Vikram graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai, in 2000. He currently works with TCS and handles India and the MEA regions. He was engaged in the setting up of the first all women BPO in Saudi Arabia, which was the first of its kind. This involved interactions with the Labour Board as well as the Saudi Client. He has also been responsible SPOC for the takeover of an erstwhile Government IT Company – CMC limited, by TCS.
In this interview we speak to him about:
His experience in IP Law
His role as In-House Counsel
Working for Marico, McDonald’s, Wadia conglomerate, and M/s. Jehnagir Gulabbhai, Bilimoria and Daruwalla
How would you introduce yourself to our readers?
I would probably introduce myself, as the “Accidental Attorney”. I joined law college only because my friends at that time were joining the same. It was only upon attending law school, through the various lectures that I attended I realised, that I had made the right choice!
How was your experience at law school?
I joined Government Law College (Mumbai), and did take part in the odd moot court competition. Through GLC’s recruitment process, I interned with and later joined, the law firm of M/s. Jehangir Gulabbhai, Billimoria and Daruwalla, one of India’s oldest law Intellectual Property (IP) specific law firm. The sheet variety of IP work, kept my interest going, even during my studies.
You worked with a senior partner at a law firm on IP related matters. Can you describe the nature of the work you did?
I worked with the late Prof. Tehemtan Daruwalla, a true giant in the field of IP matters. He insisted that we always get our hands “dirty” in each matter, and ours was the only firm carrying out a manual (physical files) in the trademark registry (when it was allowed) to ensure accuracy of our opinions. In this tenure, Trademark search, opposition, Copyright oppositions (both at a registry and high court level) and patent drafting were all opportunities that I devoured with glee. A copyright case involving Mira Nair’s film Monsoon Wedding was a memorable case that I remember working upon.
How has the advent of technology impacted the field of IPR law?
As Spiderman’s quote says “with great power comes great responsibility”, with strides in technology have arisen ways to counterfeit/ infringe such tech and consequently legislation which is struggling to keep up. For each “Paywall” Netflix subscription comes a “Bit-torrent” where you download the leaked “Game Of Thrones” episode. Of late, tech such as 3-D printing has also made counterfeiting that much easier. IP law, its relevance and furthermore understanding (I’ll touch upon that in my next answer) have never been more important.
How did you secure a position with Marico?
I joined Marico, keen to try an in-house role. My work involved working with their R&D team, in the filing of trademarks, and assisting with drafting, search and opposition of patents. Most frequent were my anti-counterfeiting actions involving pan-India travel to ensure search and seizure of infringers of Marico’s intellectual property. I would stress here that both the knowledge of IP laws as well as the intent to act upon IP violations was markedly lower in those times, amongst police authorities than it is today and as mentioned in my previous answer, the proliferation of social media, technology has led to a greater cognizance of such offences in small town India.
You have also worked with McDonalds India. How did this appointment happen?
I joined McDonald’s to be part of this global brand. Management’s mandate to open restaurants at a hectic pace led to exposure with business agreements, property laws, labour matters, taxes and of course litigation. It was interesting to fend various customer complaints seeking damages in lieu of rude behaviour by staff, or another filed by a parent whose daughter had received a Mickey Mouse with an Indian Flag with her “Happy Meal” thereby hurting his national sentiment! Was this a fall-out of the infamous Stella Liebeck case? I can only guess!
What motivated you to pursue an LLM while you had a successful legal career?
Having had my brush with international legislation, dealing with an American parent corporation (McDonald’s), I decided to pursue my LLM in International, Commercial Law from the University of Durham (UK). I chose the UK, as common law as is practised in the UK serves as precedent for the Indian legal system. I further chose Durham, as this particular course had the right mix of international topics for an In-House career (in India). I would always recommend working for a few years before one opts for an LLM. This is because one’s previous (or future) career path should be supplemented by the LLM content that one chooses. Secondly, previous work experience will help you “value add” to the interactive class sessions, and examinations
What are your views on the importance of higher education?
In my capacity as In-House Counsel of some years, I can vouch that each Indian corporate today, has some overseas business or funding. The importance of international commercial legislation, especially that of the EU, US and even China and Africa is crucial to have knowledge of. My advice to readers, is to first have a firm footing in the legal “stream” of their choice (IP, Tax etc.) and then take this footing further into the “ocean” that is international studies, to provide further impetus .
How did you secure a position with the Wadia conglomerate?
I secured a position with the Wadia Group, through a common friend with Mr. Burjor Nariman, who was the then Head of Legal for the Wadia Group. The choice to continue In-House was a conscious one, as I by then realised the unique advantage that an In-House counsel holds in the management of a company (I will elaborate this in a subsequent answer). The Wadia Group has some renowned brands such as Britannia Industries, Go-Air and Bombay Realty and the role offered a chance to work across these industries with a focus on litigation, customer complaints and property re-development contracts.
What caused the shift to Capgemini India?
My experience with the Wadia Group focussed primarily on litigation and subsequently, was limited by the inputs I could offer to the senior counsels handling such high stakes litigation. When the Capgemini role of sole counsel came along, I grabbed it eagerly. My tenure saw Capgemini India (CGI) commence its “India Business” operations, which then extended into the Middle East leading to a plethora of business contracts. CGI then took over Ernst and Young’s India consulting division, which brought opened a floodgate of legacy litigation. My challenges as In-House Counsel were two –fold given the sheer volume and variety of work, and that I had previously never been attuned to the “IT Industry”. I can honestly say that this was the hardest time in my career and the lessons that I have learned in this period have helped me to this day.
How did your appointment at TCS happen?
I was recommended to TCS by a previous senior, Mr. Debabrata Dutt. I currently am responsible for the Middle East and Africa geographies at TCS and handle services, licensing and BPO related contracts within these geographies. I was in charge of the take-over of CMC Ltd. an erstwhile Government owned IT Company by TCS. My crowning glory (so far) has been my role in aiding the set-up of the first All Women BPO services unit for a client in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by TCS. I cite this example because, unlike other business transactions, this one was the first of its kind, and there was no template or precedent for the same. I was initially geared towards ensuring contract closure (as is the case with most In-House counsels). I realised that there were many “pitfalls” in ensuring successful project completion from issues including security (requiring clearance of the Burkha clad Saudi women, archiving video footage) and compliance (the Saudi personnel refused to handle transactions arising from countries such as Israel). Through my interactions with the Saudi Labour Board, I was able to highlight these challenges and obtain concessions/clarifications. In conclusion, not only did I aid the smooth roll-out of this prestigious project, but also a template was put in place, when a similar request came along from another Saudi Client. In closing, I would like to highlight that this set-up has since been visited by our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and the US First Lady Melania Trump, during President’s Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
What are the skills and qualities required to succeed as an in house counsel?
In the movie The Godfather, Robert Duvall plays Tommy Hagen, the counsel of the Corleone family, who is entrusted with some very unusual requests which he carries out with great patience and diligence. While a real life In House counsel may not get such unusual requests, he nevertheless has to be patient, diligent and protect business interests above all. Indian conglomerates today have stepped overseas and/or entered into diverse business operations and an In-House Counsel has to keep him/herself abreast with legislation both current and anticipated that may arise due to such venture. I remember Mr. Bharat Vasani (ex Legal Head; Tata Sons) mentioning how he underwent a technical training program to understand the DTH business at the time, the TATA group was entering the same (TATA Sky). On a personal level, during my McDonald’s tenure, I spent a week working hands on in a McDonald’s restaurant (serving fries, burgers) to understand the daily routine of the store and developing empathy to the store employee!
In your experience, how is working in house different from working in a law office?
An In-House counsel, unlike a law firm lawyer, has two masters, the Law and his CEO! This is because; an In-House counsel is required to be attuned to overall business interests and on some occasions, the whims of the management; from commencing litigation against an overnight friend turned rival or even developing a taste for your CEO’s favourite brand of scotch!
What advice do you have for our readers who are primarily college students?
Firstly, enjoy this time! The friends that you will make, will last you a lifetime. Secondly, be open to learning from various streams of law before circumstance requires you to specialise. Lastly, be always aware of trends not only in legislation, but the industry that you cater to. Legal services have changed as much as other industries, and as Richard Susskind predicts, it is going to change further yet!
Priya Rawal qualified in law from Pravin Gandhi College of Law in 2010 and worked at Dave and Girish as a paralegal and as an associate after graduation. Later, she served at a top tier law firm, Economic Laws Practice before she started working full time with renowned family law expert, Mrs. Mridula Kadam. She eventually steered into the role of a business lawyer and has worked with leading healthcare companies. She is also a Certified Life and Wellness Coach from the Symbiosis Coaching Institute (accredited through the International Coach Federation and the Certified Coaching Alliance). She is currently Senior Executive – Legal with Roche Diagnostics India Private Ltd.
In this piece, we talk to Priya about:
Her experience with assuming varied roles in the legal industry
The legal standards and practices upheld by the healthcare sector in the country
The difference between being a practicing lawyer and in-house counsel
The importance of trying one’s hand at different kinds of law before settling for a particular role
Tell us a bit about yourself; what inspires you?
Born and raised in the city of dreams, I am an enthusiastic and ambitious person by nature. That reflects well in the choices I make, both personally and professionally. I trust my instincts and follow the path they take me along, believing that every experience is a stepping stone to the goals I wish to eventually achieve, in terms of my career and life in general.
My inspiration for everything continues to be the most dominant personal quality of my mother, which is happiness. I follow everything that brings me happiness and with that I can easily say my mother is the biggest inspiration of my life.
What led you to become a lawyer?
My decision to pursue law was more of an accident than a choice. I was born into a family of lawyers and for as long as memory serves, I remember watching members of my family read, draft cases and even argue, as much about law as about life. My father has been a major driving force in encouraging me to pursue law as he had immense faith in me. He was always encouraging of my inquisitiveness and thought I was a go-getter.
How was your first experience working in a law firm?
My first working experience in a law firm was an eye opener. Before you start working, you don’t completely understand the distinction between theory and practice. I have been fortunate enough to start my career as a student with a law firm that provided me with working opportunities at par with other senior lawyers and also encouraged me to handle challenging roles.
Tell us about your experience of practicing in the Family Court?
After around three years of working experience with law firms, I got the once in a lifetime opportunity of working with Mrs. Mridula Kadam, the distinguished family lawyer. Under her leadership, I grew not just as a lawyer but also as a person.
Being a family lawyer isn’t easy; you need to be empathetic, strong, strategic and reasonable; and sometimes, all at once. You have a larger role to play as it involves life changing decisions for your clients. Practising family law has definitely been one of my best working experiences.
Moreover, for a well rounded career in law, it is important to understand the judicial system, appear in courts and learn the nuances of arguing, drafting and negotiation in a competitive environment. Dealing with different people is another aspect which plays a huge role in enhancing a lawyer’s emotional intelligence and there is no better field than family law to closely understand the wide spectrum of human psychology.
How did the transition from practising family law to being an in-house counsel take place?
The transition was never planned. It just happens when you are open to new experiences, taking certain risks and keen on exploring alternative markets and working environments. I would emphasize that the younger you are, better are your chances at getting a 360 degree overview of the way things operate in different markets. I consider myself fortunate to have experienced working across such diverse fields because it has helped me understand what works for me and what doesn’t.
Help our young lawyers understand how a typical day in a law firm would be different from being a practicing lawyer or an in-house counsel?
That’s an interesting question. Let me just say, there is little common in the working environment apart from the fact that all roles deal with the legal issues of one’s clients. A day in a law firm would perhaps comprise a series of highly urgent matters, placed back to back for the lawyer to tackle. The day would most likely be challenging in terms of juggling tough deadlines and quality output. The working hours in a law firm are also very erratic.
A practising lawyer’s day is relatively far more organized, though they operate within a rather unorganized system. They are usually aware of the nature of the hearing scheduled in court and their appointments post court hearings. All they are never sure of, is whether the court proceeding will make substantial progress or just be adjourned to another date.
An in-house counsel’s day would be better planned. They are occupied in meetings with the business stakeholders to understand their legal requirements. Having said that, the expectations are higher from a business lawyer as not only does it require understanding the law but also ensuring that the business operates efficiently within the framework of stringent regulations.
Which statutes regulate the healthcare industry?
The healthcare industry contains several other industries within its fold, and therefore different laws are applicable to these different industries. By and large, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, read with the rules, Legal Meteorology Act, 2009, Voluntary code – Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices, Medical Council of India (MCI) rules and regulations, Drug Price Control Order, 2013, Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, healthcare industry codes are some of the important legal statutes that apply to healthcare companies.
What are the legal challenges involved in the promotion and marketing practised by healthcare organizations?
Provisions under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and rules there under, primarily govern the advertisement of drugs. Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP), a voluntary code, came into effect in India in January, 2015 after years of deliberation, and laid down key provisions dealing with promotion of a drug, claims and comparisons of a drug, dealing with healthcare professionals etc.
The challenge as I said is to be within the framework and make business initiatives happen by striking a balance between legal mandates and business requirements. Dealing with HCPs is undoubtedly one of the most sensitive issues handled by healthcare organizations today and they are taking utmost care to manage the same by adopting watertight measures to ensure transparent collaboration with the healthcare professionals.
What inspired you to take up a Legal & Compliance driven role in your current organization?
For me, it has always been quality legal role over anything else. In my current role, I am a critical stakeholder in ensuring that marketing/promotional initiatives take place within the framework of Indian laws and regulations. There is a dash of everything, be it strategizing litigation matters, drafting, negotiating and advising on contracts, drafting policies that are business-centric and in compliance with the laws and regulations and also working on audits and global and regional projects. I must emphasize that minimum outsourcing of legal matters to law firms makes the experience even more enriching.
I enjoy working in an environment which provides room for discussions, debates and opinions. I try my best to leverage my learning as a Certified Life Coach and use it optimally to deliver high performance and mentor myself too.
What would be your advice to the aspiring lawyers?
Invest time in discovering your core strengths and which field of law interests you passionately. Experience of working full time with a practicing lawyer and a law firm, undoubtedly lays a strong foundation and provides a holistic overview. Make the most of the opportunities available at law schools by participating in debates, moots and related legal curriculum activities. Do not rush into anything only because it will pay you well or will look good on your résumé.
One of my other personal experiences is that it is extremely important to understand the ‘why’. When you understand why you are doing something and how it impacts the firm or your client largely, work will become service and providing quality output will become ingrained into your system. Self awareness upon introspection or through coaching/mentoring will help you know yourself well; the rest is mere implementation and tracking the little milestones. I urge the young lawyers and students to use the coaching services available, which will benefit them motivate them to reach their fullest potential. It will acquaint them with the behavioral and technical skills that are required of a lawyer to succeed in their field.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the interviewee are personal to the interviewee, and do not represent that of the organization she works for.
K Satish Kumar graduated in B.Com and thereafter qualified in law in 1995 from Sambalpur University, he is also a Certified Management Accountant from ICWAI. Having worked at multiple corporate bodies as an in-house legal counsel, Satish is currently the Global Head – Legal at Ramco Systems in Chennai. Satish additionally has several publications to his name and has done much work in the way of Pro Bono activities to give back to society.
In this interview, Satish talks to us about:
His introduction to the legal profession, and his experience as a lawyer since then.
His plethora of publications, and his advice on the best way to go about writing and publishing articles
Pro Bono work, giving back to society, and the ways in which he keeps up to date with the ever-changing subject that is Law
How did you choose Law? Did you always know that this was what you wanted to do?
