“To make IDIA an institution, we have to take the focus away from individuals and highlight the fundamentals of what the movement has to offer,” Mukherjee said about the three-year-old initiative to fund the legal education of financially less privileged school children who are often from marginalised societies. The project was founded by fellow NLSIU Bangalore alum Shamnad Basheer.
“We thought let’s try to make it easier for people to understand this movement, to volunteer and to contribute,” she commented adding: “If any of the larger organisations or donors want to associate with [IDIA] they need to see something that is transparent, accountable, ethical and basically a professionally run setup.”
Mukherjee has been involved with IDIA as a non-trustee with the designation of “chief mentor” to guide the scaling up of the project. She is overseeing IDIA’s funding, awareness programmes and is attempting to “formalise its structure” and “bridge the gap between the profession and IDIA”, she explained.
“The first few years have been the hardest test for Shamnad and the team. Now that the track record has been established (with some Indian firms and foreign firms like Herbert Smith and OMM engaging with us) we are trying to corporatise [IDIA]. We are also trying to get a professional management in place.
“We have student volunteers from every law school, we also have team leaders and executive directors who oversee operations. One of the things we have decided is a need to hire a chief executive officer, who is going to be head of operations and will be in management on a day to day basis. All the directors will report to that person.”
She told Legally India that apart from supervising IDIA’s entire legal documentation, she has been raising awareness and reaching out to NLS alumni and donors for corporate funding. “While we have received positive response from the legal community but till date our biggest donors have been individuals who trust the cause and have personal faith in Shamnad or Shishira [Rudrappa] or me. Now we are reaching out in a big way to law firms, corporates and institutions.
“There are many in the profession who want to give back. It is just a question of making the connect in an organised manner.”
Mukherjee said that she was working on IDIA full time until she was “back in the profession” after which she would continue on an advisory basis. She is currently also taking a seminar course on securities law at NUJS Kolkata and will take visiting courses at NLU Delhi and JGLS Sonepat after NUJS.
“I am absolutely in no rush to get back [to get a job] because the next move has to be strategic and has to make sense. I have reached a place in my career where my corporate relationships and reputation can contribute to growing business beyond capital market work. But walking away from something you have built is the hardest thing in the world. I am clear that if I have to invest in something meaningful, it should stay with me for (hopefully) the rest of my working life. I am currently engaged with the law and the markets are not going anywhere,” she commented.
Comments
[quote name="Indian Lawyer"]Can I marry you?[/quote]
Tough luck dude. She is already married to Gautam Saha from AZB.
Couldn't see that one last though, with all that cynicism ;)
Your comment is sickening, and stinks of sarcasm.
Dear Kian,
Arent you supposed to moderate crap ?
thanks,
p.s felt bad abt the sewer comment ??? that's how it feels to so pls dont do it !
And I think in the bigger picture, D&C was more obnoxious than sexist in this case...
In any case, I believe Ms Mukherjee has a good sense of humour and doesn't mind some of this nonsense too much, within reasonable limits. :)
First, a professional woman who presents herself draped along a lakeside branch, positioned in a distinctly non-professional pose, invites comment on the appropriateness of her message. See, Valerie Plame, Marissa Mayaer or Huma Abedin on their Vantity Fair spreads.
Second, her blatant marketing message, pitched along side her work with IDIA, invites discourse on the sincerity of her involvement with IDIA.
Finally, my two-sentence puncturing of her [...] self-promotion was studiously bereft of any gratuitous gender references.
There is little question that a professional who leaves her glasses, sports a skirt and poses languorously in her heels astride a branch is not conveying her opinion of put-call options and PIPE regulation.
You may recall that Ms. Mukherjee, or her agency, originally sent the water-nymph photo to Kian.
