In Conversation with Sudipta Bhattacharjee, Partner, Khaitan & Co

Sudipta, 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. 

Like many in my generation, I came to law by accident. I was a Science student and in those pre-internet days in the late-90s, I was mindlessly following everyone else in trying to prepare for medical/engineering entrance tests. That was a bit of a dark time for me personally as I was increasingly realizing that I hardly have any chance of cracking these entrance tests and that Physics/Chemistry/Mathematics did not interest me at all but I did not have the courage to tell my family since none of us knew of any alternate career choice.  

It is at that time that I came across a news article about Mr N R Madhava Menon opening a ‘law school’ in Kolkata in the same mould as the one in Bangalore. I hadn’t heard of the one in Bangalore either (remember, these are the pre-internet days of 1999-2000) but the more I read about the ‘law school’ model of legal education, the more I was convinced that this was indeed the path for me. By God’s grace, I managed to clear the entrance exam for NUJS, Kolkata (we were the first batch of NUJS) – so convinced was I about this being the ‘right path’, I told my parents that I will pay for my own education by taking an educational loan. And within the first month of law school, I felt like I ‘belonged’ in this world – that this was my calling. I am forever grateful to God for helping me find law as a vocation. 

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

Talking of North Stars, the first such person in my life would be Mr N R Madhava Menon – who is nothing less than the father of modern Indian legal education. A lot has been written about him – we, the first batch of NUJS, were fortunate to have been able to learn from him. He was a true Karmayogi and taught us the importance of having a vision and working towards achieving the same persistently.  

The second such influence in my life would definitely be that of Mr Sujit Ghosh – my mentor since 2006. It was under his tutelage (in BMR and then in the initial years in Advaita), that I learnt the nuances of indirect tax laws and how the Constitutional jurisprudence interfaces with tax laws. A huge part of what I am today as a tax lawyer is thanks to Mr Ghosh. Apart from the nuances of tax law, I have learnt several life lessons from him. 

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

Being more focussed on disputes, our practice is largely sector agnostic – we work across a wide variety of sectors. Having said that, we do get a large number of assignments in certain sectors like oil and gas, E-Commerce, mining and metals, DTH TV, alcoholic beverages, EPC contracts, renewable power etc. All these sectors have seen varying degrees of impact owing to COVID but I guess its fair to say that most of them are on the path to recovery – unfortunately, that path is likely to be a long-winded one.  

One hopes that implementation of tax laws on ground aids such recovery rather than being a roadblock – one already sees aggressive instances of enforcement actions under tax laws with frivolous detention of goods, threats of attachment of bank accounts, denial of refund claims, multiple authorities seeking to audit and asking for voluminous documents. It is sincerely hoped that such instances of disproportionate aggression are few and far between in the coming months – else the road to recovery will be a long and tortuous one.  

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

At a bird’s eye view level, COVID-19 led to a significant reduction in the volume of commercial transactions. Resultant, quantum of legal issues/disputes requiring legal services has also dropped significantly. Another thing that has affected the demand side of the legal services sector is the severely restricted working of the courts – while virtual hearings have taken off and has been a great experience for many, the overall volume of cases heard remains much lower than pre-COVID times and new filings have also reduced. Add to that the digital divide that affects lawyers with lesser access to technology and stable internet. All considered, except probably for M&A/general corporate teams in the top 15-20 law firms and top-tier Senior Advocates, the pandemic has hit the legal services sector in India very badly. Need for greater social security safety nets for lawyers have never been felt more acutely. 

What can law firms do today to ensure they survive in an era of disruption? How is your firm staying futuristic? 

Some of the key strategies are: Embracing technology with particular emphasis on AI-based tools to enhance efficiency, finding more competitive billing models, optimizing real estate costs, optimizing manpower cost by having a relatively leaner team of lawyers with long-term retainer contracts and placing greater reliance on assignment-based hiring of lawyers (and building a strong network of such ‘track II’ lawyers so that there is ‘assured availability on demand’), adopting a ‘centre of excellence’ approach for labour-intensive tasks with lower value-addition.  

Other than work, what else keeps you busy? Would you please share your other interests and hobbies with our readers. 

