"These are really the chisels that shape you from an ordinary stone into a beautiful masterpiece."
A middle-class Bangalore kid, Ashwini grew up in the 80s and 90s with government-employee parents, academic expectations, and no shortcuts, just hard work. She was a “rebellious” child, though she now sees it as simply knowing her own mind and staying true to it. Today, settled in Delhi with her husband and twin boys, she carries what she loves about both cities: Bangalore’s grounding and Delhi’s heart.
She chose law long before most people settle on a career. After topping the Karnataka CET, she gave up a merit seat in medicine and engineering to study law in 2001, despite it being an unconventional choice then. As a first-generation lawyer, she faced hesitation at home and, when she missed her preferred law school, learned her first lesson in owning her choices and adapting to change.
Her path took her to the University of Chicago for her LLM before returning to India in 2007, a decision that raised a few eyebrows. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, she later left the comfort of Bangalore to build a flourishing, niche legal practice in Delhi’s competitive legal landscape.
Recently, in 2026, she once again moved away from a conventional choice of being a partner of a law firm to found and build Avenor Legal. Avenor means "a path forward built with wisdom".
She has built her career in corporate law, specialising in transaction advisory, workplace practices, and employment law, helping businesses bring order to complexity and enable growth. Through Avenor Legal, she focuses on the intersection of strategy, people, business, and law. She also teaches at NLU Delhi, mentors startups and young entrepreneurs, and enjoys nature getaways with her spouse and 7-year-old twins.
Her challenges came at every stage: judgment for leaving science field, scrutiny for returning to India, the uphill task of building a name in Delhi's crowded legal market, and eventually, walking away from what she'd built to start over entirely with Avenor, right when most people her stage choose comfort over risk.
Her biggest lesson: there's no straightforward definition of success. Life moves in circles, not straight lines, and the only real mistake is freezing instead of continuing to pedal forward.
Her family, friends, mentors and coaches remains her deepest influence, the ones who have stayed by her side and walked shoulder to shoulder, through all her failures and successes equally, and nurturing her entrepreneurial spirit with equal measures of love and caution, a quiet, underrated kind of love.
Her life lesson is: Stop comparing your middle to someone else's highlight reel. Be discerning about what you choose, align everything to it, and just keep moving,one step at a time.
She chose law long before most people settle on a career. After topping the Karnataka CET, she gave up a merit seat in medicine and engineering to study law in 2001, despite it being an unconventional choice then. As a first-generation lawyer, she faced hesitation at home and, when she missed her preferred law school, learned her first lesson in owning her choices and adapting to change.
Her path took her to the University of Chicago for her LLM before returning to India in 2007, a decision that raised a few eyebrows. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, she later left the comfort of Bangalore to build a flourishing, niche legal practice in Delhi’s competitive legal landscape.
Recently, in 2026, she once again moved away from a conventional choice of being a partner of a law firm to found and build Avenor Legal. Avenor means "a path forward built with wisdom".
She has built her career in corporate law, specialising in transaction advisory, workplace practices, and employment law, helping businesses bring order to complexity and enable growth. Through Avenor Legal, she focuses on the intersection of strategy, people, business, and law. She also teaches at NLU Delhi, mentors startups and young entrepreneurs, and enjoys nature getaways with her spouse and 7-year-old twins.
Her challenges came at every stage: judgment for leaving science field, scrutiny for returning to India, the uphill task of building a name in Delhi's crowded legal market, and eventually, walking away from what she'd built to start over entirely with Avenor, right when most people her stage choose comfort over risk.
Her biggest lesson: there's no straightforward definition of success. Life moves in circles, not straight lines, and the only real mistake is freezing instead of continuing to pedal forward.
Her family, friends, mentors and coaches remains her deepest influence, the ones who have stayed by her side and walked shoulder to shoulder, through all her failures and successes equally, and nurturing her entrepreneurial spirit with equal measures of love and caution, a quiet, underrated kind of love.
Her life lesson is: Stop comparing your middle to someone else's highlight reel. Be discerning about what you choose, align everything to it, and just keep moving,one step at a time.
This story was told by Ashwini Vittalachar and published with their permission by the What's Your Story editorial team.