Look at this page for a hilarious read of just how much effort Ms Mukherjee put into a "photo shoot""
http://blogs.intoday.in/businesstoday/most-powerful-women-india-business-madhurima-mukherjee-clicked-63062.html
Hope she puts in similar effort into IDIA, at least for the bit that she IS in IDIA
But if you're not being sarcastic, you are being a bit of a douche (with all due respect, etc) - as you no doubt know, at photoshoots for magazines subjects are generally requested to pose awkwardly, so that they don't just turn out another 'lawyer sitting behind desk' shot (as the blog makes quite clear, and the duck shot too - I'd always thought they were geese!).
And I think that if you're rubbishing someone's message or work because of a 'water-nymph' photo, in original Dazed & Confused's words, which incidentally was shot by and published in a business magazine, then you possibly don't have much of a sense of humour, or are just incredibly old fashioned about how you'd like your 'professionals' to look and behave (sitting somberly behind a desk, I assume).
And one of your critics up above may be right, that in some insidious way, how you want your professionals to behave (particularly female ones), can actually be an insidious and subtle case of sexism too, even if you claim that you'd also take the case of a man in heels reclining on a log.
I should also note that normally we censor nearly all comments related to people's photographs, but I know that Ms Mukherjee is a good sport about comments and it's all for a good cause (IDIA, in case it's been forgotten).
That said, please don't be an ass about it!
Best wishes,
Kian
I cited the Vanity Fair photo shoots with Valerie Plame (spy), Marissa Meyer(tech goddess) and Huma Abedin (political operative) as instances where the contrast between the seriousness of the participant's professional pursuits and the nature of the photograph was widely discussed.
Additionally, Ms. Mukherjee's posed photograph and open musing on her professional future can be seen as a savvy business strategy to transition from her successful but relatively pedestrian corporate law practice into something more public. I personally find that interesting from a business standpoint and more than worthy of discussion. That's something new in the profession, at least in India.
Taking her seriously as a business person and professional means asking - Hey! What's with the heels and the log?
In contrast, if I was being gratuitous, I would have admired the batakh she posed with at the pond, and asked if the log photo signaled a new interest in wood.
(Prachi, please help Kian with the Hindi. Kian, do not explain the wood reference to Prachi.)
There are many ways for biz folks to look buffoonish or otherwise undercut their professional image when trying to play against type.
It's valid to discuss whether the photo Ms. Mukherjee sent affects her image, and if it signals a new business strategy for her. We're not running her photo on "Hot or Not."
Trust me, it's not easy for many lawyers to pick a photo that they're happy with for publication, which isn't too boring and/or unflattering. And that's going to particularly be the case if their photos are pored over with a critical image-consultant's eye by you and yours :)
Dry, very dry!
Now that she's one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in business she seems to be following a [u]Lean In [/u] strategy.
The Serious-Woman Glamour Shoot is a right of passage, along with visibly Giving Back, pursued by many professional women with a taste for greater power and renown. Watch for the Supporting the Arts, Mentor to Young Women and Female Voice on the Corporate Board stories that will follow in good time.
Twenty bucks and a Gold Flake at the chaiwalla downstairs says that she announces a couple of board appointments by April.
Now that she's one of the 30 Most Powerful Women in business she seems to be following a [u]Lean In [/u] strategy.
The Serious-Woman Glamour Shoot is a right of passage, along with visibly Giving Back, pursued by many professional women with a taste for greater power and renown. Watch for the Supporting the Arts, Mentor to Young Women and Female Voice on the Corporate Board stories that will follow in good time.
Twenty bucks and a Gold Flake at the chaiwalla downstairs says that she announces a couple of board appointments by April.[/quote]
I think June is a better bet. An arboreal photo can only take you so far.
N.B: your drafting skills are excellent.
There is little question that a professional who leaves her glasses, sports a skirt and poses languorously in her heels astride a branch is not conveying her opinion of put-call options and PIPE regulation.
[/quote]
errr... so skirts, heels and no glasses disqualifies one from offering legal advice now? you are truly bizzare. Kian, so are you for patronising this.
Well in that case, I would argue otherwise and say that if you are well aware that the comment lacks value and lacks merit, then it would be 'unethical' on your part as a moderator to still permit it to be published.
