Professor Homer D. Pithawalla is a practising advocate of the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

and

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the high court of the states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily at Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), and is one of the ol ...

as well as a solicitor of

, the Supreme Court of England and the

Supreme Court of Hong Kong The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was the highest court in Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and heard cases of first instance and appeals from the Di ...

. He is also the senior-most professor of law at the

Government Law College, Mumbai The Government Law College, Mumbai, (GLC Mumbai), founded in 1855, is the one of the oldest law schools in Asia. The college, affiliated to the University of Mumbai, is run by the Government of Maharashtra. Bal Gangadhar Tilak ,Pratibha Pa ...

and is recognised as one of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

's leading experts on Corporate laws (Contract law & Company law) and

Competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

Career

Prof. Pithawalla graduated from St Xavier's College, before completing his degree in law Government Law College, the oldest common law college in Asia, where he has been teaching for over 45 years. Prof. Pithawalla then articled as a clerk, and successfully passed the notoriously difficul
Bombay Incorporated Law Society
s Solicitor's Examination. He completed his LLM in Business and Constitutional Law in 1970, joining academia in 1972 as a teacher at GLC. Prof. Pithawalla's students include Supreme Court and High Court Judges (including one Chief Justice of India), Attorneys-General, Advocates-General, Ministers, and advocates from all over the world. Initially a Professor of company law, he now also lectures on

contract law A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

property law Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership in real property (land) and personal property. Property refers to legally protected claims to resources, such as land and personal property, including intellectual pro ...

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriage, ...

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

legal language Legal English is the type of English as used in legal writing. In general, a legal language is a formalized language based on logic rules which differs from the ordinary natural language in vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and semantics, as well ...

, and the

conflict of laws Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a case, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction. This body of law deals with three broad t ...

. Prof. Pithawalla is also qualified to practice as a solicitor in England and Hong Kong, and is a life member of the Academy of American and International Law of the

University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...

. Apart from teaching at Government Law College for 50 long years, Prof. Pithawalla had been invited to lecture at the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, the Law School at La Sorbonne (Paris, France), the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, the

International Bar Association The International Bar Association (IBA), founded in 1947, is a bar association of international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. The IBA currently has a membership of more than 80,000 individual lawyers and 190 bar associat ...

, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Institute of Chartered Secretaries, etc. He was also invited by the

Royal Government of Bhutan The Government of Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 18 July 2008. The King of Bhutan is the head of state. The executive power is exercised by the Lhengye Zhungtshog, or council of ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. Legislat ...

to draft a contract law for their country. In the course of his visit to Bhutan, his draft was discussed at a workshop chaired by the Attorney General of Bhutan. This Act has now come into force in

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

. A reputed legal academic, known for his generally helpful attitude, Prof Pithawalla currently serves as the chairman of the Government Law College Placement Committee. He is known to take up causes, including speaking out about the infrastructural problems that plague the college, which is widely believed to have contributed to the "running internship" style of education at GLC, wherein students prefer to intern with firms or as paralegals for their legal education, rather than attend lectures. Prof. Pithawalla is also the author and editor of a series of textbooks, consulted primarily by Indian law students for law exam preparation, due to their simplicity and lucidity. Apart from editing several student-oriented law books, he has authored a series of authoritative texts, including the "Leading Cases on the Law of Contracts", books on Company Law, Environment Law, Administrative Law, Land Laws, and The Indian Divorce Act. His now-famous book, "Legal Language, Legal Writing & General English" is a standard text for law students as well as civil and judicial services aspirants. Prof. Pithawalla speaks

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

and French. In addition to teaching French, he has been associated with Alliance Francaise de Bombay since many years. He is also the Vice President of FILA - Franco-Indian Lawyers' Association.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pithawalla, Homer 1946 births Living people 20th-century Indian lawyers Parsi people from Mumbai Scholars from Mumbai