“We left Kaplan & Stratton, four partners, with nothing but hopes and dreams for this opportunity of opening this office for ENS. Ninety per cent of our team today followed us—including our clients,” he says.

Now their law firm advises clients across financial services, cross-border corporate and commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), restructurings, joint ventures, capital markets, and others. “If my client wants to buy this phone for Sh100,” he says, “and you’re selling it for Sh200, my job is to get it for him at Sh100.”

 A member of the Law Society of England & Wales – International Division, the 47-year-old Mahesh is proud of the life he has built. “The life my wife Preeti and I have built feels like ours, not something handed to us off a script. That’s the best part.”

What kind of a child were you?

A spoilt one, because I am the fifth and last born of five boys. But I’ve now become that person whom everyone comes to for advice. Now, my wife and I don’t have children, but I have nieces and nephews. I feel they are growing up in a very different, complex world with a lot of information. When I was a child, we would just ride bicycles until 4pm when we would come back to watch TV.

What did success feel like, or look like, when you were younger?

I never in my life thought I would be a top corporate lawyer. I wanted to do law, but I wasn’t very serious. In my family, everyone went to university. We have an architect, a doctor, and an engineer. What was left was law, so I did law. But I had to be pushed to come to Nairobi. I didn’t know which law firm I was coming to work for, so I went to the Yellow Pages, and in my mind, the best law firms were the ones with the most numbers [chuckles]. So I picked 20 of them, and I wrote to every one of them asking for pupillage. And I got rejected by every one of them. Mostly because I was late. I went back to Eldoret, got a call from Kaplan & Stratton, came back to Nairobi, no suit, no nothing. The person who interviewed me is my partner here today, Nigel Shaw.

What have you had to give up to get to managing partner?

The way I’m reading your question is, did I have to step on people? Did I have to sacrifice family life? I grew up in Eldoret and moved to Nairobi, and my family is in Eldoret, including two of my brothers. I missed that family life.

Which career moves have paid off immensely and keep compounding?

In 2007, I got a placement in London through International Lawyers for Africa — that was the first real step. Shortly after, I made partner at Kaplan & Stratton, where I spent 18 years. But the move that mattered most was leaving to help found the ENS Kenya office. That one was a genuine leap of faith, and it’s the most fulfilling thing I’ve done. M&A [mergers and acquisitions] is a relationship business. Every deal makes the next one possible. That compounding is quiet, but it’s real, and it’s why the work keeps coming.

What has this career given you that perhaps being, say, a full-time photographer would not?

 It has allowed me to pursue a life I never thought I would have had. It opened doors, but I worked hard. I did well and made some cash. It’s enabled me to travel and discover my creative side. But more fulfilling is that I have passed on those learnings. I was a partner at Kaplan & Stratton, but we made a business decision and four partners left with nothing seven years ago. And while we had faith in ourselves, we did not know the kind of support that we would get. But one of my clients said, “You know, Mahesh, you’re a good guy; you’ve always supported us. I have a small side office in my building in Riverside. You guys can have it as you figure out things.” We were all senior lawyers, and then suddenly we had 20 people join us from Kaplan & Stratton. Ninety per cent of the staff here came with us from Kaplan & Stratton, same with our clients, and that’s the reward. It’s not just what the profession has done for me, but what I’ve managed to do for the people who follow us and the clients who trust us and the work we do for them.

What did that experience do for you—going from nothing, but also the people following you with nothing?

That was very scary because all of a sudden, you now have 20 people depending on you. But I shouldn’t also make it sound like we were zero, because we had worked for 18 years and had obviously built something that we could fall back on. That trust, when nothing was guaranteed, told me we were onto something. You don’t celebrate it in the moment. But you don’t forget it either.

What do you hope this job says about you?

That I was ready for it before I was given it, and that I didn’t need it to feel whole. That I led from a steady place rather than ego — deciding in the firm’s interest, not my own positioning. That I was fair, on every front, with everyone. And that I took the job seriously without taking myself too seriously. If it says anything, I’d want it to be: he turned up with something to give, not something to prove hard. I did well and made some cash. But more fulfilling is that I have passed on those learnings. I was a partner at Kaplan & Stratton but we made a business decision and four partners left with nothing seven years ago. But one of my clients said, “You know Mahesh, you’ve always supported us. I have a small side office in my building in Riverside. You guys can have it as you figure out things.”

 We were all senior lawyers, and then suddenly we had 20 people join us from Kaplan & Stratton. Ninety percent of the staff here came with us from Kaplan & Stratton, same with our clients, and that’s the reward.

 It’s not just what the profession has done for me, but what I’ve managed to do for the people who follow us and the clients who trust us.

What did that experience do for you—going from nothing, but also the people following you with nothing?

That was very scary because all of a sudden, you now have 20 people depending on you. But I shouldn’t also make it sound like we were zero, because we had worked for 18 years and had obviously built something that we could fall back on. That trust, when nothing was guaranteed, told me we were onto something.

