I joined Google less than a year ago. I was excited about this opportunity because it allowed me to work on cutting edge products focused on developing markets like India and West Asia. A large component of my work is around product counselling. Most interesting aspect is to work closely with the business and product teams to bring the business strategy and product in line with the legal and regulatory framework. I am involved in providing guidance and direction to the business and product teams from the proof of concept stage itself. Another area of my work that interests me is working on hot button topics like privacy, data protection, payments/fintech and other government led initiatives. My profile also allows me to liaison with regulators, policy makers and industry forums to push business agendas and to opine of draft bills and guidelines. Identifying legal, business and financial risks and structuring mitigation mechanisms makes my work fun. A critical component is to balance out the business and legal requirements. This requires very complex posturing and expectation management across all internal and external stakeholders. The variety of work offered to me continues to fuel my passion.
My journey in the legal profession has been largely defined by the areas of work that I feel passionate about. I must say that I have been very lucky that the right opportunities always seem to come along. When I completed my LLB, I actually wanted to become a Human Rights lawyer! With this thought as the driving force, I decided to do my Masters in Public and International Law. At the University of Melbourne, the course content and diverse student body expanded my worldview exponentially. Like most aspiring lawyers, I then decided to begin my career with a top tier law firm. This is how I got my start at J.Sagar Associates here in Gurgaon.
At JSA, I worked in the M&A and Private Equity practice and worked on a few important transactions. As I got deeper into this field of work, I realized a fundamental shortcoming in my experience set. I felt that advising businesses on deal making, value creation and M&A, without me having an in-depth knowledge of business was not being fair to my clients. A passion to understand business in detail was growing within me and the best way to solve this would be to look for an inhouse role. God was kind and an interesting opportunity in the payments space emerged in the form of PayU Payments, India. I joined PayU as a Manager and in two short years grew to become the Head of the Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Department. I was a member of the Senior Key Management Committee which develops strategies and business models for the company. This opportunity allowed me to interact with great mentors, who taught me the payments business. At PayU, I also got a chance to build regulatory relationships including obtaining important licenses such as PPI and BBPOU for the company. Secondly, it allowed me to builda team and a department from scratch. Thirdly, it offered great visibility not only within the organization but also within the legal community. But most importantly, it formed in me a deep-rooted view that inhouse lawyers can be great assets to companies when they take a problem solving view by keeping the business requirements paramount.
While PayU has been one of the most enriching experiences till date, I did feel the need for a change. I wanted to pursue more complex challenges and wanted to work on the cutting edge of digital products. When you are looking to work on the vanguard of technology, there is no better organization than Google. The last year at Google has been exceptionally fulfilling. I handle product counselling which requires you to understand the product, complexities and regulatory framework at different levels and across industry. This has been a very rewarding journey and I believe it has been so because I have always applied the right judgment in deciding my career trajectory. It is not difficult as long as you let your passion drive your choices.
And if so, how? The last decade has seen a huge paradigm shift in terms of how legal teams in corporates have evolved. I believe that it has changed for the better as in-house counsels have started to add great value to businesses and are now sought after as thought partners to CEOs and Board members. Gone are the days of straight ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers. It is essential for an in-house counsel to have a deep understanding of the business goals and the industry in order to provide customized and innovative solutions. Today’s in-house counsel can be compared to an entrepreneur. You need to tactfully sell your legal perspective to business and tactfully sell your business to regulators and policy makers.
Further, the use of technology to bring efficiencies in day to day tasks has become very important. Improvements in communication, word processing and archiving technologies have reduced turn-around times and have also improved the accuracy of our work.
The most critical change however, is counsels’ ability to explain legal nuances to management in a manner that they can understand. This creates a two-way street of mutual trust and respect which makes the business a more tightly integrated unit.
The toughest challenges that an in-house counsel faces is changing the established mind-set that the legal department is a cost center or a support function, and that legal requirements are a barrier to business. This outlook further brings about lack of transparency in communication and visibility to business strategies. The outcome of this way of working is that legal teams end up working in silos and as a result their output is constrained.
Legal teams have to work hard to change this approach. The key is to build trust by demonstrating strong decision making abilities that creates a synergy between legal and business requirements. It is important for businesses to understand that legal departments can help them in monetizing their business. What is heartening to see is that progressive businesses have already started implementing this change. A great example of an organization that has embraced this change is Google.
The second concern facing legal teams is allocation of budgets. Legal teams need to be provided with larger budgets to be able to streamline the tactical work and concentrate on the larger picture. Well-funded legal teams have demonstrated an ability to create efficiencies that in the long run, assist in ease of conducting business.
With the way that in-house legal teams are evolving, their relationships with law firms also continue to change. It is therefore important to understand the rules of engagement among these entities. Fundamentally, we go to law firms for assistance on the grey areas of the law, so that we can take better informed decisions. Many a times, we get an opinion in the form of a list of pros and cons for various scenarios that we have articulated. This opinion is also riddled with disclaimers and as a result, has limited utility.
Having started my career at a law firm, I do understand that firms face challenges of liability claims if they were to provide opinions without disclaimers, but at the end of the day, these opinions rarely help in decision making. At best, they serve as a vague validation with the stamp of an eminent lawyer or law firm.
In-house lawyers today work very differently. We are not looking for summaries of law and have already evaluated the law prior to engaging a law firm. What we are seeking is a solution for the grey areas. I feel that law firms need to understand this change in mindset and need to increase their risk appetite. While they may not completely understand our business requirements as well as we do, they can leverage massive knowledge bases along with industry intelligence. When combined, the strength of both sides can create a formidable problem solving team. I therefore believe, that law firms should start helping clients implement some of their opinions as it can be an extremely enriching experience for both parties and the firms can also reduce their liability risk drastically by monitoring the implementation plan closely.
There are four key areas that I have used when it comes to continuously developing my skill set. The first is understanding business. While I have not formally attended any business courses, I continue to learn from the business teams at my organization, from my friends and family and also from business and management publications. These learnings are critical as they help me take a step back from my daily regime and allow me to focus on the big picture. I have leant that it yields massive dividends when it comes to discharging your professional responsibilities.
The second tool is understanding technology. I have touched upon this earlier also so I would not want to go into much detail. Suffice to say that technology can lead to huge efficiencies that can in turn make you finish your work faster and more accurately.
The third area is attending seminars and conferences, not only restricted to law but also industry conferences. I have found this to be a great way of improving my world view by interacting with panelists, speakers and delegates. Not only is it a great way of networking and gaining visibility in the industry, but the potential to learn is exponential.
Finally, participating in forums and chat groups where our peers continue to ideate is another great way of learning. These forums allow for fantastic crosspollination of ideas and experiences. I am a firm believer of the fact that if you are facing a problem, someone, somewhere has already solved it. Engaging in these rich communities can help you find like-minded individuals as well as those with a different perspective, both of which can be equally helpful.
I will keep this short and crisp. These are the mantras that I have lived by and I hope they come in handy for aspiring lawyers:
Favourite Gadget – iphone and Laptop
Favourite App – Youtube
Favourite Automobile Brand – Porsche
Favourite Book – To Kill a Mockingbird
Favourite Music – Bollywood Music
Favourite Pass Time – Bollywood Movies
Favourite Holiday Destination – Cruise to the Bahamas
Favourite Cuisine– Italian and Mexican
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