Arshdeep, would you please take us down memory lane and tell our readers what motivated you to study law?

I happened to choose law post my school through a manner of elimination rather than selection. I wasn’t always a very bright student when it came to quantitative subjects – so in that manner post commerce in school, I eliminated those graduate courses that had a lot of maths or accounts involved.  Though to be honest, I was addicted to playing golf at that time in life, and I couldn’t care less about anything else as long as I could get to play golf every day.

I was almost about to join a Bachelors of Commerce course locally, then during the final months of my school – a distant relative who was a lawyer working for an international bank happened to visit, and I was very impressed with the work that he was doing. And he was instrumental in breaking the stereotypes that we have in India, that lawyers only work in courts etc.

Post a detailed conversation with him, and through my principle of elimination, I had shortlisted Law and hotel management as the fields I would try to pursue.

Thankfully, I was able to get into a decent law school.

Tell us about your student life at UPES. Coming from a non-NLU background, did you face any challenges in terms of internship opportunities?

When I started studying law at a tier 2 law school (a non-NLU), I couldn’t be less aware of the discrimination that I was going to face for the next 5 years. No major law firms/chambers used to entertain looking at our applications for internships, and I had never expected to actually get anything decent without using connections (that too were very hard to get in this field, being a first-generation lawyer). 

Though I did get to intern at one prominent law firm, and a couple of well know companies – but for those also, my parents/relatives, etc. had to take favors from their connections/friends.

You started your career at a prominent law firm. What made you gravitate toward an in-house role from a law firm career?

Though I had nothing to complain about working at law firms, but I was always left gasping for more. As work at bigger law firms is generally segregated into practices, and that limits your area of working. 

Although I loved working in Projects, I also wanted to experience other fields like disputes, IPR, GCC etc. and the best way to work across these practice boundaries was to move in-house. 

Another major reason to move in-house was to become more solution-oriented at my work – which is very different to how we work at law firms.

What is your team size and what is the array of work you handle in your organisation?

I am lucky in this regard, that I have an excellent team of five who are able to work independently and take charge on most of the work. Though I along with my team work on everything that requires involvement of the legal team, but most of my time goes into contract negotiations, M&A transactions, legal commercial advisory, and the compliance function.

What are the compliance and governance issues unique to your sector?

The renewable energy sector is booming, and the industry is growing faster than the regulatory regime. Electricity is a concurrent subject in India, thus leading to disparity in the policy intent and implementation across different states. The centre has developed various favourable policies, but while some states have adhered to them, some insist on their own rules and regulations, adding to a lot of uncertainty concerning investments in those states. States will have to work in the same fervour as the centre for holistic growth in the RE sector.

How do you see legal compliance frameworks changing with the emergence of AI?

Compliance is not an option anymore, it is a must in today’s world. The automation tools for compliance assist the users in continually monitoring and notifying the compliance requirements to be fulfilled by the companies. However, human intervention will always be needed to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the compliance process to be adhered to. Further, such tools also expose the company to various data theft and security control risks, hence should be monitored on regular basis to check such glitches. 

Does an in-house role provide a relatively better work-life balance in comparison to working at a law firm?

I would say the work-life balance is very individualistic approach as to how would you set up your work priorities. The idea is to be efficient and effective. I would say the in-house role is very investing and engrossing as you are required to finish projects in much tighter timelines with an aim to provide an effective and viable solution to the business. Time management skills are very important for all lawyers whether as an in-house lawyer or law firm layer.

What would be your three tips for lawyers wanting to build a career as a successful in-house counsel?

There are a series of suggestions that I would want to give to any budding lawyers, however, top three things to keep in mind as a in-house lawyer is: (a) To have a proactive and pre-emptive approach rather that reactive approach; (b) Be mindful of the legal advise that you give to your business teams because they except you to have solution-oriented approach rather than creating road blocks; and (c) lastly, thorough knowledge of law, excellent drafting (crisp and effective drafting) and effective and efficient time and crisis management skills.