In fact my choosing law was not deliberate and intentional. I started my career as a Finance Professional after completing my ICWA (currently known as CMA). I had parallely completed my Law Degree as well. However, Finance and Legal being closely related, I found out that I had a good aptitude for Law. That is when – even after starting my career in Finance – I switched over to Law, and with God’s grace, I am doing well and creating a niche for myself in the Legal Profession.
In any organization, the Legal Unit are always regarded as the “Deal Makers”. You also resort to Legal when you have to be bailed out of any crisis. Legal plays an important role in “Crisis Management”. So the Legal Unit becomes most important either way – be it bringing revenue to the organization or pulling it out of some crisis. These are some of the selfish reasons which made me swing sides to Law.
You have a lot of work experience, from working at a vast array of places. Can you tell us a little about your career graph up to this point?
Yes, I carry more than 20 years of rich working experience in multiple MNC’s. I am very passionate about Law and that is what made me a Successful Professional. I have working experience from Fortune 10 companies to Indian grown or growing companies like, HCL Technologies, Polaris Financial Technology (later on the product division split to Intellect Design Arena Ltd), Ramco Systems Ltd. I was fortunate to get the right breaks at the right time. I also carry some critical experience working abroad. So truly, I became a Global and a Cosmopolitan Professional.
However, initially I started off my professional working in few indigenous companies in India. But I was fortunate to work with some industry trendsetters. My desire to learn new businesses and passion to explore all new possibilities has helped me in my career growth progression.
You have received lot of awards in your career. Can you please tell the young lawyers few things about it, please?
Yes, I am the proud winner of many awards during the progression of my career, both abroad and in India. I have successfully negotiated and closed many contracts, structured and finalized joint ventures, cross border investments etc. I was also successful in closing many litigations. There was a time when my colleagues used to call me “the person with Midas’ touch”. In Polaris I was also called “The Deal Maker”.
For all the achievements mentioned above and others, I was the proud winner of awards like
Konark Excellence Award
Gem Award
America’s Most Wanted Person by US Sales Team
Annual Excellence Award
Person Making a Difference
You have a great deal of publications to your name. Do you write about things you think are relevant and have scope for research, about things that interest you personally, or is it a blend of the two?
Yes, this is a very interesting question. I am happy to have many publications to my credit. I love writing – writing on relevant current Legal topics. I have written on Risk Mitigation, Open Source, Rent Control Act, etc. Some of my writings are also published in National and International Business Journals. Someday, I am sure my wish of publishing my own book on Legal topics is going to come true. Some of the links to my publications are given below.
Article on “Software companies can hedge against risks, with insurance cover.” Published in Business Daily “Business Line” dated April 6, 2009
Could you also please tell our readers interested in publishing their own work what you think the best way to go about the same is?
You should first start writing on subjects that is of interest to yourself. Writing on things you are passionate about will help further to strengthen your grasp of the subject. One may start first writing blogs and over a period of time these blogs can be converted to articles and reports in business journals. You should take care of the following while writing.
As a first step you should select a topic that interests you, and focus on it for at least a week or two. Write a rough draft, including everything that you can think of. Stay loose, avoid getting analytical and enjoy the process of sharing what you know. You will then be surprised to see that you have a rough skeleton of the draft that you proposed to write.
As a second step you should address your audience’s needs. You already have a skeletal draft. Now change sides and think of yourself as the reader of the draft piece of work that you had written. You should pick few words to describe the audience you want to address. For example, “young legal professionals”. Now, as a young legal professional, what are the questions you would like to ask? Note down these questions.
As a third step you should start doing research. Now start doing a research to get the answers for all your questions noted down above. You should collect everything you have gathered and put it in a folder, or an electronic document, a notebook. You may also want to note the track of the sources so that you may refer them in future when you need it.
As a fourth step you should refresh your draft. Now you may sprinkle the research in the draft that you have already drafted for the right audience. You may just want to revise what you have as you proceed, retaining a nice conversational tone by directly addressing your audience.
As a fifth and final step you should review your draft. You should read, revise and repeat the process a couple of times after giving yourself some time in between the repeat processes. You will be surprised at what you have written and the changes that you keep making to the draft while re-reading it. Publishing the writing in the journals will be tough initially but once you start publishing the process will be set in your mind and it will be easier for you to write and publish in future.
You strongly believe in spreading legal awareness to both laymen in the field of Law, as well as the younger generations of upcoming professionals in the legal field. Could you tell us a little about why Legal Awareness is so relevant?
We usually ensure that our wealth gets transferred to our next generation through whatever way possible, like filling nomination in our Bank accounts/insurance accounts, Will writing, settlement deeds etc. But seldom do we think of transferring our intellectual wealth to the next generation. If the intellectual knowledge of Aryabatta and Einstein were transferred now to the next generation then we would be sitting rich on various inventions and patents and the world would be completely different now with many more such Aryabattas and Einsteins. But that is not the real scenario. Hence, it is very critical that our intellectual knowledge also gets transferred to the next generation. This is only possible if you transfer your learnings to your teammates and other budding professionals in the field. There are many nuances that we learn from experience, and it is worthwhile to transfer this to the next generation so that the profession becomes richer and more valuable with the passage of time.
Tell us a little about your Pro Bono Activity. You have amassed a huge followers for the same. What kind of queries do you usually address?
We derive a lot of benefit from this society. The society has made us what we are today – experienced professionals. We have an obligation towards the society. Everyone in their lifetime has one or other legal problem. But everyone may not be able to afford the best lawyers in the world. That is where we can step in and make a difference. A piece of genuine advice, counselling, direction, opinion will make a world of difference to these people. For me it doesn’t really cost much. But it gives me immense satisfaction when I see the smiling face at the other end after my counselling or legal advice.
But I have to reach the people. That is when I decided to reach people through social media. Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ were some of the mediums which I adopted to reach the people. I was surprised at the response levels. In a very short period, I had a fan following club of over 6000 people. People approached me with different problems. Some wanted to know the process to adopt a child, some wanted to reconcile with their spouse, property disputes among legal heirs, child abuse, work place bullying or abuse, sexual harassment etc. I ensure that just as I give some time to my family, I also give some time to the society. This has given me a lot of moral satisfaction.
Pro bono makes me happier. Participating on such activities also provide opportunities to make personal connections with people who share your interests. Indeed, social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness.
The very purpose of pro bono work is to assist those who desperately need help with something that’s really important, but for which they have no resources themselves. We are fortunate to be lawyers. We are among the lucky few to survive all the obstacles of becoming (and staying) lawyers. We are among the few who can make the legal system work for people who have nothing to give us but their gratitude.
It helps to pursue my own interest and passions while helping others.
During my early phase of career such pro bono legal work provided me a training ground. I was a junior lawyer earlier and did not have much autonomy for several years. Such Pro bono work in the initial phases of my career provided early opportunities for depositions, building client relationships, arguing motions, first-chairing trials and other valuable work experience to build skills and confidence.
Charitable and pro bono legal work provides me opportunities to meet people with very different backgrounds and interests whom I may not otherwise meet in my daily life. Fundraising for charities, serving as a board member for a nonprofit organization and the like connected me with local business leaders and lead to new friends.
How do you stay updated with the happenings not only in the world at large, but also with the relevant happenings in the legal field?
I have joined many legal professional associations both in India and international levels. These associations are large number of similar professionals who are successful in their own fields. Interacting with them is very useful in developing ourselves.
I have also subscribed to various legal bulletins. Laws are constantly changing and what was right yesterday could be illegal today. I keep myself updated reading legal decisions, and legislative and regulatory news and changes. They help me a lot to keep up to date with the dynamic legal field.
There are various E-law tools which publish their own exhaustive law guides. The E-Laws Advisor tool simulates the interactions that a client might have with a professional. I can ask questions and it provides answers. I have privileged access to such E-laws tools.
I also attend conferences across the globe. I interact with various professionals from Legal and other fields. This is a constant learning process and helps me understand their views too. The key benefit of attending this kind of conference is that I will be able to network and interact with key legislative decision makers and can make my views known to them.
There are range of resources and communication channels for any professionals in order to both familiarize themselves and remain up to date with current law and trends. New technology is making it possible for this to be accessed on demand via the internet or “pushed out” to professionals via newsletters or tweets or other social media. One should only have desire to learn and keep the mind open. I make it a point to learn at least one new law every day.
In your opinion, what should young students of Law prioritize as they lay the foundation for their career?
Fresh law graduates and young students must, first of all identify the career of their interest before initiating actions in specific direction. For example, judiciary might interest some students and some might be interested in being in corporate working as a legal consultant or in-house legal officer; others might be interested in opting for litigation as a professional career. Hence, it is very important to find out what career path attracts one the most.
Another crucial thing is to identify the area of their interest: it is very important for a student to know which specific field of law is most suitable for them, based on their level of understanding in particular subjects. Some students might be very good in understanding criminal laws whereas comparatively weak in understanding commercial and business laws. Such students must consider their incline towards criminal law while choosing career options for themselves. Such students may opt for litigation or working under a lawyer who deals with criminal law. While students who have better understanding of taxation laws, company law, labor laws, intellectual property laws, etc. should prefer working in corporates or as an IP attorney or under a corporate lawyer.
Once after a student has decided the chosen field of law and to start his / her professional career, he / she must join an organization or a lawyer with which / whom he / she can get enriching professional experience. First work experience is very important specifically for a legal professional as it implants the roots of one’s entire professional career. Student must give first consideration to the quality of work his/her chosen career option can provide. Further professional developments majorly depend on one’s first career decision and the learning experience during initial years of one’s career.
From a different perspective, students should also be aware and mentally prepared of the fact that theoretical understanding and practical application of law widely differs. It is very usual for a law professional to come across dicey situations every single day. Thus, it is necessary for a student to develop a habit of thinking in order to find an amicable solution of any problem keeping in mind both legal acumen and practical feasibility. In this aspect, a few internship experiences in addition to legal studies from a reputed institution can be an added advantage.
What kind of audience do you typically see at your seminars? What kind of awareness do you usually direct at them?
(Satish actively participates in Legal Seminars conducted in various cities all over India in an endeavor to bring awareness to the young generations of lawyers and other professionals in the field of Law.)
Yes, I am regularly invited by “The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India” (ASSOCHAM), “Confederation of Indian Industries” (CII), other Legal bodies to spread disseminate legal knowledge among the next generation lawyers.
This is also a good platform to identify young and bright lawyers who require mentoring. I can easily identify the desire and passion in them as they keep coming to me with various intelligent questions and try to enrich themselves. Such bright lawyers should be given an opportunity to grow – to take advantage of all the experience that I have developed over the years.
I also get an opportunity to interact with inventors, industrialists, scientists, authors, businessmen, investors, financiers, etc and get different viewpoints on the same topic. This helps us to re-look, re-think and reposition ourselves on any topic which has various stakeholders. I learn through this process of interacting with top professionals. In order to keep ourselves abreast of new developments, we have to constantly learn. Such seminars play a useful role and are beneficial to me too.
In your opinion, what are the most important skills any young lawyer should cultivate?
As a young lawyer, when you are just starting your career in law, it can be a challenging to stay on top of everything. There seems to be an endless list of new skills and information that you need to learn. It is in fact all about getting back to basics.
As a young lawyer, you should be a good listener. When given instructions by a client or another member of your team, listen carefully. It is important that you understand what you have been asked to do. You may ask plenty of questions, take detailed notes. This may help in giving a proper response.
As a young lawyer you should develop a good communication skill: The success of a lawyer depends on the communication skill. You are as good as you communicate. You should develop good written and oral communication, paying attention to details, listen while others speak, professionalism, using office technologies like email and word processing, critical reading and comprehension, synthesizing facts and law, legal reasoning, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, working within established time constraints, issue spotting and finally decisiveness.
As a young lawyer you should learn to maintain written records. Keeping good written records can save you in times of trouble. So it is a vital discipline to learn to maintain written records.
What are the biggest challenges faced by the modern day lawyers?
The legal profession is a competitive one. Yes, it always has been, but these days—with rapid changes in the way we practice law, it seems to be even more so. The integration of worldwide financial and commercial markets has occurred at an astonishing speed over the last couple of decades. Market participants now routinely lend, borrow, invest, trade, hedge and pledge and do business in jurisdictions other than their own. They expect their lawyers to tag along with them in these global adventures.
For the lawyers, compulsory cosmopolitanism can be discomforting. It isn’t just that laws and judicial procedures differ from one jurisdiction to another. It is something more subtle. Lawyers trained in different legal systems may approach legal problems, client relations, professional etiquette, ethical questions, legal drafting, and correct professional demeanor in remarkably different ways.
Nowadays, the clients’ expectations are more than ever sky high and on-demand. Access to the internet provides potential clients with access to legal information at their fingertips. They are empowered by technology, and they expect that their attorneys will be proactive in finding ways to be efficient and offering options and solutions in terms of results. This can strain relationships between lawyers and their clients, which puts additional pressure on lawyers to find ways to meet these expectations.
With the access people have to information today it’s becoming more common for legal clients to have done research on their own prior to speaking with their lawyers. This has changed the role of the lawyer to educating the client in new ways like sorting through reliable and unreliable information the client may have found in their research.
Technology has also allowed for the creation of various cheap legal service providers from paralegal. There is a gross oversupply of law schools and this glut still plagues the legal profession today.
These paralegal have cropped up all over the internet, city, offering low-cost legal services at very attractive proposition for those seeking what they know can be costly services.
Globalization and competition are another challenge that the lawyers face.
In today’s global economy, lawyers may face barriers in expanding practices overseas.
Countries around the globe are asking themselves if easing rules for attorneys to practice in foreign countries is helpful or hurtful. There’s no clear answer, and countries are handling it in various ways.
New regulations and laws constantly come. Law is an evolving subject. Lawyers have to constantly update themselves so that they are not left behind.
What is the future of Legal Profession?
Law is a dynamic field. The practice of law is changing, but it has always been changing. In the 19th century, there was a major transition from small sole practitioner type of firms with law clerks to the beginning of the modern larger firms that specializes in certain areas. With the development and invention of technology like typewriter and telephone, computer etc, the profession of law also developed in equal pace. Now modern technology allows all sorts of legal matters at one’s fingertips. A good computer with access to legal research is a great leveler. But, this world of informational technology has taken away the quality of life from many lawyers. Lawyers are bombarded with emails and other types of electronic messages from clients 24 hours a day. Going on vacation becomes almost an impossibility—at least on a vacation where one gets away from their work. Essentially law is a 24/7 practice with emails coming in day and night, on all holidays, weekends, etc. This massive and useless over-communication takes a huge amount of time, and at the same time is unproductive.
With the technology, the nature of the practice of law has begun to shift. What the future of law will look like in the next 50 years remains unknown. The fear is that it will driven by technology and not the human side. Will law remain a profession, or will law change to be a business driven by technology? Only time will be able to answer this question.
What message would you like to leave our young readers?
Be open and try to absorb and learn as much as possible. The early phase in your career is a learning phase and later on you can only get better. The more you learn, the more experience you gain. You should also try to get a good academic record and in parallel maintain good extra-curricular activities. Try to get good internship experiences.
Mr. Tejas RK Motwani, an alumnus of Christ College of Law, Bangalore (now School of Law, Christ University Bangalore) graduated in the year 2012. He was awarded the “Mapanna Kharge Memorial Gold Medal” by the Governor of Karnataka, His Highness Mr. H.R.Bharadwaj for securing the highest marks in Constitutional Law. He pursued an L.L.M from National University of Singapore. He is presently pursuing Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) at University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
Currently practising as an Assistant Government Pleader for the State of Gujarat, he is the founder and managing partner of Rannim Associates, Gujarat. In addition, he is currently a visiting faculty member at the Institute of Law, Nirma University, where he teaches “WTO and International IPR”. He has experience of being a Foreign Lawyer at Patrick Miranda Co. Pte. Ltd. Singapore. He is also the founder of a philanthropic organisation named as English with Tejas.
