Opportunities Beyond Law Firms In The Legal Industry

On the second edition of BW Businessworld's 'Future of Legal Education Summit' 2023, a powerful panel discussion took place titled, ‘Redefining Legal Careers: Opportunities Beyond Law Firms'. 

The panel included industry experts such as Priyan Garg, Senior Manager – Practice Management, Khaitan & Co; Priyanka Walesha, Head of Legal, Yum Digital & Technology – India; Rishabh Chopra, Partner, Vahura and Siddharth Batra, AOR, Supreme Court of India. The session had been moderated by Tarun Nangia, Associate Editor, NewsX, and raised various questions such as the expansion of the role of General Counsel in organisation, emerging practice areas in the legal domain, future of legal industry in the next decade, and the emergence of new practice lawyers due to the rise of AI in the legal industry.

Opening the session, Chopra gave a brief introduction of the session stating, “During my law school days, I was very fascinated with the business side of law. My interest was always in interacting with people but also understanding how we can help them to do things better and that’s when it coincided with the legal industry. Interestingly in my journey I found it fascinating to have moved back into the profession of law. For a very brief period of time I was there and actually more than two years, the idea was to how we could service the legal industry by really adding more value to it by practicing the law but ensuring that we match the best people to the best roles.” He emphasised the growth of the legal industry formalising the need for systems and recruitment. On that note, Nangia added, “I believe that the day is not far that in tier 2 & tier 3 cities there will be recruitments as law firms formalize even in smaller cities.”

Talking about the applicability and the utility of a General Counsel to a company to the future lawyers, Walesha commented, “One thing which has not changed is that people come to you with problems. Now what has changed over the decade is the variety of problems. Earlier, a law office or an in-house counsel would receive a very specific legal query, it is not the same anymore. Now they will come to you with the business query as well. You will also have to balance the business, you need to enable the business with your legal capabilities where you need to ensure what kind of risk you are taking when you are able to guide the board and how you can balance that risk. That has changed immensely as part of the in-house legal role. My advice to the young lawyers is, don’t go for plum assignments, just take your assignments as they come across to you. Try to wriggle out one issue at one time and I ensure as you go by you will be able to wear those hats at multiple times."

On the note of the future of legal industry with AI and technology coming in, Batra said, “All law firms are thinking about it. Our economy is gonna be ten billion by 2036. The amount of work that we have right now, is going to be five times. If you look in terms of our population, I think this industry has a lot to offer and I believe everybody will have their space. AI is the future because it is going to change the future dynamics. It is going to change the whole thing as to how you look at the judgment which you read which you refer in a court.”  

On the rise of AI in the legal domain and the new practices emerging, Garg commented, “Indian law firms need to develop their own tools when it comes to AI in the industry. Law firms are in the process and for law students who are technologically abled and who have a bend towards it, there are a lot of opportunities in terms of innovation, digitising a lot of services that law firms are already providing, in knowledge management services where they can map technology with legal information.”