For a long time, businesses treated legal as a support function. Useful, necessary, but rarely central to business strategy.
That thinking now looks outdated.
Across sectors such as manufacturing, real estate products, sourcing, export-import, offshore services, oil and gas, commodities, hospitality and entertainment, the commercial mood has changed sharply over the last year. India’s trade momentum with the UK and Europe has created real optimism.
The UK-India trade deal was signed on July 24, 2025, and the European Commission says the EU-India FTA negotiations were successfully concluded in January 2026 and are now moving through legal revision, translation and approval stages. That should have been a period of business comfort and expansion. Instead, it has arrived at the same time as war-led disruption and AI-led structural change.
This is exactly where the real story begins.
Trade agreements create openings. They improve access, reduce friction and push businesses to revive delayed plans, reopen conversations and build new cross-border relationships. But before those gains can settle into normal business practice, companies are being forced to deal with a very different reality. War has changed the assumptions behind supply, transport, energy security, insurance, pricing and counterparty performance. Europe has already been told to prepare for prolonged disruption in energy markets linked to the Iran war, with gas prices sharply higher since late February and concern spreading to refined fuels such as diesel and jet fuel.
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So while the trade framework says “expand”, the geopolitical situation says “recheck everything”.
That contradiction is why legal strategy can no longer sit at the back end of business. Today, the biggest risks are not only about whether a deal can be signed. They are about whether the deal can survive delivery pressure. Can a supplier still perform? Can a buyer still pay? Can transport still move on time? Can energy costs make the pricing model fail? Can a sanctions issue, a delay, or a blocked shipment turn a profitable contract into a loss-making obligation?
These are not technical legal questions. These are boardroom questions.
Then comes AI, which is accelerating disruption even further. Companies are cutting jobs and changing leadership as investments and operating models shift toward AI. Reuters reported in March that firms are cutting roles as spending moves into AI, and Adobe separately announced a CEO transition amid investor concern over AI disruption. That means the issue is no longer whether AI will affect business. It already is. The real issue is whether management teams understand the legal, commercial and operational consequences of that shift.
When businesses replace traditional service providers with AI-led tools, the legal questions multiply quickly. Who owns the output? Who is liable if the tool gets it wrong? What happens to confidentiality, regulatory compliance, audit trails, indemnities and service failures? What happens when a mandate is terminated midstream because a new technology stack promises faster, cheaper delivery? In many companies, these questions are still being asked too late.
That is why it is now high time to bring lawyers closer to management.
Not as document reviewers. Not as post-dispute advisers. But as decision-shaping professionals who can assess the past, test the future and quantify risk in commercial terms. A good lawyer does not only read the contract. A good lawyer reads patterns: past disputes, failed ventures, broken supply chains, poor drafting, delayed payments, enforcement gaps and regulatory shocks. From that, management gets something far more useful than abstract caution. It gets risk analysis, risk mitigation and, where possible, risk quantification.
That matters because once risk is quantified, it becomes manageable. The board can ask better questions. What is the likely cost of one month’s delay? What is the exposure from one failed shipment? What is the downside of one weak termination clause or one poorly structured AI-services contract? What is the working-capital impact of a counterparty default? Once these answers are on the table, legal thinking stops being defensive and starts becoming strategic.
And that is the shift many businesses still have not fully accepted.
In this phase, lawyers in management are not there only to prevent damage. They are there to convert instability into business advantage. They help renegotiate risk allocation, redesign fallback options, strengthen payment protection, build contract triggers, review sector exposure and structure deals that can survive stress. In a world shaped by trade openings, war pressure and AI disruption, that is not caution. That is commercial intelligence.
The companies that will do well in the next few years will not be the ones that move fastest without thinking. They will be the ones who think clearly before they move.
Because when markets become uncertain, legal strategy stops being supportive work.
It becomes management work.
The article has been authored by Rahul Hingmire, managing partner at Vis Legis Law Practice.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NDTV Profit or its affiliates. Readers are advised to conduct their own research or consult a qualified professional before making any investment or business decisions. NDTV Profit does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented in this article.
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