About Vandana Shah
Vandana is an an award winning divorce lawyer, author, columnist and Social Entrepreneur on whom the BBC has made a documentary 'Invisible Women of India’ which was broadcast worldwide on International Women’s Day. She is also the author of the bestseller 'Ex Files’, The Story of my divorce-published by Penguin under the Shobhaa De imprint, which has been launched by the Hon’ble Attorney General of India Mr. Mukul Rohatgi and the Hon'ble Chief Justice of Mumbai High Court. It has been endorsed by Lord Meghnad Desai, PadmaVibhushan Sonal Mansingh and it looks at divorce through a humorous lens.
Ex Files is now a part of the Judicial College syllabus.
After being thrown out of her marital home with just the clothes on her back and Rs 750 in the bank, Vandana rebuilt her world and founded the first Indian support group to help people going through a divorce, 360 Degrees Back to Life. She has since come full circle from being a litigant to being a divorce lawyer and practices at the family court in Mumbai.
Her first book, 360 Degrees Back to Life: A Litigant’s Humorous Perspective on Divorce, endorsed by the iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, won an award. Vandana has translated another book on the Jain faith from Hindi to English.
Currently, she is a contributing as a regular columnist on Law/Women Empowerment for Huffington Post India, Huffington Post America, Savvy, Thrive, Dainik Bhaskar and she contributes about 20 articles a month for them under her byline. These have been extremely well read and have been avidly followed on Social Media. She also writes for the BBC.
Vandana have been awarded best lawyer in India and has been handling various high profile cases. She practices extensively in the family court where she works to defend those who come to seek justice in the court. She does not believe that money is the key that drives a lawyer to perform well but passion for truth is !
Her work has been applauded both by the National as well as the International media. She has been a panellist frequently on BBC, NDTV amongst others and at various Literary Festivals, including the prestigious Khushwant Singh Literary Festival.
She lives by the motto, ‘It is better to elevate yourself, than to pull down another’.
