About

Jacobs Engineering is one of the world’s largest and most diverse providers of technical, professional and construction services including all aspects of architecture, engineering and construction, operations and maintenance as well as scientific and specialty consulting. Legal support in India at the company is led by Bharat Singh, associate general counsel and legal head for petroleum and chemicals in the Asia region. He joined Jacobs in 2010 – as one of the youngest lead counsels in the country – with the specific mandate to set up an in-house legal function within Jacobs India. Today, as part of the regional leadership team, his role involves advising senior management on various legal issues, managing legal claims, lending acquisition support and negotiating complex business contracts across all lines of business. In the past, he has also served as the company’s compliance officer for India, overseeing the implementation of various compliance initiatives within the Asia region. The India legal team at Jacobs, led by Singh, also provides acquisition and post-acquisition integration support on various transactions. Jacobs recently announced the acquisition of a world-renowned design, engineering and program management firm – and the India team is lending support to complete this transaction. Other significant transactions this year involved negotiations with public and private sector clients in the various sectors. On making the move in-house, Singh highlights the difficult yet rewarding process saying, ‘if one transitions to an in-house counsel role from a law firm, as I did, the early days are a steep learning curve in terms of the nature of issues one must tackle every day. A specialist mind-set must quickly adapt to familiarity with a variety of areas of the law, including contracts, intellectual property, labour, litigation, tax, competition, corporate and privacy matters, among others’.