Kavitha Gupta's blog

A guardian and a guide Chief legal officers have more power than ever before Apr 7th 2012  ONCE upon a time, in-house corporate lawyers were dismissed as plodders. Partners at law firms make far more money. Only someone who couldn't hack it as a legal brain-for-hire would seek the dull security of a salaried job, people assumed. But the power of in-house lawyers has grown hugely in the past ten years. The chief legal officer (CLO) is now one of the mightiest figures in the C-suite. The main reason is that the legal thicket has grown thicker. In America, the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley act inserted federal law deep into corporate governance. The Dodd-Frank act of 2010 made running a financial business much more complicated. The penalties for rulebreaking have grown harsher, too. Companies can be turned inside out if a junior employee bribes someone on the other side of the world. Bosses can go to jail for infractions hardly anyone understands. America's mighty prosecutors c...

Strategies for the Effective, Satisfied In-house Lawyer By Olga Mack  |  2015-Sep-22     Unlike a tangible good, like a cup of coffee or dress, advice — which is a product of many legal interactions — evaporates as soon as it uttered. Sometime during my legal career I noticed that my satisfaction with a relatively high-stress career is correlated with how seriously my advice is considered before it evaporates and disappears into a big, black hole of the universe. As a very happy lawyer, one who, if given the choice, would still go back to law school and do it all over again, below are some principles and strategies I have developed that make my legal practice rewarding, satisfying, and sustainable. Be a partner, not a cop. Many lawyers view themselves in a "policing role." While there may be a time and place for a police role, such as when lawyers are in a compliance role or they have Sarbanes-Oxley responsibilities, most lawyers' role should be...

Last year the new Companies Act 2013 in India made it mandatory for all listed companies to have one woman Director in the Board to encourage women participation in a managerial position and on the executive board of directors. Yet in India, only 15% of the women holds a senior management role and is rated in the bottom 3 of the rankings globally as per a research by Grant Thornton (GT) in 2015. As per the said GT report, women make up 22% of senior management globally, they continue to be concentrated in management support functions rather than in leadership roles at the core of a business, suggesting a bottleneck for women upon reaching the management level. Russia sits top of the global league table with 40% of senior roles occupied by women. It is joined in the top ten by six other economies from Eastern Europe, including Georgia (38%) and Poland (37%). Japan (8%) still sits bottom of the table as it has done every year since 2004. Germany (14%) and India (15%) sit secon...