How do you motivate and manage the other members of your legal team well?

One of the key aspect of motivating lawyers, to my mind, is to keep them intellectually involved and engaged. Lawyers are extremely keen to gain relevant knowledge and skills, being at the top of the knowledge industry.

In Tata Communications, we are passionate about learning and development at all levels. Our HR Dept has a dedicated L&D team. For inhouse lawyers, our continued learnings are both on the field of domain knowledge of new laws / legislations and on softer skills of negotiation, collaboration, dispute resolution, trainings of the company’s products and services. We have recently set up a physical library in our Mumbai office which is accessible and can be used by any inhouse lawyer who may wish to use it. Any of our lawyers can also seek to buy any book that he / she considers necessary for his/her work without seeking any approval. We also extend subscription of some of the best on-line repository of court cases/legal training which are used by our inhouse lawyers, specially in the litigation, compliances and in the transaction teams. We occasionally invite external lawyers to speak on upcoming areas of law or to educate the team on ways to handle contentious issues. We also encourage our lawyers to attend, participate and speak at various legal forum/gatherings to help them learn and be updated about the world around them.

Are the effects of AI on the legal world overplayed, or underplayed?

Technology adoption generally has been slow in the legal field for multiple reasons. However over time, use of AI will certainly find their inroads in legal field. While potential effects of AI on legal world is a point of discussion, however the more relevant point perhaps is how will law and its application be understood, disputes adjudicated and the jurisprudence develop in an AI driven world, say in case of an accident by a driverless car. With AI impacting many aspects of our life in the decades to come, the laws and the lawyers will get more involved in understanding and solving many of these matters. This journey will in many ways pave the path for use of AI by lawyers to enhance productivity. Nevertheless on a short or medium term I do not see AI as a major disruptor to the legal profession, barring few pockets like compliances and contracting, where AI may have a relatively quicker and perhaps effective impact.