As the head of legal and compliance function, I am responsible for providing complete legal support to the Company and managing a team of in-house lawyers.
The mandates I handle can broadly be categorized as managing the contractual arrangements, litigations, and advise to senior management on various regulatory, risks and anti-bribery provisions, besides developing and implementing policies and procedures in legal & compliance areas.
I have started my career as a litigation lawyer and then as an associate in a law firm. After about 5 years of practice before courts, especially on the civil side, I joined as an in-house counsel with an FMCG company, Super Max (Malhotra group). In my journey so far, I have climbed all the steps in the corporate ladder, i.e., right from the level of Assistant Manager to Manager, Senior Manager, DGM and finally as the Head of Legal function. I think my practice in courts before becoming an in-house counsel helps me handle the outside counsel in an effective manner.
The role of General Counsel is not only evolving but becoming an integral part of business. In a highly competitive world, not being compliant with various legislations can expose companies to serious risks. The regulatory environment is continuously evolving and, business has to not only keep abreast of such changes, it also needs to strategize its business in line with the changing landscape. In fact, almost every decision taken by the company can have major legal implication. The role of General Counsel has therefore become crucial in not only developing the strategic business goals and also in managing the risks.
The key challenges of a General Counsel can be in overcoming the reluctance of some business leaders in engaging legal in business deals from the outset. For eg., there is a perception that the role of legal kicks in only during the contract drafting and/or in case of any dispute. On the other hand, involving legal in the contract negotiations from the beginning would help legal to understand the business realities, and also for business to understand the legal risks upfront, and thereby reduce the time and effort in closing the meaningful contracts.
The opinions of law firms sometimes tend to be academic. The lawyers in the law firm should make an effort to understand the challenges faced by an in-house counsel and craft their opinions in such a way that their views are practical and closer to business realities. The synergies can be improved only when the counsel and views of law firms is useful to business and can be actually applied to facts on hand.
General Counsel cannot afford to become outdated and needs to update himself through regular meetings (like seminars, conferences, talks) with both legal fraternity and industry leaders.
There has never been a better time to explore the career as an in-house counsel. When I started my career, very few companies actually had an in-house counsel or team. All the legal work (mostly litigation) was outsourced. Now, almost every company is vying with each other to attract legal talent and this trend is here to stay
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Favourite Holiday Destination – My home at Hyderabad
Favourite Cuisine – Hyderabadi Biryani
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