We present india’s most accomplished heads of legal departments, along with their in-house counsel teams
India’s in-house legal profession is operating across a broader and more demanding canvas than ever before. In leading companies, legal teams are no longer valued just for technical precision or risk control. They help drive expansion, steer major transactions, respond to regulatory changes, strengthen internal processes, and support senior management on decisions that shape the direction of the business.
Standout performances come from businesses in tightly regulated, fast growing and operationally complex sectors including finance, renewable energy, retail, manufacturing, aviation, healthcare and technology. Across all of the companies, one theme stands out: the most effective in-house lawyers are combining legal expertise with commercial judgement, leadership and a practical ability to turn complexity into progress.
Team leader: Damini Bhalla
General Counsel
The in‑house legal and corporate secretarial team of Eternal Limited (formerly known as Zomato Limited) has become a core enabler of the group’s rapid expansion, supporting distinct businesses including Zomato, Blinkit, District, Hyperpure, and AI driven emerging ventures such as Nugget.
Structured across 30 lawyers and 17 company secretaries, the legal function is organised both by business vertical and specialist needs – such as litigation, sustainability, marketing and strategic partnerships – allowing it to combine close operational support with cross-functional agility.
The legal team led due diligence and integration for the acquisitions of Orbgen Technologies and Wasteland Entertainment, a combined USD244 million deal, and played a central role in Eternal’s USD1 billion qualified institutional placement, drafting the placement documents and designing regulatory‑compliant communication protocols. The team also enabled major product features and partnerships – including the company’s going out, event and movies ticketing arm, District, which enables users to pay online and make use of offers by merchants at shopping stores and restaurants and book tickets for events, sports and movies. Its Food on Train feature allows users to buy food on trains, while VIP Mode on Zomato ensures priority service, and District Pass provides users with special dining and entertainment offers.
For Blinkit, the team championed the industry‑leading shift to an owned inventory model, and supported diversification across new categories and cities.
Regulatory engagement was a notable focus. For instance, the legal and policy team worked extensively under Damini’s guidance in setting up the Live Events Development Cell, a government-led initiative to streamline approvals and drive growth of India’s live events sector through a single-window framework. The team also made strategic representations across diverse regulatory areas like EV adoption, gig economy, social security, online gaming, data privacy, competition law, consumer protection.
It also facilitated the company’s MoU with the Ministry of Labour & Employment to enable 20,000 monthly gig opportunities through the National Career Service portal. Gig workers are independent contractors and temporary workers that enter into formal agreements with companies to provide services to their customers.
From supporting high‑profile brand collaborations to defending insolvency proceedings and recovering about INR65 million (USD692,000) through dispute resolution, the team combined legal rigour with commercial pragmatism to prepare Eternal for future growth.
Tushar John, a founding partner at Optimus Legal in New Delhi, says the team under general counsel Damini Bhalla exemplifies legal excellence, professional integrity and strategic insight. “Their consistent ability to navigate complex legal challenges with clarity, precision and foresight has made them an indispensable pillar of the organisation’s success.”
Anubhav Kapoor, general counsel and senior vice president at Samvardhana Motherson Group, has steered a consolidated, tech‑driven legal function that underpins the group’s aggressive global expansion. Responsible for board governance, secretarial, contracts, compliance, ethics, litigation, land and real estate, labour, M&A and supplier disputes, he oversees legal, secretarial and compliance for more than 350 group companies, including two listed Indian entities, and supports compliance across more than 450 factories and manufacturing sites worldwide.
General Counsel and Senior Vice President
Samvardhana Motherson Group
In the past year, Kapoor led or closed six M&A deals and five joint ventures, while supporting fundraising activities – including qualified institutional placements, global bond issuances and loans – totalling about USD750 million.
He played a central role in major restructuring projects and establishing new verticals, acting as a key support partner for the company’s electronics and energy initiatives and helping set up renewable projects generating 20MW of capacity.
Internally, Kapoor has driven digital transformation through Motherson Tech Tracks, delivering a roadmap for full digitisation and automation of the legal and secretarial functions with the rollout of more than 15 apps, including mobile and AI features, and by creating Motherson Gurukul, a legal knowledge management and training system.
Kapoor also implemented a global whistleblowing and ethics framework, and strengthened trademark and brand protection practices, while pursuing cost-saving and AI initiatives to reduce reliance on external advisers.
His team of 35 lawyers and company secretaries consolidates legal services across the group, providing litigation management, regulatory compliance, IP oversight, contract governance and policy development to support the organisation’s goal of reaching USD108 billion in revenue by 2030.
