The Jurisdiction of Unexpected Opportunities
What began as an unexpected interest in commercial law during a moot court competition eventually led Salonee Shukla to a career in litigation, commercial dispute resolution, and international trade. Today, as an advocate practising in complex commercial matters and the Global Coordinator and Secretary at TradeLab Legal Clinics, her work bridges courtroom advocacy with international legal collaboration.
In this edition of Conversations by Brains in You, she reflects on the decisions, opportunities, and experiences that quietly shaped her journey.
1. Looking back, what first sparked your interest in international trade and commercial dispute resolution, and what made you choose this path over other areas of law?
I cannot accurately point to a single instance or idea that sparked my interest in international trade or commercial dispute resolution. I made a choice based on a variety of factors over a considerable period of time and after several different experiences. The spark of interest in dispute resolution came from my love for parliamentary debating in my initial years of being in law school. My original interest was in criminal law and trial advocacy. I did a moot called "Kshan" at the GH Raisoni College of Law in my first year, which focused on criminal trial and appellate advocacy. That moot left me with a desire to explore international criminal law. However, in my second year of law school, I was not able to bid for the moots in international criminal law. Instead, what was allotted to me was the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition that focuses on international trade and economic law. In the nine-month process of doing the moot, I identified my knack for treaty interpretation, which, in simpler terms, is contract interpretation. The budding love for contracts led me to have an increased interest in commercial law. In this globalised world, one cannot separate trade and commerce. Even domestic contracts are aimed towards protecting cross-border consequences. I would say that I approached commercial law entirely by mistake, but it led to a career that I now feel passionately about.
2. In your recent reflection, you mentioned that while GNLU gave you a law degree, Delhi is where you truly became a lawyer. Could you share an experience that shaped this perspective?
I believe that law school can be approached in many different ways. Though it is true that doing well in your classes and accomplishing a high batch rank is an excellent achievement, I saw university as a nexus of opportunities beyond the classrooms. I believed that my education in school, especially my science background, did not give me access to the extracurriculars that could hone skills beyond being good at giving exams. So during my university studies, I did everything ranging from decor for college festivals and social media management for committees to parliamentary debates, moots and internships. I believe that I have been framed almost entirely by those experiences, rather than my classes. I see my stint at GNLU as a time when I honed oral and written communication skills, pursued varied career paths without permanent consequences, and developed a good network. It also gave me the basis for understanding the patterns in which law functions. However, the practice of law is extremely different from what is taught in class. The theory may be the base, but dispute resolution runs entirely on procedure, understanding of how particular legal, political and commercial systems work, and how people make decisions.
On the other hand, New Delhi is the place I would credit for all of my internship experiences and my consequential work experiences. When I started specifically at the Chambers of Pranjit Bhattacharya, the first three months of being in court every day established that I knew nothing (which was quite a rude shock). However, putting my head down and working incredibly hard helped me get my bearings. It also made me realise why it is a practice. If you do not read every day, if you do not consistently do the little things well, this practice will forget you. Therefore, it is not a moment or an experience in New Delhi that made me a lawyer. It is being consistent and particular every single day, inculcating a habit of trying to do even the smallest thing well and with my own hands and mind, without taking shortcuts, which actually led to growth.
This is why, even though I got my law degree at GNLU (and a lot more), it is only working in Delhi that placed me at the threshold of the law practice, which I keep practising daily.
3. Alongside your litigation practice, you also serve as the Global Coordinator and Secretary at TradeLab Legal Clinics. How has working within an international legal network influenced your professional outlook?
My role at TradeLab, put simply, is a role of communicating across academic legal institutions spread across eighteen different jurisdictions present at every level of development. I believe one can learn trade policy and trade law in several places; however, if I were to point to a singularly fantastic aspect of this role, it would be that I was pushed to understand the intricacies of formal communication across State boundaries. Considering that I am in a field of law that mandates cross-border communication with clients as well as lawyers in several different jurisdictions, I believe this transferable skill is something that is both irreplaceable and also is something that one can only learn by doing. I consider myself immensely fortunate for having come across such a role at a young age, because, in cross-border disputes, one achieves such capacity to independently communicate much later in their careers.
4. Mentorship appears to have played an important role in your journey. Looking back, what qualities made those relationships particularly valuable to your growth?
I would say that a person is a sum of the people who have mentored them. In a jurisdiction and a field where transactional relationships are extremely common, I consider myself to be lucky to consistently surround myself with individuals who take the age-old tradition of mentorship and junior-ship in law extremely seriously.
However, I would also establish that a mentor is not only found, but is also made. My understanding and experience of my mentors is that each of them has a penchant for mentorship, but they are also extremely selective on who they take under their wing. My initial relationship with all my mentors, ranging from my moot coaches during my John H. Jackson time to my seniors as I work in Delhi, has always been a relationship where I was tested to my limits. It is only when I established myself as an individual serious about my professional growth that my mentors decided they would spend some of the very little time they have available to be a mentor to me.
Today, as I turn into a mentor to younger people, I understand that there is a narrative that mentorship is an entitlement borne out of the nature of the legal field. Mentors are misunderstood to be people who, with utmost patience, will give you a step-by-step guide on your career. In fact, the most incredible mentors I have had are people who open doors and answer questions. The opened doors and answered questions are limited because their time and the favours they are willing to take on your behalf are limited. Therefore, pointing to the necessary doors, asking the right questions and following through on the opportunities granted to hold up the reputation of the self and the mentor is entirely the role of the mentee. It is through showcasing that sincerity and effort that mentors are desirous of forgiving mistakes and committing to your development.
