Joachim Alva said "he cast a spell on the courtroom…head erect, unruffled by the worst circumstances. He has been our boldest advocate." Jinnah's most famous legal apprentice M.C. Chagla, the first Indian Muslim to be appointed chief justice of the Bombay High Court said, "What impressed me the most was the lucidity of his thought and expression. There were no obscure spots or ambiguities about what Jinnah had to tell the court. He was straight and forthright, and always left a strong impression whether his case was intrinsically good or bad. I remember sometimes at a conference he would tell the solicitor that his case was hopeless, but when he went to the court he fought like a tiger, and almost made me believe that he had changed his opinion. Whenever I talked to him afterwards about it, he would say that it was the duty of an advocate, however bad the case might be, to do the best for his client". He reminisced that Jinnah's 'presentation of a case' was nothing less than a piece of art."

Jinnah appeared in the annual session of the All India Congress, Calcutta, 1906. Dadabhai Naoroji presided over the session with Jinnah serving as his secretary. In his speech Dadabhai called the partition of Bengal a "bad blunder for England" and addressed the growing distance between the Hindus and the Muslims in the aftermath of partition. He called for a thorough political union among the Indian people of all creeds and classes. "The thorough union, therefore, of all the people for their emancipation is an absolute necessity…They must sink or swim together. Without this union, all efforts will be vain."

Jinnah reiterated this call for national unity at every political meeting he attended in those years, and he emerged as true Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity. He met India's poetess Sarojini Naidu at that Calcutta Congress, who was instantly captivated by the stunning appearance and rare temperament of India's rising lawyer and upcoming politician.

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