Balancing Law And Business For In-house Future Lawyers

The second edition of the ‘Future of Legal Education Summit’ 2023 presented by BW Businessworld witnessed a day full of powerful panel discussions, keynote speeches, and seminars.

An insightful session on ‘Balancing Law & Business: Preparing Future Lawyers for In-house Roles’ was held with a strong panel of experts comprising Damini Bhalla, General Counsel, Zomato; Sachin Kalra, Vice President of Legal & Regulatory Affairs, HT Media; Sameet Gambhir, Vice President – Corporate Law & Company Secretary, DCM Shriram; Sanjay Gulati, EVP & Group Head Corporate, GMR Group; Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat, Group General Counsel, Vedanta Group and CV Raghu, Legal Advisor, Motherson Group. The session chaired by Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-chief, BW Businessworld & Exchange4media Group, touched upon various segments in the discussion such as how to prepare young professionals for entering the legal domain or those aspiring to be a General Counsel, new knowledge orientations to adapt, movement between law firms and in-house space and the contribution of in-house lawyers to the organisations.

For the opening comments, Gulati highlights the role of In-house counsel and the guidelines young professionals must keep in mind while entering the domain. He stated, “The role of an in-house counsel is very critical. It requires competence in terms of business knowledge and business orientation and at the same time an in-house counsel is required to have the right experience and understanding of law. Corporations today continuously push themselves to know how they are going right in terms of governance, compliances, various applicability on their business and how do they protect themselves and reframe themselves in the framework of the law of how they operate. As an in-house counsel, there are areas of specialisation, a particular diverse businesses or groups who are dealing with multiple businesses like oil & gas business, aviation, and more. Thereby, in-house counsels have a big opportunity. The future in-house counsels or budding lawyers step into the side of the fence and they are expected to learn those nuances of the business and learn how to implement the law as a part of the business as the business looks up to the lawyers and the in-house lawyers are the most closest link between the regulatory framework.”

Adding to the discussion on the role of in-house counsel, Kalra further said, “For In-house counsel, the person who has the knowledge of business very well but should also have sound knowledge of law because he has to provide the risk basically to the company and with the risk, he has to analyse which future is there with the new project.”

Talking about the new knowledge orientations that lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsels are required to adapt, Bhalla commented, “In the digital market space, we see a lot of changes that we are seeing from a regulatory standpoint from various angles. I think it is no longer just about the practice of law, it is also about a practise of policy. A lot of your job also goes into making sure that the right narrative is out there in the right manner from a legal compliance standpoint as well. I also think the pace at which you are required to advise is changed. It is absolutely critical to have not only an in-depth understanding of the law but the policy and sometimes regulatory thinking.” Adding to this, Batra said, “Seizing the narrative is the key to winning.”

On the functional changes of switching from law firms to in-house lawyers of professionals, Raghu stated, “When people from law firms come to join in-house, they believe the quality of life, they believe it is a 9 to 5 job, they feel its more clear cut wherein law firms, there is a lot of ambiguity in terms of growth and more. To be honest, it is no different.” Emphasising research, he further states, “In law firms, you take ownership of your client but if something goes wrong, you don’t lose your job but in-house takes the responsibility, they are accountable, and the Chairman relies on what advice you give them. Therefore, in-house plays a far more significant role in advising the leadership team inside the company than an external lawyer. In the legal profession, you much know the law much better than your external counsel when you advise. If you don’t know that, you would be in shady rounds.” 

When asked about General Counsels not moving to law firms but law firm professionals moving to in-house, Gambhir expresses his thoughts commenting, “For being an in-house lawyer, you are practicing law. The only difference is law firms have external clients and in-house has internal clients. I believe both sides are equally good and you need to do what your duties are. You need to advise them and understand their business whether they are your external clients or internal clients. From my perspective, I don’t see any much of a difference between both sides whether it be in renumeration or leadership. It depends on an individual on how they want to continue but at the same time when you are a GC or an in-house lawyer, there are certain things you differently face.” 

Providing inputs on GCs increasingly becoming contributors to the bottom line for the right kind of growth, Gemawat states, “What makes in-house counsel distinct from external lawyers is the delivery and accountability and these two things are so critical in an organization that the whole business is dependent on that. The fact remains that today, all industries are highly regulated but then we pursue legal issues only from the perspective of some dispute resolution.”