About

The lean but highly capable legal team at Morgan Stanley in India provides legal coverage to all front office businesses of the global financial services firm, in addition to dealing with firm level legal matters and supporting the global in-house centres and corporate secretarial functions. The team also works in synergy with all business units to evaluate risk and facilitate business growth. Led by distinguished financial legal professional Ipsita Dutta, Morgan Stanley’s legal unit in India fully embraces the company’s core principle- ‘to put the client first while doing the right thing’. ‘The legal team is focussed on servicing its internal clients efficiently and in a solution oriented manner while ensuring that the interest and reputation of the firm is protected at all times,’ Dutta elaborates. ‘The fact that the legal team in India does not report into the country’s firm management but into the regional legal and compliance management in Asia (which in turn folds into the United Kingdom and New York), ensures that the team is independent and can voice its views clearly without any influence or conflict of interest’. In the last two years, the unit has impressed with its work on a number of important corporate market transactions in India, as well as with the ongoing corporate restructuring of Morgan Stanley’s entities. The team has also captured the spotlight with its work on dealing with changing regulations governing off-shore derivative instruments and its assistance on setting up Morgan Stanley’s first category II alternative investments fund. Besides its achievements at the forefront of the financial world, Morgan Stanley’s legal department stands out with its involvement in the community, as well as its promotion of diversity. Dutta explains: ‘two members of the India legal team are also part of Morgan Stanley India’s CSR implementation committee which works towards identifying the partners and projects to implement our CSR initiatives and give back to communities around us. The significance that Morgan Stanley places on diversity is also reflected in the India legal team, which is currently [made up of] all women’.