In Conversation with Abhijeet Tople - Head (Legal), Jio Financial Services
Mr Tople, would you please tell our readers what motivated you to study law? What were the initial formative years of your professional career like? From a marketing and sales background to an award-winning corporate lawyer with 15 plus years of experience. What have been the highlights of your legal career?
I am from a small city in Maharashtra. You don’t have exposure to corporates or big clients when you are in a small city. The opportunities to grow are rare. In such an environment it is difficult to get success. However, my father was a commerce lecturer. We were always discussing the companies in big cities, how those companies work, what is a balance sheet, marketing etc.
My first job was with the company manufacturing a hammock and mosquito net. I was in class 7 at that time. There was no financial need to join this job but I joined it to gain experience in marketing. I was always fascinated by the way these salespeople come to your door, negotiate and sale even after getting a lot of hate from the purchasers most of the time. I joined this company and used to visit door to door to sale the said products. I got a very good experience in door to door marking. After that, I never looked back. After my 10th class, I completed my 3 years Government Diploma in Plastic and Polymer Engineering with good grades and immediately joined one multinational company in Gujrat in 1997 as a production engineer. While working, I got a very good experience in manufacturing, how workers think, how management work etc. At the same time, I passed class 12 commerce exam as an external candidate. Due to my previous experience, I was sure that there is no alternative to commerce and hence while working I completed my graduation in commerce. Later I joined a few companies as Area Sales Manager, Distribution Head, Medical Representative etc and got a very good experience in sales of FMCG, Medical, Motor parts, plastic and polymer etc. I also took distributorship of few companies which were into the plastic crate and granule manufacturing and got rich experience in distribution. My aim in the early days was not to earn money but to get very good experience and exposure. During all these years while working, I had got chance to work on lot of agreements with dealers, distributors of the companies in coordination with legal departments and also part of negotiations for the resolution of few disputes. I was fascinated by the kind of work advocates and in-house lawyers were doing for the companies. So I decided to become a lawyer and I took admission in LLB in my city Akola. I must say that it doesn’t matter in which college you take your education but your dedication, hard work does matter. However with my LLB, I started my coaching classes for commerce and law students from the second year of my LLB and also teaching the Russian language which was my first language in my class 12. I was also delivering Hindi and Marathi news on a TV channel as an anchor for 3 years for an hour every day. This experience helped in gaining knowledge in public speaking, journalism, political issues and other social and commercial issues.
I joined a law firm part-time from my first year of LLB itself. I used to visit the office every evening. I used to study briefs and help advocates in preparing and drafting briefs, plaints, complaints, agreements etc. This experience was very unique since I was directly getting experience in drafting and also dealing with different clients.
My senior advised me that I must practice in court for at least 3 years in initial days of my career for getting practical knowledge of law and then I should join corporate. I started practising as an advocate in my city Akola in district and session court. My earlier exposure with various industries helped me a lot in getting clients in a very short period of time. In the first 3 months of my joining court, I argued anticipatory bail wherein 7 dacoits were involved and also I was providing title search report for top 3 banks in India. In the first 6 months, I was working for local dealers, distributors etc. While practising as an advocate I was meeting in house lawyers, legal teams etc and had good understanding of their requirements.
Later I joined a corporate in the legal department of a well-known corporate house in Mumbai. Since then I am working for corporates in various capacities in a legal department.
I have been felicitated with various awards including General Counsel of the Year awards, In- house Counsel of the Year Award etc.
I must say that every student of law must not lose any opportunity to learn the business while studying law. That will help them in understanding the business and also while applying the law to a particular business situation. I am of the view that one must practice before the court for at least 2 years so that they can understand how judiciary functions, the documentation etc and no one can fool them in relation to the legal proceedings.
It is said that success is easy to achieve but difficult to sustain. What has helped you achieve and sustain success over a long period of time?
I have fixed the following rules for myself:
Please give our readers a sneak peek into your job profile. What does a day as Legal Head of Jio Financial Services look like? What are your roles and responsibilities?
The legal head is responsible for managing entire legal function of the Jio Financial Services which is including drafting, vetting and negotiations of agreements, legal advisory and litigation management etc. Since last 5 years, no law firm’s services are availed for any non-litigation work and we have managed to do all work in-house.
Your legal career has been nothing short of an inspiration for many aspiring and young legal professionals. Who are the mentors you have looked up to and admired? How have they helped you in shaping your career?
My father Mr. Vijay Tople (commerce lecturer) who was always by my side and encouraged me always during my journey. My senior Mr Shrinivas Khot has been an inspiration for me always. He taught me that an advocate should be a jack of all the trades, there is nothing like an expert in one filed and you can learn everything. You must accept any assignment as a challenge even if you are not having knowledge in that field, give your full attention to that matter, study/work hard on the assignment and give great results. He had always encouraged me to take his briefs, work on it and deal with it before the courts. I argued in a very critical matter of Will and won that case in the lower court and in appeal in district court only because of his motivation in my first year of joining the court as an advocate. I got tremendous experience, support and knowledge from my bosses and colleagues in corporate organisations and still, I am gaining it. Learning must not stop.
How did your team at Jio Financial Services respond to Covid19? What are some of the operational issues in-house legal departments are facing today because of the pandemic? (What do in house legal departments of the future look like? From LMS to document management systems. Is there a tech toolkit every company can adopt?)
We are managing the legal department smoothly without any issues in COVID 19. There are no operational issues except the availability of the stamp duty in the market.
What is your take on the notion of Work-Life Balance? What keeps you busy other than work? Tell us about your hobbies. Would you recommend any movies or books that have left a profound impact on you?
There must be work-life balance. I am a solicitor of the same. I fixed my rules for the work which I already quoted above and I observed that the first few days in any company it takes me 12 to 14 hours a day to finish the work. However, if you continue to follow the same rules, you will not have any work on the desk at the end of the day for taking action and you can finish work in 9 hrs itself and you can give sufficient time to your family.
I like to sing, direct short movies, photoshoot, make poems, speak at various forums on different topics. I have directed a short movie and the movie got 2 international awards in the short film festival. You may also visit my youtube channel “Success where I publish discussions on various legal topics.
What to your mind has helped you get to where you are and what advice would you have for others who want to achieve success in the legal profession?
You can learn in any college in any city. If you are in a big college the name of the college or the status of the college will help you for a few days only in the market. At the end of the day, your hard work will matter. So it doesn’t matter which college you study. Start preparing yourself for the practice and the corporates from day one of the college. Companies search for talented candidates for inhouse openings/appointing them as advocates who may save them from any legal issues. So prepare yourself accordingly. I observed that even students passed from very good colleges fail to draft a single pager document properly. Make yourself expert in litigation, drafting, negotiations and compliances. Start doing something from today itself which will give you some business exposure l help you later in providing better legal services. You must not distinguish between corporate and practice. Both have positives and negatives. So don’t target only one. Please note that your target should be to become an expert legal professional.
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