About

After graduating from the University of Delhi, Sudhir Kumar Jha progressed through a varied in-house legal career that spanned a range of sectors and included major companies such as Larsen & Toubro and ICICI. In 2004, Jha was eventually appointed general counsel of HDFC Limited, the largest bank in India by market capitalisation. HDFC provided Jha with an ideal place to showcase his considerable talents, and has continued to go from strength to strength. Although Jha is directly in charge of 10 legal colleagues, with a further 15-20 reporting indirectly, he sees this as ‘professional sharing’ rather than ‘hierarchical reporting’, emphasising his approach towards cooperation and staff resource management within the department. Along with this, Jha prizes continued process improvements within the department, and endeavours to keep as much legal work in-house as possible. To these ends he has been involved in the introduction of a document management system within the department, and seeks to outsource legal work only when specific or expert advice is absolutely necessary. Jha believes the greatest overall challenge faced by in-house lawyers is making non-legal colleagues appreciate the broader value of a legal team; enabling them to maintain a place in the ‘driving seat’ at the strategic level of a company, and not be perceived as ‘deal blockers’ who point out problems. On the in-house legal function in general, Jha maintains that, while the upkeep of a high-quality team can be expensive, the savings made via risk mitigation are well worth this outlay. He is also highly positive about the business advice they provide to a company: ‘In-house lawyers are the perfect balance between organisational sensibility and business sensitivity’, he says.