Ms. Manjaree Chowdhary

Dear All,

I feel privileged to be invited to chair The Grand Masters 2019, New Delhi Edition organized by Lex Witness – India’s 1st Magazine on Legal and Corporate Affairs. Lex Witness has been organizing a plethora of knowledge-driven summits ever since its inception in 2009. Starting in 2013, The Grand Masters Summit Series – A Corporate Counsel Legal Best Practices Summit Series has successfully moved into its seventh year with three sessions planned in New Delhi, on Feb 7th, 2019 at Le Meridien, followed by the Mumbai edition on Feb 14th, 2019 at The Courtyard by Marriott, and the concluding edition on Feb 22nd, 2019 at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru.

The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series is undoubtedly an important platform for in – house colleagues from the legal fraternity to interact, exchange thoughts and share best practices on legal developments and challenges to stay professionally relevant in a highly dynamic regulatory and business environment.

The role of an in-house counsel is rapidly transforming with the focus shifting from being just a legal advisor to being an effective business partner to the Board and the Management. A General Counsel has to increasingly balance the legal with the commercial, manage risk, support complex transactions, build credible teams, seek expert view and automate processes and yet contain costs and be updated with a fast-changing regulatory regime to add value to stakeholders – all at the same time. A daunting task indeed! The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series will help us to navigate through such competing priorities by sharing experiences and effective tools.

We are living in a fast-changing regulatory environment. There are new laws every day on different emerging areas – competition, cyber-crime, digital, data protection and privacy, bankruptcy, protection against sexual harassment, gender diversity, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence to name a few. As in-house counsel, we need to not only keep pace with them but interpret and opine effectively on them – a daunting task indeed! The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series promises to engage you not only in a meaningful discussion on the current and topical regulations but also provide you with insights on how they are being interpreted across industries.

Managing disputes and choosing the appropriate resolution mechanism – litigation vs arbitration or mediation is always a tricky decision. The jury is perpetually out on this topic. The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series agenda will help to bring more clarity on the subject with relevant panel discussions, expert perspectives and an opportunity for Q&A.

One cannot stress enough on the importance of innovation and intellectual property as a key differentiating factor. As in-house counsel, it is expected that we understand and appreciate this valuable asset and provide effective management strategies to build competitive advantage for our businesses. The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series will not disappoint you in this regard given its robust agenda on the various nuances of Intellectual property – its protection, enforcement, infringement and applicability, new developments and evolving jurisprudence.

I am excited to be part of the The Grand Masters 2019 Summit Series, meet colleagues from the fraternity and the speakers for the day. I look forward to engaging and informed discussions, networking and loads of fun.

Summit Chair – The Grand Masters 2019 – New Delhi Edition

Best wishes,

Manjaree Chowdhary
General Counsel
Maruti Suzuki

Summit Chair – The Grand Masters 2019 – New Delhi Edition