In Conversation With Debolina Partap, General Counsel Wockhardt About Pharma Industry And Her Magnificent Journey In The Industry

1. Ms. Partap, you have been at the helm of legal affairs for banking, pharmaceuticals and healthcare industries with an industrious career spanning over 20 years. You’ve been on the GC Powerlist and gained considerable recognition from one and all in the legal industry. Please walk us through your early years of education and the decision of becoming a lawyer.

Ashima, first and foremost, thank you for this opportunity with a prestigious publication group. I am indeed honored.

I hail from a traditional Bengali family whose roots are deep into Bengal royalty and influence of British education. We hail from the lineage of the princely family of Gaud Dynasty of erstwhile combined Bengal. My aunts and cousins went to missionary schools being the most progressive forms of education then. Keeping the tradition, I went to the prestigious Loreto Convent in Mumbai. Following that, I did my Bachelor of Commerce from the well-known Podar College of Commerce and Economics. While studying there, I learnt Shakespeare from a professional group and took public speaking classes. I was told that I had a good voice, diction and was effective in expressions. The play that fascinated me the most was Merchant of Venice and I think this is the touch stone for all future legal fictions and legal thrillers like John Grisham’s etc. The amazing and intelligent character of Portia, led to my enrolling as a law student with the prestigious Government Law college in Mumbai and I went on to complete my Masters of Law, being a gold medalist. I had been a scholar and a student of distinctive proficiency throughout my education and degrees.

2. Who have been your mentors, the driving force in this awe-inspiring journey?

The spirit to be liberated and independent came from my mother Minoti Bose. A few books have always been besides me whenever I am suspended with doubts- these being- Bhagvad Geeta, Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell), Manuscripts of Accra (Paolo Coelho) and Difficulty of Being Good (Gursharan Das). Another group of people from whom I derive tremendous strength are my juniors. I learn a lot from their “not so perfections”. And finally my husband Partap has stood rock solid besides me and my son Jivitesh with great adventure and jest has always told me that I am a “dim witted small insect” which really grounds me to a winking reality. My mentors have been my unlikes always.

3. Coming back to your current assignment, would you please share with our readers the array of work you handle at Wockhardt.

I am Senior Vice President Legal and Group General Counsel of Wockhardt Group and have 27 years of experience in banking, finance, pharma and healthcare. I am responsible for IP and Litigation Management, legal compliance, all corporate legal work, M&As, transactions management amongst others. I advise top management on legal risks to the organization. My main achievements come in handling complex M&A transactions, IP cases, setting up legal compliance systems, legal repository management, standardization of legal processes and documents, settling insolvency petitions and intricate arbitrations and derivatives suits. I am also involved in handling legal issues pertaining to complex and composite global regulatory matters concerning Wockhardt Group. My additional focus areas have been handling legal dynamics of patient safety issues, overseeing legal aspects of GCP, GMP and GDP areas in pharma. I also handle legal aspects of forensics and data analytics.

4. Would you please allow us a little peek into your routine at work, tell us about your team and share your views on the evolving role of in-house counsel in the current environment?

We have a small team at Wockhardt, comprising of 7 officers who handle work globally for approximate 30 countries. The role of in-house counsels has seen a paradigm shift from advisors to risk managers, solution finders and business enablers. In the current environment in-house counsels need to deal with setting up systems for the future flurry of risks. Currently, the lull situation of the economy is only the blackening of clouds before the thunderstorm. I think when economy revives and regulators go with a full capacity drive of legal actions, companies will find it difficult to cope with the aftermath of legal and regulatory investigations and inquiries. So, as we say make hay while the sun shines, the in-house legal departments must lay down SOPs for facing the future risks in the hiding so that nothing comes as a surprise and the companies are prepared to face these. While doing so, also the in-house legal departments need to monitor the compliance systems that are already in place and deal with deviations on account of pandemic condition. The future as I see will have a lot of litigation spurt which have been in the waiting.

5. How do you think Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Analytics will shape the corporate legal departments of the future?

My take is that a lot of work needs to be done in this area. As you would have seen, we are a small department handling huge work load. And we do not have the option to complain of laxities. We combine processes and work responsibilities. Our KPIs are complex within the department. With the use of automation, we are able to segregate repetitive and template work from actual application based work. It makes work more streamlined. Corporate Legal Departments are slowly getting aligned to technology usage in many systematized core areas of work and practice.

