No more frowned upon

it's important for new law graduates to gain a sense of the scope and breadth of law and nothing can provide that better than a few years of practice. However, it is also true that more and more lawyers are directly joining corporates without this background.

AS SHE turns around from clicking the keys on her laptop and begins talking about her big decision in life, there's a sparkle in Seema Dubey's eyes that can only mean one thing. She's happy with her work, and she enjoys talking about it. As a senior member of a large IT company's legal department, Seema works 12 to 14 hours a day, watching out for the company's business interests all over the world, nurturing and supervising a team of young law graduates, and creating fresh professional challenges for herself along the way. ``It's a great field - one where you have the ability to make a difference to people who are at their last resort.''

``When I decided to join law college after my B.Sc, my parents were totally against it. They thought it was not a profession for girls from respectable families,'' she reminisces. ``But I have always been very argumentative, very rational in my outlook, and it seemed to me a natural way to go.'' Working her way up through the maze of the Uttar Pradesh court system was no easy task. ``I started out in the tehsil - the lowest rung in the judicial system,'' she recalls. Rubbing shoulders with petty criminals, seeking bail, was all right for some time, but it soon became apparent to her that she was not really applying her knowledge of law here. Success depended more on how well you could manipulate the system. She then moved on to trials, which was ``a very good experience.'' Being at the Allahabad High Court, spending many hours and days listening to seasoned lawyers argue the fine points of law, gave her a good exposure to the intricacies of law and the legal system. ``I was trying to find my niche, so it was a great experience. It also gave me a grip on many aspects of law, which I could never have just got from the books.''

Her niche, it became apparent, was somewhere in the wide world of business and corporate practice. Beginning with property-related work for a large group of businesses in Mumbai, she moved on to join an emerging cable channel as legal advisor to one of their channels. ``It was a new field for me'' she says, and with the industry itself finding its feet, she was given the opportunity to set processes in place, and define the legal boundaries for the company. In the course of doing this, she was involved in arguing some milestone cases, cases which became the basis for an interest that would take shape a little later in her career - intellectual property rights. ``It was a wonderful experience,'' she recalls.

For a lawyer in the corporate sector, things can become pretty humdrum if one is not constantly looking for and meeting new challenges. When a company is establishing itself, there is a lot of foundation work to be done by the legal department. This involves setting in place contract guidelines, defining the parameters for commercial negotiations such as partnerships, and mergers, and educating the corporate about the legal framework within which it operates. New areas which are still in the process of being defined, such as intellectual property rights and due diligence are throwing up new challenges for lawyers in the corporate sector, particularly in companies which operate on a global scale.

Seema and her team of lawyers, mostly fresh law graduates from schools including NALSAR in Bangalore, run a fine-toothed comb through all the agreements, contracts and other documents that the company is party to or must execute. Since the company operates globally, it means they have to be up with speed on the legal requirements in other countries, and make sure they comply with them. ``It's high pressure work, and the turnaround time on every job is really short,'' she says.

According to Seema, it's important for new law graduates to gain a sense of the scope and breadth of law and nothing can provide that better than a few years of practice. However, it is also true that more and more lawyers are directly joining corporates without this background. The salaries are very high in this sector, and the opportunities at this moment are very good. Sectors such as insurance, IT and entertainment are big draws for young law graduates, as the parameters in these areas are still being defined. ``When you join a company, it is important that you do not outgrow your job - you have to keep creating and renewing your own challenges, otherwise you'll end up as deadwood,'' warns Seema. When you look for a job, make sure it is one that gives you some freedom to choose the way you will work and the projects you will work on, and the space to adapt.

When Seema began her law career, it was still an option that was frowned upon, especially for women, and there was the perception that law was ``dirty business''. While she agrees that corruption in the legal system is rampant, she insists that it is not impossible to be a principled lawyer: ``Difficult, yes, but not impossible.'' In the corporate sector, the large firms are still very straight in their dealings, which means there is plenty of room for efficient, honest lawyers.

USHA RAMAN

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