Amitabh Lal Das, Yahoo India General Counsel, has recently resigned to join Max India Life Insurance as Director & Head – Legal, Compliance & Regulatory..Prior to Yahoo India, Amitabh was the Legal Head of Sapient India and before that he was working with Kochhar & Co in Delhi..He has also worked with senior lawyers in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He is a graduate of Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi..In this email interview, Amitabh Lad Das talks about his decision to leave Yahoo India and join Max Life Insurance, role of General Counsels and his thoughts on the Union budget..Bar & Bench: On leaving Yahoo India to shift to Max India Life Insurance..Amitabh Lal Das: Working with the pioneer and one of the leading players of the internet and advertising sectors was an exciting professional as well as leadership development ride. It was an extremely fulfilling journey of seven plus years but I had also reached a point where newer challenges in a different industry looked as the way forward for making an impact, and keeping myself excited . And in that frame, my drivers were to work at the corporate headquarters of a public company in an industry that had immense potential, had scale, and was regulated. I also was clear that the people culture and the focus on ethics and compliance had to be of the highest standards. Max Life Insurance met with all my career drivers and more..B&B: You moved from a law firm to an in-house role in 2004. How do you think the role of General Counsel has evolved in the last decade?.ALD: There has been transformational change in the role of the General Counsel the world over. In the last decade, General Counsels have been variously described as “a guardian and a guide”, “courageous renaissance person”, “well rounded business person with technical expertise”, and the like. The General Counsel today is part of the inner circle of management; at Max Life Insurance, I am part of the Executive Management Committee (EMC). This role requires “a public policy dimension, a sharper commercial orientation and a significant focus on leadership development.” Laws and regulations are perhaps the most critical external touch points for the modern business and guiding businesses to conduct themselves ethically and achieve business goals is something that General Counsels are increasingly expected to do. It is often a tightrope walk and to that extent the role of the General Counsel has become more difficult and requires it to earn the trust of the business as an able partner to help co-create solutions and solve problems, watch out for trends that will impact business in the future and create mechanisms to be able to effectively anticipate and be prepared to deal with changes..A General Counsel, therefore, performs core legal services, ensures compliance and risk management, partners with the business by understanding its nuances and priorities, wears a service orientation, augments the internal legal capabilities, decides on systems and processes to function productively and efficiently, manages outside counsel and other external resources, builds networks across, monitors the domestic and international legal landscape relevant for the business and tries to shape beneficial legislation by interacting with and providing inputs to legislative and regulatory bodies. Gone are the days when the Legal Head of a company would be remembered or required only when there was litigation!.B&B: What are the major differences you see between in-house counsel and law firm lawyer?.ALD: As a law firm lawyer before moving in-house, I always used to wonder what happens to the advice we give to the General Counsels and how they are implemented. In fact, that was a key reason in my quest to become a complete business lawyer that I moved in-house to have visibility into the implementation of legal advice within a company. That is a perspective that is perhaps not possible from the outside and law firm lawyers do have that limitation. Further, given that law firm lawyers are working for different clients and are always short of time, it is more difficult for them to have as deep an understanding of the business as a General Counsel may have of his own company’s business. The multiple client servicing by law firm lawyers also means that companies cannot expect dedicated attention of and immediately, if necessary, from external counsels. In contrast, they have the comfort of dedicated and immediate attention from their in house lawyers..Having said that, I would emphasize that law firm lawyers have their own strengths that in house counsels in their in house roles find difficult to substitute. For example, in house lawyers seldom have time and bandwidth to engage in extensive research or have certain perspectives that come from the diversity of situations across different industries that law firm lawyers countenance in their day to day jobs or even churning out voluminous drafts of agreements..B&B: Legal team at Max Life Insurance – in terms of size, structure, work profile etc?.ALD: The Legal Team is sufficiently large given its scale, the complexity of the business of a public company in a highly