As the General Counsel and Head of IP Licensing, am responsible for overall legal strategy and steering the Company towards newer age IP models and licensing practices. Our company has, for three decades now, worked towards making financial services easy and accessible across the globe. In sync with this vision, we are continuously innovating and creating new-age platforms to provide better financial solutions. From patenting the world’s first-ever offline wallet to offering lending services on cloud to our mobility suite and analytics products, we are constantly experimenting with technology. Nucleus has provided top-notch lending and transaction banking products to the global financial services industry for 30 years.
With innovation and creativity all around, it is incumbent upon me to not only protect, prosecute, defend our IPR but find ways to efficiently monetize and better our IP licensing initiatives. Having set up an IP & Licensing division within the Company, I am committed to spurring invention and deciphering ways to make them commercially viable. My role involves guiding a techno-legal team, comprising of highly innovative techies and equally creative lawyers, in initiatives such as the Patent Review Board, Open-Source Software, trademarks audit and tracking, etc.
Besides advisory on multi-jurisdictional issues ranging from corporate affairs, regulatory, compliances to policy making and governance, I have a special focus on M&As and strategic IP investments. Organizational structure has been realigned to structure the legal function in manner that it is better equipped to handle the changing market dynamics and global ecosystem. I can say with confidence that our legal and IP processes are as agile and ground-breaking as our products.
While the journey began much earlier, let me start with some of the turning points in my life that have lead me to this day…
I surprised my parents when I chose to study English Literature at Miranda House even though I had been a fairly decent science student and had cleared MBBS entrance for some now-prestigious private medical colleges in addition to a well-recognized veterinary college. Thanks to the MH English faculty where we had our first lesson in “perspectives”. Prose and verse now had meanings beyond their popularly available interpretations. Distinctly etching in our minds that point of views is always subject to specific facts and circumstances. Thereafter, it was almost a natural progression towards the Campus Law Centre, which is literally a little ahead on the same road as MHH. After three wonderful years spent at law school, started my career with litigation practice at a prestigious full-service law firm. Am fortunate to have had a mentor (now an esteemed designated senior advocate) whose unending “whys” and “hows” helped understand the basic tenets of legal jurisprudence, law and life. The un-quenching thirst to know more lays down the foundation for research, which is an integral and inevitable part of lawyer’s brief. I graduated very quickly from the litigation side to additionally support the corporate law practice with opinions on incorporation in India, Anti-dumping, competition issues, FIPB approvals, FDI rules and other advisory work for domestic and international corporations.
I somewhat disappointed my seniors at the firm, when I left behind a budding career in litigation and corporate law to join The Times of India Group on 2004 as their inhouse legal consultant. Thereafter, spent 11 years at the Times Group handling various responsibilities across companies and divisions. I have been lucky, thanks to my mentors, to have had numerous opportunities to experiment with formats, genres and various kinds of businesses. Learnt, the most important lesson for an inhouse counsel is balancing legal nuances with business interests. I headed legal for Times Music, Times Group Books, Optimal Media solutions, Times Syndication Service (print, web, TV etc). Unique IP licensing deals were crafted, ranging from setting-up of the first-of-its-kind Physical Therapy institute in the country, to music sub publishing, exclusive catalogue distribution and monetization rights, launch of new digital properties. It was an extremely enriching decade at The Times. As the Head of Content Licensing and Syndication Division, I became responsible for business of IP licensing and monetizing through various platforms, territories, formats across the globe and dabbled with all genres of media and entertainment, from music and films to newspapers, books and guides to sports and celebrity management to wellness and healthcare. Managing a business division expanded the horizon for me, learned to look beyond legal issues and leverage the ecosystem for unleashing greater potential.
My role as General Counsel at Nucleus is extremely thrilling. It has given me an opportunity to put my learnings-so-far at work. While our area of practice i.e. BFSI, is highly regulated across the globe; being the technology provider we have to constantly invent to keep pace with everchanging tech domain. This involves huge investments, strategic planning, careful execution and extremely agility to adapt and re-vamp. All this keeps my restless mind scintillated and each day brings in newer learnings with it.
Absolutely. General Counsel is literally the “General” counsel to the Company now. While as legal professionals GCs continue to be responsible for compliances, regulatory matters, contracts and other legal issues, they are taking on far greater responsibilities as generals and leaders of organizations. In a corporate culture focused on performance and values, GCs are well positioned to contribute towards organization’s growth. General Counsels have the critical function implementing organization’s values n and building a culture of “doing the right thing” for business. General Counsel is a strategic advisor to the Board. With an ability to focus on consequences of the risks rather than what led to it, GCs provide a “safety net” and “sounding board” for tough calls to be taken. GCs are an integral part of policy making framework within organizations. They are very often best suited to represent the company in strategic partnerships. We are witnessing GCs being the public face of companies for public affairs and communication.
