In today’s business environment, the role of a legal function is no longer confined to reviewing contracts, managing disputes or stepping in when a regulatory issue arises. As businesses become increasingly technology-driven and interconnected, legal leadership is finding a much broader place at the decision-making table.

For Jatin Rawal, Chief Legal Officer at GUS Global Services India Pvt. Ltd., effective legal leadership begins much earlier than the point at which a dispute or compliance issue emerges. It begins with understanding how a business operates, what it is trying to achieve and which risks are worth taking.

Rawal’s own career reflects this evolution. Beginning in litigation, he went on to build experience across contract management, corporate law, cross-border contracting, compliance, intellectual property, employment law, M&A, strategic advisory and organisational risk management. His professional journey has included roles with UnitedLex, Oracle and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), along with his current leadership responsibilities at GUS India.

His transition from litigation to in-house legal work was driven by a desire to move beyond resolving disputes and instead participate in decisions before disputes arose. As he puts it, the opportunity lay in understanding how businesses make decisions and how legal professionals can help structure transactions, prevent disputes and support responsible growth.

Today, that perspective shapes his approach as a legal leader.

From Litigation to the Business Side of Law

Jatin’s early experience in litigation provided the foundation for his approach to legal problem-solving. Working across civil, contractual, intellectual-property, arbitration, recovery and property matters exposed him to the importance of evidence, documentation, legal research and dispute strategy.

His subsequent move into contract management and international contracting broadened that perspective. At Oracle, he supported contract-management activities across more than 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, while his work with CSC involved contracts relating to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Each role brought a different lesson. Litigation taught him to examine facts closely and anticipate opposing positions. Contract management strengthened his drafting and negotiation capabilities, while his international roles gave him exposure to technology, procurement, supply-chain and commercial contracts.

But perhaps the most important lesson he carries forward is deceptively simple: the quality of a legal solution often depends on the quality of the questions asked at the beginning.

Before giving legal advice, Jatin believes a lawyer needs to understand the business objective, the relevant facts, decision-making authority, financial implications, operational constraints and the consequences of both proceeding and not proceeding.

That approach shifts the legal function from simply identifying problems to helping the business understand them.

The CLO as a Strategic Business Partner

The modern Chief Legal Officer, in Jatin’s view, is increasingly becoming a strategic business partner rather than a traditional legal adviser.

The changing business landscape has made this shift particularly important. Technology adoption, data protection, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, regulatory scrutiny and stakeholder expectations are creating legal considerations that are closely intertwined with business strategy.

For a CLO, understanding the law is therefore only one part of the job. The role also requires an understanding of the organisation’s business model, financial priorities, operational realities and long-term objectives.

Jatin believes the legal function should be involved early in decision-making, rather than entering the conversation only when a transaction is ready for approval or a problem has already surfaced.

Early involvement, he explains, allows organisations to structure initiatives more effectively, identify legal and commercial risks in advance and make informed decisions without unnecessarily slowing down the business.

That requires more than technical expertise. It requires judgement, commercial understanding and, importantly, the confidence to ask difficult questions.

When a Contract Has to Work Beyond the Legal Department

Contracts are often viewed primarily as legal documents. For Jatin, however, an effective contract has to work in the real world.

A legally comprehensive agreement has limited value if the operating teams responsible for implementing it cannot understand or comply with its provisions.

He believes contract drafting should begin with the commercial objective, the expectations of the parties and the principal risks involved. From there, the agreement needs to establish clarity around areas such as scope, deliverables, timelines, responsibilities, pricing, performance standards, confidentiality, data protection, intellectual property, liability, termination and dispute resolution.

But the legal document is only one part of the relationship.

Risk, according to Jatin, should be allocated fairly and realistically. Negotiations should concentrate on issues that genuinely matter rather than turning every clause into a point of contention.

The objective, therefore, is not to win every negotiation point. It is to create clarity, establish accountability and reduce the possibility of future disagreements while providing a practical foundation for a sustainable business relationship.

Looking Beyond the Documents in M&A

The same practical approach extends to M&A due diligence.

For Jatin, due diligence is not simply about checking whether a company’s corporate documents are in order. It is about understanding what is actually being acquired, identifying potential liabilities and determining how those risks can be addressed.

