In Conversation With Adhiraj Singh. Associate General Counsel, MakeMyTrip

Would you please walk us through your early years of education and the decision to become a lawyer?

Growing up, the primary focus was always on sports, fitness and being a good human being. Academics was reasonably important, but not considered the top priority. My dad was an officer in the Indian army and my mom was a school teacher. Since the army is a transferrable job, my mom and I travelled to wherever my dad was posted and hence a lot of childhood and education was spent in various army cantonments across the country. However, to bring greater stability to my education, and to help foster greater focus on sports and cocurricular, I was sent to the Army Public School, Dagshai, a boarding school near Shimla to complete my education.

I was always unsure about my career path and was always pretty good at computer programming, physics and math. However, reading The King of Torts by Jeffery Archer at a critical career decision making time, and seeing that the law entrance exam required very little preparation (compared to IIT-JEE), made my career path pretty clear!

Thereafter I went to National Law School, Bangalore from where I graduated in 2010 with the gold medal in sports and cocurricular activities. College was some of the most fun I have had in life. NLSIU was the first time I spent time surrounded by smart students and teachers and the experience taught me how much further one can drive oneself if surrounded by the correct people.

Tell us about your roles and responsibilities at work, what does a day in your shoes look like?

I am the Associate General Counsel for MakeMyTrip. In theory I manage all litigation, IPR and business advisory. In practice I also handle whatever new issue arises every new day- as I’m sure all in house lawyers will relate.

A typical day at work will mean a variety of things- done as efficiently as possible. Litigation requires daily work on strategy and budgets. Business advisory requires a lot of research into laws- both global and Indian, as well as the exercise of judgement to determine how best to serve the needs of business teams. Of course each day will also bring special challenges which cant be anticipated or a business impediment which requires urgent legal intervention. It is important to be flexible in approaches and encourage lateral thinking to deliver as part of an in-house legal team.

A day will start by answering emails and responding to messages when I wake up and will likely end with the last call/briefing/discussion on the matters coming up the next day. This doesn’t change irrespective of weekday/weekend or vacation- an in house counsel always needs to be on top of what is happening. Its good to trust your external counsels and team to deliver but its always better to be on top of things and make sure there are no hiccups!

In your experience, what are some common legal challenges faced by companies operating in the online travel industry, and how does MakeMyTrip navigate through these challenges to maintain compliance and drive growth?

MakeMyTrip operates its platform across multiple jurisdictions and, despite being an Indian company, has active operations in India, UAE, US and the EU. Similarly, group companies have operations in many more countries including Latin America and South East Asia. Additionally, MakeMyTrip offers multiple services from various services providers across air, hotels, cabs, trains, holidays etc. When you take the breath of services, provided across multiple jurisdictions and done with a startup mindset- it puts immense pressure on the in-house legal team to be dynamic in their approach and efficient in providing solutions. In particular, this puts compliance in the spotlight often and we take several steps, and have built several internal processes to ensure that we comply with the laws of every jurisdiction where we operate, and the obligations contained in every contract that we sign. Further, a recurring problem in litigation is often the motivated criminal prosecutions and complaints by customers arising from service disputes which should ideally be purely civil/consumer disputes. It is not uncommon for criminal complaints to be filed in such consumer matters, for directors and KMP to be summoned in such matters, or even for NBW to be issued against them! This issue is more prevent in some states rather than others! Such matters, while having no legal merit, nonetheless put tremendous strain on the legal team.

Increasingly, another challenge is finding good, reliable external counsel who are willing to step outside their comfort zone and work hard to find solutions in areas they may not be familiar with. New problems require innovative solutions- which is only possible through hard work, research and the exercise of good judgement. We are always on the lookout for such counsels!

What is your success mantra and what advice would you give to others wanting to tread a similar path?

Never say no and never offer an excuse.

Never Say no- no matter what the problem statement, assignment or work- never say no. It is important for the business teams to look upon the legal team as a source of help and support, and it is important for your boss to see you as someone who can be relied upon to do any task provided to you. Be it something small like you being assigned a task which should ideally fall within a colleague’s purview or something big like being asked to solve a problem which has no legal solution- it is important to take it on and give your best.

Similarly, never offer an excuse- if you made a mistake- no matter how small or big- just admit it, and work on a solution and find way forward. Don’t waste time and energy blaming others or trying to pass on the responsibility or offering excuses- this conduct helps no one.

Adhiraj Singh. Associate General Counsel, MakeMyTrip is a BW Legal World 40u40 Winner. Submissions for this year will begin in July. Please write to us at baani@businessworld.in to share your interest in staying updated.