About

In May, 2017, Pooja Sehgal Mehtani joined Sun Life Financial, Asia Services Centre, bringing with her around 20 years of experience in corporate governance, commercial law, regulatory matters and in-house experience. She is currently head of the legal and secretarial team and a core member of the company’s India management team. Her role involves the entire gamut of legal, corporate and secretarial affairs. Along with her team she works very closely with the business as a business enabler by providing guidance and legal support to each business function. She is currently involved in the automation of legal processes, standardisation of documents, legal support for digitisation initiatives within the organisation, legal awareness and trainings, POSH and code of conduct matters. Mehtani says that in this age of innovation-led organisations, advancements in technology have been changing and will further change the face of the legal sector. Her legal department is focussing on smarter use of technology and automation for improvisation and enhancement of legal processes and driving digitisation initiatives. Mehtani offers advice not just on law and related matters but helps shape discussion and debate on business issues as she acknowledges the evolving role of the legal department – from traditional, reactive lawyers to a strategic business unit composed of top legal minds and strategic, process-savvy operators. She says that, ‘corporate counsels leading legal and corporate teams need to inspire their teams to always enhance and augment their legal expertise and upscale with the changing business needs. They also have the critical role of an ethical watchdog, tasked with ensuring corporate compliance in accordance with the law’.