In Conversation with Rakhee Biswas, Strategic Consultant, Former General Counsel- ITC Infotech

Ms Biswas, please take us through the formative years of your exceptional journey. What motivated you to study law? How was your first year after college like? Did you face any initial struggles? If so, how did you overcome them?

I grew up in the serene hills of Himachal Pradesh in a town called Solan, studied in a convent there, St. Luke’s High School, our principal, Mr DJ Michael, was the biggest influence on my life in addition to my parents and various other people I met later.

I was very active in extracurricular activities like Quiz, declamations and dramatics. I also had very strong opinions about social matters and a very keen sense of fairness and justice. As a young child, I used to question things. I remember when I was in class 10, aged 16 years and writing my Board exams, there was this news about three sisters in Chandigarh who committed suicide when their parents got a baby brother. The want of a son appeared to have damaged the self-esteem of those girls that drove them to suicide. That is when I wrote my first poem on ‘male child preference’ as a social issue which was published by the leading newspaper Indian Express. Those days, it meant sending your poem on a 15 paisa postcard to Indian Express office, while one had an exam the next day. Having the town post office on way to the school helped. The poem was called, “ Why did the three girls die?” The poem was published by the newspaper, it moved a lot of people. I realized that I had a sensitive writer inside me. Thereafter, I wrote frequently in children’s columns of the publication. I still write poetry at times and I genuinely admire good literature, psychology and philosophy as subjects to enrich my innermost feelings.

My grandfather was a renowned lawyer in Kolkatta, who was also a friend of Dr S. Radhakrishnan, the renowned statesman and scholar and the first Vice President of India and second President of India. I read a few letters in my childhood which they both had exchanged, those letters spoke about the ideas of two intellectuals on how to make independent India achieve the vision of those who fought for its independence. Those letters contained exchanges on social equity, equality and opportunities for all. Those letters still inspire me to be concerned about society and country that we create. I find social apathy and inequity very uncomfortable. My maternal uncle is also a lawyer who has carried forward my grandfather’s legacy.

Law was a natural choice for a curious mind that questioned things. In 1991, I got selected to the National Law School, Bangalore, however, due to certain circumstances, I could not join the National Law School that year. Having a keen interest in the working of the human mind, I then opted to study Psychology Honours at Chandigarh and followed it up with a Law Degree from Panjab University Chandigarh. I was an active quizzer, was the national champion in Quizzing, won more than 300 quiz contests, took part in SAARC Radio Quiz and television Quiz. I studied law after completing my graduation with Psychology Honours.

After completing my Law Degree, I moved to Delhi. I worked with a senior lawyer in the High Court of Delhi and the Supreme Court of India. Yes, there were challenges indeed, those days in 1997, there were far fewer women in the legal practice. When I reflect, however, I think that I was innocent enough those days to deflect and attribute any sort of discrimination to my being a young inexperienced lawyer rather than it being a gender-based hardship or discrimination. That helped me focus on the matters that I needed to focus on, rather than on the distractions or prejudices.

I worked very hard and proved my intellectual capabilities to the senior counsel who let me then handle complex matters on my own. During that time, I interacted with corporate clients and was very enthused by the blending of the legal and business nuances in the in-house legal space. In 2001, I joined my first in-house role at Allianz Bajaj Life Insurance, when the Allianz group set up its insurance business in India upon the liberalization of the insurance industry in India. Between 1997 and 2001, I also worked on the two contemporary developments then, first the changes in the Laws of Patents and second changes in the Insurance laws, these works were published in the form of books.

It is always said that success is easy to achieve and difficult to sustain? What has helped you sustain success in your career over a prolonged period of time?

I have always worked on equipping myself with new skills both in professional matters and personal areas. I keep learning new areas of law and new creative skills whenever possible.

I have recently completed a masters in Aviation Laws, from the University of Toulouse in France. I lived in France for close to two years, expanded my horizons, read different subjects, met interesting people and soaked my soul in the arts and sculpture in the museums.

Earlier, I completed a design course at Florence and prior to that, I trained formally as an actor under a renowned theatre guru, who was also a Hollywood actor. Couple of personality traits I had and further enhanced helped me a lot, e.g. a raging curiosity, risk-taking ability, hard work, adaptability and learning agility helped me move forward and sustain the momentum. I am very conscious that integrity and character are the most important elements and must be preserved in any event. This helped me lead a lot of Compliance and Ethics programs in complex circumstances in many global organizations.

Tell us about your mentors. Who are the people that have contributed to guide you in your professional journey and how?

