Porus Kaka (India) - earning the trust of judges

<p>Porus Kaka is a tax world celebrity, a former president of IFA globally, now Honorary President, the 1st IFA president from Asia in it’s ~85 years’ history. Porus is a Senior Advocate (India) and a Barrister (England and Wales), a trustee at IBFD, completed his LL.M from Harvard Law School. His specialisation is TP litigation, direct and international tax. He is ranked by Chambers & Partners consistently as one of India’s leading Senior Tax Advocates and quoted as “The International Face of Indian Tax Practice”. Also the International Tax Review recognised Porus as one of India’s Leading Tax Counsels.</p><p><strong>We need humour, but..</strong></p><p>We started the chat about jokes that heavy tax topics need jokes now and then to keep the audience alive, but the difficulty now is that it’s dangerous to joke about more and more topics, especially if you are IFA president.</p><p><strong>Strong role models</strong></p><p>Porus father was an advocate so he new very early that he wants to be a tax lawyer as well. Also the senior Porus was lucky to be able to work for one of the leading individuals in India early on in his career. At the same time (1991/92) India opened up to the world, and it gave an opportunity to practice internationally.</p><p><strong>Senior Advocate</strong></p><p>It was interesting to learn that in India Senior Advocates are appointed by judges and they are supposed to say what is right even if it’s not in the best interests of the client. The Chambers of Porus Kaka - although it’s lead by a Senior Advocate, the junior advocates work independently on their own cases.</p><p><strong>Ways to develop a tax litigation practice</strong></p><p>Just like in the previous <em>Tax Stories</em> episode Pekka Puolakka told us, also Porus confirmed the same view that there are no shortcuts - a great volume of work is needed. Advocates also need to earn trust by judges that you are competent to be successful in the courts. Porus also learned from his father that at least ½ h a week one needs to spend readin