In this interview, he talks to us about-
Practicing as a State Counsel in India.
His experiences while initially practicing abroad and consequently practicing in India.
His take of Law school and the decisions and steps necessary for becoming a successful Law student.
How will you introduce yourself to our readers? How did you decide to pursue a career in law?
I’m Tejas and currently serving as an Assistant Government Pleader for the State of Gujarat. I regularly represent the State in its various litigations at the High Court of Gujarat. I was previously working with an international law firm at Singapore.
I choose law almost as an afterthought. I had decided to become a doctor and took up science in my 10+2. However, physics was probably not my cup of tea. As I realized this, I had some wonderful opportunities in my school to participate in debates, declamations and write for school magazine. Some conversations with close friends, family and with my teachers, made me think that law is a good option. Soon I decided to write some entrance exams and landed up in Christ, Bangalore. I was disappointed on not getting through the GNLU entrance exam (at that time there were separate exams for each law school); however, in hindsight I am glad that it did not work out. Bangalore was a wonderful experience and helped me grow both personally and professionally.
You graduated as Gold Medalist in Constitutional law and as a topper in various other subjects. Could you please shed some light on how you accomplished that? Do you want to give any advice on the same?
Constitutional law was something that I started loving since first year of my law school. We had some wonderful teachers who spoke on various nuances of the constitution in our political science classes. This led me to read more about constitutional law. Further, after the second year of my law school I started taking lectures at Law School Tutorial (LST) which is a famous coaching center for cracking law school entrance exams. I used to teach constitutional law at LST. I guess that helped me immensely, as I had to prepare myself before entering the class. I believe that from an examination perspective, I was well prepared. However, I didn’t expect to ace the exam. So when someone called me and said that I had topped Bangalore University (which has some 30+ law colleges affiliated to it), I was elated and surprised.
Similarly, for other subjects like public international law, human rights law, which I topped. I believe that participation at moots, paper presentations, attending conferences prior etc. helped me. The experience from these activities made it easy for me and it was like I already knew few things before being taught in the class. This made exam preparation easy and got reflected in the results.
As a law student, you have been very active in various activities such as mooting, debating, theatre etc. Did these activities help you? How did you strike a balance between academic and non academic pursuits?
Well, there was no particular formula for striking balance. But, these activities certainly helped me and shaped me into a well informed person. I mooted all throughout five years of my law school and for me it was fun each time. I think the most enriching experience was participating in Jessup. We had a competitive challenger round, based on which selection was made. I was lucky to be part of team which had some amazingly hard working seniors from whom I learnt a lot. I remember my senior Shruthi Jagannath telling me that “every line has to be cited and every new idea has to be explained (in the memorial)”. I am grateful to her for insisting on this rule and since then I have imbibed this rule in all my legal writings and it has been truly helpful. Mooting also let me travel to different cities and gather some wonderful experiences.
Similarly, I liked being a part of the theatre team. I was part of 4 – 5 major theatre productions while studying at Christ. Prominent one was being part of ‘Vision 2020’, an annual theatre production performed before audience numbering around 1000. This production involved working with professional theatre artists, and involved lot of learning as well as making new friends. Theatre also let me express myself (or rather the character) in front of crowd and this experience can only be perceived.
While at law school you have interned with prominent law firms such as Amarchand Mangaldas, Wadia Ghandy etc. You have also interned with international law firms such as Drew & Napier LLC and Allen & Gledhill. How did you choose these internships? What were your major takeaways? What should students keep in mind while building up their internship experience?
I experimented with most of the internships. For example, in the fourth year of law school, I interned with a corporate law firm and immediately after it interned with a non-profit law and policy institute. In hindsight, I think most of the internships in earlier years of law school were fun. These internships were without pressure of aspiring or converting them to jobs. My internships in the later years of law schools were part of the rat race, which gets onto almost everyone, in the law school. Somehow, as the final year dawns, there is this pressure of getting a placement and one tends to act in that direction, knowingly or unknowingly. However, many of the internship were useful. I think the major take-away was exposure to different working environments and working styles. Like working style in a government regulatory authority is completely different from style in a top-tier law firm which works in an entirely different manner from an international law firm.
My advice to students would be to be open to experiment and intern with different type of places. I guess, being a student is the only opportune time to experience being in different and varied offices.
You have completed your LL.M. from National University of Singapore. How was your experience? You were awarded ‘Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding – Dr. Angela Merkel Scholarship’ to study in Germany. How did you choose Singapore over Germany?
Singapore over Germany was based out of convenience and information. Singapore is closer to home and more convenient in terms of language, food, culture and housing. Plus NUS website has lot of useful information regarding the law school, the teachers and their way of working. Back then, I was not very confident about these things in Germany. Hence, despite having a full scholarship I choose to study at Singapore. However, if I am given that option today, I think I might choose Germany. Leaving a fully paid scholarship doesn’t make much sense and I would probably take spirited decision of being in Germany and also simultaneously work hard to grasp the German language and other things.
Your LL.M. research was on Gambling laws. This was also published with SCC. Why this startling choice of subject?
As part of research competent in my LL.M. year, I decided to write on gambling laws. I did not want to write on the conventional constitutional law topics and therefore thought to do something innovative. I happened to read about gambling laws on internet and probed more about it in the Indian context. I must also say that Singapore has world’s best casinos which helped me to gain some firsthand knowledge on what and how gambling functions. I spoke about it to my guide, Professor Arun Thiruvengadam, who thought this subject has some potential. Gambling laws are very interesting and despite being a huge industry in India much less has been written on it. Later, people at SCC were kind enough to publish it; albeit after some changes.
How was your experience working with an international firm? How did the practise there differ from the practise here? What advice would you give to our readers who are keen on working outside India?
My experience working with an international law firm was wonderful. I think one of the first things that law firm teaches you is professionalism. I learnt the manner in which clients should be addressed, how their problems are to be tackled and level of importance that needs to be given to each and every client. I was lucky to have some amazing bosses and colleagues, from whom I have learnt various professional and personal etiquettes. Having said that, I believe law firms comes with its clutter of office politics. Hence, law firm experience also taught me about dealing with dim-witted colleagues.
My advice to the readers who are keen on working in firms outside India, especially Singapore, would be, to first try and get an internship at the respective firm. This would give exposure to international environment and help in building useful contacts. Also, it is important to check the local bar requirements and conditions or country specific prerequisites for working as a foreigner are. Singapore allows foreign qualified lawyers to work with some restrictions.
Currently, you work as Assistant State Pleader for the State of Gujarat. How is it litigating on behalf of the State? What challenges have you faced while handling this position?
Litigating for the State is completely a different experience. State is the biggest litigant in our country and therefore as a state counsel the work is never ending. On a daily basis, 20 to 30 matters are allotted to each assistant pleader in the High Court. This requires reading the files and being prepared for the Court the next day. The initial days are quite tough. But once you get a nag of things, you know what is more important and learn to prioritize the files. One of the most important things that this position provides is continuous face time in the Court. You argue in Court on daily and continuous basis which helps in improving court craft and arguing skills. As state counsel, you are responsible for drafting petitions, replies, affidavits, applications etc. Hence, the learning is immense and experience is certainly worth treasuring.
Also, the position helps you to learn skilled way of presenting things. Just one bad move from the counsel in the Court could have wide ranging effect on the state policies and state exchequer.
You are currently set to pursue another Masters at the University of Oxford. What is your motivation for pursuing second Masters? What do you think are the career prospects of Public Policy in India?
Like many law students, Oxford/Harvard has always been dream destinations for me. I have been thinking of studying at these places since very long. My primary motivation is to be part of the intellectual environment that brews at Oxford. I believe learning subjects from world authorities and discussing areas of interest with them on daily basis would be a very enriching experience. Hence, when I was offered admission from Oxford, I thought it is an experience worth gaining, even if it requires disturbing my settled and edifying job.
Public policy is one of the growing areas in India. Lot of public policy institutes have mushroomed in India in the last few years. Some of these institutes are doing highly credible job in advising governments. I believe in the near future, corporate in India will also hire policy advisors, as done in many of the western countries.
You have also taught as visiting lecturer at the Gujarat National Law University and at Institute of Law, Nirma University. What are your thoughts on the present legal education system in India?
Like many others, I feel that law teaching in India is highly exam-oriented. Course for each subject is pre-set and teacher is expected to only teach on those lines and ask questions only on what is taught. This does not promote discussions on varied ideas in classroom as teacher is under pressure to complete the course. Students also get used to this system and tend to work only towards what is required from the examination perspective. I believe moving away from this and focusing more on learning rather than examinations would be helpful.
You have to your credit more than 35 odd published works with journals and newspapers. How does one take up writing and what does it take to write for journals such as Queen Mary Journal of law and for newspapers like The Times of India? What learning would you share with students who are keen on writing?
I think there is no particular way of learning how to write. The more one writes, the more one learns. For example, when I today look back at the articles which I wrote in former years of my law, I feel some of them are not great in content and quality. I believe the more I write, the more I improve. For those who are keen on writing, I would say start writing. Some of the articles would be rejected and some publishers may not even respond. However, if one persists, after few articles the quality will get better and the work will get published and appreciated.
You have worked at varied places namely,International law firm, at High Court and has also got an experience in teaching. While most people talk about choosing one path, is there any specific reason behind choosing varied areas to work?
This idea of “one passion” or “find your calling” does not appeal to me. I find that this is what people/society wants us to do. I find many people advising that by the time you graduate from law school, you should know what your “calling” is and work towards this. I am not in much support of this and believe that one person can be multi-passionate and can have more than one calling. I like litigation and along with it, I teach part-time because I like teaching equally. Similarly, I liked my law firm job and was equally passionate about it. For some people, the idea of “one calling” may work and they work towards that. However, for many having more than one calling is way of being and I believe that should be respected and people should chase more than one passion. Emilie Wapnick has made an inspiring Ted Talk on this and I invite everyone to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJORi5VO1F8.
Finally, any message for our readers? Would you be willing to guide some of our readers?
Do all things that you like.
I would be very happy to guide in any possible manner. My Email id is motwanitk@gmail.com.
Shikhar Thukral graduated from Government Law College, Mumbai in 2013. Upon graduation, he joined Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Mumbai as a legal officer, and has stayed in that position since. In 2015, he completed a Professional LL.M programme from the Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California. He has interned in leading law firms such as Crawford Bayley & Co., and Luthra and Luthra Law Offices while pursuing his LLB degree.
In this interview he discusses:
Law as a tool of social change and his motivation for pursuing it
The reason why knowing corporate laws is important even from a social perspective
His experience with pursuing a Professional LL.M
His publication on Section 377 of the IPC.
Tell us a little about why you decided to pursue Law. Has this always been your career plan?
I come from a family of doctors, which would make one presume that the medical profession was my natural calling. However, of my own volition I decided to ‘don a black coat’, as I always believed in law as an agent of social change. I would like to share a story from my school days which I believe is a precursor to my decision of choosing the legal profession. During my 12th standard I was actively taking part in heading the student body and making representations to our Principal for our needs. We came across an instance were some of the school faculty were offering private tuitions to the students. The students who were availing those tuitions had secured good marks in their pre-board terms and other students, though meritorious, were deprived of marks. I personally brought this to the notice of the school management with a detailed written representation, and finally a decision was taken that such tuitions should be stopped. I chose to study law in the hopes that I will be able to represent the community at large for more such social reforms.
You have worked with several top tier firms. How do you think your experience with them has shaped your approach to the profession?
Working with law firms gave me a firsthand knowledge of how to deal with clients in a professional manner. I still leverage that experience in my current role dealing with in-house clients. Moreover, in a law firm environment you cater to different industries whereas working for a company restricts you to a single domain. The law firm paradigm helped me understand that the legal profession is very competitive. However, there is scope for everyone to reach up to a certain level. Beyond that, earning a good reputation chiefly depends on your networking skills with clients.
Have you always been interested in Contract Law and Corporate Law? How did you choose your specialisations?
As I have stated earlier, that my ultimate ambition to pursue law was to necessitate advocacy for social change. However over the years I have learnt that it is also important to know the other side of the story. We often keep hearing that “big oil”, “big tobacco”, and “big bank” companies control the economy of the country. A reform, however laudable its social objectives are, cannot disjoint itself from economic objectives. To accomplish such objectives, it was vital for me to engage my faculties in corporate and commercial laws too. Also, I must candidly admit that as an immigrant in Mumbai, my survival from a fiscal point of view had to be taken care of and the pursuit of noble objectives of socio-economic reforms were not rewarding financially. Hence, my decision to engage in studies of Commercial and Corporate law are attributed to both these reasons. Nevertheless, I have not deterred from my initial ambition. I intend to do more social studies and ultimately work towards achieving social reforms. What I am doing currently is only a stepping stone to what I intend to accomplish later
You presented a paper on Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. What is your stance on the issue as it currently stands?
Now, a great deal depends on the outcome of the curative petitions which are currently pending before the Supreme Court of India on this issue. I have always maintained the stand that a person’s orientation is a basic liberty which should be protected by the contours of fundamental rights in our Constitution. It is quite heartening to see that conservationist groups are also now supporting this position. I was disappointed by the outcome of the efforts undertaken by Shri Shashi Tharoor when his proposal to strike down the provision failed in the Union Legislature. However a new CJI has given us hopes that the LGBT community can survive in the society without any fear of persecution. I must add here that there are some pragmatic limitations on every liberty. I believe in decriminalization but that should not lead to glorification. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins.”
You have worked extensively with Public Sector Undertakings as an in-house-counsel. Can you tell us about your experience with that? What do you think young lawyers aspiring for the same should always keep in mind?
It is indeed a very good environment to work and the work load is fairly manageable. Your innovativeness in providing legal solutions, especially in supply chain/product companies would be greatly rewarded. There is tremendous opportunity to learn and you will also be exposed to important and high stake matters from the very start of your career. I remember giving advice on a 100 Million USD transaction in the first three months of my work. You will also be subjected to soft skill trainings on a regular basis to develop your personality. As an in-house counsel for a Public Sector Undertaking, one must keep in mind that you are discharging a public duty and it is enjoined upon you to be fair and impartial in all your dealings. You will undoubtedly be bound to support the Corporation’s stand, but counsels must be firm in their advice to deter certain practices. It is indeed quite a tough call to make and sometimes your advice will be superseded. I would advice my brethren intending to join a PSU to be accommodating and tolerant in such scenarios. Your passion and devil’s advocacy may be put to test.
As a lawyer, it is very important to be able to negotiate with clients. How do you build the rapport required for that?
I have always felt that a personal connection with the client aides towards that end. Before meetings, I usually research on the participants and I try to engage in informal conversations on their likes and dislikes by relating them with myself. Try to exhibit a personal interest in your clients as it helps in building trust. I must also modestly admit that I have a very good sense of humour and that comes in handy while building connections. Even if someone is sitting across the table in the capacity of an opposite party, there is no harm in making an enquiry into their character, business and whereabouts. You never know they may be your client tomorrow
Tell us a little about your time as a Law Student. How did you prioritise your time?
