February 2016 Woman At Work Digital

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Raising The Bar. A tenacious focus towards her goals, an ability to adapt to a changing environment and readiness to face challenges has earned her a name among the coveted senior legal counsel leaders in India. Woman at Work speaks with Archana Sasan, Executive Director and Head of the Legal and Ethics team at Dell India, on her seamless journey from the chambers of law to the C-Suite.
IN CONVERSATION WW AS WW AS WW AS WW AS WW AS WW AS During the years of your education, not many women would have looked at a career in law as an option. What inspired you to do so? My mother had always harboured a dream of being a lawyer. During her years, women were not accepted as professionals, so being a lawyer for her was impossible. I wanted to fulfil her dream and that motivated me to study law. That was the inspiration for me as I grew up. After graduating from Lady Shriram College (LSR) in English Honours, I decided to study law from Delhi University. How were the first few years as a lawyer? Right after I secured a degree in Law, I joined a private law firm. The initial years were more of settling down, where our seniors let us get acclimatized to the legal fraternity. Over a period of time, I realised that my inclination was more towards corporate law. With a lot of hard work and guidance from seniors, my career was moving in the right direction. How was it to take a sabbatical after a tenure of being professionally active and successful? I took a 5-year sabbatical to take care of my two children. Of course now they are grown up and are musicians by profession. Though I have the most beautiful memories of my life during this time, I must confess that I missed going to work. I loved spending time with my children, but I also wanted to be a part of the workforce sooner or later. When did you move back to an active career? It was in 1996 when I joined a law firm. I spent ten years with the organization. While it was a fulfilling experience to be back in professional action, the comeback had its own challenges. In those days, a career break meant that one would need to start afresh. One’s prior experience was not considered relevant. Though the top management was very supportive, transitioning into professional life wasn’t easy. Could you tell us about your shift towards a Corporate role? Yes, it was a big leap of faith. I am a person who likes taking up challenges, and knew that my prior work experience had laid a strong foundation for me. I wanted to pursue something new and explore how it is to be on the other side of the fence i.e. from being a private counsel to an in-house counsel. Thus I moved into my first corporate role as General Counsel with GE Money Financial Services. Post that, I moved to Airtel and then finally joined Dell India. Could you tell us about your current role and responsibilities at Dell India? I lead the Legal and Ethics team for Dell in India and am also the lead for the Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) region Employment Counsel. I have additional responsibility as the APJ Regional leader for WISE (Women in Search of Excellence) - an Employee Resource Group for women at Dell and a member of the APJ Diversity & Inclusion Council. Dell has a huge focus on gender balance at work and my role is help enhance that. February 2016 | 11
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