Leadership Lessons from the Frontlines of Banking Law

By: Shilpa Thakur, Director Legal, SberBank

Shilpa Thakur is a dynamic legal professional with extensive experience in banking, corporate, and competition law. She has worked in senior legal positions at Sberbank Russia and has provided her expertise in the ministry of corporate affairs and Competition commission of India.

In an insightful interaction with Women entrepreneurs Review magazine, Shilpa recounts her experience and learnings over the years in banking law. From talking about the industry’s evolution to highlighting effective leadership’s role in helping the industry align with trends, she touches upon key themes.

Shilpa also shares deep leadership insights, talking in-depth about the transformative power of resilience, collaboration and more. She also shares advice on how women leaders can work effectively and excell in a competitive and dynamic industries such as banking and finance.

When you first stepped into banking law, what surprised you the most about the way legal decisions directly influence growth and stability?

Ideally when you join a particular sector, fraternity tends to believe that the work would revolve around a particular law in a sector regulated organization. However, to my satisfaction when I began my journey as an in-house counsel with a bank, the kind of work that came my way was multifold touching sectors like banking, corporate, mergers, real estate, labour laws, capital markets etc.

What surprised me the most is how directly legal decisions and opinions would impact growth and stability setting tone for long term progress of the organization. far from being confined to the courtroom, these decisions established the framework within which the business would operate, credit flows, investments were made, and institution would evolve. Tt was quite clear to me that the legal outcomes would accelerate the progress and determine the resilience of systems in the face of uncertainty.

How is the legal function aligning with industry transformations? How can effective leadership help legal teams align with industry transformations?

The banking and financial landscape of India is indeed evolving rapidly with digital transformation, regulatory shifts and emerging risks re shaping the sector. The legal function becomes very crucial and must align with these changes by moving beyond a purely compliance driven role to becoming strategic enablers. this mean anticipating regulatory needs, embedding legal insights in internal policies and procedures and into business decision making and ensuring robust yet flexible frameworks to support new products and innovation.

Strong leaders empower legal professionals to develop sectoral expertise, anticipate judicial trends and create frameworks that balance compliance with innovation- whether in fintech, cross border transactions or sustainable finance. This ensures that as banking laws evolve, legal teams are not just interpreting them but also shaping strategy in a way that fosters resilience, trust and long-term stability of financial institutions.

How important is resilience for effective leadership? Can you share an instance where resilience became your biggest asset while handling legal challenges in banking?

Resilience is indeed a critical aspect of effective leadership particularly in banking where the sector operates in a highly regulated, risk-intensive and constantly evolving environment. It allows leaders to maintain clarity of thought, steadiness under pressure and the ability to adapt quickly to disruptions while keeping teams motivated and focused on solutions.

In banking, challenges often come in form of regulatory changes, litigation risks, stressed assets or even large-scale technological disruptions.

There have been several instances where my resilience became my biggest asset allowing me to perform and deliver rightfully under most challenging circumstances. whatever experience I had had only reaffirmed for me that resilience is not about simply enduring pressure, but about instilling confidence, creating clarity amidst uncertainty and ensuring consistent decision-making qualities that ultimately strengthen both the leader and the institution.

Collaboration is key in banking. How do you build trust and alignment between legal teams and business leaders while still safeguarding compliance?

Collaboration is key in all sectors I believe. In banking however, collaboration between legal team and business leaders is crucial because business tends to take the aggressive approach for making profit while legal has to ensure strict compliance of laws while making that profit to ensure there are no implications of regulators or laws. I personally build trust by being a proactive partner rather than a gatekeeper- engaging early with business teams to understand their objectives, anticipating their needs while also considering legal and regulatory risks and providing clear, unbiased and practical guidance.

Transparency is equally critical: I explain the reasoning behind compliance or legal requirements in business teams, showing how they protect both organization and its stakeholders. At the same time, I encourage open dialogue listen actively to concerns and explore creative, compliance solutions that enable business goals without compromising regulatory standards. This approach fosters a culture where legal is seen as an enabler, a strategic advisor, not a blocker strengthening collaboration while safeguarding compliance.  

Working in a demanding field, what has been the most unexpected lesson you learned that changed the way you lead or make decisions?

Working in such a demanding field would be an over statement. Every job comes with its own challenges and demand. For me in particular my most unexpected lesson that I learned over the years is that clarity and empathy are just as important as technical expertise in effective leadership.

Early in my career, I believed that success depended solely on precision, speed and strong subject knowledge until I realized that in sector like banking and finance- where regulations shift rapidly and in an ever-changing geo political situations- decisions are not made merely on basis of the knowledge but on the basis of necessity, by seeking valuable perspectives from colleagues, clients or even regulatory cues while making smart interpretation.

This helped me improve collaboration, risk management and ultimately the outcomes of projects in a high-pressure environment.

LAST WORD: Advice for Aspiring Women Leaders

For women aspiring to excel in highly competitive industries like banking, finance, my advice is threefold:

Own your expertise: Build your knowledge domain and be confident in expressing them on right tables. credibility comes from a combination of both expertise and courage to voice it

Build Strategic relationships: Success is rarely achieved in isolation. Seek mentors and allies and build strong network.

Lead with Authenticity: Embrace challenges as learning opportunities. There will be blocking and turbulence but stay true to your values and leadership styles. Authenticity inspires trust and lasting influence.