My mentors have been many, my earliest mentors have been my teachers at school, college and University. When I was a young professional in legal departments, I had a couple of great managers who mentored me. My mentors have helped me in understanding my strengths and weaknesses, outlining the paths and offering great advice. In addition to mentoring, I believe that one’s ability to absorb the learnings and morals from inspirational acts of anyone, including your team members, a stranger or even of a child can really contribute to one’s perspectives.

I would like to mention that my spouse Arpit Rajain, has been very supportive and so have been my parents and my brother and his family.

You have implemented the GDPR program across 25 countries in a matter of 8 weeks. How did you accomplish this? Tell us about your experience?

When I joined ITC Infotech as Head of Legal in February of 2018, the GDPR deadline was fast approaching in May 2018. The Company had many European clients, so it was critical to get the GDPR compliance readiness right. I did the deep dive into all the areas that needed changes such as Policy drafting, implementation, Consent Management, Rights of Data Subject Management and other related processes. More than 200 clients, more than 9000 employees, more than 25 offices in different global locations, more than 2000 vendors were part of the scope.

My team and I worked extended hours each day along with one of the Big 4 Firms as advisors. We made sure that by the effective date of May 25, 2018, the organization was compliance-ready and business was protected. Performing this project required coordination with several country offices, different stakeholders such as customers, delivery and operations teams, Finance and Accounts, HR and others. I led the team by keeping their motivation high, handholding various participants and leading from the front. It was a very satisfying project.

Will the emergence of new technology make job prospects leaner for fresh law graduates? What new skills and competencies do legal professionals need to work on?

I do not think that emergence of new technology shall make prospects leaner, rather will reduce the repetitive tasks and aid the lawyers performing their jobs more productively and accelerating the speed of reviews, readings and research needed to prepare a matter. For. e.g. if there is an audiobook on a legal subject, it would help if I utilize my driving time to listen to it or if there is a tool that shows me the precedents related to a matter, it would finally help in productivity.

Well, lawyers with additional technical skills will be a great future. Technology abilities will also make lawyers somewhat more independent in terms of designing their own legal solutions that may need a technology interface.

What in your opinion has been the biggest change or challenge in the legal operations of in-house legal departments in the last few years especially after the pandemic?

In an in-house department of a business organization, I think the biggest challenge is contracts and management of various aspects related to business contracts life cycles. The source of revenue is contract dependent in all business enterprises, hence having the right content in the contracts, right obligation management, management of duration and disputes is critical.

During the pandemic, the systematic access to information critical for decision making while the stakeholders are spread across the globe is a challenge. I see the pandemic will result in more cloud-based solutions that can host legal information for ready access at all hours across the global locations of an organization. More cloud-based solutions for collaborative work processes that can be utilized by in-house teams will emerge. The same kind of collaborative work process automation shall happen in respect of the law firm work practices as well.

Ms Biswas, at the inaugural BW Legal World Conference, you highlighted that lawyers need to create an intimate relationship with technology. Are lawyers ready for the technology of the future? 

By intimacy, I mean knowing someone/something at a deeper level like in an intimate relationship. Intimacy with technology to me means understanding how a technology tool works, how can it affect me as a lawyer, what are its advantages and also to know what can be its limitations. I think the pandemic has accelerated the intimacy with technology to solve crisis situations, even in those aspects where it was not foreseen, e.g. virtual hearings by the courts. This intimacy with technology, a kind of love affair, somewhat voluntary and in some parts circumstantial, is here to stay now. Technology penetration and adoption shall also make justice more accessible.

I think lawyers today across the country and globally have good learning agility in adopting the technology. Adopting Technology is now a means of survival as well. I have worked in the Technology industry for a long time in organizations such as Oracle, IBM, Honeywell, GE, Mindtree, ITC Infotech, HCL Technologies and others. I am a big advocate of taking the help of technology for productivity increases. Tactile communication will be revolutionary in terms of human to human collaboration.

Given, that most collaborations have moved on-line, I sense that our communication behaviours need to adapt as well. Having a keen interest in Psychology and Behavior Sciences, I sense that

collaborating online requires more empathy and preparation which lawyers must focus on. Online communication also needs certain sophistication in articulation and time management skills to make an effective impact remotely. To my mind, lawyers learning modules on certain key technologies that are of use to the legal fraternity such as case management, contract management, compliance management etc. would be very helpful.

With increased dependency on technology, there is a likelihood of an exponential increase in cybercrimes and data privacy breaches. What are your views and suggestions on India’s tech law regime to deal with the potential increase in cybercrimes?

Well, when there is more traffic on roads, there is increased the likelihood of accidents! This is natural.

Cybercrimes and privacy breach increasing with technology penetration has to be acknowledged. In my view, strengthening the enforcement measures and making sure that cybercrimes are quickly and effectively addressed with severe punishments and fines shall help.

