ZIA MODY is the Founder and Senior Partner of AZB & Partners and one of India’s foremost corporate attorneys. She passed her law degree from the University of Cambridge in 1978 and was enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in 1978. She did her LLM from Harvard Law School and was then admitted as a member of the New York State Bar by examination in 1980. Zia worked as a corporate associate at Baker & McKenzie, New York, for five years before moving to India to set up practice, establishing the Chambers of Zia Mody in 1984, which then became AZB & Partners in 2004. The Firm has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune with an integrated team of approximately 300 legal professionals.

Listed by Forbes Asia as one of ‘Asia’s 50 Power Businesswomen’ (2015) and by Forbes India (2014) as one of ‘India’s 10 most Powerful women, it has been said that few of Zia’s peers can match her skills or take her on when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, company restructuring, foreign inward investment related practice and corporate law.

Besides these, Zia has also been awarded the Leading Individual award for Banking, Finance & Capital Markets, Corporate and M&A and Investment Funds in The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific 2013, 2014 & 2015, Star Individual for Corporate / M&A; and Band 1 lawyer for Banking & Finance and Private Equity by Chambers Global 2012, 2013, 2014 & 2015, Leading Lawyer for Mergers & Acquisitions by IFLR1000 Financial & Corporate Guide 2015 and has been recommended by International Who’s Who of Merger & Acquisitions from 2008 to 2015, Private Funds Lawyers from 2008 to 2015, Commercial Arbitration from 2012 to 2015, Corporate Governance Lawyers from 2012 to 2015, Franchise (2015), Business Lawyers (2013) and Professionals for Outstanding Business Professional in India (2014).

Zia’s abilities are recognized globally, as is reflected in her appointment as a non-executive director of the HSBC Asia Pacific Board, a member of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal, Washington D.C. (2008-2013), and a Vice President and Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (2010-2013). Zia serves on various advisory committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry including its National Council and its committees on Corporate Governance, Financial Services, Capital Markets, Legal Services and Retail. Zia was a member of the Godrej Committee on Corporate Governance recently constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She was nominated to be part of the “Committee on Rationalisation of Investment Routes and Monitoring of Foreign Portfolio Investments” formed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India under the chairmanship of Shri K.M. Chandrashekar. She was appointed by the Reserve Bank of India as a member of Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households which was chaired by Dr. Nachiket Mor.