This article is written by Abhilasha Mondal.
A bit about my Law School experience
I went to law school at NLS, Bangalore, and as is the case with most of us, law school was an incredible learning experience in so many ways. Everyone around you is smart, but I learned that only the industrious really differentiate themselves. Further, what I loved most about law school is that I had abundant opportunities to explore activities outside of academics, and I took an active interest in sports, community projects and inorganizing competitions and conferences in law school. In fact, I often reflect on my choice of activities in law school and notice how they have played a crucial role in shaping me as a professional today.
Experience in Khaitan and the Funds Team
After graduating from NLS in 2015, I joined Khaitan & Co as an Associate.
Khaitan was a great place for a fresh graduate such as me, who was looking to explore and understand the various practice areas in a law firm. I am lucky to have worked on a variety of transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, fund formations and investments, and corporate disputes. In fact, I believe that deep within, it is this exposure to multiple transactions, practice areas, and stakeholders, that truly sowed in me, the seeds of aspirations in an alternative career.
I picked the Funds team as my permanent team, where I had the opportunity to work with leading domestic and international banks, financial institutions, and wealth management companies on avant-garde investment structures in the Indian market. I preach this to every junior seeking advice, the Fund’s team at Khaitan is, both, culturally and professionally, one of the best teams to work for, across Tier 1 law firms. I say this not only because it is a prestigious team to be associated with, but because it was a small team which was deeply invested in both the personal and professional development of all its team members, recognizing that this investment in the individual is crucial to the growth of the practice area as a whole.
Soon after joining the team, I was given complete responsibility to learn and control parts of large transactions – I received the first-hand experience with client management, and also lead my junior colleagues on several projects. In fact, my partners, Siddharth Shah, Bijal Ajinkya, Divaspati Singh, Vivek Mimani, and the other senior colleagues who I worked closely with, were always available, offering guidance and support as and when required. This sort of environment not only allowed to me grow as a funds lawyer, but also inculcated the subtler soft-skills – qualities of team-building, humility, hard work, and most importantly leadership, which has been instrumental in my professional growth.
Why move from legal to consulting?
As a lawyer advising financial services businesses, I would often learn about the business strategies and commercial rationales behind these transactions. I would try to improve my understanding of the transaction by learning more about the business aspects and by building a good rapport with my clients, as I believed that this would make me an effective lawyer. But in this process, I realized that I not only want to advise businesses from a regulatory perspective but also look into the business strategy, state of technology, etc. and basically advise them from a wholistic perspective. So I began researching on parallel opportunities that would allow me to advise business from this multi-dimensional perspective when I came across firms such as Deloitte, that provide business advisory services to financial services firms, and I realized that management consulting was the platform that I was looking for.
I was fortunate to have a great mentor, Sumit Agrawal, an ex-SEBI legal officer and now founder of RegStreet Law Advisors, who I would often discuss my learnings and plans with, and who convinced me to believe in my abilities and pursue my goals. I was also fortunate to have access to the mature networks of NLS, where several alumni were already entrenched and well-established in a variety of alternative professions.
What were the options on my mind?
In terms of alternative career options, I was looking at consulting firms, start-ups, and policy think-tanks – in that order. I was quite focused on working in the financial services industry but since management consulting firms are difficult to break into, I didn’t want to be picky there. However, in terms of start-ups, I was primarily looking into the micro-lending, payments, and investment management space, whereas in policy, I was primarily looking at those specializing in financial regulation.
Why leave the high paying job?
Once you have made up your mind on an alternative career trajectory, you can only stay motivated in your current role until the learning there is relevant to your alternative plans. That’s what happened to me. I realized that I needed a different set of skills to become an effective management-consultant, and hence I was ready to leave my high paying job, and look for opportunities outside.
At this point, I had two options: 1 – Go down the MBA route and use that as the platform for a career change, or 2 – Look for opportunities in consulting firms right away. In my situation, I got lucky with Deloitte, who gave me a foot in the door in management consulting. I say I got lucky because consulting firms don’t see lawyers or law students as a typical candidate for the role of management consulting. Thus, I took this opportunity with Deloitte without blinking, knowing well that this was exactly where I wanted to be.
Experience in consulting so far? Pros and cons for Consulting?
My experience so far at Deloitte has been as expected – a steep learning curve. Besides huge learning on the technical side of business strategy and economics, there is a considerable difference in the approach towards researching, analyzing data and presenting our findings to the clients. However, having said that, there are significant transferrable soft-skills that lawyers bring to the table as well, which include – effective communication skills, analytical skills, and problem-solving skills, particularly if you are in a client facing role as in the case of law firm lawyers.
Consulting firms are culturally very similar to law firms, thus the pros and cons are largely similar. The learning curve is steep, and the quality of the teams and the projects are fantastic, which definitely contributes to your personal and professional development. However, the limitations of a client servicing industry prevail ie having to be available at the beck and call of your client. Further, a management consultant may have to travel a fair amount and could be stationed anywhere from a fancy tower in Mumbai’s BKC to an obscure steel plant in Bokaro.
My advice to others looking to explore alternative careers?
My advice to anybody thinking of careers outside of the law is – don’t think of an alternative career as an escape route from your current role. What you must truly introspect on is the type of work that you wish to pursue. You must ask yourself whether you are willing to let go so many years of legal training, and the credibility that you have built in the legal industry, by virtue of your excellent education and strong professional affiliations. I say this because there are several frustrated lawyers in law firms who seek such alternative options, but who must first consider the various legal opportunities in-house that present great learning and a brilliant alternative to the law firm culture, but which opportunities are often ignored as they are not as “lucrative” or apparently “respectable”. Other options include legal-tech entrepreneurship or public policy, where you can still well leverage your existing reputation and networks in the legal industry.
However, if you are certain that your professional goals lie outside the law, don’t look back. We have a growing tribe of law graduates in alternative professions (we like to call ourselves Lawyers not Lawyering, read more at – https://medium.com/@