Finance, capital and growth
In financial services, legal teams are being asked to do far more than keep pace with regulation. At Aseem Infrastructure Finance (AIFL), the legal and compliance function is presented as a business-facing, transaction-oriented team with clear ownership across lending, treasury and corporate support.
As AIFL’s general counsel and chief compliance officer, Shishir Kumar advises on credit decisions, leads capital-raising transactions, and ensures regulatory compliance with the Reserve Bank of India, the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the Companies Act.
Managing an 11-member team, he drives stakeholder collaboration and aligns governance with business objectives, while also overseeing legal, compliance, secretarial and governance functions.
His remit at AIFL, which has an asset size of about USD1.83 billion, additionally spans credit matters, capital and treasury transactions, and regulatory engagement through close alignment with business, credit and treasury teams.
Gautam Saran, a partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai, says “the legal team at Aseem Infra Finance … consistently demonstrate exceptional legal acumen, commercial clarity and a solutions-oriented approach that sets them apart.”
Another winner of the In-House Counsel Awards this year is Aparna Rawat, chief legal officer at L&T Finance in Mumbai. With close to two decades’ experience in the banking and financial services sector, she has expertise in dispute resolution, litigation, deal structuring, M&A, private equity, and stressed asset resolution. Ayush Srivastava, a partner at Wadia Ghandy & Co in Mumbai, says Rawat and her team support a broad and complex portfolio from infrastructure and real estate finance to wholesale lending, treasury and stressed-asset resolution. What sets the function apart, he says, is the team’s “ability to integrate legal foresight directly into business strategy”. Srivastava considers her as a “holistic” counsel whose forward-looking approach helps shape legal frameworks that support both compliance and growth.
At leading housing finance company Sammaan Capital, the legal narrative is one of disciplined execution under pressure. The in-house legal team supports the company’s lending, capital markets and stressed-asset businesses.
The team of just five describes itself as lean but functionally aligned, supporting a listed non-banking financial company during a period of intense transactional activity, volatility and regulatory scrutiny. In the past 12 months, Narayan Kedia, president and head of legal and corporate affairs at Sammaan in Mumbai, has led a series of strategically significant transactions against a backdrop of market volatility, tight timelines and regulatory compliances.
Yash Jain, a partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) in Mumbai, says the Sammaan team has “consistently demonstrated mastery over finance and regulatory compliance”, and shown it can deliver “speed without compromising accuracy” in debt market transactions. In a separate assessment, CAM partner Anchal Dhir in Mumbai says “he [Kedia] designs and implements legal policies that safeguard the company’s interests in capital markets and corporate transactions”.
Other financial institutions reveal the same trend within different forms. At Tata Capital, the legal team under Rohan Thacker, head of corporate legal and cleantech business, has advised on close to 100 financing transactions in renewable energy and infrastructure while ensuring defined matrices for transaction deviations and risks.
Wadia Ghandy partner Astha Mishra in Mumbai says the team combines deep legal knowledge with commercial sensitivity and “consistently delivers solutions that are practical and aligned with strategic objectives”.
At Mizuho Bank, head of legal Shraddha Mor Agrawal’s lean team covers everything from structured finance and corporate loans to treasury, FX and trade finance.
Her team played a central role in setting up the bank’s GIFT City branch, drafting IFSC-compliant lending documents, including FX and INR-based lending documents, facilitating the bank’s entry into India’s emerging global financial hub. They were also instrumental in the bank obtaining a foreign portfolio invester licence for Singapore and GIFT City.
Amrita Sinha, a partner at AZB & Partners in Mumbai, says “Shraddha’s impeccable grasp over Indian laws and regulations, her solution-oriented approach that is both creative and in sync with the standards of legal compliance and diligence that the sector demands and her willingness and ability to lead stakeholders to a mutually favourable outcome, make her one of the best in-house lawyers I have had the pleasure of working with.”
In private capital, the same convergence of legal judgement and commercial execution is crucial. Bhavi Sanghvi, general counsel at investment firm KKR, has played a central role in landmark investments and strengthened governance and execution across the platform.
Among her key projects was KKR’s acquisition of Healthium Medtech, a leading Indian medical devices company with global distribution across 90 countries. The transaction required intensive cross-border co-ordination, multijurisdictional diligence, and deep regulatory analysis in the complex medical devices sector.
Zia Mody, managing partner at AZB & Partners in Mumbai, says “Bhavi is well-recognised for bridging legal and business perspectives. She emphasises educating commercial teams on the implications of legal while embedding hers.”
At Premji Invest, general counsel Vardaan Ahluwalia is responsible for safeguarding the firm’s legal, regulatory and governance integrity while enabling its long-term, value-driven investment strategy. In the past year the team, including a chief compliance officer, two senior counsel and one mid-level secondee, has focused on strengthening institutional capability and resolving complex structural issues across portfolio management, deal execution and policy.
