Managing Partner, ZeusIP Advocates LLP
Achiever's Success Story
Breaking Stereotypes
Ms. Paharia founded the Firm, ZeusIP Advocates, in 2004 to break the cliché of family-run/traditional law firms as was a common phenomenon in India until about a decade or two ago. In fact, at the time there were only a handful of women Managing Partners and barely any who had taken the decision to do so without a male member (related or otherwise) as a co-founder and without a family background in the legal profession. The name ZeusIP was deliberately chosen to be person-agnostic so as to be an alternative to family run firms in the country. Her mission was very clear from the beginning – to offer careers (not jobs) to meritorious and hardworking individuals and eventually share the fruits of success with them. Gunjan was lucky to find her tribe who understood and accepted the mission. Consequently, in a short span of 17 years, the Firm scaled from a one-woman shop to a highly respected and ranked Firm for Intellectual Property in India.
Gunjan is a qualified attorney and a Registered Patent Agent, with over two decades of experience in pure Intellectual Property and cognate laws. Her expertise, in particular, extends to Patents, Trademark, Copyright and Industrial designs, and includes counseling on protection, enforcement and management of IP assets with a special focus on enforcement of IP, conducting detailed due diligence projects, representing clients in IP and non-IP litigation in various courts across India. She also has extensive experience in prosecuting trademark and patent applications, and managing clients’ portfolio in India and the Indian sub-continent. Gunjan has been deeply invested in advising clients that include both Indian and non-Indian enterprises, from Fortune 500 companies to small start-ups and MSMEs. Her reputation in “strategy building” precedes her and over the years, many clients consolidated their portfolios with ZeusIP.
As the Managing Partner, Gunjan plays a pivotal role in shaping the Firm’s culture and building its core values. She ensures that ZeusIP “is free from prejudices, biases, gender inequalities and politics”. Not only is she invested in nurturing the careers of the members at the Firm and tapping their potential to think outside the box, she is also hands-on involved in mentoring the leadership at the Firm. She has a major role in drafting the HR policy of the Firm which, unlike most others, is transparent. To create an employee friendly workplace, annual offsite was introduced to give the members sufficient time to unwind, fair & timely appraisals, office events are organized frequently, festivals are celebrated with great zeal and vigor, high-performing members are awarded every year, diversity is welcomed and respected and work-life balance and mental health are given great importance. She believes that the comfort that the clients and team members draw from the policies and structures that she has created is one of the reasons for the exponential success of the Firm.
Gunjan has initiated several pro-bono structures within the Firm to offer legal assistance to those who may not have the financial wherewithal. Under her guidance, a special initiative to promote and offer IP assistance to women entrepreneurs was started. Gunjan believes that pro-bono service is not only an integral part but also the moral duty of every lawyer’s professional career and as a Firm it is our duty to provide pro-bono service to the growing ethos of entrepreneurship in the country today.