In a world where legal expertise shapes the framework of industries, a transformative force emerges, navigating the complexities of law with unique vision and innovation. This visionary leader exceeds conventional boundaries, pioneering new avenues of legal practice and setting global benchmarks for excellence.
At the forefront of legal transformation stands Surabhi Madan, a Senior Director and Senior Global Legal Counsel whose strategic skills and unwavering dedication redefine the curves of legal efficacy. With a wealth of experience and a relentless drive for progress, she leads initiatives that revolutionize contract management and drive digital transformation across global operations.
Within the complex sector of legal practice, ASM International emerges as a symbol of innovation and collaboration under the guidance of this visionary leader. With a commitment to fostering excellence and cooperation, the company sets the stage for transformative legal endeavors that surpass geographical boundaries and shape the future of legal practice on a global scale.
As Surabhi pioneers the digitization of contract management and champions global compliance standards, she strives to catalyze a paradigm shift in legal operations, moving industries toward new frontiers of efficiency and integrity.
Let’s explore Surabhi’s story of ascent to visionary leadership and the transformative impact she’s had on the legal industry:
The Journey of a Self-Made Lawyer
Surabhi is the first lawyer she knows. She had no exposure to the legal industry before she decided to pursue a law degree. At the age of 21, when she was to decide on a career path, she began to read about careers in law. What attracted her was the broad spectrum of career choices one has after acquiring a degree in Law.
From academics to policy-making to litigation, to conventional corporate jobs, working on non-governmental organizations, supporting human rights, and environmental law – the options were plenty. What’s even more attractive is that none of these options may be in exclusion of one another. One could pretty much transition through all these areas in the span of one job!
Transforming Contract Management through Digitization
Based in Singapore at the global operations headquarters, Surabhi advises the EXCO based in the Netherlands, Arizona, and across seven countries in Asia on an array of legal and compliance matters. She is the head of legal for global procurement, global operations, and affiliate sales offices in Malaysia, China, and Taiwan.
She conducts sales contract negotiations and transactions of approximately Euro 900 million annually in China through major public sector bidding and with the world’s largest semiconductor foundry in Taiwan. She is responsible for operationalizing a trade compliance program for US Export Administration Regulations and the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) regulations on the Unreliable Entity List.
She is a legal stakeholder in the assimilation of the latest technologies and automation of various processes into their global supply chain management through a path-breaking procure to pay solution for direct materials through an online portal; Innovation management, App-based workplace environment, health and safety hazards observation and reporting. She facilitated the digitization of the contract management function for over 3000 users globally and achieved an 81% automation rate.
Setting Global Benchmarks in Law
The globalization of legal services, in its truest sense, is the most intriguing development of Surabhi’s time. Access to the legal profession across regions has traditionally been restricted because of the rules of various Bar Councils, making the exchange of ideas and collaboration difficult.
With the advent of more globalized companies wanting to harmonize legal operations, policies, and contract templates across the world, they have moved away from being domain-specific and region-specific experts. It is now imperative to understand how the law operates across the world and then set benchmarks that can protect the interests of companies irrespective of the place of incorporation.
Balancing Professional Drive with Family Life
Surabhi is a mother of 3 kids whose company she truly enjoys! They take trips together, try new recipes together, and spend time trying out new DIY beauty regimes at home. Her husband is her biggest asset. He is their primary caregiver, and because of him, she has never had to struggle with how she divides her time.
Being a lawyer himself, she relies heavily on him for everything from sharing family caregiving responsibilities to seeking advice on the professional front. Having a partner who is willing and eager to help her when she grapples on her own is the biggest reason for her having the kind of drive she does.
Mentorship and Growth
Surabhi has benefited a lot from the mentorship of her seniors in the profession. The Indian legal system is known to be not very conducive for young lawyers, but it is also where she finds that the kind of tutelage she receives one-on-one from the senior members at the bar is exemplary.
She learned the most in her first job at the Chambers of Justice Wad in Delhi. As a fresh law graduate, when she started working for him, she was pretty much a clean slate, but all her seniors there spent time drafting together with her, taking her along for every meeting with the most distinguished lawyers and providing her with a platform to leap from.
Within a year of working there, she was a very confident lawyer and found herself in Singapore leading the India desk of a renowned law firm.
Fostering Excellence and Cooperation in Legal Practice
Collaboration is a value that is of extreme importance when maintaining a good team for Surabhi. Cooperation is even more important in her field when any miscommunication or lack of coordination could lead to deals of millions being compromised. As such, her team enforces a lot of open dialogue, always opting for calls and in-person meetings as opposed to emails or texts.
That way, feedback and advice can be given as soon as possible. To enforce cooperation, they also need to share good workplace relations. Her team often takes team-building trips to get to know each other on a personal level and understand the ethics and values of the other individuals. Excellence means, to her team, setting a high standard for themselves and fulfilling it time and time again.
Every time team standards are not met, even on a localized level, they strive to better themselves. This ties in very closely with collaboration, through which they can ensure that fresh perspectives – new to the project – can be considered and any mistakes or imperfections that one couldn’t see can be spotted by the others.
Navigating Career Paths in a Global Legal Team
In her current role, Surabhi’s team is spread out across Asia, Europe, and America, and she works closely with all her team members. She finds that there is now a large body of work and several experts in the field of leadership and global collaboration, etc., but in her experience, the key to making it work is sincerity.
While lawyers advocate for the business and their clients, it is just as important that they advocate for themselves at work with clear communication on where they wish to be, what they wish to learn, and how they want to map out their career path and then have an ongoing dialogue with the company and their managers on how best they may be supported.
