In my role as General Counsel GE South Asia, I am advisor to senior leadership on a wide array of legal matters be it guidance to listed GE entities in India, group’s M&A activities, guidance pertaining to compliance of local laws and litigations. Leading legal teams of all GE businesses in the region and ensuring enterprisewide consistency to GE’s legal strategy and approach and drive GE’s thought leadership in the legal fraternity.
As Board member, I provide expert insights and oversight on matters of strategic significance and corporate governance.
It’s been an interesting journey full of excitement, no two days have been the same till now.
GE has recently announced its three new brands, GE Aerospace, GE Healthcare and GE Vernova, planned separation into these three industry-leading, global, investment-grade public companies focused on field of aviation, healthcare, and portfolio of energy businesses, including GE Renewable Energy, GE Power, GE Digital, and GE Energy Financial Services in GE Vernova.
These developments offer me unique and exhilarating opportunity as General Counsel to contribute to this historic split and work towards the new phase of the company.
As in words of late Benjamin Heineman, former General Counsel General Electric Co “The General Counsel should ask not just whether something is legal, but whether it is right.” This is more of a shift in focus than one might recognize. This piece of advice is particularly applicable to today’s environment.
The General Counsel is expected to go beyond the straightforward role of legal advisor in strategic planning. It is incumbent upon the General Counsel to bring his or her knowledge of relevant regulatory and legal frameworks to decisions and creatively counsel the board on how these guidelines might be employed to maximize a company’s competitive advantage.
A company’s integrity and its business reputation are critical in today’s global business environment, and the General Counsel is in an ideal position to assure that the senior management and board recognizes this and acts accordingly. Playing a proactive role to encourage a culture of ethical behaviour and compliance is of paramount importance.
One of the challenges General Counsel today faces as they become more integrated with business is ever expanding scope of responsibility both from changes in regulatory framework and dynamics of corporate business world. As a result, the General Counsel role has matured from strictly drafting and advising, to a complex and strategic position part of executive leadership and sometimes as part of Board requires the General Counsel to advise a wide array of liabilities and also all past, present and future projects a company undertakes. This requires the General Counsel to demonstrate competence and tenacity in all legal and non-legal contexts. As a result, the General Counsel must possess a skillset that is adaptable and available on short notice to meet the corporation’s needs.
The General Counsel must always remember that the guiding principle for any action is “the best interests of the company”. In practice, this means that while organizational charts may show a direct reporting relationship between the General Counsel and the CEO, it is the General Counsel’s responsibility to craft the necessary understanding that he or she will, at the General Counsel’s discretion advice senior management. This structure should be established at the outset and General Counsel’s independence and autonomy of office is a challenge yet essential for good corporate governance.
As an employee, the General Counsel is often required to be a member of, and manage, a corporate team, which requires a distinct set of skills that are not traditionally associated with lawyering. In today’s fast paced business environment, talent retention and building strong inclusive and diverse legal and compliance team is extremely critical and challenging for any General Counsel.
Now a days, inhouse teams spent significant time on law firm management ranging from most budget effective, specialist firms, preferred partners and looking out for newer talent. The law firms have also at their end evolved and become more structured in client relationships. However, the one area that continues to be a challenge for law firms is understanding client’s business operations as businesses are becoming more complex in today’s disruptive environment. Law firms should spend time with inhouse teams in understanding their business to tailor make advice rather than one size fits all.
In my experience it’s extremely important for inhouse legal and law firms to have clear early ground working rules to drive effective communication, budget management and timelines expectancy. Relationship building is another facet in improving synergies and this involves feedback at regular intervals at both ends.
Given India does not mandatorily have CLE to maintain or enhance one’s professional skills, this area is often neglected. It lies more on a person’s individual choice to keep oneself abreast with latest legal developments. In my experience, it helps to have online platforms providing regular notifications on amendments, judgements etc. Also attending trainings, seminars, industry specific conferences is a great way to get to know about latest happenings in legal field. Knowledge sharing practices should be encouraged within teams and its helpful to conduct regular internal training sessions for law department, inviting guest speakers from time to time helps knowledge enrichment and skills.
For a generation of lawyers, the ultimate job was to be a partner in a law firm. It wasn’t even on your radar screen to go in-house. I’m glad we are living in times that this thinking has changed. Over the past few decades, in-house legal teams have become part of management teams and outside the company there has been a shift of power from law firms to the law department.
I have had an unusual career for an Indian general counsel, albeit a trajectory that is a lot more common in the US and globally. I started as a subject matter expert and having worked through various geographies and businesses to moving into a generalist now.
My advice to anyone wanting to explore in house role would be to focus on integrity, be the legal voice to company, invest time in learning business and be the business partner.
Favorite Gadget – Apple Watch
Favorite App – Sweat & Audible
Favorite Automobile Brand – Mercedes-Benz
Favorite Writing Instrument – Mont Blanc & Lamy
Favorite Holiday Destination – New York
Favorite Cuisine – Mediterranean
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