Sanjay Khan Nagra, a partner at Khaitan & Co in Bengaluru, says, “Vardaan has single-handedly built the legal and policy functions for Premji Invest”, and is now known internally and externally as a dealmaker who addresses legal risk “without compromise”.
As head of legal at Multiples Alternate Asset Management, Apurva Jayant oversees fund setup, investment and divestment activities, compliance, and all key legal matters. Jayant is praised by Trilegal partner Rudresh Singh in New Delhi who shares that “I have had the privilege of working directly with
Apurva and have been consistently impressed by her exceptional legal and commercial acumen. Apurva demonstrated a profound understanding of the regulatory landscape, navigating the complexities of the filing with remarkable efficiency and strategic foresight.”
Energy, infrastructure
As legal head at renewable energy company Continuum Green Energy, Kunal Mehta leads a diverse team of about 10 lawyers, based at the corporate head office in Mumbai and plant locations across six states. The organisational structure, divided into practice areas and functional verticals, plays an increasingly prominent advisory role in the company.
His responsibilities include litigation management, private equity investments, IPO preparedness, commercial contracting, and land due diligence across the organisation. On the litigation front, Mehta manages a portfolio of about 75 active matters, primarily regulatory disputes ranging from proceedings before state electricity regulatory commissions to writ petitions and appeals before the Supreme Court.
In the past year, Mehta’s team introduced a document management system to centralise contracts electronically, and strengthened its contribution to compliance, litigation and corporate strategy.
Nayan Shah, the senior manager and company secretary at Svamaan Financial Services in Mumbai, says Mehta has shown “exceptional expertise, strategic clarity and sound judgement” in a sector shaped by regulatory requirements, project development cycles, power purchase structures and environmental compliance.
Parichita Chowdhury, an associate partner at Desai and Diwanji in New Delhi, adds: “[Mehta] has become the anchor for some of the company’s most important decisions, especially in a year marked by regulatory churn and fast-moving commercial priorities.”
At Sunsure Energy, general counsel Devika Chadha handles contract negotiations for procurement, litigation and strategic input on regulatory matters and growth initiatives. She also oversees corporate governance and secretarial matters for more than 50 subsidiary companies.
Her legal team of 15 covers customer contracts, procurement, land law, litigation/regulatory and compliance.
Harvinder Singh, a partner at DSK Legal in New Delhi, says Chadha “exemplifies exceptional legal acumen and strategic foresight”.
Heavy industry and transport bring a different but related set of demands. At Fortune 50 Indian multinational JCB, Prantap Kalra leads a nine-member multidisciplinary team gate-keeping legal, governance, compliance and IP across India, South Asia, and East and South Africa. In the past year, he has driven multijurisdictional strategy, litigation, commercial enablement and operational support.
At Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Vinay Bhagawan, head of legal, compliance and corporate social responsibility, provides oversight across legal risk management, regulatory compliance, governance, ethics and social impact.
Bhagawan manages a team of eight during a time of significant organisational transition and heightened stakeholder expectations. This involves playing a central role in stabilising the governance framework amid leadership transitions at the senior level, which has included board changes. Rajeev Rambhatla, a partner at Luthra and Luthra Law Offices in Hyderabad, calls him “an exemplary leader and lawyer in his own right”.
Navigating the complex waters of maritime law at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai, general manager and legal adviser Raj Prakash Negi oversees legal, compliance and advisory functions, including negotiating large defence contracts with foreign manufacturers. Bhavya Bhankharia, principal associate at Khaitan & Co in Mumbai, highlights his expertise in defence procurement, maritime contracts and government interface protocols.
“His ability to interpret complex regulatory standards – ranging from vessel documentation and port compliances to defence acquisition guidelines – has been instrumental in safeguarding operational integrity and ensuring seamless cross-border engagements.”
At Indian Oil Corporation, Kiran Dhingra Seth, general manager for law and corporate affairs, leads and oversees legal functions across the company. Among her key recent projects was negotiating high-stakes contracts within a very limited timeframe for a 2.2 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) long-term LNG sale- purchase agreement with UAE gas company ADNOC; and a 0.8 MMTPA contract with Total Energies.
Suniti Kaur, co-founder and partner at Alaya Legal in Gurugram, describes her as “an exceptional in-house counsel” with deep mastery across the oil and gas value chain, noting her ability to communicate clearly and position legal strategy as “a driver of value rather than a barrier”.
Fast-growth legal functions
In consumer-facing businesses, legal teams are increasingly judged by how well they maintain growth momentum without losing control. At French sporting goods retailer Decathlon, the legal team has played a central role in one of the company’s most ambitious expansion phases, with nearly 40 new stores launched across India in the past 12 months.
