About

Can you briefly explain how the legal team is structured, highlighting key individuals and their role within the department? Senior lawyers in the team oversee the provision of in-house legal support on various aspects such as client contracting, contentious matters, property law matters, and employment matters. The senior lawyers engage with the general counsel appropriately. Given that the team has several experienced lawyers, they oversee the provision of in-house legal support and discuss key matters and exceptions with the general counsel. What are the most significant cases and/or transactions that your legal team has been involved with in the last two years? We have handled a variety of complex cases and prominent matters of various nature. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality reasons we are unable to elaborate further. What recent political, economic or regulatory changes in India have impacted your company and the team the most? The legal and regulatory environment continues to be dynamic. This calls for the in-house legal teams to be both proactive and reactive, remain on top of the changes and help to guide their organisations to navigate through the complex environment.

The challenge continues to be the one that has always been there for in-house counsels – how to help the business balance risk and reward. This, in my view, will be true not just for our organisation but also for every organisation in India. What will be the main focus for the company in the next 12 months and how does the team intend to assist with this? As would any organisation in India, the focus will be on growth opportunities whilst complying with requirements of law and regulation. Given that clients also deal with the same environment, the need of the business to gear up to better assist clients and, in turn, for the in-house legal teams to support the organisation’s business cannot be understated. This calls for not just keeping pace with the dynamic environment but also planning to meet the future challenges. At Deloitte, we focus on professional development of our in-house team and, out of our available time, invest considerably in this. With the evolving environment, the in-house legal team looks at itself more as a strategic partner in meeting business objectives, and also plays a key role in helping the organisation to guard its reputation. The in-house team aims to proactively advise on emerging risks helping the organisation to manage them. How has the team harnessed technology to improve output or drive efficiencies? We use various online tools for various purposes including online data bases and repositories. Many of these are developed in-house or have at least the front-ends developed in-house. Our compliance systems help us to automate compliance confirmations or information management across the firm. Can you sum up the team culture/ethos? The Deloitte Code of Conduct provides a clear guidance as to what is expected of a Deloitte professional whether engaged in client service or not. As an in-house legal team, we believe all of these applies when we perform our duties to the firm: •We are straightforward and honest in our professional opinions and business relationships. •We are truthful about the services we provide, the knowledge we possess, and the experience we have gained. One of the key values of being part of Deloitte is ‘respect’ – we are respectful in how we deal with each other as well as with our stakeholders whether internal or external. In addition to all these, as a team, our culture and ethos are as follows: •We value and cherish professionalism, integrity and diversity. •We have an open culture. It is alright for anyone in our team to voice a differing view or thought or disagree with anyone (including the general counsel). Alternate view or thoughts shared are considered in the earnest when determining the appropriate way ahead or approach to dealing with matters. It does not matter whose thought or view it is; what matters is what is right and what will help the firm achieve its objectives in a fair and legitimate manner. •We are very supportive of each other and work with the confidence that the team members will support each other to the best of their abilities. •We are committed to developing ourselves as professionals and learn virtually on a daily basis from each other (as well as through our work and interactions with the external world). •We invest in our team to help them to continuously develop their professional capability.