regulated industry with a strong accent on compliance and corporate governance and high incidence of litigation. In my role, I am responsible for legal (litigation and non litigation), compliance, company secretarial and regulatory and each of these sub functions has team members...B&B: Biggest challenge as in-house counsel?.ALD: I would say that the transition from being the lawyer talking legalese and a language that the business does not comprehend to being a business partner with legal qualification, understanding the business, its priorities and pain points, co-creating solutions, and conversing in the lexicon of the business is the biggest challenge. Once this is accomplished, the other challenges are tactical..B&B: Your quick thoughts on the Modi government’s first budget?.ALD: Given the current fiscal and economic constraints the Finance Minister was facing, this Union Budget 2014-15 is a good one. This budget provides a broad indication towards bringing the economy back on growth track by attempting to reduce Current Account Deficit and Fiscal Deficit and maintaining a reasonable rate of inflation..The budget proposal supports the manufacturing sector in a big way by rationalizing customs and excise duties and announced several infrastructure development initiatives with an aim to provide not only growth to these sectors but also generate employment..With respect to the insurance sector, opening up of FDI to 49% is a welcome move and should bring in the much required long-term capital for the sector. It will also bring in domain capital which is of critical importance in this phase of growth of life insurance industry..Initiatives such as increase in 80C limits from Rs. 1 lac to Rs. 1.5 lac, increased exemption up to Rs. 2 lacs on interest on loans pertaining to self-occupied house and marginal increase in personal income tax slab from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs.2.5 lakh will allow more money in the hand of the customer, which is a positive development for long-term savings instruments including life insurance. Exemption of service tax on micro insurance premium upto Rs. 50,000 and removal of Dividend Distribution tax are also welcome moves. Common KYC and one Demat account for all financial instruments will bring convenience for consumers..However no major incentive has been announced to provide a fillip to long-term savings apart from additional limit for PPF. Providing a separate limit for tax exemption for pension and making annuities tax free as well as increasing limits under section 80D for health insurance, could have helped the insurance sector.
Amitabh Lal Das, Yahoo India General Counsel, has recently resigned to join Max India Life Insurance as Director & Head – Legal, Compliance & Regulatory..Prior to Yahoo India, Amitabh was the Legal Head of Sapient India and before that he was working with Kochhar & Co in Delhi..He has also worked with senior lawyers in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He is a graduate of Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi..In this email interview, Amitabh Lad Das talks about his decision to leave Yahoo India and join Max Life Insurance, role of General Counsels and his thoughts on the Union budget..Bar & Bench: On leaving Yahoo India to shift to Max India Life Insurance..Amitabh Lal Das: Working with the pioneer and one of the leading players of the internet and advertising sectors was an exciting professional as well as leadership development ride. It was an extremely fulfilling journey of seven plus years but I had also reached a point where newer challenges in a different industry looked as the way forward for making an impact, and keeping myself excited . And in that frame, my drivers were to work at the corporate headquarters of a public company in an industry that had immense potential, had scale, and was regulated. I also was clear that the people culture and the focus on ethics and compliance had to be of the highest standards. Max Life Insurance met with all my career drivers and more..B&B: You moved from a law firm to an in-house role in 2004. How do you think the role of General Counsel has evolved in the last decade?.ALD: There has been transformational change in the role of the General Counsel the world over. In the last decade, General Counsels have been variously described as “a guardian and a guide”, “courageous renaissance person”, “well rounded business person with technical expertise”, and the like. The General Counsel today is part of the inner circle of management; at Max Life Insurance, I am part of the Executive Management Committee (EMC). This role requires “a public policy dimension, a sharper commercial orientation and a significant focus on leadership development.” Laws and regulations are perhaps the most critical external touch points for the modern business and guiding businesses to conduct themselves ethically and achieve business goals is something that General Counsels are increasingly expected to do. It is often a tightrope walk and to that extent the role of the General Counsel has become more difficult and requires it to earn the trust of the business as an able partner to help co-create solutions