Based on research conducted by India Business Law Journal, the following are the winners and highly commended in-house counsel of IBLJ In-house Counsel Awards 2021. The awards are split into individual and team awards.
Click here to read the editorial report that accompanies the awards.
Biographies were provided and written by the in-house counsel themselves and have not been independently verified.
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Vidyut Gulati GC & Director of Legal Bharti Airtel Group |
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Manjaree Chowdhary Executive Director and General Counsel Maruti Suzuki India |
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Anubhav Kapoor Director, Legal Affairs Ford India |
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Priya Mehra General Counsel InterGlobe Aviation |
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Chandan Sand Senior Vice President Legal Spicejet |
| Chandan is currently holding a key leadership position and KMP role as head of legal – aircraft acquisition, leasing and financing, and company secretary of the board. He has over 19 years of aviation experience covering corporate legal matters, aircraft purchase and financing, corporate secretarial and compliances, contracts administration, litigation management, corporate governance and matters relating to structuring of group business, shareholder agreements and rights.
Chandan has also been instrumental in the smooth transition and change in management during the 2014-15 restructuring at SpiceJet, which led to one of the prominent turnarounds in the history of aviation. He has handled leasing, inductions and delivery of over 150 aircraft and has recently restructured the operating leases and business contracts to suit the business requirement during the pandemic. |
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Mohit Shukla Managing Director, Head of Legal – India Barclays |
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Nilanjan Sinha General Counsel ICICI Bank |
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Rajiv Choubey Head of Legal ACC |
| An alumnus of Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Indian Law Institute and Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi as well as a member of Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Rajiv Choubey has diverse experience of 24 years in leading the legal and governance, risk and compliance function (GRC), in leading manufacturing and IT companies as well as in the public sector. He has in-depth knowledge of major laws under the Indian legal system, with an expertise in environment, mining, industrial law, commercial laws, competition/antitrust law, litigation/arbitration/conciliation, corporate laws and M&A.
Prior to joining ACC, he was the general counsel of HCL Infosystems, vice president – legal & CS of Vedanta and had a brief stint at Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Tin etc. Rajiv has handled not only governance and compliance in India but also in the US/NYSE during his stint at Sterlite/Vedanta. He has been invited by various forums like Economic Times (ET), ICCA, CCAI, INBA, law and business schools/colleges schools to share his experience with students of law and management and also occasionally writes in journals such as Indian Business Law Journal (IBLJ), Legal Era, Tax Guru etc. He is a guest lecturer to many law schools such as Symbiosis Law School, Noida, Asian Law College, Noida, and University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Galgotias School of Law, Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, Institute of Company Secretaries of India. Current engagement Rajiv is the chief legal officer (CLO) and a part of senior management (member of executive committee) of ACC (part of Swiss based Holcim Group), a public listed company, and one of the foremost and leading cement companies with a strong presence in India. As CLO, he leads the legal, compliance and secretarial function and spearheads the business in terms of legal support, advisory, contracting, M&A, project (EPC), litigation, corporate laws and advice on all key legal business issues. He has been assigned the additional role of company secretary and hence leads the governance, risk and control and secretarial function and leads a team of 15, which include in-house lawyers and secretarial team. He is also the chairman of the Ethical View Committee. Rajiv is on the board of Bulk Cement Corporation, National Limestone, Lucky Minmat, Singhania Minerals and a few other JV companies of MP State Mining Corporation. |
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PM Devaiah Group General Counsel Adani Group |
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Ajay Kharbanda Chief Legal Officer (North & West) GMR Group |
| Ajay Kharbanda is a law graduate of the 1995 batch of Delhi University and a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (1993 batch). In 2002, he secured a PG diploma in IP and International Trade Laws from Amity Law School. Recently, Ajay has also completed the RICS Arbitration Programme for India from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, London.