As businesses go global, the biggest challenge is keeping pace with regulatory, compliance and legal regime of territories outside India and setting up a global team to manage this efficiently and effectively. Increased volumes of work and cost pressures pose a challenge which has the potent to impact quality of work. Our biggest challenge is operating in an age where formats, genres, medium are in a constant state of flux. We have to think ahead of businesses to secure their interests as our statutes may sometimes outdate technological developments by several decades. For instance, who knows how we would apply the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 in an age of self-driven AI controlled vehicles!
Selection and retention of talented individuals for in-house job, administering budgets and controlling costs when some internal clients are retaining legal help without consulting the GC office, creating tech-enabled platforms for information sharing between teams and establishing a culture of transparency and integrity remain some of the many challenges faced by GCs.
Recently, large organizations have been expanding their legal teams in order to handle more work in-house, reduce their legal spend, minimize uncertainty around their day-to-day legal costs and increase control. Most corporate legal departments rely on external support when they need specialist expertise, such as dealing with a merger and acquisition, raising funds, litigation, or specific opinion work. In my opinion, it is best to work out an integrated solution that builds and improves upon the synergies between law firms and in-house legal teams.
It is extremely important to tap and nurture the in-house talent as this allows quicker turn-arounds, superior quality of work, better client management, effective strategic execution, consistent policies and greater alignment with business objectives and vision. When deciding to handle legal services in-house, it is equally important to identify an appropriate talent pool from which to draw the relevant team. However, there may still be limitations such as those of domain knowledge, subject-matter experience etc. Businesses need to rigorously review their overall legal workflow/activities/tasks requirements and then determine which of these would benefit from being outsourced to a Law Firm vis-à-vis being performed by in-house legal teams. Besides providing an opportunity to dip into a global talent pool and select expertise not available within the company, outsourcing to law firms allows the companies to remain focused on their core businesses.
General Counsels must select their partners in- law very judiciously! Right partner will complement the in-house legal team and provide greater flexibility. Businesses can improve the bottom line while better serving the needs of clients. Gaps of inhouse legal teams can be filled by outsourcing work to legal teams. Readiness to spend time understanding the business goals and objectives, ability to think out of- the box and provide commercially viable options are some of the key factors to be considered during this decision-making process.
General Counsels are the interface between business aspirations and legal possibilities. Both, business strategies and legal jurisprudence are ever evolving; hence it is only obvious that GCs follow some kind of CLE regime. CLE consists of professional education for attorneys that takes place after their initial admission to the bar. There are many international Universities that offer advanced courses for legal professionals.
As the roles and responsibilities expand, it’s imperative for GCs to keep abreast with technological advances, business practices and trends across the globe. It helps to be a part of international conferences, panel discussions and workshops. A good way to keep up with changing times is through industry-academia engagement. I believe GC roundtables are a good way to exchange notes and learn from experiences across industries and domains. Technology has eased the process of skill upgradation. Several online certifications available and it is also easy to follow specific areas of interest and expertise through alter set ups and alike. There are targeted groups on social media, expert bloggers and interactive webinars that GCs can be a part of for their continuing learning experience. Unfortunately, as GCs we are not spared with enough time to enrol into long-term research programs or full-time higher education. Executive courses fill this gap though, and companies are increasing enrolling in programs for CLE of their leadership teams.
In general, all legal professionals also need to develop soft skills such as communication, presentation or negotiation. In- house teams should be given the opportunity to improve their skills in these areas through targeted training programs. These can be provided internally as a part of the HR program or brought in from outside the business through trainings, seminars and workshops. The balance of internal and external resources must meet the needs of the business as they change and so regular review may be needed.
Ah…well! I would say sky is the limit. Gone are the days when practitioners were the high-brows and in-house would mean settling-in for lack of better options! I would somewhat attribute the disappointment of my seniors in my inhouse move to the same stereotypes back then. With commitment, disciple and zest to learn you can go a long way. There is a common tendency for complacency to set in after a few years of in-house career, this dilutes the focus on learning. In-house profiles offer a chance to be extremely creative and apply your legal training for achieving business objectives in a legitimate, regulated framework. From court rooms to boardrooms…you can be where you want to be if you put your heart into what you do and remember there are no shortcuts in life
Favourite Gadget – Nexus 6
Favourite App – Google maps… will be totally lost without it!
Favourite Automobile Brand – Tesla
Favourite Writing Instrument – tangible: Waterman, Virtual: swype
Favourite Holiday Destination – California
Favourite Cuisine – Mexican
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