I remember my first interview in Dublin. It was with an MNC which was a carbon credit company. China was their top supplier, and they sold these credits all over the EU.
The company had its main office in Oxford, UK, while the holding company was in Dublin, Ireland. I was being interviewed by their General Counsel, a Chinese guy.
It was a multinational company in the true sense.
I would be their first Indian hire for the Irish office if I cracked the interview.
It was a completely new experience for me, and although I had the information that the interviewers do not grill you like you would expect to happen in India, I was filled with nervousness to the brim.
The General Counsel broke the ice by asking me how I turned up in Dublin and my background etc.
Then he picked up just one question relating to a specific transaction: How do you redeem preference shares in India? Do you know how it happens in the UK? Or Ireland?
Basically, he was expecting me to explain how preference share works in India v. England v. Ireland.
Luckily, I knew the answer quite well. I was able to explain to him the transactions and how things vary in different countries.
That sealed the fate of the interview.
If you want to work at an MNC, especially in high positions in the legal or compliance department, they would want to know if you can handle international work or whether your mind stops working the moment you are asked to deal with the laws of another country.
The best MNCs that offer the best jobs and opportunities are global in nature, continuously expanding to newer geographies and new business verticals. They need lawyers and compliance professionals who can bring sanity and sense to the regulatory madness that entails.
What happened in the Dublin interview when I could lucidly explain how the issuance of preference shares work in different jurisdictions?
The very next question was “What is the package you are looking for?”
Imagine that you are the general counsel at a growing technology or pharma company that is growing in several international markets at once.
Your morning starts with a call with the newly recruited team in developing a vaccine and working out how to distribute it in Africa, while keeping in mind the compulsory licensing regime.
Post lunch, you are on a call with your team in China who are facing a roadblock due to recently changed import and export regime, favouring the local industries.
Maybe in Bangladesh, you got hit with some new duty that does not seem WTO compliant and you have to decide how to move forward.
While you are working out with the team, strategizing the changes in the marketing and future expansion plans, your head of operations calls you frantically about a notice received from the income tax department in India, imposing retrospective taxation liabilities.
You have to manage a lot of these at once.
Your ability to strategize defines the future course of investments and finances of your company.
There are a lot of things that would move forward only if you give the right advice very quickly.
Your ability impacts hundreds of jobs and key business decisions.
You have to understand not just the legal aspects, but also the key business and financial aspects of the company.
You have to be able to respond to immediate changes in regulations and compare how companies have dealt with them in the past.
Your ability develops resilience and ensures the longevity of your company in the market.
You determine whether the effort put by the entire team of scientists, working day and night, investing millions of dollars and hours in research, will be finally useful and see the light of the day.
You quantify the risk-taking ability of your company and enable it to thrive even in an adverse regulatory environment.
You do not have to do these things on day 1 if you work at an MNC as a junior in-house counsel. But you will be involved in some things. You will be on the path to this future right away.
What skills and abilities will make you an attractive hire and set you up on the path to becoming a general counsel in an MNC?