His professional journey started in 1994 with Shriram Industrial Enterprises. Initially, this was in relation to company secretary work. Thereafter, he worked in various sectors such as telecom, hospitality, real estate, education, and handled a variety of work on the side of the law as well as company secretary work. Ajay’s current role entails managing the legal affairs of the airport business and the construction division within GMR Group. During his career which has spanned around 27 years, he has attained multi-jurisdictional and multi-disciplinary experience and worked, both as a team member and the lead, on various business restructuring initiatives, new business ventures, mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, on equity and debt capital market side and also on various land monetisation transactions. He has equally handled with success various critical and high-stake dispute resolution matters for the organizations that he has worked for. Ajay’s responsibilities also involve the adoption of appropriate risk mitigation measures and providing advice to the management on various business and policy-related issues. Recently he has completed a very uniquely structured land monetisation transaction for 10 million square feet of commercial space at Delhi Airport. He is now working on transactions to monetise land for marquee hotel and entertainment zone at other airports of GMR. Besides, he is also handling various high-stake litigations and arbitrations at this time, which are crucial for the businesses. Ajay has put a strong focus on developing in-house legal specialists, implementing business excellence initiatives and putting KPIs for legal team in sync with the organisation’s mission and vision. With a strong belief in ethics and moral values, he works alongside internal team members and external stakeholders. Some of the recent deals that he has led are a testament of his abilities to collaborate and deliver results even when unexpected situations occur. |
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Preeti Balwani General Counsel Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages |
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Burhan Khalid Legal Head Britannia Industries |
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Nitin Mittal Head of Legal (India, Australia and NZ) and Company Secretary Signfy Innovations India |
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Surender Sharma Whole-time Director & VP – Legal, Secretarial & Corporate Affairs Colgate-Palmolive (India) |
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Badrinath Durvasula Managing Director – Legal ESSAR Group |
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Sudipta Ghosh General Counsel Apraava Energy |
| As a part of the leadership team of Apraava (previously known as CLP India) and as the general counsel of the Apraava group, Sudipta is actively involved in advising the company on various legal aspects of setting up greenfield conventional and renewable power projects including transmission assets, and M&A transactions especially in relation to the acquisition of power projects. She works closely with the management to establish business terms, identify legal issues and decide what type and level of risk is acceptable.
Sudipta leads a team of young and dynamic lawyers who possess a perfect blend of in-house and private practice experience. She joined Apraava in 2009 as an assistant legal counsel and since then she has grown with the organization. In 2017, Sudipta was appointed the general counsel for the Apraava group. Prior to this, she has worked with two prestigious law firms – Trilegal and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (previously known as Amarchand Mangaldas Suresh A Shroff & Associates), where she handled various domestic and international financing for infrastructure projects including the financing for power projects and airports. As a general counsel it is her constant endeavour to become a counsellor in the truest sense of the term – to not only prevent problems before they can materialise, but to offer innovative legal strategies that support the business goals. Sudipta works as a strategic partner to business units and in the last few years spearheaded the acquisition of power transmission assets in 2019, which marked Apraava’s entry into the power transmission sector; aided in evaluating the regulatory framework for SECI VIII Project where Apraava emerged as a successful bidder and concluded construction contracts for the project; advised on the acquisition of two solar projects and guided the company through various regulatory changes and were victorious in various litigations. Sudipta also works with various forums internally as well as externally to promote gender diversity and inclusivity. She is the chairperson of the company’s internal complaints committee set up under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, and a member of the diversity and inclusion council. She is also a director on the board of three subsidiary companies of Apraava. Sudipta has been recognized as one of the “top 100 women lawyers in India” by World IP Forum in 2017 and was recently awarded the “Star Woman in Law” by Legal Era Magazine. |
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Amit Kumar Das General Counsel & Sr. General Manager- Legal Kirloskar Oil Engines |
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Roop Loomba General Counsel, Head of Ethics, India and South Asia Rolls-Royce |
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Akhil Prasad Director – Legal Boeing |
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Ashutosh Narang Head – Legal Capital India Finance |
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Rohan Thacker Deputy Vice President Tata Capital |
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Praveen Philip Thomas India Legal Head SSG Advisors |
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Jasmeet Wadehra Vice President Legal – India and South Asia Visa |
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Makarand Karkare Group General Counsel Serum Institute Of India and Cyrus Poonawalla Group of Companies |
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Debolina Partap Deputy General Manager Wockhardt |
| Debolina Partap, the senior vice president of legal and group GC of Wockhardt, is a gold medalist in masters of law and has 28 years of experience in banking, finance, pharma and healthcare. She is responsible for all corporate legal work, M&As, IP management, licensing deals, litigation management, legal compliance, transactions management among others.
