ABFRL's General Counsel Jyothi VK On Leveraging AI and Legal Tech To Drive Innovation

1. You started your career under the tutelage of Hon’ble Justice B.V. Nagarthna. Tell us about your initial years and what made you transition to an in-house role. 

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3. I was thrilled to start my legal journey in 1996 by joining the chambers of Hon’ble Justice B.V. Nagarthna (then a practicing lawyer in the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore). At that time, under the Bar Council regulations, law graduates had to undergo a year of legal apprenticeship without being allowed to appear in court. I missed appearing in courts during my apprenticeship, but I enjoyed researching and assisting my senior in filing petitions and preparing for court arguments. What truly inspired me was the chance to interact with Hon’ble Justice B.V. Nagarthna's father, the late Justice E. S. Venkataramaiah, former Chief Justice of India, who used to operate from the same office. I was privileged to watch him research and dictate opinions for governments. 

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5. After completing my apprenticeship, I was excited to appear in civil and High Courts, making brief submissions. Working alongside my senior allowed me to meet several legal luminaries. A few years later, I moved to Shiva and Co. to gain more exposure to civil courts. I remain grateful to my late Senior, K.C. Shiva Subramanian, who valued my hard work and allowed me to argue main matters in Civil and High Courts. He only cautioned me to seek adjournments if I sensed an unfavorable order was forthcoming. His trust boosted my confidence, and soon, I was handling nearly all of his cases while also developing my clientele. There was nothing more fulfilling than seeing clients express gratitude. One memorable case was when I got a criminal petition quashed in a dowry case for my client and his six family members, saving them from arrest. Their tearful thanks remain one of my most rewarding moments. 

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7. Later, I spent three years at Indus Law firm, where I gained valuable experience in company litigation and developed a deeper understanding of real estate law through title due diligence, transaction structuring, and documentation for major projects. In 2005, seeking more insight into real estate from a developer's perspective, I joined RMZ Corp in 2005, marking the start of my journey as an in-house counsel. Since 2010, I have been part of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail- a journey I’ve enjoyed ever since. 

You have played a pivotal role in turning ABFRL's legal team into a tech driven, customer-centric Centre of Excellence. How challenging was the road to transformation?

2. When I joined Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, now ABFRL, as the head of legal in 2010, I quickly realized that the legal department was seen merely as a support function, limited to drafting agreements. I was determined to change this perception. With the support of senior leadership, I began building a comprehensive legal function. It took a couple of years to develop in-house expertise to work on real estate, negotiating commercial contracts, managing intellectual property, litigations, e-commerce, legal metrology, retail, labour and EHS compliance for factories, warehouses, and offices. Despite expanding the department's scope to serve all business areas, we were still primarily seen as handling leasing matters. This perception shifted around 2012-13 when we started receiving internal complaints that the legal team delayed approval for payment of token security deposits to landlords, which entailed the risk of losing properties. I realized that the root cause of the delay was the lack of timely availability of concerned stakeholders to provide approval on paper. I took the initiative of automating the process of approval of initial token deposits for landlords before due diligence was completed on the DMS (Document Management System Software) system. It reduced the approval process from 8-12 days to a few hours, as stakeholders would approve in minutes on their phones, regardless of location. As we catered to more departments across many businesses of our organization, I realized in addition to the standardization of processes, the adoption of technology could be a game-changer. In 2013, I launched a legal function website on Dotnet to showcase the full range of our activities and provide access to digitized documents to our internal customers. This initiative earned us an innovation award at an in-house conference. We have standardized processes and implemented them across all businesses. 

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4. However, the road to transformation was challenging. Internal resistance to change in the team was partly due to work pressure and a lack of appreciation for automation. Additionally, resource and funding limitations made automation difficult. I decided to push forward, collaborating with the in-house IT team and small vendors to develop a website and automate approval processes using existing infrastructure.  This success energized me to continue the digital journey, implementing various tech initiatives to increase the legal team's efficiency and visibility. Over time, we gained acceptance from internal teams, and the digitalization process is ongoing. 

You have been a pioneer in integrating technology within legal operations since more than a decade now. What are key tech innovations you have introduced and how they have impacted legal efficiency and outcomes?

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4. Our first breakthrough was automating the approval process for initial security deposits via the DMS system. This was followed by the launch of a dedicated website for legal purposes. Building on these successes, we collaborated with a small vendor to develop a comprehensive in-house leasing portal. This experience laid the groundwork for several other web portals, including retail compliance, litigation management, intellectual property rights (IPR), and factory compliance. These portals were equipped with training videos and the ability to generate automatic dashboards, enabling us to monitor brand non-compliance, manage trademark and copyright filings, conduct remote audits, and set compliance reminders. The dashboards also allowed us to analyze litigation costs and other key metrics. 

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6. On the one hand, this digital shift has significantly boosted legal efficiency by eliminating the need to provide data and training to most internal customers manually, freeing up legal resources for higher-value tasks. On the other hand, the portals empower the business by providing timely reports to the board, flagging risks early, and enabling faster decision-making while saving costs through remote portal audits. Crucially, these legal tech initiatives have enhanced the visibility of the legal department's activities and contributions across the organization. The noteworthy aspect is that all these in-house portals are developed in our IT ecosystem, are highly customized for our businesses, and do not entail recurring maintenance costs. 

3. What is your take on adopting AI tools and tech solutions for a business? How do you foresee the future of AI in mitigating legal and business risk? 

