At Hinduja Global Solutions (“HGS”), I head the legal department globally and play an indispensable role in safeguarding the company from critical legal issues. Apart from the day-to-day mandates of handling global contracts, litigations, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Employment and General Advisory, my role demands to identify and mitigate potential legal risks and prepare the organization to handle inevitable crisis situations.
I have 21+ years of experience, of which a significant portion is in-house. I completed my Master’s Degree from the National Law School of India University, after topping both my under-graduation and postgraduation. I have additionally completed a Master’s Degree in Computer Applications.
While my entire family is into business, most of my family members chose the fields of business, engineering and medicine and not a legal profession, as it was not considered to be a good profession for women during our times. However, once I started excelling in this field, I had many relatives and friends coming over for career counselling. I have inspired many to enrol in a five year integrated LLB course.
I started as a practicing lawyer and eventually worked with KESDEE, Coastal Infotech, GECIS, C-Port in the capacity of a Consultant. Next, I joined PSI Data Systems (Aditya Birla Company) as a Corporate Counsel. I also worked with Dell, Infosys, Thomson – Technicolor, Mahindra Retail, Tejas Networks, Sasken and headed the legal departments of various organizations before joining HGS.
I have extensive experience in managing and settling high profile multijurisdictional “bet the company” litigations. Additionally, I also managed high profile arbitration suits before AAA – ICDR and Anti-Dumping Litigation in India.
Profession aside, I am an avid traveler – I enjoy solo, backpacking trips. I am also a voracious reader and love to inspire people with my travel tales and travel photography.
Overall, I strongly believe that “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” – Paulo Coelho
Unquestionably yes! 2-3 decades ago, there were no in-house positions in corporate except for maybe a small team of lawyers in some big industry houses or conglomerates. Corporates would often consult external law firms and limited their consultation for critical issues only. At present, things have changed drastically for any business set-up. For corporates, having in-house legal departments is not only
Fundamental but has become indispensable. They have stopped looking at a GC as a Technical Expert and have gradually started asking GCs to take more responsibilities to boost business growth and progress. We have stopped seeing a GC’s job description from being restricted to only transactional legal work; their job descriptions nowadays come with more business-focused responsibilities. In the majority of the organizations, we see that GCs have made a place in the inner circles of top management, helping them with their decision making both tactically and strategically. GC responsibilities are enhancing and continue to grow – we no longer perform the conventional narrow role. Expectations on us have increased ten-fold, as a result, we are taking more than an advisory role. At Thomson (exworkplace) – due to the management’s heavy reliance on legal for their day-to-day management of corporate affairs, they had requested me to be on the board of their subsidiary company and I had taken it. This kind of transformation gives a GC, a clear and strong voice at the board level.
Trusted Advisor – Typically law firms and in-house teams come together only at legal forums. During this, there is very little time for both of them to understand each other. Law firms need to frequently engage with companies to understand the business and challenging working environment of inhouse counsels. We don’t look for a counsel who is up-to-date with the law or has solid experience in handling a case. We want a trusted advisor, attempts to understand the issue, business requirements and provide a good judgement basis an organization’s risk appetite, objectives and DNA. Legal Opinions – Frequently we see that law firms make it very difficult for companies when approached for any legal opinion. They are often lengthy; confusing and law firms don’t focus on answering the key considerations which might be relevant. For an in-house lawyer who has limited or no support and is fighting for budgets and coordinating many functions at the same time, this is a waste of time, money and effort.
In the current scenario, we can’t think of a field that can survive without information and communication. Today, a GC holds the most powerful position in a company, hence they must gear up to strengthen and smoothen their ride by building a significant good network outside the office with the legal industry. The greatest thing that has happened in the past few years, is that we GCs across the country have built good network groups. We meet periodically at common forums to discuss contemporary legal issues and in these groups, many of them often have been exceedingly generous. I have been able to reach out to them and vice versa and we have collectively responded positively and generously at all times.
A friend once mentioned that lawyers are like carpenters & we need to sharpen our tools quite often to be a good craftsperson. I totally agree that sharp tools make for better work!
Most of the companies I have worked for have often emphasized on doing all the work in-house and hence the role of inhouse counsels is equally challenging as positions within law firms. My first point of advice to someone exploring a legal career as an in-house counsel is to do a 5 year integrated LLB course and to have varied internship experiences as possible. This would prepare you in advance when you intend to take up in-house roles.
In-house counsel is a very highly regarded position in any organization. Organizations don’t want any cut and dry solution from counsels; they want to see their counsels as business enablers/partners who are good at assessing potential risks & communicating the impact it would have on strategy and revenue for them. For providing them the ideas and insights sought after, you need to work towards developing stronger business acumen, as it is crucial and helps you look from both a legal and business viewpoint and provide advice from a big picture perspective. To gain this, one needs to get involved in the day-to-day operations of a company and work closely with all departments to understand and respond to business requirements.
Gadget – MacBook Air
App – Dunzo
Automobile Brand – Range Rover Evoque & Mercedes Benz CLA 200
Favourite Writing Instrument – Hero Pen, am still fond of my first ink pen
Favourite Holiday Destination – Alps and Himalayas
Favourite Cuisine – Asian Food
www.grandmasters.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.rcls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.itlegalsummit.com | 8 Years & Counting
www.bfls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.maels.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.plcs.co.in | 8 Years & Counting
Copyright © 2020 Lex Witness - India's 1st Magazine on Legal & Corporate Affairs Rights of Admission Reserved