I must state that I have been a good student, though I spent most of my time as a vagabond in Mumbai. The hostel life caught up to me and I thoroughly enjoyed the same for the first two years. After my pre-law (B.L.S) years, I engaged myself in internships as at that time I thought that in this profession, experience counts more that education. However I never stopped studying and devoted my nights studying the subjects. I also engaged myself as a remedial lecturer in the Government Law College, teaching the pre-law subject Logic to students. I prioritised my time to ensure that my days are devoted towards internships and nights for studies. The weekends were always devoted to leisure.
After pursuing your B.L.S. and then LL.B from Government Law College, Mumbai, you went on to obtain a professional LL.M. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. Tell us a little about the application process, and how you got in.
The application process was indeed a harrowing experience as a lot of things had to be arranged over a short period of time. Apart from the application form, you needed a Statement of Purpose, Reference Letters (academic and professional), transcripts, college degrees etc. At the same time I was also working in my current role and so was overwhelmed initially. However when my Corporation supported me to pursue this, I left no stone unturned to ensure that I got through. I was chiefly selected on my academic performance and my SOP for which I was also awarded a tuition fees scholarship. I would recommend that readers aspiring to join the University do their research on the programme as this is a programme split over two summers and is meant for working professionals. The readers may please refer to llbguide.com to know more about the programme and make an informed decision. The application process is clearly explained on lsac.com and the applications can be made from there.
In your opinion, how exactly did an LL.M. from abroad benefit you? What was your thought process in deciding to go abroad?
Doing an LL.M. from any foreign University completely changes your perception of studies as compared to India. Speaking from my experience at Berkeley, I must say that the manner of education abroad is far superior. An LL.M. from a foreign University indeed helped me in my current role as I am regularly applying the knowledge gained therewith to my current work-profile. Moreover, it increases your marketability in India and abroad as a candidate for jobs, though not initially but after achieving 3-5 years PQE. Also, the connections that you make there will benefit you and your organization greatly. Today I can safely say that I am in touch with a lawyer in every major city in the world and my Corporation is also availing their facilities. I chiefly intended to go abroad to experience a full-fledged University style of learning. As I mentioned earlier, I did not attend much of my college in Mumbai as I was busy in internships. Coupled with the scholarship, it was a win-win situation and I was able to gain a firsthand experience of learning in one of the most prestigious law colleges in the world.
For other aspiring students with their sights set on foreign universities, what do you think is essential for them to keep in mind?
Foreign Universities are meant to impart learning and should not be viewed as an investment to secure better job prospects. There are many benefits you can gain from foreign Universities. One should experience learning in such an environment to assess where they stand as compared to the world. I understand it is a time consuming and costly endeavour, however for students who really wish to understand law from an international perspective must pursue such opportunities. One must also keep in mind that the experience itself will change how you think about the legal profession.
The progression of your career seems to be a constant upward slope. How did you plan it? Did you have a set plan from day one?
You are very kind to have made such an observation. I must admit that I never planned how all pieces will fall into place, but yes I had a broad plan in mind from day one. Like I said earlier, my ultimate ambition is fixed and I am working in a phased manner to achieve that objective till date. It involves both learning and working simultaneously. I am still in the nascent stages of my career and I hope that I continue on the path of achieving my dream. What is important to set your eyes on an objective and pursue the same diligently.
What do you think are the key elements to focus on with regards to planning one’s career?
The elements will keep on changing with passage of time. First and foremost comes your education which will give you merit to enter into your career. Selecting the right educational path will determine where you land up ultimately. The second is your working. One must decide whether they wish to work for someone or work for oneself. In practical terms for our profession the same translates to working for a law firm/company or working as a practicing advocate. Self-assessment is very important to decide on the two aspects and making the correct choice. In working, the most important element especially for the legal profession is sincerity. In this profession a lot comes from experience and one can only accomplish the same through sincerity.
What message would you like to give our young readers?
Experience everything that life has to offer you. The good, the bad and the ugly. Keep an open mind always.
I would also like to express my sincerest thanks to Super Lawyer for considering me for this interview and I wish them and their readers immense success in all their ventures. It is really encouraging to see profiles of so many people from our profession and learn from the same. Keep up the good work.
Ojasvita Srivastava graduated from V. M. Salgaocar College of Law, Goa University (2005-2010). She is a qualified lawyer and an experienced in-house counsel with experience in litigation, arbitration and corporate compliance. She is presently a Senior Manager in the Legal department at Reliance Communications where she deals with Telecom Litigation.
She pursued an LL.M in Commercial and Corporate Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, where she served as the Communication and Media Coordinator of her specialisation- Commercial and Corporate Law.
Ojasvita was also the Co-Founder and Chief Editor of the ‘The Sophists’, Queen Mary Law and Business Journal, which publishes articles on Law, Business and Politics. She contributes articles on Indian economy and legal developments to this journal. She also edits and contributes articles to the monthly Postgraduate Newsletter of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, London.
In this interview she talks to us about:
Challenges associated with being an in-house counsel.
Project Abhimanyu – providing free guidance to law students who do not come from a law background.
Services provided under the project “Abhimanyu”.
Skills and qualities that helped her achieving the current position.
How would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
I work as a Senior Manager in the Legal and Regulatory Department at Reliance Communications in New Delhi. I handle cases related to telecom, broadcasting and infrastructure disputes before the Supreme Court, various High Courts, the Telecom Tribunal (TDSAT) and various arbitrators, while occasionally getting involved in M&A work and contract vetting. I have a keen interest in litigation and have previously practiced before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, and various District courts in Delhi.
What made you choose the legal profession as your career option?
Pursuing law as a career was a last minute decision. I was a student of the Science stream till class XII. Like the rest of my class, I too wrote the AIEEE and did well. I had a state ranking of 37 in Engineering and 7 in Architecture. However, I disliked Chemistry and didn’t want to read a word of it ever again in my life. As I was trying to figure out what to do with my career, I met my mentor, Adv. Vilas P. Thali. He is the former Additional Advocate General of Goa and is a specialist in election laws. After meeting him I was inspired to pursue law. I wrote the entrance exam for V. M. Salgaocar College of Law on 14th June, 2005 and joined his office as an intern on 15th June, 2005. I interned there for more than 3 years spending close to 6 hours a day in his office and visiting courts, meeting clients as well as attending sessions of briefing senior counsels (even though I was just a 12th pass student). I topped the entrance exam at my college and continued to perform well. As a result, I was awarded the merit scholarship throughout my LLB course and paid nothing in tuition fee! Although the joy of saving money was more than offset; thanks to my LLM at Queen Mary, University at London.
As I am a first generation lawyer, my family was not in favour of me pursuing law as a career. However, I convinced them otherwise and became the only girl in my entire batch at school to join law.
What were your objectives and plans in the preliminary years of law school?
Right from the first year, I had a deep interest in litigation and I had a clear mind that I wanted to make a career in this field. Therefore, in my initial years at law school, I aimed at participating in as many moot courts as possible and gave every moot court my best. I won the best lady advocate at a national level moot court competition and the best memorial award at an international moot court, while doing fairly well in all moot courts that I participated in. My mooting experience not only helped me hone my research and oratory skills but more importantly helped me develop a keen attention to detail, which is absolutely essential to win any case.
Besides this, I interned throughout the first three years of the course; part time when the college was in session and full time during vacations. As my college timings were from noon to half past five in the evening, I could easily dedicate three hours in the morning and in the evening. During the morning sessions, I usually attended proceedings at the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court or the District Court, where I gained practical experience in court skills and procedure. Evenings were usually dedicated to practising legal research, drafting and attending client meetings. Often students learn these essential skills only after passing out of law school. So I am very grateful to my mentor for hand holding me and making sure that I learnt these skills while still at college.
What are the challenges associated with being an in-house counsel? How do you handle them?
There are in-house counsels specialising in various areas of legal practice. I will only talk about the challenges faced by in-house counsels working in the dispute resolution field.
As an in-house counsel specialising in dispute resolution, the volume of work is more though the in-depth involvement in legal research is limited. Also, one is involved right from the pre-litigation stage of litigation-avoidance correspondence till the execution of the decree, including serving notices, drafting, vetting and settling petitions, briefing senior counsels, attending arguments and then following up for the execution of decrees. During this process, one also needs to keep the management of the company informed about the on-going proceedings almost like the eyes and ears of the management in the court (AKA Sanjay from the Mahabharata).
The challenge revolves around balancing the volume of work. As an in-house counsel, I have been assigned more than 65 cases. My colleagues, who are senior to me, handle even more cases than me. Thus the responsibility is to keep a tab of all your cases in all the courts across the country and to make sure that the interests of the company are effectively secured. Further, as an in-house counsel, one also needs to understand the technicalities of a case well enough to be able to explain them as her own case. Thus I, for example, have to understand complex science revolving around telecom engineering to be able to explain it to the external counsels on behalf of the company.
Tell us something about “Project Abhimanyu”.
‘Project Abhimanyu’ is a pro bono and voluntary initiative that I recently started. It aims at increasing access to career opportunities in the legal industry by providing free guidance and career counselling to law students who do not come from a law background.
It endeavours to increase awareness about career options available in the legal profession to students. It works assiduously with students from colleges that do not have a fully functional placement cell and also assists and contributes to the existing services available at academic and professional institutions that are working towards guiding students. It does so by sharing knowledge and seeking guidance from highly trained and experienced professionals in the legal industry who are willing to voluntarily mentor students in their free time. In the long run, Project Abhimanyu will work towards enriching the talent pool available to the legal profession.
Why have you named it Project ‘Abhimanyu’?
Abhimanyu was Arjun’s son from the Mahabharata. On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, he successfully intercepted the Chakravyuh formation created by the Kaurava army, and saved the Pandavas from imminent defeat. What is particularly interesting about this episode though is that Abhimanyu obtained this knowledge of penetrating a Charavyuh formation as a foetus in his mother’s womb. Thus Abhimanyu was born with the knowledge of how to penetrate a Chakravyuh.
The legal industry is like a Chakravyuh, complex and vast. It would be Project Abhimanyu’s endeavour that, just like Abhimanyu, law students graduating from various colleges must learn to successfully navigate the legal industry. They should be able to make informed career decisions and achieve success proportionate to their calibre and hard work; and they should never get left behind because of a lack of guidance.
Why inspired you to start this initiative?
To answer this question, I would first like to give a little context. I graduated in law from V. M. Salgaocar College of Law, Goa in 2010 and later acquired an LLM in Commercial and Corporate Law from Queen Mary, University of London in 2014. In the intermittent period, I worked at a multinational French Pharma company in Mumbai and later practised at the Supreme Court, Delhi High Court and District courts in Delhi, while simultaneously writing the civil services examination. In 2013, I appeared for the interview round of the civil services examination; however, I missed by a narrow margin and thereafter decided to continue my career in law.
All along this journey, I had little guidance in terms of how to go about making my career in law. As a result, my career grew more in a trial and error fashion. Thankfully, I have reached a comfortable place now, and therefore I want to help other students who are in a similar position.
Law is a difficult profession not only because it is a complex industry but also because it requires one to really slog to climb up. That said, it becomes all the more difficult when you are a first generation lawyer. The idea behind Project Abhimanyu is to guide first generation law students so that they get a better shot at making a smooth transition from being a law student to becoming a lawyer. Over the past few years, I have been guiding students studying in various colleges in Delhi, Noida, Lucknow, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Patna, Mumbai and Goa. But there are still a lot of students who need guidance and this is what got me motivated to start this platform to reach out to more students across the country.
How difficult was it for you to connect and convince different lawyers to register on this project?
It wasn’t difficult at all. Everyone I approached has been very receptive and appreciative of Project Abhimanyu. We have the GCs of MNCs, law firm partners and highly successful litigators on board as Mentors at Project Abhimanyu. In fact, most Mentors at Project Abhimanyu had already been guiding and mentoring students. Project Abhimanyu is only providing them a platform to reach out to more students from across the country. I am very grateful to everyone who has joined this initiative and is sparing time from their busy schedules to help the future generation of lawyers.
What kind of services do you provide under this project?
Students can write in to ask any query related to the legal career. These could be about improving their CV, internship applications, job applications, career guidance, civil services examination, higher education abroad, CA/CS courses, working in-house or any other information related to law. They simply need to drop an email to project.abhimanyu@gmail.com and they would be assigned to a mentor who would answer their queries.
Where do you see this project five years from now?
In five years, I want Project Abhimanyu to be a self–sustained, fully automated system. We are working towards building a network of lawyers specialising in different areas of law who are voluntarily willing to guide students. Eventually I want Project Abhimanyu to develop into a platform where any law student from any corner of the country could just go to our website, choose a Mentor in a particular field of law from an entire range of specialists and write a message that would directly be received by the Mentor and answered by her/ him. We are also working towards compiling and publishing the advice given by the Mentors for the benefit of other students. I want the advice to be free and fair and therefore, Project Abhimanyu shall always remain a pro bono, voluntary and a not-for-profit organisation.
What skills and qualities do you think have helped you achieve your current position?
I think hard work, attention to detail and a passion for reading are essential qualities for anyone aspiring to make a career in litigation. Besides that, the training I received from my mentor and the guidance of my teachers has helped me tremendously. I will be failing in my duty if I forget to mention the complete liberty and unflinching support given to me by mother in shaping my career.
What would be your advice to our readers?
An ex-President at Reliance, whom I respect like a father, once passed a remark that struck the very core of my conscience. He told me that ‘your profession (the legal profession) is rather feudal’. What he was inferring was that it is easier for people from a law background to excel in this industry.
Project Abhimanyu is trying to break free from this notion about the legal industry in India. I would advise every student reading this article to take full benefit of Project Abhimanyu. It is an opportunity for everyone to get a fair shot at law and to make informed career decisions. I would also request every legal professional reading this article to join Project Abhimanyu and help the future generation of lawyers in our country become more productive and efficient.
Aditya Bhandari graduated from the Institute of Law, Nirma University in the year 2014. His wisely chosen internships coupled with his interest and market scenario led him to grab a job at Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited which is a part of Reliance Industries Group. He is certainly an inspiration to young corporate law aspirants as he explains in this interview that internships play a vital role in shaping one’s career by exposing one to confront the challenges of practical aspects of that career and are as imperative as an Educational Institution itself. In this interview he tells us about:
His satisfactory working experience as an Assistant Manager in the Legal – Litigation team of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
His strategy of choosing internships and thereby substantially enriching his practical knowledge.
How to choose a career stream and get successful regardless of the so-called NLU tag.
Please share with us about your life journey so far and graduating from the Law School of Nirma University.
I am currently working as an Assistant Manager in the Legal – Litigation team of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (part of Reliance Industries Group). I have graduated from Institute of Law, Nirma Univeristy (ILNU) in the year 2014. Growing up in Jodhpur (Rajasthan), I was always inclined towards the world of accountancy and since then I made my mind to study Financial Subjects and be a professional Chartered Accountant. However in my school days, I was expressive and had my own opinions about every aspect which was particularly not liked by my teachers (Though I enjoyed it). It was then when I realised that it is a quality of being assertive and argumentative which I could use in the other facets of my life. Though the act of argument leads a student into trouble when he does that with his teacher, or a child when he does that with his parents, but when the same is done by an advocate for his client, with all rigour and vehemence, it takes him to the pinnacle of the profession and that’s what makes one a good and great lawyer. Thus, my journey of being an advocate started from that very moment, and my instinct of being argumentative brought me to Institute of Law, Nirma University where my skills were honed and nurtured to the optimum.
Why did you choose corporate law as your specialization course and how do you feel a confused law postulant should manoeuvre his/her area of study for a successful career thereafter?
India, the largest and the youngest economy of the world had open its gate for the MNCs in the year 1991 when Dr. Manmohan Singh, the then Finance Minister of India put forth the LPG in the House. Since then India has become a hub for MNCs and it was then the corporate law came into prominence.
