Lawyer Jay Spices up her Business Milestone With a Bollywood Ball

18th September 2015

Award-winning city lawyer Jay Bhayani is planning a glamorous way of celebrating her first year flying solo.

She is marking the first anniversary of her specialist firm Bhayani HR and Employment Law by throwing a Bollywood Ball for charity. A cultural feast of Asian food, music and dance, the event will be a forerunner to Diwali, the five-day festival of lights celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains worldwide. -The festival celebrates new beginnings and light over darkness, commented Hindu-raised Jay, who had to flee from Uganda with her family in 1972 when President Idi Amin's ethnic cleansing policy ordered his country's Asian minority to leave within 90 days. Jay's family had to leave everything their accountant father had worked for and start again. She fought to become one of Sheffield's first female Asian lawyers and has never forgotten her Indian roots. -Sharing my first year in business with the sentiments of the festival seems so appropriate. I also wanted to share my cultural past with colleagues and clients, she said. It will be the second time Jay has given Sheffielders a taste of Indian culture. When the Indian International Film Academy brought its Bollywood Oscars to Sheffield Arena in 2007, she co-ordinated Whirlow Hall Farm's Bollywood gala dinner at the Cutler's Hall. Bhayani Law, based at Sheffield Business Park, is one of only a handful of HR and employment specialists in the UK to be regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This year, it was Sheffield's only employment lawyer to be top-rated by consumer website VouchedFor. -I have regained many former clients, taken on lots of new ones and built a thriving niche practice, said Jay, who was voted Professional of the Year in the 2013 Asian Business Development Network Awards and is a former Yorkshire Lawyer Awards winner. -Our fixed-fee support package service, Watertight HR, has already been taken up by 13 businesses ranging from a brewery in Manchester to local manufacturing companies. Within a year Bhayani Law has created seven jobs. A marketing manager is being taken on this autumn and there are plans to grow the team to 11 next year. Sheffield-based national epilepsy charity Fable with benefit from the Bollywood Ball, to be staged on November 7 at the Arooj Banqueting Suite, Attercliffe. -The charity is close to my heart, said Jay -My partner's teenage son lives with epilepsy; I see first-hand how debilitating it can be. Tickets for the 300-seat event are £45, plus VAT. Female guests fearing a wardrobe dilemma can attend an Indian styling event at Fable's Bedford Street offices in Sheffield, 10am-3pm on October 6. Instruction on how to wear a saree will be given and outfits and accessories will be on sale. Book at 0114 3032300 or hello@bhayanilaw.co.uk