Briefly, Tell Us About Your Role In The Organization And The Mandates You Handle?

My journey as a Head-Legal in Ramky Infrastructure Ltd, has started recently with an enthusiastic and positive mind-set. My daily routine activities includes reporting to senior management, interacting with business heads and understanding the core issues as the main focus area. Handling a lot of litigation issues, catering legal advisory to various departments, preparing strategy and implementation thereof, drafting and vetting of pleadings and agreements, coordination with a number of external lawyers are bit challenging works. Team Management is also the one which needs good attention as a HOD.

Tell Us Something About Your Journey So Far As A General Counsel In India?

I was born and brought up in village named Sugaon in the District of East Champaran in the state of Bihar and came to Delhi in 1997 for preparation of civil services. However, due to extreme financial crisis, I could not do so and I took admission in LL.B. in Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law in Delhi University. After law practice in various courts in Delhi NCR for almost 3 years, I realized that advocacy is a profession for second generation or for someone having good financial support from the family. It was that time when I shifted my focus to corporate sector and now, I am here as the Head – Legal in Ramky Infrastructure Ltd. Later on while working in a big corporate group, I did LL.M. in Business Law. I worked in several reputed organizations including Paras Buildtech, Purearth Infrastructure Ltd., Viridian Red Group and Inox Wind Ltd. before joining Ramky Infrastructure Ltd. as a HeadLegal.

I had started my corporate legal journey as an Asst. Manager in a very small company and now I am heading the legal department of a big infra company. So, when I see the whole journey, I realize that corporate working is not an easy going task rather it demands full dedication and a lot of other capabilities

During my professional journey, I have dealt with all sorts of issues and cases relating to police and Economic Offense Wing, NCLT, RERA, consumer, civil & criminal, etc.. I have worked in four real estate groups, hence, I do possess an excellent experience and exposure of the real estate sector. I have closely worked with the Business, Leasing and Sales Team and learnt a lot from them regarding making a balance between business and the law.

While working in the corporate sectors like Paras Buildtech and Viridian Red Group, I assisted a lot to the sales & leasing team for the sale & leasing of commercial & retail spaces. I did a lot of works in drafting & vetting and negotiating the sales/leasing agreements with numerous national & international companies. I had successfully concluded space leasing agreement with Vivo Mobile India for approx. 15 lakh sq. ft. when Vivo came to India for the first time to start its mobile assembly unit in the project “World Trade Centre Noida. I have successfully concluded drafting, vetting and negotiating the hundreds of leasing agreements for retail and commercial spaces for many big brands like Vivo, Nike, Mc Donalds, Federal Moghel Goetz, Big Bazar, Blackbery, Pantaloon etc. both on revenue sharing and lease rental basis.

Do You Feel That The Role of General Counsels Is Evolving In Today’s Business Scenario? And, If So, How?

I strongly believe that In-House Legal Department in any company should be stronger enough to ensure that all the businesses are being done legally right and in ethical way. In-House Legal Department can play a very vital role for sustainable and ethical growth of the business through its compliances, legal audit and supervision through the legal eyes. With the fast growth of the Indian economy, the role of General Counsels (GCs) is changing day by day. Today, apart from their traditional role of being legal advisors, they have become strategic advisors to the management. Some years back, the GC’s role was limited to handling of the litigation, however, today, it is interesting to see that General Counsels are indispensably playing strategic role in concluding all the business transactions and management of the complex litigations, not only as functional experts but also as business advisors to the top management and the board in taking strategic decisions, new mergers & acquisitions and new products to be launched by the company

What Are The Key Challenges That General Counsels Have To Deal With on A Regular Basis, Irrespective of The Industry Sector?

As a Head of Legal Department, I do believe in regular communication and conversation with all the concerned people of the company. I look at things differently with a mix up of legal knowledge and business requirement of the company and then plan with a practical approach on any critical issue.

I believe, the General Counsel’s responsibility is to study the company’s business objectives first and accordingly to understand its legal need, strategy and pressure points. It is the duty of the In-House Counsel to communicate to the management about the associated risks in any business transaction, management decisions and in each and every ongoing litigation.

