I am the General Counsel for the Indian Business Unit of The Kraft Heinz Company. I am a Director on the Board for the Indian entity and part of the Executive Leadership Team that reports directly to the Managing Director in India. As the company’s chief legal officer, I am responsible for the Indian Business Unit’s legal affairs including legal advisory, litigations, board matters, corporate matters, regulatory compliances and brand protection. The organisation’s Government Affairs department also reports to me.
I started out as a Private Equity and M&A specialist, working in law firms around 14 years ago. When I wanted to make the shift in-house, most companies weren’t willing to risk hiring a private practice lawyer as their GC who did not have previous in-house experience but I stuck to my guns and today I am happy that I persevered. Being a GC in India is both challenging and exciting. Being an in-house lawyer has taught me to multi-task and quickly switch focus to meet the demands of the business. It is safe to say that each day I am inspired and challenged to be a GC at Kraft Heinz.
The role of the GC is constantly evolving and changing in today’s fast moving business scenarios. A few years ago, the GC would typically be responsible for litigations and purely legal matters. Today, the dynamic has shifted with in-house legal departments doing a large part of the work internally instead of shifting work to external counsels. I am happy to see that companies today acknowledge that your General Counsel can do a remarkable number of things that support business. GCs are already shifting gear and moving to the driver’s seat. GCs are being invited to strategize in business meetings instead of simply being call to clean up messes after they have occurred. At Kraft Heinz, I am part of the executive leadership team that meets once a month to discuss, strategize and execute all business decisions. We, at Kraft Heinz acknowledge the dependency business has on legal and regulatory matters and pride ourselves on our high ethical and compliance standards.
Race Against Time – There are quite a few challenges that a General Counsel faces on a regular basis. I always find myself racing against time as several critical business priorities can come up simultaneously. You can have a labour crisis in one of your factories and at the same time have a court appearance in an important case!
Finding the Right Talent – It is also always a struggle to find the right in-house resources for an in-house legal department. My focus has always been to ensure that my department delivers the highest standard of legal service. If I do not have a strong team that has expertise in the various legal issues that a company routinely deals with, I will not be able to achieve those high standards I set for myself and my team.
Always doing the Right thing – When faced with difficult situations, I always start my asking myself “what is legal?” and end with “what is right?”. As you move up the corporate ladder, you must be so much more than a mere technician of the law. Your decisions will be the flag-bearer of the company’s corporate integrity. It is your responsibility as the GC of a company to balance what is permitted with the four corners of the law but ultimately you have to champion what is ethically and morally the right thing to do.
I think one of the key things that will go a long way in the law firm – in-house client relationship would be for law firms to become strategic business partners. Law firms should offer retainer models to inhouse teams where the client and the law firm can work together on various ongoing project that need constant expert advice.
The other thing that I depend on external counsels is their access to multiple geographies. If I need to start a business in Bangladesh for example, I will need my local external counsel to have their counterparts available in that geography to help me understand the regulatory requirements of doing business there. A law firm with a good global network is an important credential that in-house counsels look for.
The other thing that I feel that can improve synergies between law firms and their clients is the ability to be flexible and adaptable. I usually work with law firms who can adapt along with my legal service needs and give me quick, practical and commercially sound advice.
Continuous learning is critical for all GCs. While India does not have mandatory CLE requirements such as minimum number of CLE credits measured in hours, one can learn and adapt that model to suit one’s personal CLE goals. I think it is important for a GC, who is often benchmarked against his global peers to be up to speed and maintain a high standard of knowledge excellence. I recently spoke at the Association of Corporate Counsels’ Annual Meeting in Texas earlier this year and realised that my topic on Prevention of Sexual Harassment in India was a CLE credit course for the lawyers attending my panel discussion. I was amazed to learn that global legislations also form part of a GCs CLE in the US. I rely on various resources for my CLE. As a lawyer, one must remain abreast with new legislations and follow case precedents closely. I like to read case precedents and make my own hand-written case summaries, a practice I have been following since college.
Get help and seek feedback – As a young lawyer poised for partnership in the firm I was practicing at, I was passed over for the sought-after promotion. I was terribly disappointed but I decided to challenge myself to learn from this and asked my seniors why I was passed over – to learn from my mistakes and grow from the experience.
Pursue every opportunity – My advice to all aspirants of an in-house career would be to pursue every opportunity that presents itself because you never know which door leads you to your destiny.
The Devil is in the details – As a young lawyer, I was once assigned a very menial task (or at least I thought it was) of organising a file in chronological order in a contract dispute i.e. sort out a bunch of emails from the newest to the oldest. While I was sorting out this file, I realised that the emails contained negotiations regarding a clause in a contract and that the final clause that got agreed in the contract was not accurately reflected in the claim papers. The minute we had this little wiggle room to repudiate the contract, the other party quickly settled and we were able to save the day and a lot of money for our client.
Gadget – My iPad
App – Uber, because it gets me places!
Automobile Brand – Audi AG
Favourite Writing Instrument – A blue fountain pen. My father gifted me a Montblanc Meisterstück when I started my career, so the pen has sentimental value.
Favourite Holiday Destination – Antibes, French Riviera
Favourite Cuisine – Indian Chinese
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