She advises the top management on legal risks to the organisation. She has contributed tremendously to covid-19 vaccine contracts. Her main achievements come in settling complex financial cases and arbitrations filed against Wockhardt, complex multi-jurisdictional arbitrations on commercial disputes and settling intricate derivatives suits filed against Wockhardt group globally. She also handles legal issues pertaining to complex and composite global regulatory matters concerning the Wockhardt Group. She is one of the few general counsels globally who handle forensics and data analytics. She and her team have won over 100 awards from internationally and nationally-recognised legal organizations. |
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Ganapathy C.B. EVP – Corporate Affairs & Group General Counsel Himatsingka Seide |
| Ganapathy CB is a versatile general counsel who has worked in various business houses for more than two decades while handling a multitude of diverse legal issues. He is well versed in various aspects of corporate advisory work and his diverse experience includes advising the real estate, telecom, information technology, private equity, information technology enabled services (ITES) and manufacturing sectors.
After graduating with a law degree from the prestigious National Law School of India University, he went on to work with some of the best corporate houses in India and other geographies. He has helped companies in developing intellectual property portfolios where none existed. He has a penchant for complex corporate litigations and is known to have successfully handled noteworthy cases during his in-house tenures. He is well networked and has gained popularity in legal circles for consistently strategising his cases with skill and success. He has a fair bit of experience in corporate affairs, government regulatory and policy-making matters. Ganapathy believes in learning the business before providing advice and this is how he is able to manage risks for the companies he works for. He has also been instrumental in forming in-house legal capabilities/teams throughout his career and has inspired and mentored a host of budding corporate lawyers. |
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Rohit Kumar Global General Counsel UPL |
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Vikram Munje President – Corporate & Group General Counsel Kalyani Group/Bharat Forge |
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Manoj Bhargava Senior Vice President (Legal & Secretarial), Company Secretary & Compliance Officer Indiamart Intermesh |
| Manoj Bhargava is a distinguished corporate lawyer with nearly two decades of experience in handling complex legal and regulatory issues.
Education: Manoj graduated from Delhi University with a B.com(H) in 1996. Along with that, he is a qualified company secretary from The Institute of Company Secretaries of India and holds a law degree from Delhi University, and a post graduate degree in law (LLM) from GGSIP University with a specialisation in cyber law and cybercrime. Furthermore, he holds a post graduate diploma in intellectual property rights and cyber law. Experience: Manoj has been the head of legal for the Ravi Jaipuria Group including Varun Beverages Ltd, Hindustan Times Group, India Today Group, Barista Coffee Company Ltd etc. He has an extensive experience in handling high volume and high-stake litigations related to intellectual property rights, cyber law, criminal law, civil law, labour law, and competition law apart from handling corporate law and advisory work. In his professional experience, he has been a part of various successful legal initiatives that have benefited the industry. Apart from general contract management, he has handled diverse aspects in relation to joint ventures, mergers, demergers, acquisitions, sale of business undertakings and various other corporate restructuring initiatives for the groups. He is best known for delivering smart results within a highly competitive environment by analyzing the situation from a broad legal perspective and suggesting practical action plans. Association with Indiamart: Manoj Bhargava has been associated with Indiamart for a duration of four years. At present, he oversees the legal, secretarial, risk and compliance function of Indiamart which includes contract management, risk management, compliance management, cyber law, intellectual property, data protection, criminal law and disputes/litigation. In 2019, he led the maiden IPO of Indiamart Intermesh, making it the first successful public issue under the new Modi government and subsequently completed the qualified institutional placement for the company in February 2021 amid the global pandemic. |
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Ankit Jaiswal Associate Director – Legal ClearTax |
| Ankit is a corporate counsel who specialises in strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, fintech and digital, private equity transactions, joint ventures, capital raising and public offerings. He is extensively involved in general corporate and commercial transactions, structuring of cross-border investment transactions, setting up of new businesses, and compliance with the regulatory framework and regime in India pertaining to regulations mandated by regulators such as SEBI, RBI, and the IRDAI.
