About

Suzlon is a world leader in renewable energy solutions and wind turbine supply based in Pune. It was ranked as the world’s fifth largest supplier with 17,000 MW of wind energy capacity installed globally and operations across 18 countries. With a large legal team to support the large realm of business areas it covers, the function is made up of 35 lawyers and two paralegals. ‘We have expanded the team and developed in-house talent thereby considerably reducing the dependency on the external counsels and achieving cost optimisation over the last two years’, says general counsel, Anoop Khatry. The team has spent the last few months working closely with other internal teams to understand the business and its technical requirements, and as a consequence focused on streamlining and standardising contractual work, which Khatry admits, ‘is now showing results in terms of time and cost saving’. Some of the significant matters which the team has been involved with recently are, providing legal support to the business team for completion of transactions in relation to over 1800 MW of wind power projects for customers principally in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, and 515 MW of solar business across India. Additionally, the sale of Suzlon’s offshore German subsidiary Senvion SE to Centrebridge Partners stands out as one of its key achievements. On external challenges Khatry concedes: ‘There has been a lot of movement in renewable energy space in India. Recent policy interventions, notably at the central level will have a profound impact on the renewable energy sector’. The legal team will have a significant role to play in the entire process as it has been entrusted with a dual task – to protect Suzlon Group’s commercial and legal interests and to act as business facilitators. Contributing constructively in the growth and expansion of the company, the legal team is recognised for being filled with sound lawyers with an in-depth understanding of the business: ‘Our team always focuses to be current and updated not only in the field of law but also all other aspects which concern our business. Always having the urge to be a valuable professional is an important attribute otherwise mediocrity sets in’.