At the forefront of the company’s strategic expansion, head of legal Dhara Doshi conceives and implements robust due diligence, works closely with senior leadership, modernises the legal function, and serves as the principal liaison with government agencies. In the past 12 months, she has advanced a progressive legal agenda, strengthening risk management, enabling growth, and delivering tangible financial and operational value to the organisation.
Debarshi Dutta, founding partner at Solaris Legal in New Delhi, says the team led by Doshi is strategically aligned with business objectives and offers “practical legal advice prioritising commercially feasible solutions”. He points to end-to-end support on due diligence, regulatory clearance, negotiations and dispute avoidance, and says Doshi’s vision is simple but powerful: “Legal is not just a safeguard, but a driver of business growth.”
At low-cost carrier Akasa Air, general manager and principal legal counsel Akanksha Mahapatra works across aviation, technology and digital platforms in a highly regulated, cost-intensive and publicly scrutinised market. Nitin Sharma, senior legal counsel and India legal head at Japanese industrial automation company Omron Automation in New Delhi, says Mahapatra combines “sharp legal thinking with genuine business insight”, and has helped shape the airline’s growth story from its legal and compliance foundations onward.
Karan Veer Chopra, VP, general counsel and head of legal at Tata 1mg in Gurugram, has focused on stabilising legal risk and building a scalable legal function for the fast-growing digital healthcare platform. Ashutosh Kumar Srivastava, a partner at SKV Law Offices in New Delhi, says Chopra “consistently delivers thoughtful, well-structured guidance”, while SKV managing partner Kanika Chugh credits him with strengthening internal decision making by turning legal requirements into workable business processes.
Abhilasha Bhatnagar, general counsel at Ultrahuman Healthcare in Mumbai, oversees legal, regulatory and compliance matters across India, the US, EU and more than 150 international markets for the health technology company. John Moehringer, a partner at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft in New York, says Bhatnagar’s most notable work came in a high-stakes patent dispute requiring co-ordination across multiple jurisdictions and forums. What stood out, he says, was not only her command of the legal issues, but her ability to provide “clear, actionable guidance that positioned the company for materially better outcomes”.
Governance, disputes, reinvention
Some of the strongest performances come from legal leaders who are reshaping institutions from within. Kaustubh Nandan Sinha, general counsel and vice president of legal at Jaypee Infratech in New Delhi, leads an 11-member team balancing strategic legal initiatives with day-to-day governance.
His most significant recent work was the legal strategy around the insolvency and revival of Jaypee Healthcare.
Akshat Kulshrestha, a partner at S&R Associates in New Delhi, says Sinha is “evolving the role of a general counsel from being a mere adviser to driving leadership and ensuring strategic impact”.
Amit Thareja, general counsel of Patanjali Foods in Haridwar, Uttarakhand state, leads a multidisciplinary legal and compliance function spanning governance, litigation, IP protection and regulatory compliance. Kalpit Khandelwal, a partner at Aekom Legal in New Delhi, highlights Thareja’s work on the transfer of Patanjali Ayurved’s food retail business.
“Amit played a crucial role in the transfer of Patanjali Ayurved’s food retail business to Ruchi Soya, providing vital oversight of the business transfer agreement and ensuring seamless regulatory compliance for this transformative transaction,” says Khandelwal NPS Chawla, co-founder and joint managing partner at Aekom Legal in New Delhi, concurs that Thareja has “consistently demonstrated a profound ability to foresee potential risks and craft strategies that ensure long-term benefits”.
Simranjeet Singh, a partner at Athena Legal in New Delhi, adds that Thareja has “streamlined the entire dispute portfolio at both Patanjali Ayurved and Patanjali Foods”, while encouraging law firms to think creatively.
A clear change is visible in the in-house role. The most effective legal teams are no longer confined to managing disputes, reviewing documents, or stepping in after problems arise. They are influencing how businesses raise capital, enter new markets, strengthen governance, deploy technology, and manage reputation. In many of India’s leading companies, legal is not simply part of the conversation. It has become one of the functions shaping where that conversation goes next.
METHODOLOGY
India Business Law Journal’s In-house Counsel Awards are based on nominations, references and qualitative insights gathered from various in-house counsel and legal professionals globally. The nomination process involved an accessible form on our website and was extensively promoted on social media. A wide array of participants, including in-house counsel, lawyers from Indian and international law firms, and other India-focused professionals actively engaged in casting their votes. This step was coupled with reference checks conducted by the editorial team at India Business Law Journal.
All in-house counsel in India automatically qualified for consideration in the awards, fostering inclusivity. There were no entry fees or any other requirements to participate in the awards.