During my internships, I had an opportunity to intern under the ages of Corporate Stalwarts. It was then when I realised that I wish to dip in the ocean of Corporate law as I could figure out it had immense career opportunities in the coming time. Thus the impact and the nature of work I had done during my internships helped me choosing Corporate Law as my specialization course. As far as the second part of the question goes, in my opinion it relates back to classroom studies, internships coupled with the interest and market scenario. But one should understand that nothing comes easy in life so the choice of subject should be realistic and not driven by others. In the end, it’s the student who is the George and he should be able to ascertain which avenue is going to be fruitful for his or her life in terms of intellectual and financial outcome. Something which is opted or chosen by an individual on the basis of his/her instincts and interest will, in my opinion, would not lead to any confusion.
How do you think the curriculum including specially the internships proved to be an indispensible factor in enhancing your knowledge about the practical intricacies of the field of law?
The purpose and object of internships, which in my opinion is a great boon to the 5 year law students, is to acclimatise an upcoming advocate to the realities and pragmatic aspects of the profession, and to understand the difference between academics and the applicability of academics in the real world of law. It just works as pilot training process for the law students before they step into the real world of law. My internships were very fruitful in terms of exposure, amount of work and working for different areas of law. I did my internships with some reputed law firms and few corporate houses like Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe Limited, DSK Legal, Economic Law Practices and Reliance Industries Limited etc.
My internship with Reliance Industries Limited was timed perfectly when I was in seventh semester of my 5 years law course where I had an opportunity to assist the legal eagles of India, It was a surreal experience seeing your mentors arguing in front of your own eyes for your own matters with your own assistance. This triggered my focus on corporate law and working for a corporate house and that’s where today I am.
I must say, CHOOSE YOUR INTERNSHIPS WISELY!
Please share with us your working experience until you decided to settle with Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Reliance Industries Limited Group) and how did it help in edifying your career?
It has been a year since I joined Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. I have previously worked with Thomson Reuters (TR) where my profile as an Associate in Corporate & Compliance Department was majorly related to Contract Review, Research and Drafting of Agreements. Work at TR offered me great intellectual freedom wherein I got several opportunities to handle projects solely and interact with the top managerial officers of TR’s leading clients globally (Multinational Financial Services Holding Companies International Law Firms).
During my work at TR, I was awarded as the best employee of the month which motivated me to keep up with my hard work. It helped me in enhancing my way of working in a corporate culture.
Please tell our readers about your current working experience at the Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited in Mumbai and other prospects of your career ahead.
Working with a corporate giant which is second to none in the country is itself a matter of pride and satisfaction. You are not only working with the best of the professionals in the country but also you become a part of the system and mechanism which has been adopted by the company to continue to be at the top. Even the Fortune Global has recognized RIL as No.1 Indian Company by profit, which itself gives immense satisfaction to me as I am a part of the same. Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) is a company which provides telecommunication services having the largest infrastructure base.
Talking about my profile here at RJIL as an Assistant Manager in Legal Department entails various responsibilities coupled with authority as well. I am taking care of Legal issues faced by the company ranging from big time arbitrations and the pettiest litigation matters. In my brief stint at RJIL, I have been fortunate enough to work with a dedicated team of intellectuals working in different fields such as Construction, Finance, Technical, and Marketing & Business Team. Being an advocate helps me to help the other teams with day to day operational issues faced by them. Also it is important to mention that since the company is in its project phase, we at the legal team work as a catalyst in the process of development of the project and bring it to the operational stage which in itself would bring a revolutionary change in the Telecom industry. The present project I am working on is a state of the art project relating to lightning fast internet services (4G) to be provided to the customers at an affordable price making the concept of Digital India a reality.
What challenges have you faced during all these years of working and how it affected your career?
Challenges are an integral part of any profession, personally for me, challenges make me strive hard. It makes me work with more proficiency. Talking about my challenges at work, the transition is initially difficult when you have to manage the different teams and have to bring them on a common platform. Every Human being is different in his own sense and dealing with them is a challenge in itself presently I am working in a manner where I have to deal with all the facets of the company be it Technical or Mechanical. One must never doubt his abilities as doubts have killed more dreams then the failure has and hence each and every challenge should be treated as a lesson and to come out winning from those challenges takes a lot of hard work and perseverance.
Someone has rightly said that the biggest room in the world is a room for improvement and challenges channels your energy to improve yourself. I have always kept faith in my abilities and this is how I tackle challenges and convert them into opportunities.
What would you like to explain to those aspirants who have been sceptical about working with a corporate entity and look at it as mere 9 to 6 desk job without any independence or additional learning?
Profession of law is much more and over and above the word ‘job’. In my opinion any person who takes the profession of law merely as a job is not befitting for this profession. Further this is one such profession wherein one should inculcate the habit of leaving the watch behind and to work in the manner of 24*7.
The only role a watch plays in a lawyer’s life is to show how prosperous a lawyer is and the more prosperous lawyer the more the working hours.
The main distinction between a job and a profession is that of addition and multiplication. In a job, the emoluments as well as the quantum of work keeps on adding with every passing day. Whereas in a profession, it though remains stagnant for a particular gestation period but thereafter it multiplies and then sky is the limit.
What would you like to tell to our young law aspirants when it comes to pursuing specialization in corporate law and following the career ahead in that stream?
There should be a consensus of heart and mind when it comes to choosing any particular stream. If one is zealous and ready to toil hard in whatever field he chooses, he is bound to succeed irrespective of the stream he chooses. I would not deviate from the fact that the specialisation course keeps you focused and gives you an insight of the nitty-gritties of that particular stream.
With regard to the corporate law, I would like to reiterate that there are immense possibilities, opportunities for young lawyers who are willing to work hard but not otherwise. It’s not a fancy job but requires lot of intellect and zeal and a go-getter attitude. So if you think you have these traits, corporate law is for you.
Do you feel that not having the so called tag of an NLU ever proved to be a hindrance in your professional career?
A lawyer is not bound or curtailed by any tags or nomenclature. I would not completely rule out the fact that the better the tag, the better the chances for an initial opening. However the profession of advocacy is a synonym of art of convincing, with the blessings of god and my elders, I never had to face any such difficulty and rather I would state that the tag of NLS proved to be an asset to me.
In the end, what would you like to communicate to our readers?
There is no mantra for success but for continuous hard work. One must choose the correct path in a correct way. This is for my reader friends to understand that you have chosen the career which is full of opportunities and learning. All it requires is hard work and fun when you are at it.
It is very important for legal professionals or students to understand that Litigation or Corporate law are not the only options for their future career. Knowledge and dedication can take you to a level of sky high.
Sagarika graduated from NLU-Jodhpur in 2008 and from the Indian School of Business in 2012 with a Master of Business Administration, Strategy and Marketing degree. She is at present the CEO of Indus IntelliRisk and IntelliSense Services Pvt. Ltd. (“IIRIS”). She has several academic papers and publications to her credit and internships with reputed corporate houses and organizations such as Amarchand Mangaldas Suresh A. Shroff and Co. and ISRO, Bangalore. In this interview she talks to us about:
Activity-oriented law school days at National Law University, Jodhpur.
Her views on the CLAT, mooting in law schooland internships
Her transformation from a corporate lawyer to a risk management expert, leader and manager.
Working at IIRIS and career opportunities there for law graduates.
Her views on management of Non-Performing Assets in the Indian banking industry.
Publishing– books, papers and the history behind her affinity for writing.
Please tell our readers about how your interests gravitated towards law.
I come from a family of engineers, so a degree in law was never considered to be the first preference. However, call it genes (my maternal grandfather was a lawyer) or just the urge to break the monotony – I wanted to become a lawyer ever since I was 12. The fact that I could make a difference with my intellect, my reasoning and help build a change allured to me more than building machines I guess.
How would you describe your time at National Law University, Jodhpur? What all activities did you participate in?
When I graduated from NLU, I recollect that we had to describe the campus in one word amongst a friendly meet up. I referred to it as my “transmorgifier” (reference : Calvin & Hobbes) – for it made me believe in things I otherwise thought I could never achieve and unlike my counterparts outside campus, I knew what I wanted to do and where my passion lay.
I have always been an over ambitious, go getter, who believes in making full use of her time anywhere. So NLU saw me being an active mooter (proud to mention that my team mate and I won the first national trophy in any competition in the history of NLU), active debater, participator in all social activities, legal aid camps and yes being at the helm of affairs of the “Editorial Committee”.
You went to an NLU at a time when CLAT hadn’t started and every law school conducted its own entrance exam. What are your views on the shift to a common law entrance exam?
Well if you ask the prudent me – I think it was implementation of a much needed concept. It helped break the barrier amongst a lot of law schools. However, in the shoes of a prospective student, I would still prefer the old system. Somewhere, it gave us more chances. Now, have one bad day on the CLAT day and you can kiss your National Law University dreams good bye – life gave us second chances in the absence of CLAT to be a part of another campus.
From ISRO, Bangalore to AMSS, you have done versatile internships during your time at law school. How did you go about deciding where to apply? In retrospect, how beneficial were these internships for you?
As I said earlier, unfortunately (or fortunately) I have always been a person who knows what she wants from life and therefore it helps in my planning. Every internship therefore was a well thought of affair. I was representing India for the Manfred Lachs Moot in Sydney, and I saw the ISRO internship to be the perfect opportunity to gain technical knowledge. Call it my good fortune or a lucky stroke, I was involved in the research of Chandrayaan during my tenure there and it gave me tremendous exposure to policy making and international law – an experience I shall always cherish.
Similarly, Kingfisher was my preferred choice, because at that time they were involved in the huge debate of whether the aircrafts being procured should be “leased” or “mortgaged” – a coveted debate in those days. So I was very lucky to be a part of their legal team during my internship there.
As for the law firms – well it is an eternal struggle for a law student to identify where their interest lies, in corporate houses or in law firms. So guess, I used that opportunity to understand why law firms are not for me and why I am more interested in business houses.
Do you think moot courts and client counselling competitions add to a law student’s experience? How much importance did you give to these activities while at law school?
Ha ha, I was a moot court (or any competition) junkie. During my school days I was a national level debater, so moot courts always appealed to me. They helped me oodles in gaining confidence, providing exposure, understanding the importance of networking and yes in helping find a few best friends for life! I cherish each of my experiences of participation in law school – the memorials helped me draft better and emerge as a coherent thinker and writer, the debates helped me sharpen my analytical skills and emerge as a better professional.
From a corporate lawyer you have gradually turned into a risk management expert. How did this interest develop? How do you come up with risk mitigation strategies for a client?
Though a corporate lawyer, I always wanted to also explore the other side of business. For me, the real thrill lay in not only executing a task but being in charge of end to end dealings of an assignment. Unfortunately, as a lawyer that visibility spectrum was not complete. I had always wanted to do an MBA, but was sure of only applying to a geography where I saw myself working – hence India was the only option. Further, I was clear that I wanted to go into the risk mitigation (physical security and corporate investigations) space – unfortunately there are no such dedicated courses in India. ISB being renowned for its strategy courses was my best bet thus!
In my current role, there are no fixed formulae for drawing up mitigation strategies for a client – it all depends on the client need. The same can range from providing an advisory for a potential investment or to providing him with executive protection in order to protect his life and assets. It is just as broad and crazy, as it is fun!
What is your day like as the CEO of IIRIS? What are your roles and responsibilities?
It is a melange of running around, fitting in all meals during drives from one client location to another and brainstorming through the day about cracking hard core white collar crimes. There is one thing that is never there but – a moment of dullness. That is why I guess, it never feels like a job. This profession is my passion and though it also pays my bills, I cherish it to the extent that I solve investigations in my dreams and quite often wake up to scribble a strategy that I thought of in my sleep, lest I forget in the morning.
I am a part of a start up, therefore as a CEO there are no roles per se. Right from licking envelopes to executing confidential assignments – everything is my domain and I love to be a part of it.
How did you transform from a corporate lawyer into a leader and manager? What strategies do you undertake to keep employees happy and efficient?
(In the last one year itself Sagarika has trained over 500 bank officers in areas of Due Diligence and NPA Early Warning tracking. At the same time, she also managed employees and experts at IIRIS.)
If NLU was my “transmorgifier” that helped me believe that I could be whatever I want, ISB was my “metamorphosis cocoon” that helped me change. The ability to multi task, to think and deliver coherently and all together is the best trait that ISB passed on to me during my tenure there. I don’t know how I do it, but I guess when you are passionate about something, your levels of adrenalin are very high and you are in a different zone altogether, where things just get done.
Ha ha, I am quite a tough boss and trust me I go by the philosophy that I cannot make everyone happy, but instead I should try for providing an environment where there is job satisfaction and growth. I am a perfectionist and therefore I am known to push my team, but at the same time I shall only push when I know that I can take over and deliver so that under no circumstances does my team feel that they are being challenged without being provided support or a fall back option. The other philosophy that I have learnt from my mentor (who is also our MD at IIRIS) is that let people discover what they want to do and support their growth – thus we have no JDs at IIRIS – every employee is allowed to discover where their strengths and interests lie during the 6 months of probation and then pursue that.
Does IIRIS take interns from law schools? What is the procedure to apply?
IIRIS is open to internships / recruitment from every scholarly and education field – for we believe that it is your passion and not your degree that helps you shine in the risk mitigation domain. Of course, being a lawyer there is an added advantage (I say this from personal experience) – the analytical abilities and the power to interpret is much higher and therefore we always welcome lawyers to be a part of the team.
All job openings / opportunities are available on the “Careers” page of our website (www.iirisconsulting.com) along with the procedure to apply – just shoot a mail with your interest and the HR shall take care of the rest.
The Govt. of India has been facing the problem of excessive accumulation of gold in households which blocks a lot of potential currency flow and causes hurdles. What is your take on this issue? Do you think successive Govt. policies have been able to solve the problem to some extent?
BFSI is one of my preferred domains and I invest myself a lot in such investigations / risk advisory exercises. It is indeed a challenge that the country is facing, however we also have to acknowledge that India is one of the few countries who are accepting NPAs as a problem, instead a lot of the foreign counterparts who are either under reporting the same or changing definitions to lower such reporting. There are enough policies I feel, the regulators have been prudent enough to provide adequate guidelines – the problem however, lies in awareness and learning the importance of stringent implementation of such policies. The change is needed in the mindset and working methodologies and inwaking up to tackle the problem by the horns through differential risk mitigation approaches – but I am glad to say that things are changing and there’s indeed optimism in the air.
You have several published papers to your name. How difficult was it to write your first published paper? Please share your experience.
This question, actually made me stop and recall my first published research paper and at the risk of sounding conceited, it did take me a while. I give it to my professor Lt. Vedantam Shashtri (NLU, Jodhpur) to have inspired me to pick up the pen and indulge in research. It was a project done for his class that inspired me to take up a working paper along with him. From a tiny mention as a “researcher” to being the “leading author” (and he agreeing on the co-author tag) – I guess somewhere he inspired me to believe that policy making and research was something that came naturally to me. I write as an extension of the dream that drove me to be a lawyer – to bring about change. I know I shall stagnate if I don’t brainstorm and indulge in research – so I guess I am not very different from those who do it to beautify their bios – we all have our own selfish reasons, as long as we are at peace with our reasons for doing it.
How do you find the time to write papers and books despite your busy schedule?