Its a personal attack on Madhurima and belittles her amazing initiate. I am not at all suggesting that you stop permitting comments to be published in cases where the subject has been criticised. Well a sensible person wouldn't mind constructive criticism but this is just a personal attack on someone which has no relation to the article. I get that it's your website and you are free to devise your own moderation policies, but in my opinion this reeks of unprofessionalism and is indicative of your [i]desperate[/i] urge to increase LI's readership.
when LI started, i was very thrilled, as it meant more information flow in the legal market which is always a good thing. but over the years, its gone from unpleasant to sickening. it doesnt matter if a know or dont know the person who is being talked abt. just the tenor of the comments is putting off. clearly, barandbench and now legal era is a much better alternative.
p.s now just waiting to see if kian publishes this :)
IDIA is a movement and if you see IDIA's advisory board has stalwarts including partners from the top 5 firms who maintain their jobs, careers and give silently. This is the worst way to capitalise and try to get into the job market by emphasising madhurima can bring in clients beyond just capital markets if someone opts to give her a job. IDIA will always be associated with shamnad sir - he doesn't need this level of publicity even though he also is between jobs. He is truly committed to making a difference.
For others' reference, this is where the photo was from:
http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/most-powerful-businesswomen-in-india-madhurima-mukherjee/1/198072.html
1. Reporting on IDIA is interesting and worthwhile in its own right, usually.
2. Reporting that a well known partner is choosing to spend their time on a project such as IDIA after leaving her last job is interesting.
3. A lot of people are interested and speculating in what this specific partner is up to, where she's joining etc.
4. That's why we originally got in touch with her a few months ago to request an interview and that's why we asked questions about what she's up to and what her plans are.
5. As far as I know, Shamnad Basheer is fully behind Ms Mukherjee involvement and role and has in fact been trying to make IDIA less dependent on his involvement so it can grow more in future ..
Hope that clears things up a bit, even if that undercuts the sniping somewhat :)
5. As far as I know, Shamnad Basheer is fully behind Ms Mukherjee involvement and role and has in fact been trying to make IDIA less dependent on his involvement so it can grow more in future ..
Hope that clears things up a bit, even if that undercuts the sniping somewhat :)
.......not sniping, but what she will do is temporary. Shamnad is pemanently affiliated to IDIA. So there is no comparison.
What would be more useful as IDIA's chief designated fund raiser is to have spoken about IDIA and what change it brings and asked people interested to contribute or volunteer. Please provide IDIA sponsorship links so at least people who want to can contribute. Make this positive. And about IDIA. Unless it is Madhurima which is the focus. Which is also fine but then dont give it a slant of how she divides her time between colleges, IDIA and strategising about her next move.
Also, I think it is different from what other lawyers do, in that she's the first senior partner-level non-trustee who's pretty much been working on it full-time for a while, even if temporary.
Think about whether many other NGOs in India could rope in someone of the seniority of a former law firm partner to dedicate their time, which used to get billed at several hundred dollars an hour, to growing the organisation.
Sounds like something most NGOs would be keen to make at least a little song and dance about, no?
Advisors land up once a year (at the most) for meetings and do nothing else - Madhurima is actually running the IDIA Program on a daily basis now!
You guys have no deals or what? Obviously none of the people commenting here will not achieve anything significant in their lives. All the naysayers out there must ask themselves how long (if at all) it would take them to become an associate partner in a small firm - let alone equity partner in a big firm.
May be this bunch does not want to become equity partners. May be they are just happy passing snide remarks on legallyindia at people who achieved everything they set out to.
But you're right. IDIA should be the focus.
Kian- Madhurima has a separate and distinct identity that what you have shown her to be... Please do not dilute her identify by continuing to identify her as a "Former Luthra & Luthra capital markets head...." it does not do justice to her brilliance!
Perhaps Ms. Mukherjee can recruit senior counsel to pose similarly for a fundraising calendar for IDIA, like the film [u]Calendar Girls[/u] (http://goo.gl/7PwTx) or the Warwick Rowers (http://goo.gl/FzHupa).