My three passions outside work are books, food and cinema/web series. I am a voracious reader of fiction/non-fiction across 3 languages (English, Hindi, Bengali) with a particular fondness towards history. I am an out-and-out foodie and passionate about trying out new cuisines (from across India and the globe) frequently – by God’s grace, I don’t have the usual food-taboos and have a diverse palate which allows me to enjoy a wide variety of cuisines. Cinema (and more recently web series on various OTT platforms) is another abiding passion – specifically, in the last year or so, I have become a voracious consumer of Malayalam cinema. 

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? 

Well, to be honest, I didn’t really plan my journey – but when I look back, the dots seem to connect. I started my career with the legal team in Reliance – it was a non-tax profile and involved drafting/reviewing/negotiating complex, high-value procurement contracts of a wide variety. Even as a fresh lawyer, I was fortunate enough to get a chance to be an active part of high-powered contract negotiations with lawyers/law firms from across the world. While I didn’t continue in that stream of legal work, that stint gave me a lot of confidence in myself and helped me develop a sharp commercial sense and negotiation skills in general and in particular, a good understanding of how contracts work in real life – traits that have come in immensely handy as an indirect tax professional. Thereafter, I joined BMR which had a strong institutional culture of developing deep domain expertise – particularly, under the mentorship of Mr Sujit Ghosh (who was my reporting partner in BMR), a huge emphasis was laid on knowing the fundamental legal/tax concepts threadbare, being regularly updated with legal developments/case-laws and on regular trainings.  All of these helped me build a strong core of subject matter expertise as well as good professional habits – things which have helped me make a mark in my career ultimately culminating in my joining the BW Legal World Elite 40 Under 40 Club of Achievers 2020. 

Giving advice to someone when I am barely 15 years old in this profession would probably be presumptuous on my part. I will just try to encapsulate my learnings, which, in hindsight, I believe have worked for me: (i) Before moving to a specialized area of law, it is useful to start with a more general work profile (whether in litigation or in general corporate) so as to learn the basics of how law works at a ground level in general. Knowing the ‘first principles’ of law, the ‘legal method’ in the initial years of one’s legal career is of utmost importance in my view. (ii) Learn as much as you can in your chosen area of law in the first 4-5 years of your career. While learning is indeed a lifelong process in law, if you are able to build a strong base in the initial years it becomes a major area of strength in the latter part of your career when you may have lesser time to invest in learning. It is crucial to identify areas of learning in your chosen field and if necessary, take professional courses to sharpen your skills in the initial years. I am not specifically mentioning ‘hard work’ here – that’s a bare minimum requirement. I guess a conscious, strategic approach needs to be overlaid on the foundation of hard work to build a satisfying career. 

Is there anything else 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? 

First and foremost, the NLU – non-NLU divide becomes immaterial after the first few months of one’s career; the only relevant distinction is that between a good lawyer and a not-so-good lawyer.  

For being a good lawyer, apart from the learnings, I have mentioned earlier in my previous response, the most important thing to ascertain is – am I solving someone’s problem? To be good lawyers, we need to be able to see and anticipate problems for our clients and come up with solutions – the ability to see and anticipate problems has to be developed through regularly updating yourself and being abreast of all relevant developments in the realm of law and commerce (and technology). If one is able to use her legal skills to solve a client’s problem and add value, she is a good lawyer – as simple as that. 

As a final note, would you please recommend to our readers your favourite book or movie/series that left a lasting impression on you. 

The most impactful book that I have read in the last 2-3 years would surely be ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari. He distils the essential story of human evolution and history with such a fresh and original approach and there are so many new ideas/understanding that one gains after reading this that I feel it ought to be a ‘must-read’ for college education irrespective of the stream.  

A series that left a lasting impression recently was ‘Scam 1992: the Harshad Mehta Story” – one of the most well-researched, bold and balanced series that I have ever seen (and I have seen a lot) and it has the added advantage of being very relatable to lawyers. In cinema, I was very highly impressed recently with the Malayalam movie, ‘Ayyappanum Koshiyum’ – I loved how, through the story of a long-drawn clash between the two leading men, it subtly highlighted the perils of toxic masculinity and deep-seated patriarchy despite retaining the structure of a high-octane Indian commercial cinema.

*The interview was published in February 2021.

Nominations for the second edition of BW Legal World's 40Under40 are now open.

Click here to nominate: https://bit.ly/3hEdnov

For more details, please contact Gareema Ahuja, Business Lead: +91 7827590848, gareema@businessworld.in