Puneet Bhasin on shaping up a career, litigation in Cyberlaw & setting up Cyberjure Consulting

While in law school she had also won the Surana & Surana Int’l Technology Law Moot Court Competition.

She talks about:

  • Winning the Surana & Surana Int’l Technology Law Moot
  • Choosing to pursue Cyber Law
  • And an opportunity to intern

Given that most of our readers are law students and young lawyers, how will you introduce yourself to them?

I am an advocate Practicing in the area of Cyber Laws. It is a new and growing field. I started practice 3 years back after I graduated from Government Law College (Mumbai) with the B.L.S.LL.B. degree (5 years law course).  I was interested in this field from my first year in law college, and I did the Diploma in Cyber Laws from Asian School of Cyber Laws. This basic course made me realize that I wanted to pursue a career in this field and that is when in my second year in law college I became a Certified Cyber Crime Investigator. Subsequently, I did my Post Graduate Diploma in Cyber Laws in the fourth year of law college. Additionally in my final year, I did short courses in Intellectual Property Laws, Hacking & Cyber Security and E-Commerce Laws. I passed out from college in 2011 and started practicing on my own.

Why did you decide to study law? Also tell us something about your college life.

While in school, I never thought of pursuing law, though many of my family members are lawyers and in judicial services. However, after the 12th Board exams, I by chance saw the prospectus of Government Law College, and the subjects appealed to me. I read up more about them, and decided I wanted to pursue law; and within the first week of law college, I realized that this was probably the best decision I made in my life.

You had won the Best Student Advocate Award at Surana and Surana International Technology Law Moot Court Competition. What does it take to be a great mooter?

It was God’s grace that I got many opportunities to participate in moots in college. Surana and Surana International Technology Law Moot Court Competition was one of the most memorable one for me. I was selected to represent GLC in this moot in my 2ndyear, and it gave me an opportunity to research on main law subjects, as till the 2nd year we had only pre-law subjects. The moot problem surrounded a very interesting premise of “legal liability in cases of Augmented Reality”, which means that who is liable if a computer with artificial intelligence does something wrong.

It is very important to be open to learning in order to excel in moots. Good research skills are a must along with excellent oratory skills. However, the more you participate in moots, the better you become.

Moots give you practical experience to some extent. More than anything else, they teach you how to handle success and then deal with defeat also. When you win many moots and then you lose in a moot, it is a big set-back for your self-confidence, but it is very important for you to experience this as this is what real world litigation practice is all about. Winning and losin g cannot affect you much at all as it is a part of practicing law. You learn to dissociate feelings of self-worth from practice.