Given the penetration of technology into areas such as health data, biometrics and other critical human spaces, making cybercrime penalties high enough to create deterrence may help. India’s tech law regime, I would say is keeping pace with the innovations in technology, particularly in the Fintech sector.

Privacy breaches are recognized as vulnerability globally. I am hopeful that given the geo agnostic nature of the impact of actions of cybercrime offenders, there could be an international common consensus of handling of matters related to offences in the cyberspace. We may see law stepping into this realm for consistent global regimes on privacy and cybercrimes. At this moment the trend towards data sovereignty and data nationalism is apparent, however, given that human needs and use of technology have become borderless, I do envisage that in future, countries will have more collaborations to address these aspects.

Right now, there is a lot of fragmentation in laws, both nationally and internationally which may work to the benefit of the offenders.

How do you think Automation, Artificial Intelligence, and Analytics will shape the corporate legal departments of the future? From LMS to document management systems. Is there a tech toolkit every company can adopt?

Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Analytics will accelerate the work by providing meaningful and accessible information quickly, so I am very positive that legal departments shall greatly benefit.

I would categorize the Technology tools that legal teams should understand and use into following categories

a) Access tools – such as video conferencing and meeting organizing tools and applications

b) Scanning Tools – for document storage and retrieval

c) Collaborative Work Processes Tools – which help multiple people review and amend documents.

d) Speech to text conversion tools – which help quickly produce written documents from stated words.

e) Client engagement tools such as email repositories, invoicing tools and timekeeping tools.

f) Contract Management tools

g) Law Practice Management Software

h) Case Management Software.

There are several tools already available. In future, more advanced customizable suite of software products will come to the assistance of in -house legal departments and law firms.

How crucial is it to gain an understanding of multiple legal systems for an in-house lawyer today?

It’s a great question, today we live in a connected world where global business is interdependent, politics and societies are interdependent on each other for product or services. Hence, the legal questions and issues also are connected to multiple legal systems. I firmly believe that as in-house lawyers working for enterprises, it is absolutely essential to have an understanding of the multiple legal systems. For e.g., if an in-house lawyer were to draft a contract template for a global contract to be used in both civil law and common law jurisdictions, in case of an event such as recent pandemic, the counsel must know how the interpretation of force majeure would be made under both civil law and common law jurisdictions. This would help draft a provision which is substantially covering the best interests of the enterprise and keeps it protected.

Would you agree there continues to be an inherent social pressure on women to manage it all home and work? What are your thoughts on issues of diversity in the legal profession?

I would say the inherent social pressure is a global phenomenon, though we do see Asian cultures placing more emphasis on the stereotypical role of women as you have mentioned. In order for women to contribute more to economic and social activities, it is critical that men and families contribute in terms of efforts and empathy to relieve women of these pressures.

I am happy to see that diversity in the legal profession is increasing each year. I would say that perhaps it is today one of the leading professions where the number of women is rising. Late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the associate justice at the Supreme Court of United States from 1993 till her death in September 2020, Justice Leila Seth, the first woman judge ay Delhi High Court and other prominent women lawyers and in-house counsels are paving the way in remarkable ways for younger women to be inspired and follow the path.

Tell us about your hobbies. What are your sources of creative outlet other than work? Any movies, work of art or books that have had a profound impact in shaping your personality?

I was creatively inclined since my childhood. I trained in the classical dance form of Kathak for several years, trained and performed as an actor on stage, wrote poetry, trained as a furniture designer in Italy. I often design furniture, costumes and accessories for myself and friends. I also read on a variety of subjects in addition to law such as biology, psychology, philosophy and economics. Being creatively inclined helps me rely on my right brain insights and to come up with creative solutions to complex problems at workplace and in team management situations.

What would be your one parting message to our lawyers of the future—The tech-savvy social change-makers of tomorrow?

My message to lawyers would be to keep themselves updated about all contemporary events and technologies, contribute to the disbursal of justice and equity wherever possible looking beyond pure profit-making. I would also stress that lawyers possibly have the best skills to take up causes, pursue them and bring about lasting and impactful changes.

I can share a small example of how lawyers can contribute to making a lasting impact. At Mindtree, I volunteered to lead the legal scoping and policy framework of a social business platform. This has now generated direct economic benefit for more than 1.5 million artisans, farmers and waste management workers and more than INR 40 Million of direct income in the hands of these marginalized sections of the society. It was recognized and appreciated by the United Nations Development Program as well for the impact made.

As lawyers, we have tremendous empowerment to make an impact, change the course of people’s lives, change the course of laws and shape societies in a more equitable manner. We must create an impact when an opportunity arises and not let it pass.

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