and solve problems, watch out for trends that will impact business in the future and create mechanisms to be able to effectively anticipate and be prepared to deal with changes..A General Counsel, therefore, performs core legal services, ensures compliance and risk management, partners with the business by understanding its nuances and priorities, wears a service orientation, augments the internal legal capabilities, decides on systems and processes to function productively and efficiently, manages outside counsel and other external resources, builds networks across, monitors the domestic and international legal landscape relevant for the business and tries to shape beneficial legislation by interacting with and providing inputs to legislative and regulatory bodies. Gone are the days when the Legal Head of a company would be remembered or required only when there was litigation!.B&B: What are the major differences you see between in-house counsel and law firm lawyer?.ALD: As a law firm lawyer before moving in-house, I always used to wonder what happens to the advice we give to the General Counsels and how they are implemented. In fact, that was a key reason in my quest to become a complete business lawyer that I moved in-house to have visibility into the implementation of legal advice within a company. That is a perspective that is perhaps not possible from the outside and law firm lawyers do have that limitation. Further, given that law firm lawyers are working for different clients and are always short of time, it is more difficult for them to have as deep an understanding of the business as a General Counsel may have of his own company’s business. The multiple client servicing by law firm lawyers also means that companies cannot expect dedicated attention of and immediately, if necessary, from external counsels. In contrast, they have the comfort of dedicated and immediate attention from their in house lawyers..Having said that, I would emphasize that law firm lawyers have their own strengths that in house counsels in their in house roles find difficult to substitute. For example, in house lawyers seldom have time and bandwidth to engage in extensive research or have certain perspectives that come from the diversity of situations across different industries that law firm lawyers countenance in their day to day jobs or even churning out voluminous drafts of agreements..B&B: Legal team at Max Life Insurance – in terms of size, structure, work profile etc?.ALD: The Legal Team is sufficiently large given its scale, the complexity of the business of a public company in a highly regulated industry with a strong accent on compliance and corporate governance and high incidence of litigation. In my role, I am responsible for legal (litigation and non litigation), compliance, company secretarial and regulatory and each of these sub functions has team members...B&B: Biggest challenge as in-house counsel?.ALD: I would say that the transition from being the lawyer talking legalese and a language that the business does not comprehend to being a business partner with legal qualification, understanding the business, its priorities and pain points, co-creating solutions, and conversing in the lexicon of the business is the biggest challenge. Once this is accomplished, the other challenges are tactical..B&B: Your quick thoughts on the Modi government’s first budget?.ALD: Given the current fiscal and economic constraints the Finance Minister was facing, this Union Budget 2014-15 is a good one. This budget provides a broad indication towards bringing the economy back on growth track by attempting to reduce Current Account Deficit and Fiscal Deficit and maintaining a reasonable rate of inflation..The budget proposal supports the manufacturing sector in a big way by rationalizing customs and excise duties and announced several infrastructure development initiatives with an aim to provide not only growth to these sectors but also generate employment..With respect to the insurance sector, opening up of FDI to 49% is a welcome move and should bring in the much required long-term capital for the sector. It will also bring in domain capital which is of critical importance in this phase of growth of life insurance industry..Initiatives such as increase in 80C limits from Rs. 1 lac to Rs. 1.5 lac, increased exemption up to Rs. 2 lacs on interest on loans pertaining to self-occupied house and marginal increase in personal income tax slab from Rs. 2 lakh to Rs.2.5 lakh will allow more money in the hand of the customer, which is a positive development for long-term savings instruments including life insurance. Exemption of service tax on micro insurance premium upto Rs. 50,000 and removal of Dividend Distribution tax are also welcome moves. Common KYC and one Demat account for all financial instruments will bring convenience for consumers..However no major incentive has been announced to provide a fillip to long-term savings apart from additional limit for PPF. Providing a separate limit for tax exemption for pension and making annuities tax free as well as increasing limits under section 80D for health insurance, could have helped the insurance sector.
