From becoming intellectual property firm Anand and Anand’s youngest equity partner at 29 to launching her own firm in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis, Shwetasree Majumder has had an interesting career trajectory.
Now, almost 18 years into running her own firm, Majumder has established Fidus Law Chambers as a renowned IP boutique in India.
Managing IP’s accreditation title IP STARS ranks the firm in Tier 2 for ‘trademark disputes’ and as a ‘notable firm’ in the ‘copyright & related rights’ category, while Majumder is recognised as a ‘trademark star’.
She sat down with Managing IP to reflect on her career and why her firm is increasingly picking up work that may not traditionally fall under an IP practice's domain.
Early breakthrough
Majumder fell into the IP profession when her team in law school won multiple awards at a moot court competition organised by Anand & Anand, which meant she had secured a job even before receiving her law degree.
She tells Managing IP: “I thought IP was really interesting and I really liked litigation, and suddenly there was an opportunity for me to do both!”
After she joined the firm, she eventually became the youngest equity partner, which pushed her to deliberate on the next steps.
“I thought there was a great risk of my becoming complacent because I had already become an equity partner, so I started thinking about what was next for me.
“While I didn’t have the consciousness of building my personal brand, in 2008, when many people started asking me what I was planning to do and expressed interest in working with me, it started dawning on me that maybe I have some goodwill in the market and that I should possibly set up something of my own.”
The year 2008 also marked the launch of the popular cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL). Some of the earliest work Majumder picked up after launching her firm was advising on the IP aspects of the league.
She notes: “The Board of Control for Cricket in India was conceptualising IPL at that time, and while they had some fantastic sports and corporate lawyers advising them, they didn't have an IP lawyer.
“They had the vision that IP issues attached to the league were going to become very big, and so, I was asked if I could help with some of the initial IP issues and diligence.
“It sounded very exciting and something that we didn't have a blueprint for in India, and so I started working with the various teams and helped them structure their IP.”
The recession also helped Majumder gain a foothold in the market.
She says: “Because there was a recession, a newbie player in the market had a shot [at getting work] because a lot of businesses were relooking at their legal spends and considering whether they really needed to pay the kind of money that they were paying for the services they were getting from a larger firm."
Gender roadblock
There weren’t many women lawyers in India starting their own firms in 2008 when Majumder launched Fidus Law Chambers.
Like many other women in the profession, while she experienced gender biases in the profession, Majumder notes that she never looked at her gender as a handicap.
“I wasn’t conscious of gender being a roadblock, but it served as a rude reminder once in a while.”
For instance, in the early days of her career, senior lawyers, corporate counsel, or even arbitrators, would often ask her if she was married or had children during meetings or negotiations.
“They would talk about current affairs and business with the men and about family with the women. So, there was a very curious difference in small talk.”
It was also not uncommon for judges to assume that a female lawyer like her only appeared in court to have the hearing moved to a different date, when she was there to argue the case, or for an in-house counsel to assume that she was the assistant to a male lawyer.
“In my 40s, I realised that all of that came from casual sexism, but I don't think I had the understanding at that point to identify it or to call it out.”
She notes that although casual sexism towards female lawyers still occurs, it is more of an exception than the rule.
“Of course, there are some sexist and gendered spaces even today, but thankfully, I don't encounter them as frequently as I did maybe 20 years ago.”
Fighting bias
Majumder says fighting gendered assumptions is crucial to help overcome bias in the profession.
For instance, she notes that Women's Day event organisers often try to bring in a ‘woman lawyer’ or a ‘woman judge’ to speak.
“Firstly, I have a problem with the term ‘woman lawyer’ or ‘woman judge’ because then you proceed on the assumption that the term judge or the term lawyer points to men.
“Also, at these events, senior people often talk about how it's a man's world and a woman must work doubly hard to prove themselves, and I often ask myself, why are we using men as a benchmark for anything?”
Therefore, she highlights that the message conveyed to younger lawyers in the name of mentoring often perpetuates bias.
“Instead, I tell my colleagues to look around at who they think is the best IP law firm or lawyer, and identify what the qualities are that make them form that impression, and then set those benchmarks for themselves.”
She adds: “When I started, I was one of the very few women who launched her own firm. But rather than lamenting about how gendered the profession is, we as women need to do our best to be disruptive and challenge those assumptions and biases.
“We must do things on our own terms and continue to demonstrate that merit always has a place.”
Tech focus
Since starting Fidus Law Chambers 18 years ago, Majumder has expanded the practice to 74 people, including 36 lawyers, and two offices. She adds that she has witnessed many shifts in the market, including how companies view IP.
“Even 10 years ago, when large deals like corporate structuring took place, or funds were raised, IP didn't have a seat at the table. IP was always looked at through the lens of registration or counterfeiting.”
But today, IP has a seat at the table at almost every major corporate transaction, she notes,
“That's because IP has become so important that it is seen as an asset for a company. Every time someone looks for an investment, one of the first questions that any investor will ask is what type of IP you have.
“People are, therefore, increasingly understanding the importance of IP, which also means that a lot of ancillary areas are becoming important, which are not seen traditionally as an IP lawyer's domain, such as advertising law, tech laws, data protection, pharma regulatory or commercial IP work.”
Majumder says the firm is increasingly starting to work on emerging issues, such as tech and AI-related queries.
“Everyone likes to talk about AI, but there isn't a lot of understanding of the nuances, so we‘ve been working on building expertise in that space.”
One of the areas her team is currently working on relates to the adoption of AI tools.
Highlighting that the government has recently rolled out a proposal for a mandatory licensing regime for AI training, she says: “For many tech companies that either have servers in India or are planning to do AI research and development in India, it becomes critically important to understand what the Indian legal regime means for them.”
She adds: “There are two very different types of assessments that people need to do based on which side of the spectrum they're on, whether they're developing AI tools or whether they're trying to protect their content from scraping by AI tools.”
To keep pace with the market, the firm will have to either develop internal expertise or find another way to develop its practice.
On that front, Majumder says: “An organic growth is always a good idea, and while we've not considered a merger, we are definitely interested in acquiring practices that can bring something to the table that we don't already have.”
