The chance to spend a week each at six different European law firms is once again up for the taking with the Traveling Fellowship Award (TFA), an initiative of the International Technology Law Association (ITechLaw). The TFA allows the selected lawyer to intern with six European law firms working in the field of Information and Communication Technology. The award is currently in its eighth year of existence.
“TFA was conceptualized as a programme to expose Indian lawyers to the cutting edge practice of technology law as it exists in the Western world”, says Sajai Singh, Partner at J. Sagar Associates and co-chair at ITechLaw. The basic concept was that these lawyers would then return to India, says Singh, and “play a constructive role” in building the profession.
Over the course of time, the TFA selection process has become quite competitive says Singh, with a large number of in-house counsels applying for the award. One of the winners was Talha Salaria, one of the founding members of MMB Legal and founder of L.A.W. in June 2012. Awarded the TFA in 2009, Talha says that despite the relatively short length of the internships, it was a great learning experience.
“You at least get a feel of how [foreign law firms] work,” says Salaria, “and most firms really go out of their way to make sure you are comfortable.” Apart from the plentiful networking opportunities the TFA offers, what she particularly valued was the cultural insights gained during the six weeks.
Of course, says Salaria, this does not mean that the work assignments during the internships are to be taken lightly. “You are representing your firm, your country after all,” says Salaria, “and you should also make sure you work in accordance with their policies.”
The most recent TFA was given to Vibin Natarajan, currently a Senior Legal Manager at Mindtree Ltd.
“Most of our contract [related work] is based on international law,” explains Vibin Natarajan, “so to actually interact with lawyers for whom it is domestic law was a completely different experience.”
Professionally, the TFA allowed him to not only network with other lawyers but also provided for some practical experience. There are other benefits of the TFA as well. “As an Associate, you are always curious about how international law firms work,” recounts Natarajan, “and [the TFA] was a real eye-opener for me.”
Culturally too, the TFA provided a number of different experiences. For instance, he was struck by the variety in the queries he faced. “The Swedish law firm was quite curious to learn about real estate”, says Natarajan, “they wanted to understand why it is so difficult to establish clear title.” In France though, the Bar Association was understandably interested in learning about foreign lawyers being allowed to practice in India.
Natarajan also notes that the similarities between Indian lawyers and their foreign counterparts were far higher in number than the differences. The long working hours for instance was something that Natarajan saw in both Indian and foreign law firms. In terms of working styles, Natarajan says that where Indian firms really need to change is in the scale of operations.
On the TFA application process, Natarajan says that it is fairly simple procedure, with judges typically looking for lawyers with an ICT background. He also advises selected candidates to reach out to the firms as early as possible to get the most out of the program.
The 8th TFA comes at a time when there is perceivable trend in the role of in-house counsels, especially within the field of ICT. Singh, for instance, says that since larger companies prefer doing their work in-house, law firms are increasingly being “used on a need basis for specialized work and niche practice areas.”
This point echoed by Salaria who says that while smaller companies may still source a lot of their work to outside counsels, the bigger players are building their in-house teams. She also says that an in-house position is no longer seen as a less strenuous job, with little to separate the kind of work done in-house and that which was traditionally outsourced.
The TFA is open to lawyers either working as in-house counsel in an ICT company or who have practical experience in this field. The last date for submitting applications is January 15, 2014. More details on the Traveling Fellowship Award can be found here.