In Conversation with Ugen Bhutia, General Counsel, SBI Card

Mr Bhutia, would you please tell our readers what motivated you to study law? What were the initial formative years of your exceptional professional career like? 

The motivation for studying law was to satisfy my inner query “What are my legal rights under the law of the Land as well as under International Laws and how do I protect & enforcement them? ”. Of course, during the course of my formal legal education, I realised that the study of law was much more vast than what I had initially imagined. Apart from reading about the various statutes, I find it very interesting to read the objectives/ whitepapers/ discussion papers/ Committee reports prior to framing of the statutes, which form the genesis & background around the promulgation of such legalisation. It is not only amazing to find out the depth at which the framers would have thought about various situations but also serves as a source of reference to remove any ambiguity in the interpretations if any.  

During my initial years as a Litigation lawyer, I made a humble start like many others and was assigned basic tasks like filing work. I guess like any other litigation lawyers, my journey was also not too different where my first guru/ mentor was the Court Clerk of the law firm. He taught me all the nuances right from how to tag a brief, to filing checklist and getting the matters listed. Then came the opportunity to stand before the Court, whether be it seeking a pass over or even an adjournment. I benefitted from inculcating this habit of standing in front of the Judge, whether be it for a pass over or for an adjournment, I am fully acquainted with the facts and status of the case. Though the primary objective at that juncture is to get the matter adjourned, however, the preparation does help even if the Court may not be inclined to adjourn the matter. Thereafter, drafting became an everyday affair, which goes a long way in helping you prepare for pleadings before the Court.  

Post my initial litigation experience, when I started advising my clients on Corporate and Regulatory issues, I realised that 50% of the consultancy is achieved if you patiently hear what the client is saying and what his need is. At times what I have realised is that, rather than providing a solution to our clients, some of us opine saying what we want them to hear rather than giving a clear opinion with a Yes or a No. The approach that I have taken is a clear path with risk mitigation measures if the view is negative.  

You were awarded the General Counsel of the year (above 40 category) at the inaugural BW Legal Summit. What according to you have been the highlights of your glorious career? It is said that success is easy to achieve but difficult to sustain. What has helped you achieve and sustain success over a long period of time? 

Getting the Right Opportunity at the Right Time and Making Full use of such Opportunity” would be my key mantra which I have practised and preach as well. I would also like to call it out by stating that this is not only confined to your legal career but would be applicable for everything you do. I also believe that whatever one does, if he does it with absolute dedication and sincerity then it is inevitable that he will be excellent. Further, no work is small or big, we should not show callousness even if it is a mundane work or else you will end up messing the task, nor should we be so overwhelmed with a complicated task that we end up procrastinating about it and never start at all. Setting the background with this Mantra, some of the key moments that I cannot forget are 

• When I stood for the first time before the Presiding Officer in the Debt Recovery Tribunal too seeks an adjournment. 

• The satisfaction that I saw in the eyes of the Client when my Senior (Mr. Koshy) successfully defended an Economic Offence matter.  

• After successfully concluding a hearing in GERC with my team, some of the people in the Tribunal came out and asked for my visiting card. 

• The transition from litigation to a Corporate lawyer and then an In-house Counsel. 

• The right alignment of my in-house team with the right balance of all the SMEs in their own domain.

Apart from believing in every word of my Mantra and working towards it, I would like to candidly admit that I have been lucky to be backed by an experienced team of lawyers. Even during my law firm days on this count, I have been very lucky to be blessed with Seniors who have mentored and guided me, as well as juniors who have been rock solid in supporting me.  

Your legal career has been nothing short of an inspiration for many aspiring and young legal professionals. Who are the mentors you have looked up to and admired? How have they helped you in shaping your career?

As I have stated earlier, I would like to repeat that I have been very lucky to be blessed with a great team on this journey. I had the opportunity to be mentored by Mr Indranil Ghosh under whom I learnt the skill of strategizing, drafting and could gain under his vast knowledge. Mr Joseph Koshy taught me the art of Court Craft and modulating your arguments with due consideration to the bench. He taught me to realise when to stop your argument if you believe that the bench has already considered your stand. Late. Mr Surendra Rawat and Mr R.N. Bishoi, the Court clerks with whom I worked with also deserve a special mention. As I transitioned from a Litigation Lawyer to a Corporate Lawyer and then to an In-House Lawyer, one person who has really mentored me and also gave this opportunity as an In-House Counsel is Mr Nilanjan Sinha. His guidance has helped me to evolve from a Counsel to a Business Counsel.

What in your opinion has been the biggest change or challenge looming for India’s banking industry amid COVID-19?

Like any other industry, these are challenging times for even the Banking Industry. However if you look at the positive side, the crisis has also mandated the industry to look at their business processes with a new perspective and a new lense. Digitisation, Paperless, Presence less and Frictionless has been the key focus areas of the Industry during such challenging times.

How did your team at SBI respond to Covid19? What are some of the operational issues in-house company law departments are facing today because of the pandemic? What do in-house Legal departments of the future look like? From LMS to document management systems. Is there a tech toolkit every company can adopt?

We did face some teething issues for Initial week to 10 days, however after that it was the new normal. Apart from new sourcing of application the team managed everything remotely through VPN. On the Technical IT support side, our preparedness with Cloud based solutions helped the business during such times. In fact over a period of time, we felt that there should be a need to strike the work like balance when one is working from home. We have received various instances where employees are working more than office timings. On the LMS and Doc Management though the team is supported by in house IT tools, however, we are also in the course of procuring one external tool for LMS.

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

My weekend cooking, Good Music, catching up with Family and Friends and partnering with my wife to enjoy every moment seeing our children grow keeps me busy when I am not working.    

What will be your piece of advice for aspiring and young lawyers looking to make a career as an In-house Legal Counsel? 

As an In- house Lawyer you have to have a clear eye for assessing the risks and rewards. You should aspire to be partners and collaborative counsellors of choice by managing risk sensibly instead of avoiding them altogether. However at the same time be humble advocates for the rule of law and embrace a culture of constructive challenge (both incoming and outgoing), empowering each and every team member to do their jobs and collaborating across business functions. To sum it as an In House Counsel one needs to be a TUSKER ( Transparent, Understanding of Business, Solution-Oriented, Knowledge –Legal & Industry, Enabler and Risk Manager/ Mitigator).