There are more challenges that a GC faces while working in a corporate group like staff transition, managing the business departments of the company, co-existing with the need of the top management, fostering relationship with external lawyers etc.. The bigger challenge of a GC is to manage with the egos of different heads especially when some of them are older in the organization. Here, a GC should be truthful and straight forward in its approach without hurting anyone’s selfbelief of greatness.

The biggest challenge of the GC is that the company’s most of the people including that of the top management are from non-legal background. It becomes difficult for a GC to put the legal things before them in a pure legal manner as their minds are fully occupied with business sense. They see the legal things through business eyes and not the business through the legal eyes. Here, a kind of conflicting zone starts developing. This is the point where a GC should deal with more seriousness and prudence and act in accordance of the rightness of the legal need.

What Are Your Thoughts on Improving Synergies Between Law Firms And Corporate Inhouse Legal Terms?

When I see the relationship between law firms and in house counsel, I find that, their goals are the same, serving the interests of the companies. Earlier there were one or two in-house counsels or even no in-house counsel in a company and all the legal affairs were handled by the external lawyers only. They normally used to undertake regular follow ups with lawyers, contract management and daily administrative tasks. When companies used to encounter disputes, they usually used to engage external lawyers to resolve them. But, todays the scenario has completely changed. Now, the law firms and in- house counsels go handin-hand for improving the corporate legal risk management and prevention mechanisms, enhancing corporate dispute resolution capabilities and business & strategic advisory. Hence, they need indepth synergy and a close co-operation with each other for providing an overall protection of the interest of a corporate group.

The in-house counsels fills a gap between the external lawyers and the management and also explains the whole legal system and its need to the management for timely, effective and precautionary measures to be taken by the management. Todays, in every medium or big business organization, there are large number of litigation throughout the country and abroad as well which cannot be tackled alone by any in-house legal system. For this there is a need of strong and centralized system which can cater the legal services to the need of the in-house counsels and the company. Law Firms play important roles for such a situation where an in-house legal needs effective and immediate response for any legal issue.

What Are Some of The Key Tools That General Counsels Can Use For Continued Learning Education (cle)?

The benefits of continuing learning education for one’s professional development in the legal field are tremendous. Today, we see that Laws and regulations are continuously changing hence, there is a need of the in-house counsels to stay up to date on legal knowledge and strategy. We see that the older and senior lawyers have evolved over the years and hence there is no short cut in this profession. Therefore continuing legal education may allow us to explore new areas of law and perhaps shift our professional practice.

There are several areas wherein the participation can bring tremendous benefits like live programs of Legal Experts, Distance learning programs relating to Legal Education and courses like ethics, professional conduct, malpractice prevention etc..

We see that the in – house legal department in the medium and big companies have become overloaded with numerous issues like, thousand numbers of contract and their management, hundreds of litigation and their management, immediate need of drafting and vetting on any subject, immediate need of advisory etc.. These issues are increasingly creating a complex situation for in-house legal team and at many occasions the in-house legal team fails to find out the immediate solution and put before the management. For dealing with such a situation, the in-house legal team requires technology based solutions for data storing, litigation alert. Compliance alert etc.. Also, Legal magazines, Legal websites, case law search engines etc. play very important role in enhancement of the legal knowledge and capability of an in-house counsel.

Any Advice For Someone Exploring A Legal Career As An In-house Counsel?

My advice to individuals and newcomers who are considering pursuing a career in the legal industry is to be consistent with legal study and a good learner at all times. One must be selfassessed, argumentative, a deep learner and a good researcher. They should not be judgmental, rather provide compelling and well researched arguments before others on the subject matter. An aspiring lawyer should always enhance its legal knowledge and capability through reading law magazines, legal websites, participating in seminars etc..

I believe that the application of law without understanding the business need of a company can badly jeopardize the “go ahead and bring business” principle. The Legal Department should not become a problem in itself rather it should become a pivotal in the search of the solution. I can say that knowledge of the bare legal subjects can neither help a lawyer grow in his practice career nor in the corporate career unless he understands the need of management as well as that of business departments. One should make a balance between company’s need and legal limitation.

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‘Indian Economy, it’s Growth and Role of GCs are Increasingly Dynamic” – Akhilesh Kumar Mishra Head-Legal, Ramky Infrastructure

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