He is a seasoned lawyer who possesses a strong commercial outlook and pragmatic approach to solving complex business issues. His ability to marry legal and business acumen make him a tactful, strong and effective negotiator and a powerful strategist. Ankit is currently leading the in-house legal team at Cleartax. He deals with corporate commercial transactions, capital raising, M&A, regulatory and fintech, litigation, intellectual property and data protection aspects. Ankit is a dynamic counsel who is often involved in closing and negotiating high stakes transactions, solving regulatory issues in the fintech space, handling complex litigations, and getting fund raising transactions smoothly across the line. He has advised corporations engaged in various sectors including financial services, technology, e-commerce and real estate, private equity funds, foreign foundations, banks, foreign portfolio investors, and other strategic investors, while working with some of the leading law firms in India. His previous experience with private practice firms includes AZB & Partners, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and L&L Partners. He has previously worked with tech companies such as Amazon and Paytm on their M&A and investment transactions. |
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Vinita Varghese General Counsel Urbanclap Technologies |
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Arshad Jamil Chief IP Counsel / Global Head IPR Biocon Biologics |
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Lakshminarayanan R Head – Innovation & Intellectual Property Mgmt Samsung R&D India – Bangalore |
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Balwant Rawat Leader for IP and Innovation Management Daimler |
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Radha Papinani General Counsel IGT Solutions |
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Vineet Vij Global General Counsel Tech Mahindra |
| Vineet Vij is currently serving as the global general counsel of the Tech Mahindra Group, a USD5.3 billion enterprise, providing IT, ITeS, consulting and BPO services to clients worldwide. He supports multibillion cross-border commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, disputes and litigations, global compliance, legal policy and regulatory, IPR, strategic legal support with the overall responsibility to safeguard the legal interests of the company and its principal officers. Vineet leads a global team of over 75 passionate and business-focused lawyers, taking care of the legal and regulatory aspects to support the organisation’s growth in due compliance with applicable laws.
Earlier he served as SVP & head-legal of commercial, regulatory, compliance and corporate affairs at HCL Technologies for more than 11 years. Vineet also worked in legal, regulatory and secretarial roles with TCS and TATA Infotech for eight years, besides handling legal, secretarial and compliance functions at Punj Lloyd and American Express India. He has also been a litigator and practising advocate before the Delhi High Court and Bombay High Court. Areas of expertise Vineet’s work experience of over 25 years in leading IT, ITeS, engineering, banking and NBFCs, spans across a variety of practice areas including commercial and contract laws, litigation and dispute resolution, cross-border M&As, global regulatory compliances, financial and banking, real estate and SEZ and STPI regulations, company law, IT, data protection, privacy, cyber and IPR laws, criminal law, telecom, arbitration, employment, bankruptcy, competition laws, corporate affairs and indirect taxation laws. Awards He has been bestowed with several awards and accolades by prestigious publications and institutions, including Forbes Powerlist Top 25 India GCs; Business World’s Top 100 GCs of India; General Counsel 2020 by IDEX Legal; General Counsel 2019 by Legal Era; Shining Star of Indian Legal Fraternity 2019 by CCAI; General Counsel 2019 by INBA; General Counsel 2018 by ICCA; Compliance Champion 2017 by Legasis Services; Leadership Excellence Award, 2017 by Legal Era; Top 30 GC Powerlist, 2016 by Legal Era; Top 100 finest GC, 2016 by ICCA. Education He has B.Com. (Hons) qualification from SRCC and LLB from Delhi University with additional qualifications in company law, labour laws, industrial relations and personnel management, IT & cyber laws. He also serves on the board of studies and advisory boards of leading law schools, editorial board of legal journal and magazines and a member of various associations and advocacy groups such as CII, INBA, UKILP to name a few. |
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Amol Apte Vice President Legal Dream Sports |
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Bishwarup Chakrabarti General Counsel Eros India |
| An alumnus of National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, Bishwarup Chakrabarti is the general counsel for the Eros group and heads the legal, compliance and regulatory verticals, in addition to heading the legal vertical for its digital OTT platform, ErosNow.
