About

Described by peers as ‘a very clear headed, driven professional’ with a ‘problem solving approach’, Sameer Chugh is a well-respected legal adviser with almost 20 years of professional experience. After just two years as an associate and two years working in-house, Chugh took his first head of legal and regulatory position in 2003 at telecoms provider BT India. While at BT, Chugh worked with a small team of eight lawyers on several projects, and gained recognition for his ability to pick up new and complex assignments. After a year in the role he was hired by the Essar Group to act as senior vice president and general counsel for their communications business for three years. Chugh then spent September 2011 to August 2014 at Cummins India, a global power provider, as its vice president for legal, secretarial and general counsel. In 2014 he was hired by Bharti Airtel, the world’s third largest mobile operator, to handle it legal and regulatory work as legal director for South East Asia. With extensive knowledge of the telecoms sector, Chugh has handled a total of over $12bn worth of transactions in his career having been involved in cross-border deals in various parts of the world including, the US, UK, South Africa and Singapore. He has been recently quoted as saying, ‘apart from providing legal advice and support, a corporate counsel must be a commercial advisor and provide the “how to do it”, while steering clear from “how not to do it”’.