I never chose the pen, the pen chose me. Coming from a Bengali family, intellectual growth was promoted right since childhood. Everyone in my family has picked up the pen for academic or other reasons, so I guess right since childhood I have expressed better through printed / written words. Further, my grandmother made me realise that the greatest power is immortality and words never die. I write in my head, throughout the day and thus, by the time I sit down to write the next chapter of my upcoming book or finish a research paper for a financial institution – there is no additional work that I am doing. I am merely penning down a dictation that my mind is narrating. It comes just as naturally to me.
What is your message to our readers?
Never let people tell you what you can do. Instead understand what they think you cannot do and challenge yourself. Know your passion and no matter how deviant, pursue it. Respect your body, there’s little you can do without it being in the prime condition. Love what you do, strive to be an expert so that when you speak the world knows that you are not there to hog the limelight but that you mean business. Lastly, in your own little way, try to retire to bed with the satisfaction that you have given back to the country that gave you your biggest identity – the nationality / citizenship!
Mirza Saaib Beg graduated from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad in 2013. He has been a teaching assistant and guest lecturer as well as worked under the guidance of several permanent judges of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and has contributed to legislation and policy development. He currently works with the Legal Affairs Department of SEBI. He also undertakes the Cause Cyclothon in order to raise funds to assist the pursuit of education.
In this interview, he talks to us about-:
The influences and the background that prompted the pursuit of law and the experience of a law school life including internships, moots and learning experiences.
The nature of work at the Legal Affairs Department at SEBI.
The idea, journey and vision for Cause Cyclothon.
What drove you to choosing law as a career? Would you say that your choice of Law as a profession was influenced by any particular incident in your life?
‘Why law?’ seems to be a question that comes up more often in our line of work as opposed to other professions. It is almost as if people are surprised that you being a seemingly healthy and sensible individual would consent to subjecting yourself to this predicament (laughs).Arriving at your true calling in life is an intricate process of personal discovery and there are many factors that lead to my decision but there is one factor that I can narrow down as an important catalyst-Due to the increasing turmoil, I was forced to leave my home, Kashmir, when militancy erupted in the early 1990s because the sheer scale of violence made Kashmir too vulnerable. What followed in the years to come in Kashmir was far too difficult to endure as a people and as a society, and the cicatrices left are not going away anytime soon. In pursuit of a stable education, most of my initial life, I had to live away from my parents and my home, but I am glad that my family always instilled in me a deep sense of ‘belonging to my homeland’. My father, whenever we met, ensured that I learnt the Kashmiri language, by entertaining me with Kashmiri folk tales replete with polite Kashmiri expletives, much to the chagrin of my mother. About a decade later, when the situation back home improved relatively, I resumed studies in Kashmir and spent my formative years there.
It was only then that I could comprehend how decades of political turmoil had caused a mutation in the minds of people. There was an almost irreparable erosion of the legitimacy of rule of law and it felt as if the basic building blocks of a peaceful, modern and conscientious society had been thoroughly ransacked. This experience deeply affected me and over time I came to realise that I would not be satisfied with my professional existence unless it had some relevance to economic and legal development in Kashmir, either by way of financial assistance from my side or by directly getting involved in economic legislation and social policy issues to further the interests of the place. It is in this backdrop that the choice of law as a career was a well-considered decision.
Kashmir was, and continues to be, in need of a catharsis on many fronts and I decided to study law with the objective of eventually using my education and resources to play a role in this inevitable purgative exercise. To my mind, a training in law was most appropriate to prepare me for the challenges that lay ahead –a fear of uncertainties, the hope of order, triumph and a constant process of discovery of ways to mend the economic and socio-legal fabric of Kashmir’s society- all this had left me in deep thrall and I decided that I would have the best of tools to address the challenge. Over the years, having met many Kashmiris living away from home due to the economic and political situation there, I have observed that the desire to do ‘something’ for Kashmir is a feeling that is not alien to any Kashmiri and it is a point of poignant meditation that we are all connected by our pain.
How was life at NALSAR, one of the premier universities of the country? How significant was your alma mater’s role in influencing a change in your personality, if any?
Any answer that I can give about life at Nalsar bespeaks immense pride but I make this declaration to ensure that my casual sarcasm isn’t misunderstood to be criticism. When I came to know that I had made it to Nalsar, I was quite excited and in a moment of naiveté I toured the empty university campus, a full month before classes were scheduled to begin and it all looked so timeless, eclectic and enduring that I felt a majestic fulfilment at the realisation that I would soon be allied with this ennobled place. While all these feelings most definitely stemmed from, and were exaggerated by, the aforementioned naiveté but even till my last day at Nalsar I never had any qualms about being on campus when it was empty. In fact, I often looked forward to it.
Before joining a premier law school, most law students are mistakenly lead to believe that life there is something on the lines of the movie and/or book ‘The Paper Chase’. If you have reposed your faith in the hands of a movie then it serves you right to be crippled with fear at the prospect of joining a place that is fuelled by insanity and cut-throat competition. To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge and a good law school comes fully equipped with good seniors and teachers who will be relentless in their attempts to instil this knowledge in you, through ‘intro-moots’ or ‘positive interaction’ as well as some help from Socrates and his many methods. So, if you enjoy the prospect of spending half a decade mired amidst polemics, paranoia and intense competition, then a top tier law school is the place for you (laughs).
All sarcasm aside, half a decade at Nalsar has had an extraordinary impact on my growth and enrichment and I am glad to be among the inheritors of its traditions. My batch was an intellectual melee of sorts and there has rarely been a moment when I was not positively intoxicated by the kind of depth and insight that this group could display. No matter what yardstick or criteria were employed, this bunch of phenomenally talented people had been jumping hurdles all their lives, impressing all around them, leading, succeeding, achieving and here they were for me to learn from them for half a decade of my life. We all learnt so much from each other, and collectively enjoyed so many common bitter and sweet memories, that sometimes I wonder whether the perceptions of life that we fashioned over that half decade were just a patchwork of thoughts that we all borrowed from one another.
You have an extensive mooting record, both nationally and internationally. How do you feel that our readers can become better mooters?
(Saaib was the winner and best speaker at the Bar Council of India Moot and also emerged as winner and best speaker at R. U. Singh Memorial National Moot in addition to participating with great success in IICLAM, Surana & Surana Trial Advocacy, and the Frankfurt Investment Arbitration moot. He was also the recipient of Bar Council of India Trust Scholarship.)
If you want to be a good mooter, then you must appreciate that mooting is not just about theatrics and paroxysms but it is about identifying an argument that is viable and practicable in the real world, in addition to being sound in law. You also need to have a brilliant level of understanding with your team because the intense pressure and competition will take its toll on all of you. It is ironic that I remember my mooting experience with such fondness despite the utter chaos that always surrounded them. I attribute this fondness to all those wonderful people who were my team mates at different points of time. The Bar Council of India moot has always been a difficult moot to tackle due to the changing format of the problem and the expanse of law that one has to get acquainted with before the problem is even released. My team comprised of Vishwajith Sadanadna and Shrishail Navalgund, who are currently practicing in Delhi and Bangalore respectively. Our team won the moot and I was awarded the best speaker, but both of these achievements couldn’t have been possible without timely contribution and patience on the part of my team. We began our preparation for the moot about 7 months before the problem released, and we researched on various areas of law that we anticipated could be connected to the problem. One area of law that we had left out was arbitration law, since the moot had never been an arbitration moot. However when the problem was released, it was based on a challenge to a foreign arbitral award. So it wasn’t quite an arbitration moot but it concerned arbitration law and we were hard pressed for time as we had to study an entire area of law that we had not dealt with much. Working on this moot was immensely enriching as we ended up studying thoroughly on at least 10 different areas of law and this broad base of knowledge in areas that was seemingly unconnected at first, helped in giving us a better perspective on how to frame our arguments. As best speaker, the scholarship was awarded to me by the Bar Council of India Trust as a monthly stipend for one year. In order to become better mooters, you definitely need an almost indefatigable resilience but also some level of institutional support as a lot of our work is subject to the quality of research materials that are made available to us, especially in the case of international moots. But at the end of the day, students really need to enjoy the whole mooting process and all the chaos that comes with it. I know this is easier said in hindsight.
How would you suggest students to involve themselves in taking more part in research-oriented activities? Share with us your experience as a teaching assistant at Nalsar, guest lecturer at different universities and your work with Lexis Nexis Butterworths Wadhwa.
As a law student, it is imperative and almost indispensable to undertake extracurricular activities that hone your legal skills because there is only so much that you can learn in the classroom. You really need to immerse yourself in the real world and pick current topics to analyse them from a legal perspective, assess the challenges you face in implementing legal and pragmatic solutions and engage in research work beyond your usual college projects- it is a great way of motivating yourself as well as improving your legal skills. I have always felt that for any lasting stability and development in Kashmir there is a need to strengthen economic legislation as well as address the address the political aspirations of the electorate. These two issues are not mutually exclusive. So, in addition to my usual college research work, while interning under various permanent judges of the High Court at Jammu & Kashmir, I would take out time to visit universities and colleges and law schools in Kashmir to talk to students about various socio-political issues of importance to Kashmir and on other areas of law and economic development that can help an emerging and developing market like Kashmir. Some of the lectures and discussions are mentioned herein-
I delivered a guest lecture to the students of 4th year, BA LLB at the University of Kashmir, Department of Law on the topic “Demutualisation, Corporatisation and the Voluntary Exit of Exchanges in India.” The lecture revolved around the issue that nearly every stock exchange in India has voluntarily exited the business and whether it is viable for Kashmir to invest in creating a stock exchange market for itself to cater to investments through the capital market. Since the students were in their penultimate year of law school, it was a healthy exchange of ideas that we could employ to assess this policy issue.
I engaged in a discussion on the topic “Realizing the Summit of the Potential of the ICC: Legal Challenges and Opposition” with the students of 6th Semester BA LLB at the Central University of Kashmir, Department of Law on 9th June 2011. Earlier in 2010, Kashmir saw massive protests over the killing of a teenager named Tufail Ahmed Mattu who, at the time of his death was playing cricket in Gani Memorial Stadium, Srinagar. During the protests, according to official figures around 110 civilians lost their lives and around 1,200 CRPF men and 2,700 police personnel were injured. Over the course of the discussion we wanted to examine whether an international body could play a role in the smouldering cauldron that had been created here, the legal challenges thereof and the opposition to such policy proposals.
When I was interning with the then Advocate General of Jammu & Kashmir, Mr. Ishaaq Qadri, stationed at Jammu during the winter, I visited K.C Law College, Jammu to interact with the students there. Under the guidance of the dean of law, I delivered a guest lecture on the topic “Legal Policy and Legislation for J & K” to the students of 1st year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.).
Under the guidance of Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain, I delivered a guest lecture on the topic “Self Determination in International Law” to the students of 3-year course LLB 2nd semester at the Central University of Kashmir, Department of Law. Dr. Sheikh Showkat Hussain is a political analyst and a prominent scholar of human rights and international law. He has authored several books on the Kashmir conflict and I have been fortunate enough to have a guide like him in my student life and beyond. It has also been propitious to have a teacher like Prof. (Dr) Faizan Mustafa, vice Chancellor of Nalsar, who facilitated and put in place the Teaching Assistants programme at Nalsar. He encouraged me to be engaged as a Teaching Assistant for International Relations- Political Science and Law and I’ve had the opportunity of learning a lot from him during my time in law school and continue to learn from him even today.
As regards Lexis Nexis Butterworths Wadhwa, when I was in college, some of my batch mates and I were engaged in editing work for Mr. Anirudh Wadhwa. The experience was quite educational as we were assisting in the editing of books that we were studying ourselves and one of the most prominent tasks we were assigned was to assist in editing Mulla, Contract Law by Sir Dinshah Fardunji Mulla (13th Edition, ISBN number: 978-81-8038-673-2).
Tell us about your experience in Student politics. How has this helped you grow as an individual?
(Saaib was President of NALSAR Student Bar Council from 2012 till 2013 and General Secretary from 2011 till 2012 and received the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal for Best Male Graduate with Proven Leadership Qualities.)
Student politics will take you down a road which is a seething cauldron of ever-calculating and self-evaluating moments replete with predictions, anxieties and judgment (laughs). The night just before elections used to be the liveliest and most electrifying night on campus, and in hindsight I can confirm that the world of student politics is deliciously Machiavellian and is not for the faint hearted (insert politically appropriate smiley face here). It is vicious precisely because the stakes are so small and contrary to the assumption of most student leaders, it is not necessarily a route to Downing Street. I’ve read and observed that, to lead is a noble thing, and the greasy pole of student politics will definitely prepare you for challenges of life, and you will emerge not only unbroken but more ‘whole’. But there are certain things I’d like to see changed in law school student politics. There are over 1000 law schools in India and it’s a pity that only a handful of them have a real student government elected by the students and with their own financial budget.
Even in colleges where there is some semblance of a student government, the government is limited in its potential since most of their time is lost in bargaining on basic issues like securing permissions and facilitating events that have limited impact on their immediate vicinity, and much less on law-students in general. There is precious little room for student government to assume its real role as a truly representative student voice and/or think tank of the student perception and pursue policy engagement at a larger level. Most universities abroad have recognised this immense potential and are nurturing groups like Cambridge’s Wilberforce Society which recently worked for the Tunisian National Assembly on their new constitution among other issues. In some National Law schools, we have similar discussion forums and groups but these are not necessarily formed by their respective student governments and this is where I feel student politics is lagging.
If harnessed appropriately, student politics has the potential to produce champions who can fortify society, individually and collectively as their political thought grows with their electorate in the microcosm of society that is their university. It is this fortification of society that is severely lacking in places like Kashmir where ‘low grade rationalism’ dominates the current political approach that elected MLAs and MPs have toward the electorate. This mediocrity in leadership that we face today can only be cured by a proper training in statesmanship, and student government in its appropriate form can be a great stepping stone towards such training.
In its current state, student government in Indian law schools, at best, produces functionaries who tread party lines and not leaders, much less statesmen. There is a perceptible miasma of distrust and this abyss between the common people and the government is loaded to widen. On the brighter side though, even at the grass-root level, Kashmiris are realising that there is no way out but to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps as decades of electing people who are too grievous to govern has not yielded desirable results.
Your yearning to contribute to legal policy issues surrounding grass-root democracy and economic development in Kashmir is inspiring. Please tell us more about this.
(As a law student in his 4th year, while studying Election Law, Mirza Saaib Beg interned under the Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs)
In 1688 the Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer published a tract in which he endeavoured to describe the pain resulting from the yearning and inability to return to one’s home. I am unable to actively work in Kashmir at the moment as I feel that I can serve the economic and legislative interests more effectively when I am better equipped and every day is a step closer to this objective. Kashmir, evokes the fiercest elements of ‘yearning’ in my being but mere nostalgia, devoid of any action, is an emotion which is politically reprehensible and empirically untenable. I feel that it is imperative for educated Kashmiris to exploit their education to push the Kashmiri society towards being emancipatory and progressive, whereas the ‘empty yearning’, devoid of effective action, may rightly be condemned as an irrational obstacle. So I do my part in ensuring that my society is ushered away from an anachronistic state of being by contributing through my education and resources.
After a semester studying Election Law, I was required to intern with an institution to apply my learnings. Instead of pursuing an internship away from home, I decided to employ my education to study and better understand Election Law in Kashmir and I approached the office of the Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs to contribute. It is my understanding that for a representational democracy, free political expression is essential. In Kashmir, political groups and messages that resonate with the popular sentiment are criminalised and therefore elections do not necessarily result in a representation of the popular sentiment. In the past electoral candidates, who had a differing ideology, or who did not meet the approval of influential Indian politicians were summarily rejected by disqualification of their nomination papers and even rigging in elections. In this internship, I prepared a report on Panchayat elections from around the country where I analyzed various issues that could come to the fore with such panchayat elections. The internship report was submitted to Mr. Ali M. Sagar, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs wherein I assessed a host of economic and policy based issues including:
Measures to diminish powers of State Governments to delay Panchayat elections. Usually elections are delayed on purely political considerations to gain outcomes favourable to New Delhi.
