With over 16 years of experience in corporate law, Bhavi Sanghvi brings a wealth of expertise to her role as General Counsel at KKR India, a position she has held since 2022. Before joining KKR, Bhavi was a partner at AZB & Partners for eight years, where she led high-profile private equity and M&A transactions. During her time at AZB, she also spearheaded the firm’s knowledge management initiatives, focusing on automation and developing a comprehensive precedents database. A graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, Bhavi has always been passionate about the intersection of law and business. She reflects on how her career has evolved and how, in her current role, she finds fulfillment in balancing legal expertise with strategic business decision-making. In an insightful interview with Business Frontier, Bhavi shares her thoughts on leadership, collaboration, and the importance of maintaining a balance between risk and innovation in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
Q. What motivated you to pursue a career in corporate law and eventually become a General Counsel?
Corporate law is about balancing risk and creating certainty. A corporate lawyer’s role is, on one hand, to step back and allow the business to grow and expand in the most efficient way possible. On the other hand, it is to anticipate potential challenges and plan for them in advance, ensuring that if something goes wrong, the business has a clear understanding of what it can and cannot do, minimizing disruption. In addition, corporate lawyers must consider the wider public interest, often working on corporate governance, regulatory matters, and board frameworks.
I find corporate law exciting because it lies at the intersection of business and law. Corporate lawyers have a direct impact on the business, the industry, and, by extension, the economy. I enjoy the challenge of helping a business achieve its goals while navigating the necessary boundaries. It requires problem-solving skills, risk analysis, and business acumen. As a private equity lawyer, I constantly engage with innovative structures and am involved in cutting-edge business transactions and value creation.
I was particularly excited to take on the role of General Counsel at KKR India because it presents an opportunity to play a pivotal role in the company’s decision-making process, extending beyond just legal issues. It also provides the chance to collaborate with colleagues across various departments—business, finance, accounting, audit, HR, tax, and others.
Q. As a General Counsel, how do you align the legal department’s strategy with the broader business goals of the organization?
General counsels have a unique perspective, as we hear concerns and suggestions from a variety of stakeholders, both within the business and externally, from regulators, law firms, and others. We are tasked with understanding the larger context in which we operate. For the legal team, it is crucial to grasp the strategies, opportunities, and challenges facing the business.
An often-overlooked aspect of the role is that legal counsels hold significant institutional knowledge, which can be leveraged to align best practices and enhance transaction efficiency across teams. Additionally, legal counsels often play a key supportive role for younger investors early in their careers. In-house legal teams must be solution-oriented, stepping back to define the commercial outcome the business team is trying to achieve and the associated risks.
In my personal capacity, I strive to balance the role of necessary checks and a final stage balancer, while also ensuring efficiency and alignment in closing each investment.
Q. How would you describe your leadership style, and how has it evolved throughout your career?
One of the benefits of having worked in a law firm is the opportunity to collaborate with many different partners, each with their own management styles. This exposure has allowed me to identify and adopt approaches that personally motivated or helped me. Over the years, I have worked to cultivate a collaborative and inclusive leadership style, with a strong focus on enabling the growth and development of my team members. My goal is to blur the line between leadership and mentorship as much as possible.
I believe this approach has been key in keeping me motivated and engaged, and I hope it can do the same for my team. I strive to communicate the vision and the bigger picture, encouraging everyone to contribute ideas and input into decisions. This fosters a sense of ownership and empowerment. At the same time, it’s essential to strike the right balance between focusing on broader business goals and supporting the success of individual team members.
Q. What principles do you consider most important in leading a legal team?
When leading a legal team, I believe the following principles are essential to fostering a supportive and effective work environment:
- Support: It is crucial for legal teams to know they have your backing, so they feel confident speaking up and voicing concerns. This creates an environment of trust where it’s safe to try new approaches and test innovative solutions
- Empathy: Building strong connections and taking the time to cultivate relationships is key to earning trust and respect, allowing team members to bring their whole selves to work
- Communication: Being a good listener is vital—it enables me to understand the pulse of the team, identify issues early, and address them. This helps create cohesion and ensures everyone feels heard
- Innovation and adaptability: Given the ever-changing business and regulatory environment, creativity and agility are essential. I strive to embrace change and use legal tech solutions to enhance productivity
- Leading by example: As a leader, I believe that people may not always follow what you say, but they will certainly follow what you do. I only ask my team to do what I am willing to do myself
Q. In the face of rapidly evolving regulations, how do you keep the company agile and compliant without stifling innovation?
It is important to have a clear understanding of both (i) the legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations of the company and (ii) the strategy and business goals of the organization. You need to wear both your commercial hat and your legal hat when systematically analysing new laws for relevance and impact, prioritizing responses appropriately, and developing and monitoring internal standards and controls—all while minimizing disruption to the business and investments. This approach can help provide a broad framework for a risk-conscious approach to innovation.
Striking the right balance between compliance and innovation requires collaboration across various functions of the company. Legal and compliance teams must shift their perspective from a reactive and defensive function to being facilitators and strategic partners for innovation. Additionally, business teams must view compliance as a shared responsibility.
Q. How do you balance your personal life with the demands of your role as General Counsel?
For me, work-life balance is more of a continuous journey than a fixed destination. It’s a decision made in each moment about how best to use my time. Here are the tools that have helped me navigate this balance:
- Prioritize: The Eisenhower matrix is a valuable tool. Focus on tasks that are both urgent and important. Delegate or automate tasks that are less important and don’t require your unique skill set. Make sure to block time for long-term priorities
- Be present: When spending time with family, fully engage and give them your undivided attention. Likewise, when working—whether at home or in the office—focus completely on the task at hand without guilt
- Plan: Use Sundays to prepare meal plans, work goals, and family activities for the week ahead. This helps streamline the week and make everything more manageable
- Block key family time: Just as you would block out important work time, make family time a priority—but also remain flexible. Be open to adjusting plans to meet urgent needs that may arise
Above all, as a working mother, I am fortunate to have my village—family, friends, and co-workers—who help me keep everything running smoothly. Their unwavering support allows me to balance both my work and personal lives, enabling me to give my best in both worlds.
Q. How do you keep up with new legal technology and integrate it into your operations?
There is a huge amount of new legal tech out there at the moment and AI is integrated into a lot of it. I am very excited by this, and try to keep a general pulse on what is out there through various legal subscriptions, lawyers’ groups and legal tech demos whenever possible.
Technology integration involves various steps such as first evaluating and selecting the right legal technology solution, then creating a dedicated team responsible for implementation, including setting milestones and achieving alignment with the various stakeholders, and periodically assessing the impact.