This requires examining corporate structure and ownership, regulatory approvals, material contracts, change-of-control restrictions, litigation, statutory compliance, taxation, employment obligations, intellectual property, data protection, cybersecurity, technology risks, real estate, related-party transactions and governance practices.

Importantly, he also stresses the need to compare documented arrangements with actual business practices.

Undocumented arrangements, operational dependencies or excessive reliance on a particular licence, customer, supplier, employee or regulatory approval can create risks that may not immediately appear in formal documentation.

The value of due diligence ultimately lies in converting these findings into actionable decisions. Depending on the nature of a risk, that could involve revisiting valuation, requiring pre-closing actions, negotiating specific indemnities, retaining part of the consideration, incorporating appropriate warranties or determining that a particular risk cannot be commercially accepted.

Protecting the Business Without Becoming a Roadblock

One of the central challenges for any in-house legal team is balancing risk protection with the need to keep business moving.

Jatin approaches such situations by first understanding the business objective, the urgency and the consequences of delay. The legal concern is then assessed based on its likelihood, potential impact and the possibility of mitigation.

Rather than responding with a simple “yes” or “no”, he believes legal teams should, wherever possible, present practical alternatives.

These may include proceeding with additional safeguards, obtaining specific approvals, limiting the scope of an initiative, modifying the commercial structure or introducing additional compliance measures.

At the same time, there are boundaries that cannot be treated as negotiable. Issues involving illegality, serious regulatory exposure, fraud, personal liability or significant reputational harm require clear advice, documentation and escalation to the appropriate decision-makers.

For Jatin, the objective is not to eliminate every possible risk. Instead, it is to ensure that the right questions have been asked and that the organisation takes informed, proportionate and properly authorised risks.

Leading Through Complexity

The most challenging matters in legal leadership, Jatin says, are often those involving multiple stakeholders, significant commercial or reputational implications, urgent timelines and situations where there is no clearly defined legal or regulatory path.

Such circumstances reveal why technical legal knowledge alone is not enough.

A legal leader must first identify the real issue, distinguish established facts from assumptions and understand the legal, financial, operational and reputational consequences of the available options. The next step is translating that complexity into clear choices for management.

Stakeholder management becomes equally important.

Complex matters can require coordination between management, finance, operations, procurement, human resources, compliance, external counsel and regulatory authorities. Keeping these stakeholders aligned around the same facts, responsibilities and intended outcome can be critical to reaching a practical solution.

Jatin also emphasises the importance of remaining calm and objective under commercial pressure. Constructive engagement, he believes, can often produce better outcomes than an unnecessarily adversarial approach, while any negotiated resolution must continue to protect the organisation’s legal rights and essential safeguards.

In that sense, legal leadership becomes less about having an immediate answer and more about creating clarity when the answer is not immediately obvious.

The Questions That Matter

For young lawyers looking to build careers in corporate and in-house legal functions, Jatin’s  advice extends beyond mastering legal principles. 

Strong foundations in contract law, corporate law, regulatory compliance and dispute management remain essential. But these skills need to be complemented by commercial and financial awareness and an understanding of how organisations actually operate.

He highlights clear drafting and communication, risk assessment, negotiation, stakeholder management, integrity, professional judgement, ownership and accountability among the qualities aspiring legal leaders should develop. He also points to curiosity about technology and emerging areas of law, along with the ability to build and empower teams.

Perhaps his most distinctive advice is to resist the pressure to always have an immediate answer.

A lawyer should first understand the complete context, he says, because a thoughtful question can sometimes add more value than a quick legal opinion.

That idea runs through much of Rawal’s philosophy on legal leadership. Whether dealing with a contract, an acquisition, a regulatory concern or a complex dispute, the starting point is understanding the issue properly before deciding how to respond.

Building Trust at the Leadership Table

Rawal’s career journey, from litigation and contract management to international contracting and senior in-house legal leadership, reflects the expanding role of legal professionals within modern organisations.

His perspective suggests that the CLO’s contribution is not limited to protecting an organisation from what could go wrong. It also involves helping the organisation understand its options, navigate uncertainty and move forward responsibly.

Ultimately, he sees senior legal leadership as being built on trust: the trust that the legal function will ask the questions others may have overlooked, identify the issues that matter, communicate them clearly and help the organisation make responsible decisions.

In an increasingly complex business environment, that ability to turn legal knowledge into practical business clarity may be one of the most important roles a Chief Legal Officer can play.

-Interview By Shivani Solanki