Economic legislation for measures to decrease the State Election Commission’s dependency upon the State Government for logistic support and finances. The State Election Commission needs to be an independent body, which is not controlled by any Indian or Kashmiri political group.
Delimitation of constituencies (Powers of using delimitation to control electoral outcomes must be repealed).
Economic legislation to tackle lack of accountability of Panchayats- There is no time frame to conduct the audit of accounts of a given year and/ or submit the audit report.
Lastly, I made a case for strengthening the State Election Commission (SEC) by making specific provisions in the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. In its current form, the State Election Commission is not an independent body and therefore the elections conducted by them are also questionable. In the past the SEC has been abused to reject nominations of candidates who are not approved by influential Indian politicians. For a truly democratic process, all institutions of governance such as courts, police and overseeing commissions must be free from any influence.
Given your background in student politics, how did you feel about your role in contributing to such legislation, policy-making and economic development and what were your perceptions about grass-root democracy in Kashmir?
My experience in student politics has shaped my perception that the Kashmiri electorate has started to dabble its hand at chivvying Kashmiri leaders into developing a sense of perspicacity but unless our leaders overcome the inability to think beyond the next election, we will continuously be faced with a situation where people will get disgusted with traditional politics, something that can be observed elsewhere in India as well as in other countries today. Representatives time and again fall prey to compartmentalizing their electorate into watertight compartments relegated to be pacified by the appropriate sound-bytes. Far from being emblematic, there is much to be desired for grass-root democracy, in Kashmir. However, I have courage over my conviction that with the appropriate training, the growth of young, educated and conscientious leaders will see us in good stead to face the challenges of political instability and economic development. Addressing the issues in Kashmir requires more than mere passion for Kashmir because the issues are so complex that effective solutions require extraordinary prescience, profound thought and perception as well. Kashmir is undergoing an insurrection of the mind as we face a growing wave of violence. As educated, conscientious people it is imperative to ensure that we choose leaders who possess the enduring insight to steer us away from these waves that are fed with politically immature and often violent rhetoric. Further, as educated and conscientious people we also have to understand that war and conflict is not something that only governments inflict upon one another but it is also implicit in the seemingly innocuous decisions we take daily at an individual level which lead to macro-differences between communities. Kashmir cannot afford to be a fractured society and every effort must be made, at an individual as well state level, to ensure that our leaders are fully aware of the subtleties and complexities of the interplay of religious factors, geopolitics, and the corrupting influence of desire for power that is the overarching theme of Kashmir’s long history of conflict. During the time of the panchayat elections, every news channel in India categorised them as ‘historic’-The panchayati raj elections in Kashmir can quite possibly be termed as ‘historic’ but unless we as educated and conscientious people take social and political action to address the complexities mentioned herein, the sound-bytes will continue ad-nauseam without any effective results. In the opening lines to “The Eighteenth Brumaire,” Marx famously amends Hegel’s statement that historical events happen twice, by adding that they occur first as tragedy, then as farce. I feel these lines are quite apt for Kashmir. Unless educated and determined people act immediately, the repetitive dialogue surrounding Kashmir will be nothing short of farcical and the deadlock on diplomacy, political and economic development will be stuck on a never-ending loop which is detrimental most of all to the state-subject.
As a law student you made some documentaries on issues that interested you. Please tell us about this work. Was it a part of an internship?
No, this was not a part of any internship. I wanted to explore certain themes through a medium that was convenient for anyone interested in the work. The documentaries were made in my second year of law school with an intention to understand what the electorate in remote areas of Kashmir felt about the social and economic laws that they are governed by. The research topics covered issues like justice and juveniles, poverty and deprivation, political turmoil and children, Islamic finance etc. Making these documentaries in pursuit of a systematic ethnography served as an alternate educational platform for me. My education at Nalsar fuelled my rationality when I approached these sensitive topics. The experience taught me that there are no simplistic solutions to problems of legislation in Kashmir. At first, the complexity of legislative problems in Kashmir frustrated me because I was unable to dismantle the legal problems with my crude screwdriver and I lacked the expertise and/ or resources to wield better tools. I figured that I needed a more refined toolbox and I went back to law school with new-found resolve to use my subsequent education to tackle the complexities of social and economic legislation. I would come to Kashmir during every break to work with various academicians, politicians and within the legal fraternity to hone my understanding of these issues.
What other kind of internships did you undertake?
Among other miscellaneous internships, I also interned with law firms like Amarchand, Luthra, AZB, and also with Jammu & Kashmir Bank Financial Services Ltd., ICICI Bank, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and under a few Senior Advocates, including the Advocate General of Jammu & Kashmir.
How did you decide to seek employment with SEBI? How did your appointment at SEBI take place? Please share with us an experience from your initial days.
Over the course of my education I arrived at the conclusion that many issues in Kashmir could be resolved through economic legislations as well as addressing the political aspirations of the electorate. I feel that these two are not mutually exclusive and that Kashmir is being lead into an economically regressive tract leading to a domino effect on many other frontiers. I decided to work with SEBI as this was the only institution where I could get quasi- legislative, quasi- judicial as well as quasi- executive experience which I felt was essential for my objective of working on economic legislation and contributing to development. At that time I had also heard that SEBI was considering setting up an office in Kashmir and I felt that this would be a great opportunity to contribute to and observe economic legislation as well as gain quasi-judicial experience. The process of appointment was based on an initial shortlisting and subsequent interview process. SEBI shortlisted the ten best ranked CVs from the applicants and conducted an exhaustive interview which covered recent developments in the capital market in addition to various concepts of securities law, eventually selecting two candidates from all the applicants. After joining SEBI, I observed that while regulating and developing the capital market and protecting the economic interest of investors are the primary responsibilities, the organisation is quite proud of its social consciousness as well. Soon after the devastating flood in Kashmir last year, I approached the Chief General Manager of the HR department and evinced my desire to get involved in the relief effort. Without any hesitation, he mobilised the process and within a few days, in a very touching gesture, Rs. 9.10 Lakh were contributed by all employees from their monthly salaries and transferred for the relief effort. At that moment it felt that I had taken a small step closer to my personal objective of being in a position to contribute towards the betterment of Kashmir, and it was a truly wonderful feeling. I look forward with eagerness to the time when I can take bigger steps on this path.
What are your primary responsibilities in SEBI’s Legal Affairs Department? What all does the work profile in SEBI’s Legal Affairs Department consist of?
I am employed with the Legal Affairs Department at SEBI which is responsible for providing legal counsel to the SEBI Board and to its other departments, and to handle non-enforcement litigation. The department has a division of policy and divisions of regulatory assistance. The work of the Legal Affairs department includes formulating SEBI’s legislative initiatives, various categories of SEBI pronouncements (i.e., regulations, guidelines, circulars, instructions, etc.), the hierarchy of their force and effect, the procedure for their promulgation, amendment or repeal, reviewing and commenting upon proposed regulations that would affect the securities industry, SEBI’s authority or operation. The division is engaged in providing legal advice to the Market Regulation Department (MRD), Corporation Finance Department (CFD), Investment Management Department (IMD) among others. MRD is responsible for supervising the functioning and operations of securities exchanges, their subsidiaries, and market institutions such as clearing and settlement organizations and Depositories. CFD deals with matters relating to (i) Issuance and listing of securities, including initial and continuous listing requirements (ii) corporate governance and accounting/auditing standards (iii) corporate restructuring through Takeovers / buy backs (iv) Delisting etc. IMD is responsible for registering and regulating mutual funds, venture capital funds, foreign venture capital investors, collective investment schemes, including plantation schemes, foreign institutional investors, portfolio managers and custodians. So the portfolio is quite expansive and the experience gained thereof is holistic in terms of exposure to litigation in SAT, the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court of India, policy-making and drafting of the regulations and it is a great vantage point to learn about the effect of legal policy on the capital markets.
You cycle over 50km-60km every day in Mumbai. How did you take to cycling? Was there anyone or any event that inspired or motivated you to take up this as a daily activity?
I took to cycling because it represented a truly emancipating activity which was immersed in a real world environment. In my fourth year at Nalsar, I was elected as General Secretary of the Student Union at Nalsar. At that time, I used to cycle around NALSAR with some of my batch mates and we had toyed with the idea of a cycle trip to all national law schools as a symbolic gesture to ‘connect’ the student governments at each place to deliberate over an issue of national and legal importance concerning Kashmir. Even when I used to intern in Bombay with law firms, as a student, I would lament the deplorable condition of traffic and I even considered the idea of cycling to work. However, due to various reasons, these plans could not mature at that time.
I thoroughly enjoyed cycling and I was looking for a way to merge my desire to make a perceptible difference in Kashmir with my love for cycling. When I moved to Mumbai to pursue my employment with SEBI, I read about two investment bankers and a doctor who had raised over Rs 13 lakh for St. Jude India Childcare Centre, an NGO that aids parents of children with cancer by cycling 250km from Mumbai to Pune and back. I decided to train myself to be in a position to cycle at least 1000km and raise enough funds to provide 20- 30 orphaned, meritorious students, in Kashmir, with a basic education. I started cycling 10km, once a week, and gradually I increased my duration and distance to about 50 km every day. During the weekends, I meet with interested people from all over the city and cycle between 100-300 km to Lonavala, Nashik, Pune, Bharuch, Alibaug etc. I started meeting people with diverse backgrounds- musicians, actors, stand-up comedians, artists and curators in addition to people from conventional professions. On the long cycling trips, my mind is free from distraction of my smartphone and the engrossing condiments that accompany it. I have realized that our lives are so heavily “comoditised” that we forget the difference between making a living and having a life and we ignore the nourishment that such idleness can provide to our thought process. For me, this experience has definitely been enriching from a psychological and even sociological perspective. Needless to say, physiologically I feel younger today than I felt when I moved to the city and that is not something you often hear from people who work a full time job in the legal profession (laughs).
How does it feel to cycle to work daily? What is the experience like? Is it difficult for someone to emulate this and promote cycling in India?
I figured that the only way I could make time for my training was if I incorporated it as a part of my daily routine. So I decided to cycle to work and effectively pursue my training while I commute to work. My office, SEBI, has an in-house magazine called ‘The Insider’ and when I started cycling to work, they asked me to share my experience with them. I told them that contrary to popular perception, it is actually surprising that in Mumbai very few people cycle for leisure and even lesser people cycle to work. I say this because Mumbai is a relatively flat, linear city and the weather is forgiving for 8 months a year, unlike most cycle-friendly cities of the world- London is too wet, Copenhagen is too cold and Amsterdam has terrible headwinds that make cycling quite onerous.
In 2014, these cities were rated as some of the best in the world for cycling according to “Copenhagenize Index” which is a list of the world’s most bike-friendly cities. Not only is cycling the best solution to Mumbai’s woeful traffic, but making the roads cycle friendly is not even a heavy burden on the state’s budget. For a fraction of the Rs. 160 crore (£160m/ 16 billion rupees) cost of the eight-lane Bandra-Worli Sea Link toll bridge, the state government could have transformed cycling and public transport in the city. To comprehend how little we need to become a cycle-friendly city, contrast this Rs. 160 crore with the fact that in UK average annual government expenditure on cycling in the UK was £1 per person (Rs. 100) for the entire country. Incidentally £1 is considered to be quite low by most European standards where the annual government expenditure on cycling is about €25 per person (Rs. 1800). Studies show that every kilometer cycled in Denmark earns the country €0.23 (Rs. 17). For me cycling never started off as a way to burn calories or save petrol- it simply was a “fast form of pedestrianism,” and the most exciting way to get around. Every resident of Mumbai knows what it feels like when you have to drive your car in stop-and-go traffic to get to work every morning. Every resident of Mumbai dreads the commute to work and back home. Imagine if your vehicle didn’t have to stop-and-go intermittently like that. Imagine making your commute an exciting highlight of your day. And imagine starting every day feeling perfect, alive and look forward to your commute to office. That is what cycling to work feels like. Having said that, it is a relief to have a shower and gym facility in office which makes things very convenient, as I carry my formal clothes in a backpack to change into after cycling, without which it would have become an onerous activity.
Indian cities and interested cyclists don’t need to reinvent the wheel to promote cycling in the metro-cities, they just need to copy what the cities that did make the Copenhagenize top 20 are doing such as encouraging employers to install a shower facility and cycle parking in office, sensitizing car drivers towards cyclists and sharing the road and lowering taxes on import of cycles. Once cycling is presented as a convenient way to get around, which not only profits by way of financial saving but also health benefits, the masses will take to the cycle. Cycling is most definitely a part of the future and the sooner our governments realize that, the better it will be for all of us.
Tell us about the Charity Ride Cause Cyclothon and your cycle ride to Ahmedabad from Mumbai. How did this idea strike you?
After the floods in Kashmir in 2014, everyone was outraged by the sheer unpreparedness of the government to meet the challenge of a calamity that was not unforeseeable, and had in fact been widely speculated about. While collective outrage is easy to find, it is not easy to channelize that outrage into proactive and positive action as this takes time, effort, money and other resources. Luckily, I’ve found some individuals who are willing to give most, if not all, of these requirements. Undertaking this journey gives me the satisfaction of having tried to make a perceptible and positive difference to a severely dilapidated place that I call home. I plan to connect law schools on my journey and show interested people how they can contribute to making a difference to the lives of orphaned children, without necessarily making a financial contribution.
Cause Cyclothon is an event aimed at raising funds to assist the pursuit of education. We cycle long distances of 1000-3000km to raise funds and help anyone financially to pursue their education. We completed the FIRST PHASE last month where we cycled a total of 1268 km from Mumbai to Ahmedabad and back in 5 days visiting all prominent law schools en route and we raised Rs. 10 Lakh for an orphanage in Kashmir, Rahat Manzil which operates under the aegis of Jammu & Kashmir Yateem Khana. I was accompanied by two amazing cyclists and wonderful human beings- Pranaya Mohanty and Sumit Patil and we were cheered on and supported by over three hundred supporters, well-wishers and cyclists en-route in Surat, Vadodra, Bharuch, Ahmedabad and Anand. Pranayaregularly participates in endurance events like Brevets Randonneurs Mondiaux (BRM) events to cycle long distance rides of 300km, 400km and even 600km. He was the fastest Indian cyclist to complete 1200km Paris- Brest- Paris (PBP) cycling event this year (under 75 hours). Sumit has already completed the 601km Ultra Marathon Cycling Association world championship event in 30 hours and other events like BRMs, Desert 500 and Ultra BOB. He is currently training for the Race Across America. Both will be with me for our second ride also.
Cause Cyclothon is brought to fruition because of the encouragement and financial support given to us by the Rotary Club of Bombay Worli. They have been with us throughout the event from its inception to the execution. Last year they had run a campaign to support persons in need of artificial limbs and they continue to shoulder their civic and social responsibilities towards those less fortunate. We also have been supported by Killer Jeans and Ultra Tech Cement. All the money raised by our sponsors was sent directly to the orphanage. Rs. 6 Lakh were sent when we completed 600km of the first ride to correspond to Rs. 1000 for every km that we cycled. The event is also supported by “Team Agni”, and “To Kashmir” in addition to other supporters as mentioned on our webpage. Team Cause Cyclothon also engaged in pre-event campaigns for our ride- one month before we were scheduled to depart on our 1100km cycling journey, we had sponsored the “Smart Commute- Ride To Work” initiative which saw 450 cyclists in Mumbai converge at Sofitel hotel in BKC riding to office on their cycles. The event was presided over by the Maharashtra state minister for Environment, Mr. Ramdas Kadam.
