Team size: Nine

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

We are using legaltech products to be proactive, agile, and compliant within our entire organisation. Currently, we make use of contract management, compliance, and training tools, which assist us in avoiding, preventing, and mitigating legal, compliance, and contractual issues. With the help of our compliance tool, which generates legal risk dashboards and displays reports in real-time, we are now more proactive in offering solutions and plans for risk mitigation to our stakeholders.

Our contract management software guarantees that we have a single repository and assists us in keeping track of and timely renewing our agreements and contracts. We are now upgrading ourselves to a complete contract lifecycle management solution to empower businesses and enable faster execution. Our legal team believes in and strives to understand our business and industry to provide effective solutions.

For this reason, we have developed easy-to-understand, tailored, and business-relevant legal training modules and programs to disseminate knowledge and information. All these efforts align with our legal department’s goal of being a strategic business partner and proactive advisor, cooperating to avoid or minimise significant legal risks as much as possible with the least possible cost and expenses. Our legal team also meets weekly with our internal stakeholders to ensure that the support and solutions needed are given at the earliest possible time for any project or activity. This has allowed the organisation to save a great deal of time, money, and energy while also enabling us to be proactive.

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

We are seeing numerous regulatory changes taking place across India, including laws that significantly impact our industry. We are expected to stay updated on multiple areas of law, provide strategic and business-critical advice, and assist the business in navigating these changes. The recent wave of new laws, guidelines, and regulations, such as the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (“CERT-In”), the Digital Personal Data Protection (“DPDB”) Act, and Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) obligations stemming from plastic waste management regulations and used oil regulations with tight implementation timelines, has created challenges for the legal and operational complexity of our business. 

We are dedicating a significant amount of time to monitoring and understanding these laws and how they affect our organisation and assisting the operations and business teams in implementing these changes. Additionally, as we conduct business across multiple states in India, as well as in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, we need to stay abreast of any changes to state or international regulations and make an effort to implement any local changes, as necessary. Our team also ensures that our licenses and permissions are renewed in a timely manner. As a team, we also manage EHS compliance, handle IP matters, address litigation, and handle counterfeit product issues.

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

If someone is considering becoming an in-house lawyer, I strongly recommend that they evaluate and determine the reasons behind their decision. Aspiring in-house lawyers must have patience and make a deliberate effort to broaden their legal and business acumen. In-house counsel are required to deal with the full range of corporate laws, and you will be exposed to issues and matters emerging out of antitrust law, international trade, corporate securities, taxation, real estate, government contracts, ethics, privacy, and intellectual property rights, as well as standard contracts and employment laws, and other business-related issues. Hence, you need to have the knowledge and skills to deal with them. 

As an in-house lawyer, you must be proactive and adaptable, find solutions, and communicate them clearly and succinctly. Understand your business and industry, work more closely with the business, cultivate healthy relationships with your stakeholders, and build trust within your organisation. Make sure that expectations and communications are in line with your efforts, and always strive to enhance your knowledge and be a lifelong learner. You must think and behave like an entrepreneur in today’s changing environment. And it goes without saying that integrity and honesty are essential elements of any professional.