COVER STORY
Describe your journey as a leading woman lawyer?
D
ebolina Partap joined
pharma and healthcare
major Wockhardt in
August 2006. In her current
role as General Counsel and
Vice President Legal, she is
responsible for IP and litigation
management, legal compliance,
all corporate legal work, and
transactions
management
among others. She advises top
management on legal risks;
settles
complex
insolvency
petitions filed against the
organization;
and
settles
intricate derivatives suits filed
against the group globally.
Partap is one of the few general
counsels globally who handles
forensics and data analytics.
Partap got a gold medal in her
masters of law. She started her
career in a bank in 1993.
A recipient of a slew of awards
and accolades, in 2017, Partap
was awarded best individual for
outstanding achievement in-
house and her team won the
best innovations and strategies
team of the year among others.
My journey as a woman lawyer has been very enriching. My most effective
days were my first two years after college, where I learned the basics of
court procedures, both civil and criminal and the art of arguing matters
before the judiciary. Any lawyer who wants to be truly successful must
have grounding in court work and litigation practice. Only then can they
foresee risks and advise on strategies to management and negotiate
good commercial transactions. I have never stopped reading. Even
after 24 years into the profession including corporate, I have always
remained a student and shall always remain. One must never part with
humility. Some of the biggest learnings I have had are from my juniors,
especially in the field of intellectual property law. A leading woman
lawyer should not harbor gender bias. It is presence of mind even more
than knowledge that is more important and appreciated in the lawyer’s
career. I always try to tell my colleagues and young budding lawyers not
to disconnect themselves from reading and traveling. Reading would not
only include law but other spheres too. These are the greatest teachers.
Describe the challenges that you have faced as a
leading woman lawyer?
I have always seen challenge as an opportunity. And I got plenty of
opportunities. The biggest one for me was to maintain a work-life
balance and excel in both spheres. This envisaged taking along with
you all the people who are with, without and around you with equal
importance. Another challenge for me was to work with newer and
newer generations. To understand their mindset is very challenging
because it does not work like us. Knowledge challenge is very small
compared to people challenge. With new laws getting enacted now and
then, it is indeed a stretch to keep abreast with precision.
www . legaleraonline . com
| L egal E ra | N ovember 2017
49