The conference was chaired by Nilanjan Sinha, General Counsel, GE Capital who had the privilege of introducing the Chief Guest, The Hon’ble Former Justice Deepak Verma, Supreme Court of India. Justice Verma briefed the legal counsel on strategies for effectively partnering with The Bench in order to expedite the judicial process for the benefits of the Indian legal system. Over the course of the day, LCCA kept the leadership momentum rolling by discussing topics ranging from the impact of technology on the In-House Counsels, followed by how the HR and Legal departments can jointly retain the best talent pool and develop future legal leaders for their businesses.
The LCCA then discussed a very pertinent conversation led by Richa Naujoks, Co Founder, Society of Women Lawyers, on gender diversity and the role of women in legal leadership roles that left the audience stirred into deep introspection.
The second half of the Congress focused on preventive risk and corruption measures for the savvy General Counsel, followed by a very controversial and frank discussion led by Usha Amonkar, on striking the right chord between Law Firms and In-House Counsels and what in-house lawyers can do to ensure the partnership is a win-win. The Congress ended with another first for the LCCA, with the world's leading arbitration centers, LCIA INDIA, HKIAC, SIAC, sharing a platform for the first time in India with the arbitration guru, Hiroo Advani chairing the presidential style debate.
Lastly the Legal Counsel Congress concluded with the awards ceremony honouring the outstanding performances of legal India.
The National Law Firm of the Year Award went to Amarchand Mangaldas whilst the Best Employer of the Year Award went to BPCL, with Persistent Technologies bettering their performance of 2012 by winning Best Use of Technology and Innovation this year.
Speaking on the occasion, Vikas Vij, Managing Director, The Ideas Exchange said, “The Ideas Exchange is committed to working with business leaders across sectors and business functions and focused on delivering knowledge based platforms for a discerning and informed industry to ideate and enable business exchanges in a creative, efficient and responsive manner. The Legal Counsel Congress & Awards is our creation to reinforce our dedication towards creating this benchmark for the legal community in India, ensuring they move from simply being legal guardians to being recognized as business heads and leaders in their own right”.
Siemens won the Team of the year category.
And Rajeev Uberoi of IDFC again won the General Counsel of the Year award with his young stalwart Rohit Sharma winning the Young In-House Lawyer of the Year - Male award.
But Kavery (Kavya Appaiah) Madappa – manager legal at Bangalore International Airport - ensured there was no hat-trick for IDFC by winning the Young In-House Lawyer of the Year - Female award.
And Debolina Partap - associate vice president and head legal for the Wockhardt group - built on last year’s performance by winning the Woman General Counsel of the Year award.
That brought to an end the LCCA, what was described by participants as probably the most cutting edge conference in terms of hard hitting agenda topics and focused senior level participation.
The 5th edition of this exclusive community forum for in-house counsel will return next year in 2014.