OCR Employee Spotlight
Simran Sethi
Position at OCR:
Senior Customs and Global Trade Expert
Educational Background:
BA Honors in Psychology, LL.B Delhi Law Faculty, India, Masters in International Business and Economic Laws from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC, U.S.A
Number of Years at OCR, and evolution of your position at OCR:
I started working at OCR right after graduating from Georgetown Law, and joined in 2014 as an associate. Subsequently, in 2016, I did an 8-month stint with E&Y Customs and Trade Team in Houston, Texas, and then boomeranged back and have been working at OCR since.
Over the years, I’ve worked across the different modules/offerings of OCR. I’ve worn lots of hats in the company, and have been heavily involved in business development and speaking/representing OCR at numerous conferences. Within the company, I’m also responsible for training the clients with every annual release. I also write and curate the monthly newsletter, OCR Global Trade Brief (a cumulation of trade news of the previous month) that is circulated to our client base.
Can you tell us about your experience in the legal field and how it translated to the global trade industry?
I started my career with a full-service law firm in India, as a part of their corporate practice. I specialized in court-convened mergers and acquisitions. After 5 years at the firm, and 33 judicial decisions in my name at the Delhi High Court, I moved to the U.S. for my Master’s Degree in International Business and Economic Laws, after which I started working at OCR.
Being a lawyer and having the ability to do research, study, interpret and analyze new rules and regulations has really helped me survive in the global trade arena. I also took a lot of courses in corporate law, M&A, international business, project finance, and international trade law at Georgetown University, which allowed me to understand global trade trends and changes a lot more.
Can you highlight OCR’s Global Trade Brief, and your process of putting it together.
Being a lawyer, you always have to be up to date with industry rules and regulations. I think it’s really important to know the latest and the greatest in the global trade world. I read a lot, and I’ve subscribed to newsletters and blogs of almost every consulting and law firm that’s out there, and lots of different associations as well. What I read, I thought was beneficial for OCR employees, and hence I started circulating news internally. This practice further led me to start sending information/updates to my clients. Today, I curate OCR’s Global Trade Brief. I initially kept it US-Centric, and now I share global news updates of the month gone by – like a quick recap.
What’s some advice that’s stuck with you?
Keep reading and gaining knowledge – it never lets you down. You’re never too old to learn something new. Whether it’s a webinar, seminar or conference, go out there and meet people. There’s always a new point of view to learn from.
Anything else you would like to share with our audience?
These are really exciting times in global trade – if done right, companies can save a lot of money just by complying and doing things in an organized fashion. My advice would be to strategize, organize, and automate your affairs, and have the thought process to keep things in order. Take reasonable care of your compliance and make sure you’re on top of things.