Prior to joining Eros, Bishwarup led the legal and regulatory affairs function for scripted and non-scripted televised production across Sony Picture’s network, including for Hindi and regional general entertainment channels, the OTT Platform SonyLIV, animation, second screen and gaming integrations, besides the award-winning studio vertical, Studio Next. Having worked in the media and the entertainment space for some time, including with studio majors such as Viacom18 in the past, Bishwarup has close to two decades of experience in the intellectual property, media and entertainment and technology domains, while maintaining a strong curiosity about data privacy regulations and their evolution in India. As a litigation counsel and registered patent attorney, earlier in his career, he has worked at various law firms, where he has held key positions, before moving in-house. In his previous avatar, he has represented numerous multinational corporations in the pharma and automotive space, infrastructure, securities, antitrust and other complex litigation in the intellectual property space. He has been recognised on various occasions by the Legal 500 as a leading lawyer in the intellectual property space, where sources have commended his skills in contentious practice. Bishwarup has also been involved in the public policy affairs, including advising the government through various industry associations and panels on legislation on various issues such as the amendments in the Copyright Act, the Patents Act, the Shyam Benegal Committee on censorship and film certification, amongst others. Bishwarup continues to be a panelist at various conferences organised by industry bodies on public policy issues such as content piracy and others during the pandemic, while maintaining a safe social distance. |
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Manish Lamba General Counsel DLF |
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Parveen Mahtani Legal Head Mahindra Lifespaces |
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Gopal Menghani President Macrotech (Lodha) Developers |
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Sanjeev Sachdeva General Counsel Emaar India |
| Mr Sanjeev Sachdeva has pursued his Bachelors in Commerce degree and LLB from the prestigious Delhi University, as well as the Company Secretary Intermediate Course from the Institute for Company Secretaries of India.
Mr Sachdeva started his career with Paam Pharmaceuticals (Delhi) as an assistant company secretary where he worked for five years and honed his corporate secretarial skills by heading the secretarial functions of three listed companies, and dealing with SEBI, stock exchanges and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Thereafter, he joined the reputed law firm Mine & Young, Advocates & Legal Consultants, New Delhi. During his 13 years with the firm, he assisted the managing partner and developed his core areas of practice and expertise in real estate, corporate laws and intellectual property rights. As part of his work, he developed a pan-India real estate portfolio for various MNCs and provided professional legal services to various reputed IPCs for large-scale real estate transactions and services for establishments in the health sector. He also ventured into IPR and real estate litigation. Mr Sachdeva carries vast experience in transaction advisory and due diligence in the real estate sector. After around 13 years at the firm, he sought to explore new opportunities and joined the real estate company Gumberg India as head of legal. He provided his expertise in various fields of law for approximately four years, which included real estate development, due diligence, leasing with reputed retail brands, etc. Mr Sachdeva then joined M3M India as senior vice president – legal & secretarial, and was tasked to handle high-stake litigations and corporate matters on behalf of the company, along with handling transactions and legal documentation. After performing at M3M India with vigor and zeal for six years, Mr Sachdeva joined Emaar India as general counsel and head of department – legal. During his professional tenure of 28 years, he has proactively provided his services with professionalism, and has represented clients and companies before various departments/ministries, other statutory authorities, governmental bodies/local self-government bodies on various issues relating to real estate development. Mr Sachdeva has been pivotal in the drafting of transaction documentation, transaction advisory and the handling of high-end litigations through his close coordination, review and assessment with large external agencies. He is well known for his sincerity, integrity, honesty and dedication in his performance, which he considers to be his professional traits. |
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Vidyut Malhotra Gulati GC & Director of Legal Bharti Airtel Group |
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Vishal Jain Head litigation (GM Legal) Tata Communications |
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Pranav Roach President & CEO Hughes Network Systems |
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Harshitha Thammaiah Senior Director and General Counsel Xiaomi India |
| Ms Harshitha Thammaiah is the senior director and general counsel at Xiaomi India group, and is responsible for leading the legal and compliance team in India and international markets of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Harshitha advises the board on all legal, business and strategic decision making. She and her team advise the business teams on a wide range of legal and business matters including corporate, commercial, regulatory, compliance, technology, intellectual property, public policy, employment, litigation, and dispute resolution. Harshitha has been instrumental in corporate structuring, contract structuring and designing policies and procedures on all forms of legal compliance at Xiaomi.
