Shilpa Bhandarkar

Shilpa Bhandarkar is a Partner at Linklaters, heading the Client Tech & AI team. Her career at Linklaters has been diverse and impressive:

Career at Linklaters

Shilpa has held nine different roles within Linklaters, showcasing her versatility and adaptability.1 Her journey includes:

• Starting as a lawyer in energy and infrastructure
• Working in the India practice
• Serving as India COO and later in a similar role for the Africa practice
• Becoming the first head of innovation at the firm
• Currently co-heading the Client Solutions and Innovation team

Current Responsibilities

In her current role, Shilpa:

• Leads the firm's offering around client technologies, emerging technologies like generative AI, innovation, and legal operations3
• Serves as CEO of Linklaters' contracting platform CreateiQ
• Chairs the firm's Generative AI Steering Group1

Unique Achievements

Shilpa has broken several barriers at Linklaters:

• She was the first trainee to be recruited directly from an Indian university1
• Became the firm's first head of innovation1

Entrepreneurial Experience

Between her roles at Linklaters, Shilpa demonstrated her entrepreneurial spirit:

• Co-founded Coo, a calendar app for parents, which was later acquired by Classlist1
• Worked at Lexoo, a legaltech startup, for about a year and a half1

Education and Background

• Completed an MBA in the United States1
• Has experience in both legal practice and business development1

Recent Initiatives

Shilpa has been instrumental in launching Linklaters' GenAI Expert Training programme, collaborating with The Dickson Poon School of Law at Kings College London.2 This initiative aims to enhance the technical and practical expertise of Linklaters' lawyers in generative AI.

Shilpa Bhandarkar's career exemplifies a non-traditional path to partnership, combining legal expertise with innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.