I currently hold the title of Vice President Legal at Aricent, and am based out of Gurgaon. My mandate at Aricent includes, inter alia, frontline legal support on a global basis for Aricent’s transactions these could be revenue generating transactions, cross border M&As, insourcing deals etc. I am also responsible for corporate compliance, Intellectual property matters, open Source compliance, strategic initiatives of the organization, and any legal advisory issues that arise during the course of Aricent’s operations.
My journey has been an interesting mix of practice as an external counsel and a variety of industry mix as an in house counsel. I started my career with a boutique law firm, where I learned the basics of law practice, which saw me setting up my own law practice. Having pursued that path for a few years, I took up an in house counsel role with an ITES company in Bangalore, selling my share of the practice to my erstwhile partner. This was a tough decision, but in hind sight, the correct one, since today, I consider myself as a well rounded legal professional who has the ability to analyse and solve issues holistically, since I can anticipate consequences from a litigation and regulatory aspect while at the same time not losing focus of the core business aspect of any issue. My journey as an in house counsel has seen me hold leadership positions in organisations like ACS, Microsoft, WNS and currently at Aricent. This has been a very fulfilling journey, which has given me exposure to some of the best international corporate flavours and practices and has given me the opportunity to learn something new at each juncture and this learning process is a continuing one.
Yes, the role of the General Counsel today has evolved to a great degree compared to what it was, say, two decades ago. From being an office that was approached only in the event of a dispute or where there was a regulatory compliance that was needed, today the office of the general counsel is an integral cog in the wheel of the organization. The office of the General Counsel is multifarious in its remit and is the conscience keeper of the company. Today’s General Counsel is a valued partner to the business and is proactively involved in areas like deal structuring, revenue recognition, risk mitigation, compliance, government advocacy, policy planning, corporate governance, taxation, M&A etc. The office of the General Counsel is the trusted advisor to the board of directors and is an integral part of the senior leadership team of the organization..
Some key challenges that every General Counsel, and in fact every in house lawyer, has to face is to maintain a fine balance between risk mitigation, regulatory compliance and business enablement. An overt focus on any one, to the detriment of the other two, can result in derailment of a company’s strategy. Hence the General Counsel has to be a professional who is well versed in all aspect’s of the company’s operations, so that they can walk the proverbial tightrope when it comes to balancing out seemingly irreconcilable challenges. The other key attribute that every legal professional needs today is good inter personal skills. Given the inherent challenges of this role, an inhouse legal professional needs to ensure that the interests of various arms of the organization are taken care of while ensuring that this is not at the cost of exposing the company to risk. For this, apart from good subject matter knowledge, a high degree of soft skills are imperative.
To any budding lawyer looking at a career as an in house counsel, my advice is two fold:
In the first 3 to 5 years of your career, try and work in a multi-specialty law firm and obtain a broad based skill set. You should look at becoming a generalist in your initial years rather than a specialist.
Read. There is no substitute for reading. And by reading, I don’t just mean law journals, but business journals, financial papers and the like, so that you develop a keen understanding of business dynamics while honing your skills as a lawyer.
One of the key areas that a law firm needs to focus on is to train their lawyers to be more business friendly. A legal advisor needs to speak the language of a business lawyer and not a legal consultant, for a law firm to position itself as an extended arm of the organization. While I see this improving with each passing day, we need to cover a large distance before we catch up with our counterparts in countries like the US, Germany and UK.
Favourite Gadget – has to be my Smart Phone
Favourite App – Google News and instagram
Favourite Automobile Brand – Harley Davidson and Range Rover
Favourite Writing Instrument – Sheaffers
Favourite Holiday Destination – Leh and Khajjiar
Favourite Cuisine – Thai and Mughalai.
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