CEO Spotlight: Zia Mody, Founder and Managing Partner at AZB & Partners – The Woman Behind The Most Successful Business Deals In India

Her name has been associated with many companies not only in India but also internationally. Zia Mody is one of India’s most important corporate law lawyers. Some of the companies she has worked with are G.E., Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group, and the Vedanta Group. She also gives her precious advice to large private equity houses including KKR, Bain Capital, and Warburg Pincus. Zia is in the top 50 most powerful women list published by Fortune India.

Zia Mody was the planner behind two of the most significant corporate deals completed in the recent past including that of Airtel and Telenor Group and Schneider Electric and the electric and automation business of Larsen & Toubro. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani in an interview at Fortune India told his opinion about Mody and her ability to cope with business issues, offering an integrated global, social, and sustainable view.

Her firm, AZB & Partners is an advisor to the most successful businesses in India. The firm has offices in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, and Pune, including over 90 partners. Each partner has a specific specialization handling general corporate, M&A, or banking and finance cases to dispute resolution, real estate, capital markets, or funds matters. AZB & Partners has many clients not only from India but all over the world. Some clients are publicly listed or multinational companies, investment banks, and private equity firms.

AZB & Partners was formed in 2004. It is the result of the merge between CZB & Partners in Mumbai and Ajay Bahl & Company in Delhi. The CZB & Partners company was established by Zia Mody and her friend Bahram Vakil. Ajay Bahl started his career as a chartered accountant but soon after was persuaded to study law. So, he interned with lawyer Soli Sorabjee who is Zia’s father. After his studies, Ajay set up his own practice in New Delhi.

The success of AZB & Partners has been proved through the years by many awards. The company was ranked number one by RSG Top 40 India law firm ranking in 2019 and 2017. Also, was emerged as the Best Overall Law Firm of the Year- 2017 at India Business Law Journal’s Indian Law Firms Awards. Furthermore, for the first quarter of 2018, the firm was ranked on top in both M&A deal count and volume on the league tables published by Merger Market, Bloomberg, and Thomson Reuters.

Zia Mody studied law at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Then, she continued her studies at Harvard Law School with a master’s degree in 1979. After she passed the New York State Bar examination she qualified as an attorney in the State of New York. She worked for five years with Baker & McKenzie in New York City, before returning to India. Zia Mody is the author of the book “10 Judgements that Changed India”.

Zia Mody is married to Jaydev Mody, Chairman of Delta Corp Limited. Her husband is a business tycoon. They live in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and have three daughters, Anjali, Aarti, and Aditi.

Soli Sorabjee, Zia’s father was born in 1930. He is a former Attorney-General of India. He has been honored with Padma Vibhushan for his actions towards defending the freedom of expression as well as the protection of human rights.