What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?  

I head the legal and compliance function for Kotak Investment Banking and Institutional Equities business in India.  

Kotak Investment Banking and Kotak Institutional Equities have been consistently rated as one of India’s best domestic investment banks and equity broker-dealer houses. They have been involved and continue to lead and advise on many marquee capital markets, M&A, and equities transactions in India. These businesses operate in a dynamic regulatory environment. Further, the corporate transactions undertaken by our clients —whether they are fund-raising or M&A—are much more complex today than a decade ago, with multiple regulators, nuances and legal touchpoints involved. In addition, a majority of the transactions are pursued under aggressive timelines.  

My team and I provide legal and compliance support throughout the lifecycle of such corporate transactions, which commences from the deal origination stage (client diligence, doability of a transaction from a regulatory, risk and reputational perspective) to the execution stage (advising internal and external clients regarding documentation, including disclosures, while also liaising with governmental authorities and regulators), and finally, the sales and closing associated with such transactions as well.  

I also oversee the corporate secretarial, risk control and AML functions at the legal entity level and advise the board of directors on corporate governance and CSR-related issues.  

Part of what makes my job very interesting is that it blends elements of legal and compliance management with the experience of a transaction lawyer—something I have spent most of the last 20 years doing, first in law firms and then in investment banks.  

One of the exciting deals in which I have been involved was a sell-down by a controlling shareholder involving pledged securities for repayment to the lenders—this involved creating complex tri-partite documentation to deal with the release of security and settlement mechanics. Another deal was the creation of a unique offshore security for an execution client that wanted to trade on Indian stock exchanges. I have also been involved in numerous initial public offerings of tech companies that were completed in record timelines and associated with various complexities. 

If you had to give advice to an aspiring in-house lawyer or general counsel, what would it be and why?  

Always take complete ownership of a matter. Try not to segregate between legal and commercial issues in a transaction or matter and be a post-box for the latter. Be curious about issues on the retail front. The moment you start displaying your understanding of the business, you will become a trusted partner for your client.