Team size: 14

Can you tell us a little about your significant accomplishments over the last few years, as a team or by yourself?

During the recent takeover bid for SUEZ, I oversaw the regulatory and contractual actions in the Indian subcontinent, including the anti-trust filings, due diligence exercises, carve-outs, consents and approvals.

Recently, the company secured major long-term DBO contracts in wastewater treatment. The legal and contract management team provided critical support for the wins, and subsequently, led the efforts to start the contract.

The in-house team was also instrumental in winning a few arbitrations to secure significant business interests of the company.

During Covid, the team ensured that the ever-evolving safety guidelines were communicated on time and duly implemented. We also secured contractual reliefs for mitigating the impact of Covid on business and ensured business continuity.

Have any recent political, economic or regulatory changes impacted your work? How are you dealing with this?

Over the last few years, Indian regulatory landscape has evolved greatly. Company law, CSR regulations, exchange control law, GST, corporate income tax, environment laws, labour laws, competition law – all of them have undergone sea changes. One common theme of the new regulations is a shift towards paperless and faceless compliances. We have not only focused on regularly training our resources to keep up with the new changes but have also deployed tools to improve efficiency. We are now gearing up for the upcoming regime of data protection. Thanks to GDPR, we already have some ideas.

Another area is health and safety. New paradigms, such as duty of care of instructing companies and duty of candour have emerged. At SUEZ, we have traditionally had a strong focus on H&S. The legal and contract management team often collaborates with the HR and H&S teams for mapping and implementing national and extraterritorial regulations.

How has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities?

Environment and sustainability are at the core of our business. We have long been contributing to a circular economy. Using state-of-the-art engineering and digital tools, we help cities achieve water neutrality (by wastewater treatment and demand management) and provide access to water and sanitation for all its citizens. The legal team is an active partner of business in building and deploying contractual frameworks for these solutions.

Corporate governance is also intrinsically linked to sustainability. We are putting greater emphasis on measurable improvement in corporate governance through transparent and timely reporting, a strong ethics compliance program and a meaningful CSR programme.

How important is choosing to work with external lawyers who align with your company’s values? Are you likely to reconsider what firms you work with based on this?

At SUEZ, our values are at the core of our business strategy, and they inform all our business decisions, including selection of service providers. If external lawyers are aligned with our values, we can focus better on the core assignments. Aligning values eventually creates value.