CEO Insights Magazine

The legal industry has always been a versatile domain untapped with immense scope to innovate and improvise. Solemnly believing in the idea that change is the only constant and there is no end to learning, Rasmeet’s pursuit to learn new things, explore new legal areas and passion for use of technology in legal space led her to take on the challenges and delve into new solutions. Quick to acknowledge the need, opportunity, and potential for the lawyers to change the way law is practiced for good, she voyaged into the legal space with tremendous experience and learning. Her innovative thought process, openness and passion for process and technology impacted future ventures whether starting a law firm, working with legal tech company or in her current role as a Chief Innovation Officer. Her adherent legal, process and technology skills help her understand and bridge the gap between multidisciplinary teams and facilitate business operations.

Engaging in an exclusive interaction with CEO Insights, Rasmeet Charya talks about the nuances of her journey as a widely acknowledged Innovation Officer.

Tell us about your educational and professional background prior to Algo Legal. What unique skillsets do you possess that makes you a distinguished individual in the legal industry?
I have had an engaging career while pursuing my legal qualification post-marriage, simultaneously raising a child, inheriting a 50+year-old litigation practice immediately upon my graduation out of law school and shouldering the responsibility to run it successfully for 8 years before the higher courts in India prior to moving into new avenues. A traditionally established litigation practice came with its own set of unique challenges to my own undiscovered and untapped passion for a process- oriented mind.

I learned a lot through adversity, resistance, resilience, and challenging environment, which consequently led me to take a holistic approach for strategically preparing for the cases such as understanding the issues, every stakeholder’s argument, managing case documentation and court processes, maintaining client trust and relationships. This was in a way my first stint with legal entrepreneurship in terms of running an established law practice from day 1.

I was always a curious learner that led me to explore other practice areas, and I gained my first ever experience of working for international clients in a small but smart corporate law firm just when India was going through the liberalization process and opened up FDI avenues. This was a game-changer for me as I learned a lot about the importance of turning around time-bound high-quality work. During 2008, with India buzzing around with outsourcing made me explore the LPO industry that not only exposed me to UK and US laws but helped me hone my process and project management skills, use and leverage technology into areas such as compliance and contract management and most importantly adapt to change, while simultaneously pursuing my qualifying test for Solicitor of England and Wales, that I cleared in 2010. The transaction, risk and compliance experience over the past 10+ years has helped me get

an end-to-end business perspective of the investment ecosystem, legal and contractual requirements and how to manage legal and business risks.

What different roles have you been undertaking at Algo Legal and how do you keep your team motivated to successfully complete an assignment?
As you know Algo Legal is a pioneer in setting up technology-based practice for all its verticals. At Algo, we started with a dedicated team for legal innovation that spent significant time researching, defining, creating a legal tech and innovation roadmap and strategy. With my prior experience in process driven strategies for internal and external deliverables, my role obviously involved designing, strategizing, planning, and setting up of the legal innovation & tech architecture.

So, to answer your question, I have donned the roles of a strategic designer and thinker, operations to the extent of implementing legal tech solutions, client relationships to educate and make client understand the benefits they can reap with our legal tech approach. I therefore, spearhead my team in defining processes, understanding, and implementing suitable tech, research, and training, establishing data collection and management, culture change and innovative outreach initiatives for the firm.

Innovation is an organizational initiative and involves deep passion and joy. It involves collaboration and integration with people, process and technology. I ideate a lot with my team that helps share knowledge and thoughts, introduce new concepts, overcome creative hurdles and motivate the team to take new challenges.

From innovation perspective, as a team we follow a very process-oriented approach and would like to plan and scope the assignments well so that we can estimate our effort and possible outcomes and drive the assignments to closure. I am hands-on and on ground to take the challenges with my team, when required that motivates the team. I believe in complete transparency and visibility that helps build trust.

With a client-centric approach and implementing the design thinking principles, we focus on defining the processes and leveraged various tech systems that helped us collaborate and deliver our services to our clients in a simple yet secure manner. We experiment and re-invent to develop multiple use cases for our existing systems to initiate new service lines.

What do you see as the CIO's top priority and what are the keys to a successful innovation strategy? Tell us about your personal achievements at Algo Legal and the business transformation you led via those achievements?
I am passionate about bringing tech into the legal space, and my thoughts resonate with our Founder and Managing Partner Sandeep Kapoor, who gives us immense support when it comes to innovation. As an organization our vision is that the legal tech can immensely benefit lawyers and law firms, and we need to gear ourselves up for new age tech challenges. The keys to successful innovation strategy are organization support, intent and resources to innovate, regular discussions with the lawyers understanding their issues and requirements and also to keep them informed and aware of global legal tech developments. It is

critically important to engage, collaborate, and work with multi-disciplinary teams as those help.

At Algo Legal, we have designed, created and implemented 3+ legal tech products across compliance, due diligence and transaction management areas with tech professionals. With the constant use of process and technology, our team of lawyers have upscaled legal services to a different level.

Another area that captivates my interest is global developments in legal tech space where the overall objective of the legal-tech is (a) to make the legal system accessible to all, and (b) to create client centric solutions. I have helped create new lines of business that create value for the client and generates revenue for the firm too. So, it is a win-win situation for all.

In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction - both as an individual and as a CIO?
I feel my transition from a litigation lawyer to a corporate and compliance professional and then pivoting into legal tech and innovation has been very enriching and extremely satisfying. This has not only changed my mindset and practice but also led me to contribute and create value for the organizations I have worked with. Since legal tech has been my passion, I enjoyed designing and curating legal tech products based on various legal use cases such as regulatory and internal compliance management, contract automation, end to end transaction management, anti-corruption certification management, and more, that gives me huge satisfaction as this helps solve several challenges faced by legal professionals and business teams for which there are no ready solutions available.

Our constant discussions and awareness campaigns within Algo is slowly pushing the lawyers towards process-oriented approach and a mindset to embrace technology. It is my dream to change the DNA to the extent that use of process and technology becomes an integral part of their legal ecosystem.

Also, it is very essential to bring that change in the ecosystem at large, which will undoubtedly bestow utmost satisfaction to me. In addition to various endeavors at Algo, we created and conducted India’s first legal innovation and tech course for the law students of one of the top National Law University that gave me a great sense of pride and satisfaction. It was a wonderful experience to interact and share industry knowledge with the future lawyers to equip them with the tech transformation, mindset change and contribute to our legal ecosystem.

But there is a long way to go before the entire legal ecosystem embraces tech and innovation. We are still at the tip of iceberg!

Rasmeet Charya, Chief Innovation Officer, Algo Legal
A dual qualified UK and India lawyer with over 20 years of collective litigation, LPO, legal and corporate compliance experience, Rasmeet specializes in corporate compliance, legal design consulting, design thinking for legal services, customized legal process and tool development, extensive experience in litigation (employment matters), due diligence, compliance management, legal document and knowledge management. As a Chief Innovation Officer, Rasmeet not only carries a strong passion for transformation and innovation but takes a sturdy approach in implementing the same across her work. Prolific in understanding problems, curating ideas and facilitating innovation processes, Rasmeet and her team are pragmatically engaged in analyzing how technology can be used by the firm to enhance transparency, increase access, create efficiencies, and offer a new brand of service.