Asian Law College inaugurated its new batch of 5-year B.A.LL.B. & 3-year LL.B. on Thursday, 7th October 2021. The inauguration kick-started a grand three-day Orientation Programme scheduled from Thursday, 7th October 2021 to Saturday, 9th October 2021 where experts from legal profession shared their insight with the students who have started their professional journey with ALC. This programme was essentially organized to benefit the students who were about to begin a new phase in their academic life.
At the ALC Orientation 2021 Day 3 ceremony that was held on Saturday, 9th October 2021 at its campus located in Sector 125, Noida, Ms. PRIYA BANERJEE – Group General Counsel, Tech Mahindra Group – was an eminent guest who offered a highly interesting talk on the theme of ‘CAMPUS TO CORPORATE’ under the Asian Law College’s distinctive Legal Lecture Series (LLS) 2021 initiative.
With over 13 years’ experience as a technology lawyer, Ms. Priya Banerjee is currently an Associate Director in the Global Office of the General Counsel at PwC. Her focus is to strengthen and be a strategic legal counsel for strategic technology initiatives across the network of firms. Ms. Priya had been Ethics trainer for PwC in India and earlier had been imparting various training sessions on Legal, Contracting positions & Risk and Quality aspects for the PwC India firm. In addition, Ms. Priya is a pro bono member of the core committee of the CII IWN West Bengal chapter and has led the flagship CII IWN West Bengal Women leadership & Entrepreneurship event in FY 21 and also supported the FY 20 Women Leadership event. She is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion aspects and looks for opportunities on imparting POSH related legal compliances in organizations as a pro bono speaker and leads events to further the cause and awareness. During her tenure in multiple roles within the organization, she has gained niche expertise in the areas of technology and digital innovation, client commercial contracting etc. & has handled risk and compliance related issues for in house, listed private, banking and financial and PSU clients. She has the distinctive ability to manage and execute multidisciplinary projects while navigating through complex legal and business challenges.
Offering her eminent guest address on Day 3 of the ALC Orientation Programme 2021, Ms. Priya Banerjee, first of all, thanked the ALC Team for inviting her for the important event and said, “It is quite inspiring and an honour for me to be here with the students!”
Ms. Priya Banerjee then began her session with a question to all the students that read, “What is the definition of a Lawyer?” Responding to the enthusiastic responses from the students, she said, “The definition of a lawyer has changed over the years. Today, it is all about UPSKILLING. You have to constantly Learn & Unlearn. There is Pain & Gain on both sides of the industry.”
She then put up another question – “What is the difference between Good and Great Lawyer?” To this her answer was, “A Good Lawyer knows the Law; A Great Lawyer knows the Judge!”
The young but experienced professional, Ms. Priya Banerjee, next shared some priceless tips on how to become a good and great lawyer. To quote her words, “Understanding the people you work with is very important. Again, Quality, Attitude and Skill are also very very important. There is need for building trust in society; get to know the new fields of law like Cyber Security that are fast opening up. The need to continuously Learn, Unlearn and Upskill should be your focus. As law students, the ‘Mantra’ for you is ‘Plan Your Work & Work Towards Your Plan’!”
Talking about In House Counsel, Ms. Banerjee said, “As In House Counsel, you will need to work upon your Emotional Quotient Factor whereby you will need to remain stable under pressure and display resilience in your functioning. Here, you will also have to counter the dilemmas of ‘Thinking versus Strategic Thinking’ , ‘Research versus Concise Study’, etc. In House Counsel is a very important peg in the corporate world; so you have to prepare accordingly. The good habit of Reading will help you in a big way here.”
Ms. Priya Banerjee concluded her highly interesting session with the words, “Challenge the status quo every time. Keep asking questions. Look for the opportunity to connect with people. And, Practice, Practice, Practice … there is no short-cut to success!”