July 22, 2024
In Conversation with Pujarini Guha, SVP Legal and Privacy Head, InMobi
Previously viewed as a department solely focused on expenses, legal teams have undergone a significant shift. What are the key factors that have propelled legal teams from a cost centre to a strategic partner within organizations?
There is a myriad of factors that have contributed to this change in perception and positioning of an in-house legal team.
The key ones being:
- Maturity of Business Leaders globally; Businesses now understand that not compliances are not all about ticking the boxes but also, a direct contributor to brand equity/valuation, trust and integrity posture. Hence, goes a long way in gaining consumer patronage and a good inhouse team can be the right partner to balance the interests of the Business and legal asks, as they understand both the internal products and services and the legal/compliance landscape (Apple’s privacy first positioning would be an example).
- The other contributor has been strong enforcement activities and imposition of penalties by regulators across the world.
Can you share the impact mentorship had on your professional journey? In your current role, what are the opportunities you get to mentor young talent?
The right set of mentors can give perspective of a lifetime which helps with goal setting, goal re-alignment, understanding of one’s capabilities and strengths and most importantly, provide guidance towards progression that is in synergy with one’s authentic self. Significant part of my current role involves mentoring young talent so that they can not only become more effective at work but also become best versions of who they wish to be in their professional journey within or outside of InMobi and Glance.
With the recent surge in data privacy regulations (e.g., Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023), many companies are struggling to comply. Do you think in-house legal teams in the technology industry might benefit from adding specialists in data privacy to effectively address these challenges?
Absolutely. Data privacy is now at the heart and center of every tech company. Privacy lawyers and Privacy engineers are becoming more and more relevant in a legal function as they are able to create the tandem between legal, product, tech and Information Security, all of whom need to work together to ensure privacy by design principles are embedded from inception and continued compliance is ensured and measured. It is critically important to keep oneself abreast with the privacy developments across the world as the landscape changes every day, this now also includes AI.
How do you think technology is helping you excel and drive more efficiency in your team? Beyond existing tools, are there any specific legal tasks you find most time-consuming or frustrating that you think future technology could solve to make in-house legal teams more efficient?
In certain areas, technology, automation and tools are certainly very helpful. For instance, at InMobi and Glance, we have an in-house privacy discovery tool which allows stakeholders to input a country of launch and provides a preliminary assessment of privacy compliances needed for such country. Tools can be very helpful in discovering new regulations, changes to regulations/rules or translating regulations available only in local languages. Non-complex repeatable tasks such as looking for term of contract, or assignment provision or renewal provision etc. can be made easy with tools. Of course, there are a number of contract management tools available in the market; the most effective ones being those which can integrate with procurement and billing platforms.
What do you think are the three most important skill sets that both recent law graduates and seasoned professionals need to develop in order to excel in these dynamic in-house legal environments?
Tenacity, Curiosity and Hard work.
August 20, 2024
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