In Conversation With Asif Iqbal, General Counsel, Vivriti Asset Management

Asif, what motivated you to study law. Tell us about the initial years of your career?

I belong to a non-legal family background but grew up in a neighbourhood with people in senior judicial services. I was lucky to have firsthand interaction with such professionals at a young age. We had informal discussions on diverse issues of private, public, and national importance. Those interactions were fascinating and intellectually challenging to a young mind. They significantly shaped my views about law as a profession, not just to earn a living but to shape myself as a professional and a better human being.

What does a day in your shoes look like at work?

As a General Counsel, the typical day starts with taking stock of matters and plan for the day and a few days ahead. It involves troubleshooting and handling the priority items and providing advice and directions to the team on multiple streams of work. Once this settles down, I get on scheduled calls and external meetings. We partner our investment team in deal making, in that process continuously strive to increase our commercial awareness and improve our game. There is constant interaction with other functional leaders helping them with fund formation and fund raise, policy and strategic work. The day ends with interaction with team members, feedback and implementation review and catch up on legal & regulatory updates. 

What is your approach to assessing and mitigating risks in structured finance transactions?

Structured finance is a credit product with multidimensional risks. However, we are in the business of taking risks, so risk discovery is of utmost importance. The legal team takes the lead in due diligence and articulating the contingencies. We take a bottom-up approach to risk assessment and mitigation. Once we are comfortable with the risks and their mitigants, the legal team documents and executes the transaction. Speed of execution without compromising on diligence is key to our business and keeps us ahead of the competition.

Infrastructure projects often involve multiple stakeholders, including government bodies, investors, and contractors. What challenges have you encountered in advising on such projects?

There are several challenges in the execution of infrastructure projects. Improper planning, environmental issues, delays in approvals, clearances, and breaches of agreements pose significant risks to projects. Challenges in land acquisition or making the right of way available lead to time and cost over-run. Consequently, there is a rise in claims against the authorities. The slow progress of claim settlement has also frustrated the participants. These issues affect the financial viability of the infrastructure projects. However, technology is significantly helping stakeholders in precise risk analysis, carrying out environmental impact assessment, and planning and execution. 

High sunk costs coupled with long gestation periods further complicate the financing of infrastructure projects and lead to asset-liability mismatches. However, specialized infrastructure finance institutions and global private investors that have a deep understanding of this space are willing to provide the long gestation capital needed to fund such projects and partner with players that have strong execution capabilities. Good money will continue to chase quality assets.

Reflecting on your experience in managing big-ticket litigations, what lessons have you learned that influence your approach to handling disputes and minimizing potential legal conflicts in future transactions?

The key lessons are as follows:

• Do not delay in calling out the breach in unequivocal terms. 

• Keep the communication with the counter party precise and know each word that you say or write.

• Assess whether it is an intent issue or an ability issue.

• Quickly take stock of the real value of underlying asset and assess who may buy and at what price. 

• Move courts for interim relief quickly and with full preparation. See if a settlement is possible. If yes, settle and get out.

• Evaluate asset obsolescence and relevancy when you go for a long-haul dispute resolution.

In your view, what does the future hold for legal teams embracing technology?  How do you see governance and compliance frameworks changing with the emergence of legal tech and AI?

We are a tech-driven organisation. There is no option but to embrace technology and leverage it for quality and enhance frameworks, monitoring, and providing meaningful output. We have embraced technology and upgraded our processes andspeedier service delivery to all clients. Our regulators are using technology and AI to supervise market participants more closely. Therefore, the participants must have the right technology platforms so as to be fully compliant and reciprocate with stakeholders in the format and language their systems understand. Technology will aid in strengthening compliance, just like technology aids our team in legal research, end to end documentation control, execution and archival.