What are the most significant cases, projects or transactions that you and/or your legal team have recently been involved in?

This has been a year of tremendous growth for HSBC in India. We have continued to build on our large wholesale franchise and there has been increased focus on the growth of our wealth and retail business. This was also a year of expansion for us as we opened new branches in India which continues to be a part of our growth strategy. The focus was on increasing our product offering to our existing customers and cross selling our products and proposition across our customer base. This has also been a year requiring most organisations to navigate complex geopolitical issues for themselves, as well as assisting their clients in dealing with the same. The legal team has been at the forefront of guiding and advising the management on all of these as we grow our franchise in India.

What factors influence your team’s decision to use external legal services versus handling matters in-house, and what criteria are used to evaluate their performance? 

It is important to strike the right balance between using external legal services vs handling matters inhouse as neither approach, in isolation, would be effective for an organisation. It is important to ensure that the in-house team is capable of supporting a majority of the day-to-day requirements which the business requires and reaches out to an external firm for advice on specialist areas such as competition law, data privacy, large M&A transactions etc. But even in such transactions, the in-house team needs to be capable of understanding and appreciating the nuances of the transactions so that the risks and issues, if any, are appropriately considered by the relevant internal teams. As regards evaluating their performance some of the key elements I consider are around understanding of business and commercial acumen, being proactive in approach, ability to see the big picture and ability to highlight key risks, issues and mitigants that management needs to consider as part of any mandate.

How does your team contribute to the overall business strategy of the company? Can you share an example of a recent legal-led initiative that had a significant impact?

Some of the areas where the legal team can play a critical role is digitisation, whether it is in relation to digital execution of documentation, end to end process automation from onboarding customers to providing them various products and services with the click of a button, use of AI and ethical use of AI, data privacy etc. These are the areas which can help an organisation in scaling up its business manifold and the legal teams can play an instrumental role in its adaptation across the organisation.