In Conversation with Mishi Choudhary, Managing Partner—Mishi Choudhary & Associates; Moglen & Associates; Software Freedom Law Center, India

Mishi, would you please tell us where did this illustrious journey begin and at what age did you decide to study law. Please walk us through your early years of education and the decision of becoming a lawyer. 

I wanted to study medicine but went to law school to fulfil my father’s dream of being a lawyer. He had to quit college mid-way to start his pharmaceuticals business. A class at Hindu College on Indian Government and Politics introduced me to the fascinating text of our Constitution and what it means to us. After graduating from Campus Law Center, University of Delhi, I practised for a  few years at Delhi High Court and Supreme court of India, studied briefly in Europe and thereafter at Columbia Law School as the First Open Source Fellow.  

Who have been your guiding North Stars and the biggest inspiration in this journey? 

Biggest inspiration: I am always getting inspired by people  I meet.  Richard Stallman, Barack Obama, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Amal Clooney, Sudha Bhardwaj, Hon’ble Justice H.R. Khanna, women who are building tech companies, girls who are coding on borrowed laptops at Ambedkar Community Centers, film-makers, actors, artists, stand-up comedians. Mr Neeraj Kishen Kaul (my first boss) and Professor Eben Moglen have been life-long mentors. 

Would you please tell us more about the array of work you handle at your organization? 

I work primarily with technology companies, represent the world’s leading Free and Open Source Software Projects, companies that use FOSS products on trademarks, copyright, patents. A major part of my practice involves Open source software licensing, including IP strategy, compliance, transactions, and disputes, data protection laws, privacy, intermediary liability issues, copyright infringement, export control laws, code of conduct investigations,  technology transactions, including licenses, sales agreements,  technology transfers, and consumer contracts. 

Would you please summarily tell us the current status of the sectors of the economy you work in, the roadblocks in our path and the way forward? 

All my clients in the technology space are constantly complaining about India’s heavy-handed, unpredictable, ever-changing regulations. There is no clarity on laws that govern Data Protection, AI, surveillance. Every day some ministry or regulatory body issues a new paper announcing a  different set of regulations on a matter previously assumed to be under a different body. For India to emerge as a leader in creating “IT for humanity”, we need light-handed, clear regulations with a system of contractual and tortious damages instead of criminal punishment for businesses and specialised, efficient courts.

Do you think our PDP Bill is likely to hit small companies and that it gives too much power to the government? While privacy is absolutely necessary in India—the world’s most promising Internet economy, critics say the PDP Bill stands to handicap India's technology startups. Your thoughts, please. 

Innovation and privacy can co-exist. 

Many well-intentioned observers have pinned all their hope on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, to protect citizens from the ever broadening reach and greedof companies and other entities for our data. While India does need such a law urgently, in no way can this address the problems being presented by this case where all citizens’ privacy and security is held ransom to check the notoriety of a few malicious players. 

India can by setting a “best in world” standard of privacy protection in new legislation, India can produce and export privacy to the world by competing on a pro-privacy basis with the platform companies. There is no European Google, Facebook, or Twitter and there won’t be. European societies are not configured to provide inexpensive cloud-based, privacy respecting services (such as email, photo sharing, brief messaging and microblogging) to billions of people in competition with the US giants. 

Make data privacy and protection of citizens’ data from MNC platforms not just a regulatory objective, but a global business opportunity. New “data protection” legislation resulting from the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Aadhaar cases should provide complete compatibility with Europe’s GDPR, but go further, to make India the legal, technological and services hub for the global pro-privacy revolution that consumers and businesses around the world have now realised they want.  

Position India as the creator of “AI with human values”, in which the technological breakthroughs of the next decades will coexist and develop under the overarching ethical principles of democracy, freedom and human dignity. Like the “peaceful atom”, this is the appropriate position for India as a scientific and technical powerhouse committed to development for the sake of humans, not for military dominance. 

What in your opinion has been the biggest change or challenge looming over the legal landscape of India amid COVID-19?  

The courts did a  commendable job adapting to virtual hearings but challenges in our system started to show. The need for the courts to digitize and modernize existed before the pandemic, of course, but now the urgency for reform is even greater. We should target technological resource disparities, work with better legal information portals, which change the way people access the justice system, and other technologies that move targeted court processes online. 

I can do a lot more in the U.S. without ever leaving my office than I can do in Indian courts. The use of videoconferencing technologies has quickly emerged as an essential strategy and should continue in some instances. Courts and our judicial system need a new paradigm. one that is more efficient, more convenient and accessible for litigants, more transparent, and less costly 

What are some of the challenges women-lawyers face in their careers globally that need a forethought at workplaces? 

The usual: assertiveness in a woman is often read as aggressiveness, being underestmated by everyone especially if you work in technology,  having to work twice as hard to prove one’s merit and being boxed as frivolous if one dresses well or is social, expected to juggle personal and professional lives seamlessly.

Many Congratulations on joining the BW Legal World Elite 40 Under 40 Club of Achievers 2020. What to your mind has helped you get to where you are and what advice would you have for others who want to set off in a similar direction? 

I am too young and inexperienced to offer any advice. Stay true to your values, keep working smart and re-assess your choices periodically so as not to lose the sight of the forest for the trees.  Stay internally-oriented. Find great friends who can teach you to laugh at yourself. 

Other than work, what else keeps you busy? Would you please share your interests and hobbies with our readers? And as a final note, would you please recommend to our readers your favourite book or movie/series that left a lasting impression on you. 

I read a lot of fiction for pleasure. Yoga, travel and theatre are my other interests. 

The last play I saw before the lockdown and loved was “What the Constitution Means to Me” which is now streaming on Amazon Prime. 

Books change every year based on what I have read. This year, I loved The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Talking to Strangers, 1Q84, Spillover and When Breath Becomes Air. I re-read Animal Farm and The  Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for comfort. 

Some authors that I love are George Orwell, P.G. Wodehouse, Fyodor Doestoyevsky, Amitav Ghosh, Kamleshwar, Rohington Mistry, Haruki Murakami to escape reality and James Balswin, Malcolm gladwell. Daniel Kahneman, Yuval Harari. 

Same with movies. Tamas, Ardha Satya and Dil Se are old hindi classics. This year I loved “I am not your negro” and “Schitt’s Creek”. 

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