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Adopting AI tools is a relatively recent development, and our organization is also exploring various AI technologies across different business operations. As we focus on practical use cases for these tools, I provide guidance and advice to the business on evaluating AI solutions, assessing the associated risks, and mitigating those risks through well-structured contracts with vendors and internal processes. Additionally, I advised Shantanu and Nikhil’s business on the sale of NFT. Certainly, AI is set to play a significant role in streamlining repetitive tasks, reducing the time required for summarising documents and judgements, identifying deviations or risks in contracts by referencing pre-determined parameters, generating bespoke agreements based on organisational training data, and facilitating audits. 

The role of a General Counsel has evolved as a business enabler and strategic advisor to business leaders. Tell us about your experience of collaborating with executive teams on strategic decisions and the array of top line work handled by your legal team under your leadership? 

I provide strategic legal counsel to business leadership across all divisions, with a focus on mitigating legal risks in relation to business expansions and operational activities. 

Since 2013, I have played a key role in securing international brand licences, starting with Simon Carter and Ted Baker, and later expanding to major global brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, Fred Perry, Forever 21, and more recently, Christian Louboutin, Reebok, and Galeries Lafayette. Throughout these transactions, I have worked closely with executive teams to analyze legal risks, propose solutions, and negotiate critical contractual terms, including licensing scope, termination rights, dispute resolution, and indemnity clauses. These negotiations were conducted predominantly in-house, with external counsel utilized sparingly, ensuring that legal risks were carefully managed while balancing commercial interests. Speaking about acquisition of other businesses, along with my team I have supported the acquisition and integration of TCNS, Sabyasachi, Jaypore, House of Masaba, and Shantanu and Nikhil.

On the governance front, our legal team has established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to promote consistency in processes and decision-making. We have embedded a robust risk management framework, with team members trained to identify, assess, and mitigate legal risks within their respective areas. Alongside streamlining processes, we emphasize stakeholder engagement through focused group discussions, training programs, and transparent communications bolstered by periodic dashboard reporting. Compliance is rigorously monitored through external audits, and we work collaboratively with the compliance teams to address any non-compliance through training and internal audits. My team works closely with the company secretarial team to submit reports to the Board. In sum, our legal team is committed to position legal function as the business enabler and conscious keeper of the organisation.

Could you also tell us about how you groom your large team of 30 members? 

Team development is a crucial area of focus for me. I am committed to building a legal team that works as a business enabler and conscious keeper for the organization. I actively encourage my team to engage in legal research, devise innovative methods for training and reporting, and continuously enhance their skills to stay ahead in the ever-evolving legal landscape. 

I periodically review their performance to ensure that the legal team’s objectives align with the organization’s mission and values. We are guided by cost and customer-centricity principles, which align with the organization’s values of integrity, seamlessness, passion, speed, and commitment, driving our success. In sum, our legal team is committed to position legal function as the business enabler and conscious keeper of the organisation.

How have you been guiding ABFRL in navigating the data-privacy landscape?

DPDP law is yet to be implemented. I have been working with consultants on formulating data protection policy and implementing measures to implement the DPDP law across all ABFRL businesses in India and foreign jurisdictions. There will be more to work on in the days to come.

You have evolved as a tech lawyer after completing your master’s in tech law from London a year ago. That’s a brilliant illustration of continuous learning: What do you advise legal professionals about the challenges and benefits of continuous learning?

Staying updated is essential in any profession, especially in today’s fast-evolving, tech-driven VUCA world. For young professionals or students, upskilling is often part of their career journey. However, for senior legal professionals, balancing the need for upskilling with time constraints and professional responsibilities can be particularly challenging. There is never a perfect moment when one feels completely free to pursue new learning opportunities. So, do it, no matter what it takes.

Balancing my role as General Counsel in India with the demands of a master’s course in London was daunting and overwhelming. However, as a marathoner, I’ve learned that success is achieved by taking one step at a time toward your goal, with each small, consistent effort contributing to progress and, ultimately, success. By meticulously planning and executing my daily tasks, I could stay focused and ultimately accomplish my goal.

Tell us about your initiatives in areas of privacy law, policy advocacy and industry association.

I ventured into the field of privacy law in 2017, driven by a keen interest in exploring this evolving domain, especially given our industry's handling of vast volumes of customer data. That same year, I was selected as a speaker at the IAPP conference in Singapore, where I addressed AI and privacy concerns in e-commerce. This experience paved the way for my appointment as Co-Chair of the IAPP Bangalore Chapter in 2020. In this leadership role, I actively contributed to debates and discussions on the first draft of the data protection law. Since then, I have continued to speak on privacy and technology law. IAPP again invited me in February 2024 to speak on facial recognition technology and privacy concerns with EU law enforcement. I speak on IP and tech law in various fora to share my knowledge.  

Beyond privacy law, I have also been a key member of the core advocacy team at the Retailers Association of India, where I engage in deliberations on policy issues impacting the retail sector. In collaboration with regulators and authorities, I work to address challenges and shape policies for the benefit of the industry.

In your view, what does the future hold for legal teams embracing technology? What advice would you give to legal professionals looking to stay ahead of the curve in the tech-driven legal landscape?

It may sound cliché to state that for a legal team to operate at its peak and truly empower the business, it must be tech-driven, leveraging data analytics, risk forecasting, and risk mitigation. While there is no shortage of tech tools in the market to support legal functions, the critical first step is for the team to create a robust, error-free legal data lake that can be analyzed and reported effectively. This foundation often starts with organizing their data on Excel and foreseeing possibilities of how and for what data could be analyzed, yet many rush to adopt advanced technologies only to find later they cannot generate the reports or forecast risks they had hoped for want of structured and analyzable data.

Equally important is ensuring that legal team members understand the role of AI in their digital transformation journey and how AI tools work to mitigate legal risks. However, customer centricity and cost efficiency must be at the heart of any tech tool adoption. Unless these tools are affordable and user-friendly, the digital transformation journey is destined to falter from the outset.