Life at Mindcrest

Hailing from Mumbai, Lavanya, 27, has seen Mindcrest grow from a mere 30 lawyers to close to 700 today. She cites Mindcrest’s collegial environment as the strongest reason to join – and stay with – the company.

As a deputy manager in the Mumbai office, Lavanya has literally been a jack-of-all-trades for Mindcrest. She has worked on projects as varied as Lexis/Westlaw legal research, litigation document review, contract drafting, abstraction and leasing.

In addition to her legal functions, Lavanya often handles hardware and software related issues on projects. She coordinates with vendors and other service providers on a regular basis to ensure the effective and smooth functioning of our IT-enabled work.

Lavanya is a law graduate of Mangalore University, Karnataka, and is currently pursuing her LLM from Mumbai University. Today, her specific role as Deputy Manager in the Litigation Services group is quality control and supervision of work on U.S. and U.K. document review.

When she is not at the office or studying for her LLM, Lavanya enjoys reading and watching movies. An avid fan of American movies, her favorite actresses are Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon. And she is not immune to the charms of Richard Gere.

Not only is Gopa an excellent lawyer and team lead in Mindcrest’s Pune office, he has also found the time to spearhead support and fund raising for a local charity that helps children in need.

Gopa, 29, was born in Kerala and grew up in Calcutta. He attended Calcutta University, from which he received a degree in commerce before going on to law school at Burdwan University in Bengal. While in college in Calcutta, Gopa got his first taste of social service as a youth volunteer with Rotaract, a club sponsored by Rotary International. With Rotaract, Gopa became involved in such diverse activities as rural hygiene training programs, blood drives and polio awareness campaigns.

Gopa joined Mindcrest in mid-2007, and quickly ascended to team lead in the Legal Analytics group. In this role, he oversees a team of approximately 25, including analysts and quality control experts.

Last year, while looking for a way to make a difference in Pune, Gopa was steered in the direction of Sassoon Hospital, a local government hospital. There he discovered a foundling program set up by staff doctors and activists desperately in need of help: SOFOSH (Society of Friends of the Sassoon Hospitals), which houses, feeds and clothes between 20 and 40 abandoned children at a time.

Although it is government sponsored, there is not sufficient funding for books, toys, furniture and other items needed to bring up the children in its care. Enter Gopa, with a fund-raising and donation plan. He and his team have raised more than 33,000 rupees to date, and have taken donations of new and lightly used toys and books to the children. In addition, in their spare time, Gopa and his team volunteer regularly by visiting the children, reading to them and playing with them. 

Here in Pune, Gopa has given the human face to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, “Doing well is the result of doing good.”

Prasad, a Mindcrest attorney and trainer of the Legal Analytics team, is also the talented lead singer of Jet-Set, one of Pune’s oldest and most popular rock bands. Prasad, 28, was born and reared in Pune, and works in Mindcrest’s Pune office. He began singing at the age of 10, and picked up the acoustic guitar at 16. In addition to singing and strumming with Jet-Set, Prasad is currently cutting an album with another band, Strange Brew.

Prasad holds an undergraduate degree in commerce from Pune University and received his LLB in 2006 from Pune University as well. In addition, he holds a diploma in corporate law from ILS College and a diploma in banking from Ness Wadia College of Commerce. While in college, Prasad sang with the band Wrath, and he joined Jet-Set 10 years ago. He cites rock-and-roll influences as diverse as Metallica and Elvis Presley.

Prior to joining Mindcrest, Prasad worked for WNS Legal Services. During his time there, he was primarily involved with U.K. residential conveyancing, and he is proud to have been associated with one of London's leading law firms.

At Mindcrest, Prasad has trained more than 700 attorneys. His responsibilities include training new employees and preparing training plans, presentations, schedules, test papers and training modules. He also provides performance feedback on trainees and conducts meetings with project leads and team leads on process-related issues. In addition, Prasad is responsible for coordinating with various departments to facilitate the smooth transitioning of trainees to their respective teams, generating weekly reports on training, and handling technical issues and query resolution.

Prasad and his wife Candice have just welcomed their first baby into the world.

Despite the fact that his team members are spending four-plus hours a day practicing to unseat him, two-time Mindcrest chess champ Parag isn’t sweating. 

Parag, 29, grew up in rural Pune playing chess with his brother. Today he is not only a rising star at Mindcrest, but the team captain of the chess team and, thus far, undefeated champion. Although Parag has never studied chess formally, since the age of 15 he has completed an estimated 1,500 games, and he is just getting started.

While in college at the Arts, Science and Commerce College in Pune, Parag represented his school at university-level tournaments throughout Maharashtra. In law school, at YC Law College of Pune University, he joined another chess team and played daily while he pursued his LLB.

Since joining Mindcrest as an associate almost two years ago, he has risen to the role of quality control analyst in the Legal Analytics group. The chess team he heads, which is six players strong, has competed in the IT Corporate Tournaments held in Pune twice annually, and the Mindcrest tournament is only days away.

Once he has secured his title, he can turn his attentions back to the next generation of players. He is currently teaching his seven-year old niece, Prerana, to play the venerable game, and is preparing to begin games with his two-and-a-half-year old daughter, Riddhi, in the near future.

Like so many girls, Purvi, 28, had a childhood dream: to become a  classical dancer.  Unlike most girls, however, Purvi made it happen.

Her journey began at 9 when she enrolled in Nartan School of Classical Dances in her home town of Ahmedabad. For the next seven years she pursued excellence in Bharatnatyam classical dance, a lyrical dance form originally from the state of Tamil Nadu in the South of India. Bharatnatyam dancers wear traditional costumes as well as full make-up and jewelry, and their performances tell stories of love, loss, joy and sorrow.

After her degree in dance was completed, Purvi danced professionally at cultural events and competitions throughout India. She even continued dancing while pursuing her undergraduate degree in commerce from Gujarat University and her law degree from Sir L.A. Shah Law College, Ahmedabad.

Purvi joined Mindcrest in 2007 as an Associate, and has risen to Assistant Manager. She currently heads up a Legal Analytics team of 25 attorneys in the Pune office. Her core responsibilities are legal analysis and research, query resolution, quality analysis, report generation, and coordination among project leads and other departments on process impediments, thereby facilitating problem solving and collaboration.

Prior to joining Mindcrest, Purvi was a legal assistant with a non-governmental organization (NGO), Consumer Education and Research Society, which worked in the area of consumer rights protection.

Mindcrest is pleased and proud to have such a talented dancer and lawyer among its ranks.