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Companies give more power to General counsels to keep house in order


Mumbai: General counsels (GCs) at a few of India’s giant companies are taking over extra strategic roles, typically reporting on to chairmen, promoters or the managing director and chief government, and firms are going all out to retain prime expertise because the business is seeing a excessive churn with rampant poaching amid an acute expertise crunch, mentioned business insiders.It comes at a time when the function of chief legal officer has attained better significance than ever earlier than amid rising authorized disputes, a stricter regulatory setting and enhance in mergers and acquisitions, components which have prompted giant firms to strengthen their in-house legal teams.

“Authorized and regulatory challenges have develop into more and more complicated and might considerably influence enterprise operations,” mentioned Sanjeev Gemawat, group common counsel at Essar Group. “Consequently, promoters and boards at the moment are actively participating with common counsels to navigate these points successfully.”

High actions of authorized professionals within the nation up to now 12 months embrace Gemawat, who joined Essar from Vedanta Group; Tapan Pati, who joined Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing as group common counsel from Johnson & Johnson; Bhardwaj Pandya, group common counsel at Allcargo Logistics, who moved from Mondelez Worldwide; Ananya Sharma, group common counsel at JSW Group, who joined from AZB & Companions; Pooja Yadava, common counsel at Hero MotoCorp, who joined from Nayara Power and Amitabh Lal Das, chief authorized officer at Hyundai Motor India, who was earlier at Bajaj Auto.“With fast financial development and rising governance expectations, common counsels will play a pivotal function as strategic advisors, aligning enterprise goals with nationwide priorities and fostering compliance, innovation and institution-building to help India’s world management ambitions,” mentioned Gemawat.

Naveen Raju, group common counsel and government vice chairman at Mahindra Group, mentioned elevated regulation and the worldwide nature of enterprise operations have led to a a lot better want for authorized experience. Consequently, firms now recognise the significance of constructing robust in-house authorized capabilities.

“The function of common counsels and chief authorized officers has advanced to develop into extra strategic, encompassing important duties akin to danger evaluation, company governance and crisis management,” mentioned Raju, additionally a member of Mahindra’s Group government board.

The rising significance of GCs could be ascertained from the ballooning authorized spending of firms. Nifty 500 firms collectively spent ₹52,568 crore (about $6.26 billion) as authorized bills throughout 2023-24, up 17.03% from ₹44,920 crore within the earlier yr, in line with information compiled by ETIG.

“This shift displays the rising recognition of GCs as key advisors in governance, danger and enterprise technique. GCs perceive their function is just not restricted to authorized issues – they help your entire organisation,” mentioned Karl Fernandes, senior companion and head of the company observe group at Vahura. “Their true worth lies not simply of their authorized experience however in making use of it to the corporate’s broader goals and challenges. This evolution underscores the necessity for authorized leaders to be a part of top-level decision-making, serving to companies navigate complicated laws whereas driving their targets.”

Corporations are additionally providing engaging compensation to draw prime expertise. Salaries of authorized heads at giant teams vary between ₹3-6 crore, in line with search business executives. “Previously, corporations typically relied on an exterior regulation agency for all their authorized necessities. Nevertheless, with the evolution of the authorized market, observe areas have develop into hyper-specialised and authorized expertise is dispersed throughout quite a few service suppliers. Organisations now see the necessity for an skilled GC to guide a succesful in-house authorized staff and be accountable for safeguarding the agency’s authorized pursuits,” mentioned Raju.

Ami Parikh, common counsel, Asian Paints, mentioned, “There’s a clear give attention to good governance, ESG and with rising shareholder in addition to client activism, corporations can now not function with out strong danger mitigation mechanisms in place.”


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