Ms. MANJAREE CHOWDHARY, Executive Director & General Counsel – Maruti Suzuki delivered a live interactive webinar session on the topic “THE JOURNEY OF A LAWYER : FROM CAMPUS TO THE LEGAL WORLD” at Asian Law College (ALC) for its BA-LLB & LLB students and law aspirants on Thursday, 29th April’21 at 4:00 PM onwards under the Legal Lecture Series (LLS) 2021 – Season 5 of Asian Law College (ALC) . The webinar presented itself as a highly enriching and inspiring session for all who participated in it.
Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary is an executive director and general counsel at Maruti Suzuki India, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation Japan. She is a seasoned legal professional with over 23 years of experience. Ms. Chowdhary leads a team of more than 30 professionals and works closely with the board and the leadership team to provide legal and compliance support to manage risk in a dynamic regulatory and business environment.
Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary is an experienced General Counsel with over two decades of successful history of working across South Asia and global geographies in diverse industries – industrial manufacturing, direct marketing, healthcare, power and auto. She is skilled in strategic advisory, board management, enterprise risk and compliance, complex transactions and litigation, cross functional leadership, change management, public policy and government relations. She brings a global mindset and strong execution to grow businesses in challenging regulatory environments. She displays an adaptive leadership style with an ability to assimilate quickly in diverse business environments to contribute effectively in a short span of time.
A masters in law from the University of London, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary made a mid-career shift from academics to law. She started legal career with a leading law firm, moved in – house with global conglomerate General Electric (GE) and is currently at Maruti Suzuki, the India auto major as its first woman General Counsel. A member of the CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs and also a visiting speaker at the top business and law schools in India, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary was most recently recognized as the “General Counsel of the Year (Female) at the prestigious Legal Era Annual Legal Awards, 2020.
A core initiative of Asian Education Group (AEG) – considered as the largest centre for professional media, IT, law, management, fashion & hospitality education in Asia with world-class facilities – this webinar was organized by Asian Law College (ALC) – which is a constituent group college of Asian Education Group and is ranked as one of the one of the best Law Colleges in Delhi NCR – for all B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students & aspirants. The webinar was followed by a lively Q&A Session with the most distinguished guest.
The webinar session started with the distinguished guest, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary, thanking the ALC team for inviting her for this session. To quote her words, she said that it was “a pleasure to be here with young students and prospective lawyers.”
She then right away got on to the topic of the day, i.e. “The Journey of A Lawyer: From Campus to the Legal World” and started narrating her most inspiring journey that began with her disclosure that “law was never my subject” and how “one should never rule out the role played by fate.” Explaining further, she recounted her initial great interest in academics and teaching and how by way of some scholarships that came her way, she went over to London to complete her courses and how she stumbled upon an opportunity to pursue a LL.M course there. She then described in great detail how she started her legal career with a leading law firm, how she moved in-house with global conglomerate General Electric (GE), and how she landed up at Maruti Suzuki, the India auto major as its first woman General Counsel. Her entire narration was studded with highly inspiring personal anecdotes that offered some wonderful life lessons for all who participated in the webinar.
The webinar was then followed by a lively Q&A Session with the illustrious guest. Here, there were a number of questions related to the various aspects of her life, work and challenges that were put forward by the enthusiastic students. The much experienced speaker answered each of these questions most authoritatively and convincingly to the complete satisfaction of the students and all participants.
In her concluding message for the ALC B.A.LL.B. & LL.B. students, the distinguished senior legal professional, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary shared some great life lessons and said, “Be passionate about law. To become successful, it requires an immense amount of perseverance. When not lucky, don’t fret. Don’t give in to depression. Don’t be afraid to do different roles. Believe in yourself. Remember, there is no substitute for confidence. Be relevant. It’s all in your mind. Remember also that alone you cannot do anything. Managing people around is an important trait. Keep learning … and along the way … have lots of fun!”
Once done, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary was presented with a glittering “Memento” on behalf of Asian Education Group.
With this, the highly enriching and inspiring live interactive session with the highly distinguished senior legal professional, Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary came to a fitting end!