From Courtroom to Coding: An Interview with Ankit Ahuja who went from pursuing law to being the CTO of Lawctopus
From briefs to bytes, courtroom to coding, Ankit Ahuja has had a very interesting transition in terms of his career. In this interview with CLATalogue, Ankit talks about his law school experience at VIPS and what led him to becoming the CTO of Lawctopus!
Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Ankit Ahuja. I pursued BBALLB from VIPS. I then pursued Executive PGP from IIT-B in Software Engineering followed by M.Sc in Computer Science from Liverpool John Moores University. I love to play badminton, travel, meet new people and learn new things from them. Currently, I am actively involved in AI and solving problems in the legal technology sector.
What motivated you to pursue law as a career?
The Indian Judiciary seemed to me like a lucrative career, so without much research, I found the best college near me (which is less than 2km away from my house), which is my alma mater- VIPS. I gave the exam. scored a decent rank of 962 on CET and locked my seat within a month. I did not do anything more than that simply because I just wanted to pursue my dream of being a part of the esteemed judicial services after my graduation.
How were your initial years in law school?
Once I entered law school, I quickly began to realize the level of competition amongst the students for each seat in the judiciary. At the same time, I began reading about and falling in love with Antitrust law.
It was then that I shifted gears towards Antitrust & Competition Law. I did a couple of internships, including at the Competition Commission of India itself. I also participated in a national moot, which made me realise that I had so much more to learn.
I also realised that I absolutely loved the field. I was interning at Gaggar and Partners in Feb, 2020 and was headed to intern at JSA in the month of April, and that is when COVID hit, and everything changed.
You’re currently working as the Chief Technological Officer at Lawctopus. What inspired you to transition from the legal domain to a technological role?
I always had an interest in tech since my teenage years. It just so happens that while working on my startup during COVID, I learned the basics of web HTML, CSS, JS, WordPress quickly and started taking some small projects of web development. The transition was gradual and progressive. There was also a lot of need in the market for web development and I loved doing it too! That is how it became mainstream for me.
Are there any specific challenges or opportunities that arise from having a legal perspective in a technology-focused role?
My mentor Anu Bansal always used to tell me, “Ankit, you have been trained to argue, but that is not what you do in the technology business”. And I am so grateful to her for telling me this during my initial years. Other than that I did not see any other challenge as such.
In terms of opportunities, I daresay we can use the word ‘unlimited’. They say lawyers are bad at Math. And I love Math! I love solving DSA problems. And the extent of problems AI can solve in the legal industry is endless.
In your experience, what are the key skills or knowledge areas that lawyers can leverage to thrive in technology-focused roles?
More than skills, it takes passion to be in tech-focused roles. You have to have a love for information technology. You will learn everything gradually. Wanting to go that extra mile, wanting to learn that DP, graph algo, etc. will make you excel in your tech career.
What advice would you give to law students or legal professionals who are interested in pursuing a career in the technology sector?
Learn python. Learn to use AI and data science tools in python. Watch the problems in the legal industry and try to solve them using AI. In the coming next 10 years at least, there will be massive developments in the legal industry.
This interview is a part of our series where we interview law students and legal professionals.
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Ruchika Mohapatra
Contributing author
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