If anyone is interested in helping the orphanage in Kashmir, or support us for the second ride, kindly get in touch with me over FB, gmail or phone so that I can guide you on what the orphanage and students need apart from financial support. Their account details are in the photo below:
Can you give us the highlights of your first ride and the plan for the second and third?
The plan was to cycle from NCPA, Nariman Point to Ahmedabad and back in 5 days (approx. 1200 km) and stop at every law university on the way to get students involved in the campaign. The idea was to raise at least Rs. 10 lakh in aid of educational initiatives at Srinagar’s largest orphanage, Rahat Manzil, which suffered over Rs. 40 lakh in damages during the flood in Kashmir last year.
You can see this page for snippets our first ride-
You can view this video made by one of our sponsors which has clips of the orphanage trustees, children along with their appeal for the first ride that has now been successfully concluded-
We stopped at every prominent law school on the route and did not solicit any financial contribution from the students we met but we only wanted to put forth the ground realities of what these children face, talk to them about our aims, objectives, motivations and get the students’ involvement in voluntary skype classes of 30 minutes per week or to assist in facilitation of sharing of reading material for the children. The response has been overwhelming and we are now planning the second phase to further our literacy campaign.
These were the universities and law colleges we passed by and stopped at for student interaction during RIDE No. 1-
GLC Mumbai
VT Chowksi Law College, Surat
Sidharth Law College, Surat
Law College, Bharuch
Baroda School of Legal Studies, Faculty of Law, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara
Shree P.M.Patel College of Law & Human Rights, Anand
Nirma University, AhmedabadGujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad
GNLU, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad
ABOUT THE SECOND RIDE:
The SECOND ride is nearly 3000km+ ride, over 12-14 days, from Mumbai to Kochi via Symbiosis and/or ILS- Pune, NALSAR- Telangana, NLSIU- Bengaluru, TNNLS- Tiruchirappalli and NUALS- Kochi. The list of universities is not exhaustive and we are still planning the final intended beneficiaries as we need to coordinate for time and semester schedules. We look forward to working with the students of each institution on this ride. (Tentatively January, 2016). We are also looking to expand the base beyond just law students and are planning to include IITs and IIMs en-route. The plan is to raise Rs. 30 lakh to sponsor the education of needful students in the universities that we stop at.
How will the students be shortlisted from each law school? How many students per college will you cover?
We intend to support the educational costs of at least 6-12 students per law school that we stop at but this is subject to the total that we are able to raise during the second ride. We intend to raise a total of Rs. 20-30 Lakh for this purpose. We are currently in the process of contacting vice chancellors, registrars, student-body presidents and concerned faculty at each prospective stopping point. We want the universities to give us a shortlist of names that require funding and an overview of their academic/ extracurricular performance. There is no particular standard that they must meet but we hope to fund the education of such students who have proven potential to better the environments that they came from and in turn help others who are faced with similar financial and social predicaments. The money raised will be given directly to the universities by our sponsors and will be used to cover the fees of the selected student’s academic year. Coming from Kashmir myself, I understand that when one is faced with any instability in the pursuit of education, it is very challenging for a student and it is imperative for us to remove such impediments to secure their future. We are grateful that our supporters and sponsors share our belief and are all ready to support us during the second ride as well.
Which major cities do you plan to cover? Are there any criteria for joining the cause, for example physical fitness, health conditions, et al?
The plan of Team Cause Cyclothon is to eventually cover every city which houses a major national university and support the literacy mission of Rotary Club of Bombay Worli and our supporters. We intend to provide financial support to anyone who needs the same and our supporters share this determination. The SECOND ride is nearly 3000km+ ride, over 12-14 days, from Mumbai to Kochi via Symbiosis and/or ILS- Pune, NALSAR- Telangana, NLSIU- Bengaluru, TMNLS- Tiruchirappalli and NUALS- Kochi. There is no hard and fast criteria to join us. For those who want to cycle a long distance (say above 300km) with us, it would be appreciated if they are trained long distance cyclists as such distances take a significant toll on the body and it is not recommended for a novice cyclist to undertake such a long ride without appropriate training. Our supporters can also join us for smaller distances (anything from 10km to 200km) as it would serve as a real boost and motivation for us during the ride. During our first 1100km Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai ride, we were joined by nearly 300 cyclists at various points who cycled 10km to 100km with us and cheered us on at Mumbai, Vapi, Bharuch, Anand, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodra. You may join the cause and support in any form and if you are not in apposition to contribute financially or not fit enough to cycle, then you can be a part of the cause just by sharing it on social media. That way, it might reach someone else who can assist us in making a perceptible difference to someone’s life.
Your event has generated a lot of attention on social media. A lot of stars and celebrities are also promoting your event on social media. How did you connect with them and the other people involved in the event?
The real celebrities are the people who supported us on social media and the cyclists who travelled 30-50km at 3am on the day of our journey, to ride with us and support us. Navi Mumbai cyclists, Mastermind Cycles, Bandra Cyclists Club, Mulund riders, Powai Pedals, Evo Bikes, RPM cycles, Xycolaire cyclists, CYC’d cyclists, Mumbai Cycling Enthusiasts, VeloCrush, Cyclop, Palm Beach Riders,Juhu and Lokhandwala Cyclists, Borivali Cyclists, BikeMe, and all the individual cyclists who supported us, rode for many kilometres, carrying food and refreshments for us- we feel they are our real superstars! Their gesture has touched us deeply and we are most thankful to them for their time and motivation. We have been very lucky in this regard and my fellow cyclist friends in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Anand have been a source of great support. Their outpouring of emotional support on social media has made the event a success and we got in touch with various people to support us in any manner possible and Ira Dubey, Cyrus Brocha, Cyrus Sahukar and Kunal Vijaykar shot promotional videos with us to support the cause as these people have a large social media following. We are continuing with the social media campaign and hope to get more people involved who have a wider outreach to help us with creating awareness for the event. Of course, we are fortunate to have the financial and moral support provided by- Killer Jeans, Ultra Tech Cement, Rotary Club of Bombay Worli, Rotarians- Mr. Sandeep Shah, Partner N.A. Shah Associates, Mr. Ashish Meghani Managing Director Wrap Tech Machines, Mr. Kiran Vora, Mr.Quresh Karachiwala, Mr. Pankaj Tanna, Ms. Kavita Godbole and Mr. Jayanth Nairi- their support has set us free from the initial encumbrances so that we can pursue the promotion of the cause with the confidence that that they are with us, throughout the event and after, to help wherever we need their support. Our organising team had some great help from three young students- Armaan Bhatia student of St. Xavier’s, Siddhant Navalakha student of Jai Hind college and Varun Tanna from HR college whose timely assistance went a long way in making the first 1100km ride a success. I have no doubt that their efforts will ensure that the second ride is a success as well.
Do you intend for this to be a yearly event? Would you consider replicating this Cause Cyclothon for other regions in India?
As of now, we intend to undertake three rides in total to different parts of India and support educational initiatives en-route at various institutions. We have completed the first ride across the Western region and now preparing for our second ride which will cover central and Southern India. We have not finalised a destination or route for the final ride yet, but it would be nice to cover all the remaining portions in this vast and diverse country. If we continue to enjoy the support of our friends, families, fellow cyclists and the persons mentioned above who are generously sponsoring us, I see no difficulty in making this a yearly endeavour, or even multiple times a year.We plan to complete the third cycle ride by August 2016, possibly around August 14 and 15, the independence days of Pakistan and India respectively. If we are successful, I will dedicate the ride to independence in the subcontinent- independence from oppression, independence from tyranny and any turmoil, created by the hands of men, that deprives children from the ability to change their lives for the better. If not a financial contribution the least I hope to evoke from everyone is an introspective thought on how far the subcontinent has come in uplifting the weakest amongst us. Maybe that introspection will prompt them in playing a role, howsoever small, in making a perceptible and productive difference to someone’s life. I hope I’ll succeed in this endeavour.
What is the advice you would like to give our readers?
There is a difference in being alone and being lonely. In law school, the boundaries between the two are often blurred but overcoming this central anxiety and paradox of life will train you to focus on identifying purpose and meaning in life. It will help you find that one thing in your life that is more important than you are, and then dedicate your life to it.
As lawyers, we live in a culture of immediacy, where even our understating of the abstract is too ‘rationalised’, but when you’re pursuing something worthwhile, expect it to take some time and don’t get perturbed by the transitory stillness of life, rather cherish it for when the time comes for you to pursue your true goal, such still moments may be hard to come by. So run, go for aimless walks, cycle to nowhere in particular and don’t fear boredom. There is an evolutionary and creative purpose behind the aimless wandering and unconscious processing of thought. Give in to it every once in a while. Give yourself some “me-time”.
And lastly, push yourself to participate in the creativity that an education in law has to offer, refuse to isolate yourself and learn to appreciate the bitter-sweet path of tenacity even if your counter-cultural bravery and constructive dissent are underrated.
GR Srikkanth studied law from Osmania University and graduated in 1996, after pursued LL.M. at the same place in 1998. Currently the Vice President – Legal at RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Srikkanth is a rank holder in Labour Laws and IP Laws. His prior assignments include a near-decade experience at HUDCO (Govt. of India) and Govt. of AP.
In this interview, he tells us about:
His decision to do two diplomas in Intellectual Property Laws
His experience as a Legal Manager at Housing Urban Development (HUDCO)
His advice on drafting infrastructure agreements
His achievements and landmark moments at RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
Did you have lawyers in your family?
I have done my schooling and college education in Hyderabad. There are no lawyers in my family, I was very much interested in joining politics and LLB was a natural choice.
How did you choose to do Cost Accountancy?
(Srikkanth initially started as a commerce graduate with cost accountant qualification)
Law was my first choice, but I also enrolled in cost accountancy to gain some accounting knowledge.
How instrumental was Osmania in shaping up your legal career?
(Srikkanth studied law from Osmania University and scored 1st division in the year 1996. Thereafter, he did his LL.M. from Osmania in the year 1998 and ranked 9th in the entire university)
Osmania University’s eminence is unparalleled to any other institution in the country and it is the epicentre to many movements. It taught me a practical approach to looking at things. OU’s environment has always instilled confidence in all its students.
Tell us about your courses. Share any incident from that time.
(Srikkanth has done two courses i.e. Diploma in Intellectual Property from WIPO (UN) 2006 and PG Diploma in Intellectual Property Laws – IIT Kharagpur.)
When IIT KGP started Law School and commenced PGDIPL, I took some break from work and enrolled there. Being in first batch there, we faced some short term issues similar to any new venture. But overall, the experience was enriching. A memorable incident was drafting an invention disclosure for a chemical product. Being a commerce graduate, it took much more effort on my part to complete the project.
Please tell our readers about what your work experience was like at HUDCO. What did an average day of work look like?
(Right after graduation, Srikkanth worked as Manager of Law in Housing Urban Development (HUDCO) (a Government of India enterprise) for nearly 9 ½ years)
I appeared for HUDCO’s exam and got through and this is how I started my career with HUDCO. Primarily, the job involved appraisal of various projects in real estate, and various infrastructures like utility, social, urban infrastructure project. HUDCO is a leading player in techno financing; it makes feasible studies about the project and finance. I was lucky that major projects commenced in my jurisdiction I got to work in many places across India which helped me learn various local revenue laws and regulations. Major contribution was drafting of letter of comfort in lieu of State Government guarantee, when there were restrictions in issuing State Government Guarantee due to over borrowings of the State Government. This instrument was even vetted by RBI as a valid document for financing and it’s a first of its kind.
Share with us the major points one should concentrate on, while drafting agreements on infrastructure projects?
While drafting infrastructure projects, one needs to contemplate all kinds of risks that may be associated with the project and take a detailed brief from other functionaries like civil, environmental, structural engineering and finance team. List out all the possibilities and make a provision regarding them in the agreement. Similarly, list out all the applicable laws and appraise the provisions with reference to the project whether they have any impact on the same. Also, address the issues fit-out period, concessions, compliances under labour and corporate laws, insurances and assignments etc. If the lawyer/in house counsel is involved in drafting terms and conditions from the tendering or RFP, then he/she will be in a better position to draft instead of merely vetting the agreements.
How fulfilling were the last 10 years both on the professional and personal fronts? How challenging and grueling were the difficulties and how did you overcome them?
(After HUDCO Srikkanth joined RP Sanjiv Goenka Group as Chief Manager Legal and has now been promoted as Vice President Legal.)
Retail Industry is most challenging and complex in terms of legal and regulatory issues. Every product whether, food or non-food, is covered under some law or regulation, a Hypermarket where 30,000 products are sold attracts dozens of legal and regulatory issues. For example, retailers need licenses even to sell products like mosquito repellents, cosmetics, etc. Every day is different and there is a need to address issues instantly. Over a decade, I have been able to learn many things.
Would you kindly share your accomplishments and job specifications at RPSG Group?
I have been awarded Chairman’s TOP GEAR award in 2008 for best performance in resolving legal issues, I have also been nominated for the Best In-House Counsel for Asia Pacific Award by International Law Office for the year 2012 – 2013. I have managed these laurels with the immense support I get from my wife and son.
Please tell us a bit about your award by Retail Association of India.
Retail Association of India (RAI) is an apex body which represents modern retailers and works towards growth for modern retail in India. www.rai.net.in. RAI has various committees representing the functions of Retail. Advocacy Committee spearheads the legal and regulatory issues of Retail Industry. Over the years advocacy committee has successfully liaised with various State Governments and Central Government to address legal and regulatory issues.
I being a member of advocacy committee have contributed towards facilitating various changes in the field of labour laws, essential commodities laws, insecticide Act, Food Safety and Standard regulations etc., in recognition of these services RAI felicitated me with the award for excellence in Legal and Regulatory services in Retail Trade in India.
Kindly share your experience as a Member of the Taskforce on Food and Regulatory Issues and Advocacy Committee of Retail Association of India (RAI).
Our advocacy committee at RAI is very active and we coordinate with various State Governments and the Central Government on legal issues, especially with reference to retail sector. We have made noteworthy contributions in this regard, for example, exemption from weekly closure, keeping of records in electronic form, changes in food laws and legal metrology. The primary objective of the committee is to address the issues of the industry and facilitate the members.
Tell our readers what needed to be done to ensure fair trade practices and what suitable measures are needed to promote the growth of infrastructure and retail sector.
Major challenges for both the industries are approvals and clearances from various authorities due to which the projects over run and the costs increase. There needs to be a time bound clearance. It will be better to have deemed provisions which are designed such that if there is a failure to accept or reject the projects within a certain period of time, then they are deemed to be approved.
What are your plans for the future? What advice would you give to those law students wishing to pursue a career in infrastructure and retail sector?
I advise the young lawyers and students who wish to pursue these sectors to understand the entire process of the businesses and spend considerable time on the project viz., physically visiting the generation station, road project, airport and taking notes and understanding the processes and make the list which can impact the business and how to address the same in the communications/agreements. Keep reviewing various literatures pertaining to the domain in which you are interested.
Would you like to see yourself in the the role of a lawyer or a facilitator?
I would like to remain an In House Counsel, as the role of counsel is “more for less” and this function has evolved as a facilitator over time rather than merely being that of a litigator.
