Super Lawyer

Tag: Remote Law Firm

  • “If you are prepared to accept failures/rejections on the way & are determined to be a continuous learner (in addition to thinking outside the box) nothing in this profession is impossible & you can soar to great heights.” – Kunal Basu, Founder of Lex Loretta.

    “If you are prepared to accept failures/rejections on the way & are determined to be a continuous learner (in addition to thinking outside the box) nothing in this profession is impossible & you can soar to great heights.” – Kunal Basu, Founder of Lex Loretta.

    This interview has been published by Namrata Singh and The SuperLawyer Team

    Could you take us through your journey from deciding to pursue law as your education to establishing Lex Loretta? What motivated you to choose law as a career path, and how did you transition from your legal education to starting your own practice?

    My name is Kunal Basu. I am a first-generation lawyer. As a child, I was fascinated by stories of the judicial services, but it wasn’t till many years later that I decided to enter law school in a bid to carve out a niche for myself in the profession. I always originally wanted to enter the judicial services & be a judge but chose to be an attorney. But when I started practicing law in ’22, I saw the reality of the legal system & how quickly shattered the hopes of a litigant could get. There are problems involved in the judicial system. On this note I told myself that come what may, I would be there for each litigant /lost soul who wanted my aid to traverse the labyrinth of long adjournments et al. That’s how my solo practice was initially born. Whilst my LLB degree provided groundwork, having a basic Drafting, Pleading & Conveyancing paper at law school easily helped me to draw up pleadings quickly sans relying on proformas.

    Your areas of practice cover a wide range, from estate transactions to criminal law. What drew you to such diverse fields, and how do you manage to navigate the complexities of each?

    In law school, I was fascinated by papers like the Transfer of Property Act, Indian Trusts Act & the Indian Stamp Act to begin with. We also had a Drafting, Pleading & Conveyancing paper as well. Being an only child, I realised that the world over, many parents have the same common pressing worry–how to pass their assets to their children in an effective manner whilst minimising chances of potential litigation. With this in mind & keeping in mind that for successful practice in trial courts, CPC & CRPC basics were crucial, I employed the system of concept-based learning–a trait that I still use to this day when practicing law in court. Using the method is how I manage to still retain the basic legal principles that help me to navigate. 

    As someone who mentors fellow attorneys facing burnout or feeling lost in their career, what advice would you give to young lawyers navigating the early stages of their profession?

    Be calm. Think with a cool mindset whenever approaching problems in your professional life. A lawyer is expected to resolve the problems of others in a calm & impassioned manner; and if this trait is followed in personal life, it can work wonders. Financials are a problem, but it’s only temporary.

    Your profile mentions a specialization in domestic violence cases involving male victims. Can you share some insights into the unique challenges faced by male victims in seeking legal recourse, and how you approach these cases?

    Whilst most cases I handle involve DV cases from the woman’s perspective, there are genuine cases involving male victims. This is because I have seen that in 99.9% cases, the victim of DV is mostly a female. At times the legal system can be biased towards a male victim & in such cases, it is a test of patience for both the lawyer & male client to navigate the legal system accordingly. As DV cases involving a male victim are special, one has to know not only the DV Act well, but also CrPC too & the basics of criminal drafting. As well as exercise a high degree of empathy.  

    With the rise of remote work and digital platforms, how has it impacted the way you deliver legal services, especially with Lex Loretta being a worldwide remote practice?

    Well… to be honest, delivery of legal services doesn’t always require a brick-and-mortar structure. All that’s required is a stable Internet connection, a secure (client) portal & a communication device. I anticipate that digital nomadism will be the new thing in the next 10 – 15 years. Remote work, I anticipate & digital platforms, I think, will be the new revolutionary approach for any business, including legal profession, to thrive post-COVID. However, I take strict measures to ensure that at no point should Lex Loretta violate advertising standards laid down by the Bar Council of India. 

    As a solo practitioner, what are some of the key challenges you face, and how do you overcome them to ensure the success of Lex Loretta?

    Being a first-generation lawyer, the hardest thing for me when I started practicing was the lack of a mentor. When I started solo practice, I faced challenges from all corners, primarily given the fact that I was a first-generation lawyer. See, most folks are biased towards any first-generation attorney (with exceptions). As days passed, I realised that the only way I could thrive was if I viewed the legal profession from a business perspective instead of cribbing. Keeping this in mind, I set up Lex Loretta on 28th Nov. 2023 by way of a written stamped charter. And it’s been a rollercoaster ride for me ever since then.

    Given your experience, what do you believe the current generation of law graduates can do to build successful and fulfilling careers in law?

    Believe in yourself. Period. Walt Disney said “If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing started with a dream and a mouse.”  It just takes a spark in you, faith, tons of patience & perseverance to set the ball rolling in this profession. If you are prepared to accept failures/rejections on the way & are determined to be a continuous learner (in addition to thinking outside the box) nothing in this profession is impossible & you can soar to great heights. But if you are influenced easily by other’s perceptions of you, then nothing good will ever happen to you.

    Away from the legal world, what are some of your personal hobbies or interests that you enjoy indulging in?

