Team size: 19 

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?  

Over the years, there has been a paradigm shift in the role of general counsel – from an in-house solicitor role where it was predominantly a connection between the organisation and external lawyers, it has now become more that of a risk manager while having a growth mindset, compliance and governance focus and alignment of legal objectives with business objectives to strike the correct balance between governance and profitability with growth for stakeholder’s value creation. Accordingly, towards the transformational agenda, different initiatives have been taken to focus on people capability and digitalise the processes, including the upgradation of existing enabled systems for compliance standardisation in ways of working across verticals and, in particular, setting up in-house compliance capabilities. Having a bespoke structure with subject matter Expertise. Accordingly. The team structure was appropriately drawn up for business alignment and IT enablement to attain speed, simplicity, and trust. The above has delivered simplicity, speed, and acknowledgement of the business. 

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

 Focus on the first principle. There is no substitute for clearing the concepts of first principles of law early.  

Know your business better – Understanding the company for which they work, sector-specific understanding, and significant changes in the industry – legal and regulatory environment. Also, apart from the mainstream business, corporate ventures started playing an important role for the investments in the start-up with synergies with the mainstream industry, which would require different skills and competencies for the in-house counsel.    

Expertise in special legislations – The Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Energy Conservation Amendment Bill, 2002 and Digital Personal Data Protection Act.  

Finally, commercial acumen and anticipating the changes in law and regulations, participation in industry bodies in driving policy changes through constructive advocacy and preparedness to embrace changes are some ways the changes are dealt with.