Suresh Patel, Legal Advisor at Girmiti Software Pvt. Ltd. illustrates how legacy, discipline, and sustained learning can shape a long and impactful corporate practice. With over three decades of experience across law firm practice and senior in house leadership roles, he has built a career rooted in strategic thinking, adaptability, and business aligned legal decision making. In this conversation, he reflects on the key influences and defining milestones that guided his transition from external advisory roles to becoming a trusted legal advisor within complex corporate ecosystems.
This interview has been published by Anshi Mudgal and The SuperLawyer Team
What motivated you to enter the legal profession and how did your initial years shape your long term vision?
The motivation to enter the legal profession is primarily due to the reason that i belong to a family of lawyers both my grandfathers were lawyers, one grandfather was a public prosecutor and another was a civil judge, my father also is a lawyer and my younger brother is a practising lawyer in the high court and my daughter is also studying law at Jindal Law School and hence it was but natural that i take up law as i come from a family of legal luminaries.
My initial years shaped my long term vision due to my habit of extensive reading which has helped me a lot. In addition to law I prefer reading several books on my subject of interest both fiction and non-fiction.
Moving from law firm practice to senior in house and corporate roles, what early challenges tested your adaptability ?
Law firm practice and in house role are two different aspects all together in a law firm you are confined and restricted to the brief and of course you get to handle a variety of cases but in house role you become a business lawyer and your thought process is aligned to the business needs of the company and risk mitigation. The two are different worlds altogether. In house role you have the liberty to strategise and engage the best in the business as per the requirements and in law firms you are servicing your external clients needs and in house you are catering to your internal client. This is the fundamental difference in both the roles.
Challenges initially you need to adapt to different ways of working in both the environments and after the initial hiccups one tends to adapt quickly and I was able to seamlessly merge onto the in-house role pretty quickly.
Was there a defining assignment or role that fundamentally changed how you viewed law as a business enabler?
Yes there were several defining assignments during the course of my career and law is definitely viewed as a business enabler as all businesses are profit oriented and most decisions and thought process is towards achieving the said objective.
Hence law is much more than just a dispute resolution tool as law if used diligently and judiciously in the business environment can be a game changer for the business as sometimes monetary considerations override certain factors. A classic example if i can mention is in recovery cases wherein the amounts are not too large in corporate parlance we state a phrase that there is no point spending good money going after bad money as dispute resolution or any form of litigation is expensive and time consuming.
What would you identify as the turning point that positioned you as a trusted senior legal advisor within complex corporate ecosystems?
The turning point that positioned me in my career was an IPO that I was involved in listing a private limited company unto a public listed company.
The entire process end to end from the due diligence to listing the stock on the exchanges i single handedly managed whilst working with the external counsels, book running lead managers, and financial institutions the entire legal requirements were handled and attended to and this assignment gave me the recognition and confidence within the corporate ecosystems.
With exposure across banking, finance, real estate, media, IT, and manufacturing, what has been one of the most challenging cases for you?
Several challenging cases i have handled thru my career and its difficult to highlight any one but to list out in brief some of the cases are as below-
- Copyright ownership issue and dispute between the parties.
- A race horse owner involved in instructing his jockey to ensure that his horse does not run on merits in the turf club races.
- Contract workers in the canteen of a manufacturing plant seeking regular employment on the roles of the company.
- A builder defaulting on delivery of flat after collecting the full payment from the customer.
- Shareholders disputes as regards ownership and control of the management of a deemed public limited company.
Having led legal functions for global MNCs and Indian conglomerates, what leadership principles guide your decision making today?
Complete freedom in the legal framework is required and I have been fortunate to have this attribute to make my decision making easy and fulfilling. Unless one has the freedom and say in the legal decision making process leadership will be hampered and would not be able to thrive and succeed.
With over three decades of experience, how has your approach to negotiations and dispute resolution evolved and what aspirations do you have for your future?
My approach to negotiation and dispute resolution have always been infinite patience and to keep an open mind. One needs to be a good listener in addition to being a good communicator and have infinite amount of patience and some issues are tricky and such issues time is a great healer what is confrontation today may taper down couple of weeks later and hence patience and time help a lot and one should not expect miracles overnight. My aspiration for the future would be that mediation should be adopted more and more as an effective mechanism of dispute resolution and is faster as compared to other modes of traditional dispute resolutions mechanism.
Looking back, what advice would you offer young lawyers aspiring to build long term careers across corporate law, advisory, and leadership roles?
My advice to young lawyers and students would be to be mentally tough as law is a long and hard grind and the legal profession is a very demanding profession and is definitely not a walk in the park.
Please bear in mind to work very very hard on all aspects and if need be burn the midnight oil as and when circumstances demand. If anybody is sincere hard working, intelligent and street smart success is assured after a considerable period of time and also note that there is no such thing as overnight success in law. To gear up please read general books on various topics of interest in addition to your law books and case laws etc.
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