    I enjoy listening to music, sketching & going on long walks. I enjoy disconnecting from the world for a while & giving more time to myself. I also like sketching abstract objects using vivid imagination & listening to music of all sorts. 

    Internships play a crucial role in a law student’s journey. How important do you think internships are for students, and what kind of internships would you recommend for aspiring lawyers to gain valuable experience and insights into the legal profession?

    See, internships are important for every law student & fresh law graduate to realise whether they are suited for a specific area of law or not. As each area of law is different, I feel that one should choose an internship based on how they view themselves in the next five years & proceed. For instance, if you like being a criminal lawyer, focus on internships under a lawyer, Corrections Department & the judiciary (if possible). Similar goes for any other areas of law. It’s not general. 

    Get in touch with Kunal Basu-

  • In Conversation with: Ryan Mendonca – A startup legal counsel who left his job at a tech startup to start an innovative concept of being Your Virtual Legal Counsel, under his Virtual Law Firm

    In Conversation with: Ryan Mendonca – A startup legal counsel who left his job at a tech startup to start an innovative concept of being Your Virtual Legal Counsel, under his Virtual Law Firm

    This interview has been published by Prabhjot Singh, Priyanka Karwa and The SuperLawyer Team

    Tell us about yourself-what motivated you to choose law as a career path?

    I was interested in law early on in my childhood as would watch legal dramas like “Boston Legal”, “Law & Order” and ofcourse my all-time favourite legal show “Suits”. What interested me was how the lawyers helped their clients, fought for them in & out of court and delivered justice in some way shape or form.

    Its ironic how back then I saw these lawyers as superheroes and fast-forward a decade or so, and I am being interviewed as a Super Lawyer, its funny how life comes full-circle.

    However, besides the legal dramas, I also realised, very early on, that there were laws for everything and at every milestone in one’s life, right from birth certificates, to school rules, to employment law once you start a job, to corporate law if and when you start a business, to when you get married and buy a house, until you’re “dead and gone” or “6 feet under”.

    The Law is interwoven into the fabric of life and I felt that learning the law and my knowledge in the legal domain would give me that edge in life and would always be advantageous.

    Ryan, you worked as a remote lawyer during covid, how was that experience and what type of difficulties did you faced?

    Yes, I did work remotely in Dubai, as an in-house counsel for a high-powered, VC-backed Indian based startup, it was an eye-opening experience to say the least, whilst it was one of the most testing and unsure time for me, career-wise, mentally and physically. It was not easy doing and getting what I needed to get done.

    I do feel that it was an absolute privilege and once-in-a-lifetime experience to be the Sole Legal Counsel, setting up the legal operations, running it for a good 6 months, and then shutting it all down post-lock-down.

    On the bright side it did give me the confidence to open my own shop and accelerated my career into the natural progression of being a lawyer and starting my own virtual law firm, in this new-remote-friendly world we live in.

    What was and is the main USP behind your firm “YVLC”, and how do you manage your work since you have clients with different time zones? Do you believe the remote work model is going to stay in the future?

    Offering the service of an experienced in-house legal counsel on a fractional basis for multiple startups allowed startups to operate with the mental freedom that their legal is being taken care off, this was YVLC’s USP starting out.

    Now that we are on-boarding multiple Virtual Legal Counsels who are subject matter experts in their respective tech niche, such as E-commerce, Food-tech, Blockchain, Ed-tech and Prop-tech, we are creating a “Justice League” (pun intended) of Super Lawyers that will advise clients in their field of tech with relative ease and offer a more specialized legal advisory.

    All while being fully-remote, fully-autonomous and with the necessary tech infrastructure in place to do what we legal counsels do best. Provide legal solutions that are commercially viable.

    What is the biggest hurdle most attorneys face in bringing in new business at present times?

    This is a tough question for me to answer as I dont feel there’s just one main challenge, it is a mix of the following in no particular order and may not apply to all attorneys: Building a strong online presence, having a healthy pipeline of new client meetings, being very personable and impressive to new clients such that they close with you, pricing their services or hourly rates and lastly doing all of this successfully through a screen or on audio only meetings or at times without even speaking to the client at all.

    What’s the biggest threat to a solo or small law firm’s survival over the next 10 years? What should they be doing now to prepare?

    Investing in Tech, Building a Brand, Not getting caught up in the day to day wins and losses and instead having a long term goal, vision and plan to make it a reality. Most solo lawyers or small law firms start for the sake of starting and making something for their own selfish intentions of having a bigger slice of the pie or more like having their cake and eating it too.

    What are your future plans with YVLC academy and how can professionals be benefited with this initiative?

    We are planning to provide legal professionals the tools and teach them the tricks of the trade of how to be a solo digital lawyer. We want to help them reach their potential and achieve their goals no matter how small or gargantuan they may be.

    We want to empower lawyers and give them the tech infrastructure, a starting platform and the motivation and inspiration to have a successful legal career.

    Law students often get confused between these big tech platforms such as Fintech, agritech and other startups, what advice would you give to them for having a better sense of clarity wrt same?

    Read about them from credible sources, watch interesting you tube videos, listen to popular niche tech startup podcasts and last but not least work in those tech spaces that interest them and that they want to learn more about. There is no better way to learn something than by doing it.

    Get in touch with Ryan Mendonca–