5. Was your career trajectory always intentionally planned towards international trade and dispute resolution, or did it evolve by embracing opportunities along the way?
In many ways, my responses above already reflect that I did not intentionally pick a specialisation. Therefore, in this answer, I find it necessary to express that the best thing I did for my professional growth was to try everything. I interned at an NGO that helped slum dwellers gain ownership of their lands, I interned at a law firm in their corporate foreign direct investment team, I interned at a senior advocate's chamber, an arbitrator's chamber, as, well as an arbitration and commercial litigation firm, I interned at a trade policy centre as well as a trade dispute resolution team of a large law firm. I went on a student exchange program in Europe, did several research assistantships with professors and was involved in any and all activities during university. I could only find out exactly where I wanted to be by trying all that was available and that interested me. However, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that I say this from a position of considerable privilege, as many of these opportunities carry significant financial constraints. That being said, I have also met several people who can pursue similar opportunities by working equally hard on obtaining funding and other forms of support. I myself felt the burden of these constraints and chose to do several freelance drafting assignments in my university years as a way of having some degree of contribution.
6. For law students who are curious about international trade law or cross-border dispute resolution but have little exposure to these fields, where would you suggest they begin?
I would suggest that they begin by identifying what opportunities their law school has in this field. In today's day and age, resources are widely available. The capacity to read this article inheres within itself an access to platforms where one can search for good opportunities that can be moot courts, paper presentations, even picking a course in the final two years of university, applying to anything and everything that catches your eye. Students should allow themselves to consider that it may not matter if their university makes it difficult for them to pursue these opportunities. As someone who has walked into offices of the administration to create an exchange program where there was none, I can say that the world rewards courage and single-minded effort.
I would recommend that people not spend their limited time awaiting an opportunity to show up on their university email address, because that is exceptionally rare. More specifically, the current push towards getting a corporate job at a law firm in most law schools would tell you that in this field, such an email is closer to impossible. I would recommend that students Google opportunities, apply for a hundred, land up with two, do them well, and create further opportunities by impressing the people who granted you those two.
7. Is there a common misconception students have about commercial dispute resolution or international trade practice that you believe deserves to be challenged?
I believe that there are misconceptions that relate to each spectrum of my identity. I am a first-generation, female, Gujarati advocate who works in New Delhi.
A common misconception that people have towards the legal practice as a whole is that one must not pursue disputes if they do not come from a generational chamber. That the protection of a firm is the only manner in which you can have a career. This is a misconception borne from an era where having a chamber in a court of law would be the only way to even access knowledge. Today, that is not the case. The advent of technology and the internet has greatly democratised the practice (that is not to say that you will not see generational lawyers have it substantially easier around you). However, with the right attitude towards the tools available freely, one can always find a place for themselves in the field. And even with a generational practice, today, if one does not prove themselves, they can equally get forgotten in the crowd.
As a female practitioner, there is a misconception that women are not treated equally in court. In many ways, that is true; however, commercial dispute resolution is an outlier. It is for this reason that I entered real court practice much later, and only in the field of commercial dispute resolution. On this aspect, I am much too young to say how it feels as an independent litigator. However, as a junior, I see significant strides in the number of women entering the practice and their treatment.
Coming from Gujarat, there is also a misconception that not initiating your own practice or being your own boss at a young age is a failure. However, starting your own practice is as far removed from starting a business as possible. A horse is known by the stable it comes from, and a lawyer is known by the chamber they are trained in. No matter where you come from, to do good work in court, you should be trained in a good chamber. This open secret is why you will see that the children of the biggest lawyers in this country struggle at the most gruelling chambers fresh out of law school.
Finally, a girl from Ahmedabad living and working alone in New Delhi was considered madness by all parameters that this idea was tested on. However, I believe that breaking these misconceptions in this field requires immense courage and steadfast decision-making. I am learning every day to be more courageous and stick to my choices.
8. If you could go back and offer one piece of advice to your first-year law school self, what would it be and why?
In my first year of law school, I think I was too anxious. I used to be a kid who made an Excel sheet of an achievement I demanded of myself monthly while I was in law school. Though these accomplishments were not entirely academic or professional in nature, I just had an obsession with bettering myself every day. Though being this demanding in several cases worked for me, I also think it pushed me to be unforgiving of mistakes or of what I thought to be wasted time. However, many of those mistakes and periods where I spent time doing things for no particular reason are experiences that have shaped me much more than my achievements. I would tell myself to be less harsh on myself.
Every conversation leaves behind a different lesson. This one leaves behind several: that mentors are earned as much as they are found, that consistency quietly compounds into expertise, and that waiting for opportunities is rarely as effective as creating them yourself.
Thank you, Salonee, for sharing not just the milestones of your journey, but the thinking that shaped them. We hope readers carry these reflections into their own careers with the same curiosity and courage.
About Conversations by Brains in You
Conversations by Brains in You is a curated interview series featuring students, professionals, entrepreneurs, creators, researchers, and changemakers whose journeys offer meaningful lessons beyond conventional achievements.
Rather than focusing solely on titles or milestones, each conversation explores the decisions, experiences, challenges, and perspectives that shaped the individual behind the profile. The aim is to create a growing repository of practical insights that helps students and young professionals navigate their own careers with greater clarity, productivity, integrity, and purpose.
Every featured conversation is thoughtfully selected with the belief that authentic experiences can inspire informed decisions, lifelong learning, and better human development.
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