The legal business fabric in India Inc. has had several dynamics in place over the past few years. Right from individual practitioners to firms as entities it has almost become an industry sector today. Amongst several such noticeable transitionary notes, is the involvement and role of women in taking lead overall. Lex Witness on Women’s Day this year gets into a hearty conversation with Shweta Bharti, Senior Partner, Hammurabi & Solomon to know more.
Legal Industry was looked upon as a male bastion till a few years ago. The prevailing mindset was that women would not be able to sustain themselves the coarse, brutal and repulsive judicial conflicts. However over a period of time the legal industry has also witnessed a paradigm shift and now there are women not only opting the legal profession but also excelling. Many of these women went on to become highly acclaimed Judges and Senior Advocates. The culture of Law Firms and Corporate In house Counsels have paved way to a business environment in which law is practiced and that has made a huge impact on the legal profession being more acceptable to women.
As a Senior Partner the role entails the vivid responsibilities to be undertaken which largely has two buckets. One bucket would require the attributes of an excellent Lawyer available and capable of meeting the legal needs of clients, updating ourselves with the latest legal developments, enhancing our capacity etc., while on the other bucket stands the requirement of handling the organizational challenges as a Manager. It shall mean preparing the strategies for growth of operations of the firm, business development, client care, human resource handling – including mentoring your colleagues, inspiring them, provide them with timely feedbacks, remuneration, incentives and increments to client billings, recoveries and Finances, ensure follow up of policies and procedures, build the firm’s processes and systems, quality control mechanisms etc.
“The success mantra to striking a balance between external counsel and the inhouse counsel primarily shall be to understand the business requirements, align with each other to innovate, create and facilitate in arriving at a solution and take the extra mile to achieve the commercial goals and work as a cohesive team.”
The in-house counsels have a multi-faceted role where they are involved right from formulating legal strategies for litigation management to advising on transactions, Human Resource issues to Property Law issues as well as compliance and risk management and mitigation issues. In this diverse portfolio, the need for external counsel arises as specialists for complex execution. Another aspect for cementing relationship between the in-house counsels and the external counsels are the cost to company for any particular transaction. The in-house counsels are not only responsible to provide the best legal solution to the business but also have cost efficiency in providing such solutions.
We as a Firm understand that while billing is an important aspect in client’s mind, however it is not the only factor for retention. The client in today’s time understands the need for quality and is ready to shell out few extra pounds in order to get the best legal assistance. The key for us to Client retention is quality output, detailed personal attention, expeditious turnaround time, team efficiency and of course at an optimum cost. Legal industry is a service industry and the Client has zero tolerance for any compromise in quality due to any circumstance. The industry is getting more competitive and unless we are the best in the industry it is challenging to survive.
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