After having put in place a robust legal and compliance framework and standard protocols including the contract system, dispute resolution and litigation management, intellectual property protection, she continuously monitors the operations of each function for compliance and efficient functioning. Prior to Xiaomi, Harshitha has spent over a decade at top tier law firms advising large multinationals and startups on general corporate and technology matters including mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, entry strategy, intellectual property, data protection and viability of new technology business models. Harshitha is an alumnus of National Law School of India University. |
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Yashasvini Kumar Global General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer Innoterra |
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Medhanshu Mishra General Counsel & Compliance Officer LeasePlan India |
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Sourish Mohan Mitra Director, Legal Affairs Gartner India Research & Advisory Services |
| Sourish Mohan Mitra is an India qualified lawyer with more than 16 years of experience in a variety of legal and compliance matters. He is an alumnus of Symbiosis Law School, Pune and has worked across law firms, the Big4 and in-house roles. Sourish has driven the legal and compliance strategy at the regional level and handled multiple cross-border, local and global transactions, which have significantly contributed to the growth of organisations that he was fortunate to represent. He has advised numerous multinational corporations and Indian companies on several matters relating to corporate, commercial, foreign investment, retail, infrastructure, real estate and labour laws. During his years on the job, he has handled complex mergers & acquisitions, joint venture and exit transactions.
Sourish is a keen enthusiast and strong advocate for improvement, be it at a personal, economic, social or national level. He looks forward to challenging assignments and has successfully delivered in critical situations. He can handle multiple assignments, contract negotiations and related functions in parallel across different time zones. Apart from executing assignments, he is committed to building meaningful and long-lasting relationships. He is adept at independently fostering new clients and nurturing existing client relationships. Sourish has been recognised in the exclusive list of “30 People to Watch in the Business of Law in Asia in 2018” by Asia Law Portal. In 2019, he was featured as a “Shining Star of Indian Legal Fraternity” in the first edition of Constellations, an almanac of leading legal professionals, published by the Corporate Counsel Association of India. Recently Asian Legal Business selected him as a finalist for the “Young Lawyer of the Year (In-House)” category for its ALB India Law Awards 2021. In June 2021, Symbiosis Law School, Pune featured him in its “Know Your Alumni” series on LinkedIn. Sourish is regularly invited to write by leading national and international media, journals, websites etc. and has contributed over 100 articles on diverse topics ranging from current legal and social concerns to personal development and leadership excellence. He is also a speaker at various conferences and events. Sourish has taken up the cudgels for a better society and has volunteered for numerous social causes. With his love for law, he has volunteered as a career counsellor and mentor with educational institutions to give a helping hand to students and budding lawyers in visualising a roadmap for their professional journey. |
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Aparna Sharma General Counsel SBM Bank (India) |
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Suhani Singh General Counsel Delhivery |