6. Speaking of the advancement in technology, what would be your advice to the new crop of lawyers pitted against LegalTech. With competition becoming ever more fierce with AI solutions effectively taking care of routine contractual work (like NDA Reviews, Standard Contract Drafting) while also driving down costs for organisations, what are the skills you’re looking for in lawyers joining your team?

I think the two can be delinked. Technology has its own space. It does not replace human lawyers. I think it will be a realignment of the goals of the legal department and also the KPIs of individual lawyers. Mitigating cost is not a new thing. It has always been the issue with legal departments since “Abou Ben Adhem” days. But I think slim departments with technology orientation is the future.

7. What kind of curveballs has the Covid-19 pandemic thrown toward the biopharmaceuticals? What are the live legal issues plaguing the industry at this time, and what has been your strategy to grapple with these challenges?

The Pandemic initially crippled the pharma and healthcare industry as well. Especially lockdowns. Transportation, warehousing, supply chain came to a halt and thereby impacting manufacture and supply of medicines. Many hospitals got converted to Covid Hospitals. Things are now settling down. A lot of impetus is given by governments across globe on research of laboratory testing, vaccines and other drugs. As a legal department of pharma companies …contracts and ventures in this connection have been the top most priority. Also, many contracts have been executed by pharma companies for supply of existing essential drugs in respect of the Covid 19 and also in the research space. In the healthcare space, the governments have given a lot relaxation to patients getting treatments for Covid 19. In India we have a compendium of all notifications relating to Covid 19. A compliance of these notifications in substance and materiality is something which the current legal departments need to deal with. It is a big challenge.

8. Currently, the world’s hopes are pinned on biopharma companies for a cure or vaccine to control the pandemic. This, as we see, has resulted in large R&D investments in the big pharma for drug discovery and development and led to a multitude of collaborations between drugmakers. What kind of Risk Forecasting or Legal and Compliance Monitoring goes behind some of these decisions?

I think I would not like to delve into the nitty-gritties of such contracts, as most of them are not in public domain and are price sensitive. But at the end of the day any collaboration including the stakeholders would have the patient safety, accessibility and affordability together with product liability as their primary concern.

9. Negotiate. Mediate. Litigate. What’s your take on the dispute resolution mechanism in India, ADR and the potential of ODR. Please share your views on the recent spate of amendments in the arbitration laws in India. How has that impacted resolution of disputes in your organisation?

Arbitration process in India is becoming more streamlined. However, it is still heavily dependent on Ad hoc Arbitrations. The moves in the amendments that I have liked are the mediation processes introduced in IP disputes and the steady effort to keep costs low. Another effort to keep the period of arbitration time bound has been welcome. But somehow on the Appealability of Awards, though the grounds and process have become more stringent than earlier, I still feel in India, sometimes this acts as a whammy and the end of justice is not served.

10. a) Ms Partap, to gain a better perspective on the changing legal landscape, I’d like to steer the conversation back to your personal experience in the legal industry. Would you say things have become easier for women-lawyers now? That there is more acceptability at the c-suite table? Or does the way to the top continue to be a journey through labyrinths and mazes for women?

The visibility of Women in the in-house sector has become more evident. More and more women are now confident of their acceptability in corporates, though the ratio is still highly skewed. To climb the ladder in this profession is as difficult for a woman as in other professions but the will to continue till the end has definitely been more encouraging now in respect of lawyers of my gender.

b) Did managing your family and work commitments come easy to you? It seems COVID-19 lockdown has led to a unique understanding between working couples—managing everything themselves and dividing all their chores equally. What are your thoughts on this?

Just one comment, in life you never stop learning. I realized that both my husband and son cook better than me. So we have great weekend parties with the family!

11. Is there anything you’d like to share with our lawyers of the future, any golden piece of advice from the treasure trove of your experiences in the industry, success mantra or tips for lawyers wanting to move to an in-house role?

When you are given a situation to handle don’t think as a lawyer to understand it. The best solution in law comes only then….because then you rightly know which law to apply! Always think what your counterparty or opponent thinks and feels—you have won then! And finally try to walk the extra mile.

12. Thank you so much for doing this interview with us, Ms Partap. As a parting note, would you please recommend to our readers your favourite book or movie/series that left a lasting impression on you.

I have already mentioned the names of some books earlier but I would like to add the biography of Abraham Lincoln and as regards movies, the ones which left a lasting impression on me were—(i) A Time to Kill, (ii) Gandhi and (iii) Life of Pi.

The views are of the author's and not of Wockhardt Group.