About

After spending over seven years at the Bar in Coimbatore, covering a wide spectrum of civil law work both in litigation and transactions, K S Suresh joined ITC, an Indian conglomerate with a diversified presence in fast-moving consumer goods, hotels, packaging, paperboards and specialty papers and agri-business. Presented with the opportunity to independently handle an ‘exciting’ variety of work, touching almost every branch of the law, Suresh rose through ranks becoming ITC’s head of legal (later renamed as general counsel) in 1998. Asked to provide strategic management to the company, which has a market capitalisation of over $40bn, since 2009 he has served on the corporate management committee, the company’s highest executive body. In his role Suresh heads a team of 45, which includes 35 qualified lawyers; upon gaining the general counsel, one of his initial objectives was to create a strong team of in-house lawyers, fully capable of delivering end-to-end legal services to the company. ‘This has enabled the creation of a solid bank of legal professionals, each with broad-based knowledge of all business-relevant laws and deep-specialism in at least two subjects’, says Suresh. Other key achievements include the closure of several business, brand acquisitions, the winning of the two major Central Excise disputes involving demands of about ₹2,000 crores, the striking down of the various states’ luxury tax laws by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court and the successful resolution to the several proceedings under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. Suresh has a number of impressive activities outside of his role at ITC, for example previously serving as a member on the Kelkar Task Force set up by the Government of India for indirect tax reforms, chairing of ASSOCHAM’s Indirect Taxes committee, and holding membership to the governing body of the Indian Council of Arbitration. Demonstrating his status in the Indian in-house market, Suresh has also invited to give evidence before parliamentary committees for his views on laws before their enactment.