute resolution in different jurisdictions across the globe and establishing their footprints at an international level. With the emergence of specialization in the legal fields, every advocate today believes in becoming a master of one instead of a jack of all and master of none.”
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