Team size: Ten

What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

When I joined Sunsure Energy in 2023, we did not have a legal team in place. A large part of my time over the past eighteen months has been spent on getting a team in place, working with various departments such as sales and business development, procurement, development, project finance as well corporate governance and secretarial on standardising documents and putting into place systems and processes for contract execution and management. From 2023, we have grown to a team size of seven attorneys and three company secretaries. In addition to my role as General Counsel of the organisation, I also act as a mentor for the entire legal and compliance team. As the General Counsel, my focus has been to build a strong in-house team that can manage most of the critical business matters internally and reduce our dependence on external counsel. In terms of the sort of work that I handle, a large part of my time is spent on negotiating the power purchase agreements and ancillary documents, which we execute with our customers. Given that these are long-term contracts and core to our business, these contracts are critical for us. In addition to this, we work with our procurement teams – both land and equipment on negotiating the contracts and I also manage the governance and compliance related matters. I am part of the organisation’s leadership team and have been actively involved in all legal, governance, and compliance matters.

What innovations have you made to the way your legal team works in the past year?

We have created a digital task board where each team member has listed all their tasks, assigned estimated response timelines, categorised them by priority, and assigned responsibilities. Team members can easily collaborate by adding comments and attachments to tasks, making it a centralised hub for project-related communication. The system sends out automatic notifications when tasks are assigned, completed, or have upcoming deadlines, reducing the need for manual reminders. The visual board allows team members to see the progress of all projects immediately, which reduces the need for lengthy status update meetings. We have also implemented legal tech, where the platform helps us with contract management and support. We have created template documents, where possible, which have been shared with various business verticals and have created a playbook for the business teams enabling them to negotiate the terms of the contracts and accept deviations as per the playbook. This process helps in creating more efficiency. The contract management and support tool also help us streamline the contract execution and management, as we create an online repository of the contracts, highlight ongoing obligations, and summarise the key terms and deviations in contracts that we execute. We believe that creating operational effectiveness is a key driving factor for the growth of an organisation.

How do you motivate and manage the other members of your legal team well?

I firmly believe that the legal field is not just about individual accomplishments but also about nurturing the next generation of legal minds. At Sunsure, I made it a priority to guide and mentor junior members of the legal team. Nurturing the next generation of legal minds, helping them navigate the complexities of legal practice, and witnessing their growth have been a profoundly rewarding experience that reminds me of the importance of giving back to the profession. My interactions with junior legal professionals have underscored the importance of continuous learning in the legal profession. The legal field is dynamic and intricately linked to evolving socio-legal landscapes. Engaging with junior colleagues has enabled me to glean fresh perspectives, remain updated on emerging legal trends, and refine my approach to complex legal challenges. In this reciprocal exchange of knowledge, I have found profound value. Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin in the legal profession, and this symbiotic relationship has been invaluable in my career.