The hardest decision you’ve had to make as a leader, what did it cost you?

The hardest ones are always about people. Letting go of someone you’ve invested in, or holding a standard knowing a colleague won’t meet it— and living with what that honesty costs. I’ve had to part ways with a capable lawyer who simply wasn’t right for where we were going. It cost me a friendship, and it was uncomfortable for a long time.

What do you wish you had worried less about in your career?

 I don’t worry much, to be honest. I tend to live in the moment and try to do the best I can. I was taught very early that one thing you can’t control is the future, because there’s very little you can do to change it.

As you have grown through this journey of success, what is that one thing that remains unfixed?

 Success is not an event. It happens gradually. You have a problem, you fix it, and then comes success. So you keep fixing problems, and then you get to success. Early on, success was all about deal size, the name of the client, the title. All measurable, all comparative. Now the real question is simpler — does this feel like a life I chose, or one I drifted into? More and more, it’s the first. That shift, from chasing achievement to actually authoring the thing, is probably the biggest change in how I think about any of it.

What has surprised you most about success?

I’ve always approached my practice and my business from a relationship perspective rather than a money perspective. And I think that has worked for me. The clients that truly trust me today come to me because we are first friends. I value that a lot. But that also comes with enemies. Because as a corporate M&A lawyer, when you start closing deals, someone is going to be upset. But it’s not enemies in that sense, because I think the world is mature enough to know, I’m just an advisor. If my client wants to buy this phone for 100 and you’re selling for Sh200, my job is to get it for him at Sh100. It’s just biashara. Sometimes people can misinterpret that as you are too aggressive. Sometimes I reflect and think maybe I don’t have to be so aggressive, but it’s the job.
It’s the nature of the beast. Yes. When it’s high-stakes deals, it’s high-stakes conversations. And sometimes you’ve got to make the difficult decision to not be the nice guy.

How do you turn off the corporate shark?

The creative side helps. I enjoy my photography and travel. I’m a little bit of an entrepreneur, in advisory roles, but I am more of a builder; let’s try and do this without necessarily thinking of it becoming a multi-billion-shilling business. But I also enjoy TV a lot, when I can. Especially trash TV and reality TV, like Cheaters and Jerry Springer.

Tell me about your photography. How did you develop your eye?

It all started with the travel bug. In 2010, we went to Maasai Mara, and we’d bought a small Sony camera, but in the van, someone pulled out his large camera, and I thought it was cool! A year later, while in the US for work, I got a small Nikon.

Sometimes I sell my work, but this is more for passion. I once had an auction for elephants’ conservation, and there was an exhibition at Michael Joseph Centre at Safaricom where all six pieces were bought—one of them was bought as a present for Margaret Kenyatta. I was very proud. So instead of paying school fees, I pay for flight tickets [laughs].

Mahesh, what’s your top negotiation secret?

 Oh, I can’t tell you that [chuckles].

OK, what’s your second-best negotiation secret?

Always have a plan B. When you go into a room to negotiate, fully research what you think the other person will ask for. And always have a plan B. If this is your starting point, then this is what I will accept and anything in between. It’s like playing chess.

What do you hope this job says about you?

That I was ready for it before I was given it, and that I didn’t need it to feel whole. That I led from a steady place rather than ego — deciding in the firm’s interest. That I was fair, on every front, with everyone.

Do you think you are misunderstood?

Many have told me that I come across as very technical and clever, which is a good thing. But I don’t want to come across as a geek. I believe I’m good at what I do, and I enjoy it. But there’s also the fun, creative side of me. Like this picture in my office, which I took. I also collect art, but sometimes I tend to be a bit introverted. I have an energy volume, and when I hit it, I need to decompress and take time off. And with this role as managing partner, sometimes the misconception is that you are full of energy all the time.

My wife is a lawyer, when we started dating, we were both travelling a lot, so we did not want children. Now, 17 years later, we have just decided not to have children. In our society, it is a very difficult conversation.

How do you deal with societal judgment, if any?

I know people who, for them, success is having children. Or just being happy and peaceful. For others, it is having 15 cars. I explain to people that they only see the top of the iceberg, not what happened below and the journey someone goes through to get where they have reached.

One needs to appreciate that before they start side-eyeing. But you can’t prevent people from feeling bad for you.

All our friends have children. Actually, one of our very close friends got a baby boy about two weeks ago, and they called us on Father’s Day and asked us to be godparents for their newborn child.

So it’s not that I do not like children; I just don’t believe I want my own. Maybe there’s some selfishness in it. I want to travel, see the world, meet people. I have no aspirations of creating wealth and sitting on it.

Tell me a significant loss that shaped you.

I lost my father in 2018. And he was a big inspiration to what I do because of his work ethic. There wasn’t a day when he would not go to work, unless he was really sick. When he passed, there was a gap, which I feel till now.

What’s a question you would have asked him if he were here today?

 If there was anything I could have done differently for him. But I think he’s proud.