Career Biography

Suchita Saigal is a seasoned corporate lawyer with over fifteen years of experience across India, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom. Her career reflects a steady evolution from private practice to senior in-house roles, unified by a deep focus on energy, infrastructure, and project finance, alongside expertise in corporate governance, compliance, and cross-border transactions.

Suchita’s professional journey began in London with Clifford Chance LLP, one of the world’s leading international law firms. As part of the project finance team, she advised clients such as Glencore, Aviva, and EleQtra on complex, multi-jurisdictional financing structures across the UK and Africa. This early exposure to global deal-making instilled in her a disciplined, solution-oriented approach to legal strategy and compliance.

Returning to India, she joined J. Sagar Associates and later Trilegal, where she advised international lenders, development finance institutions, and renewable energy developers including IFC, Engie, Berkeley Energy, and Yes Bank on the structuring, financing, and due diligence of energy and infrastructure projects. These years in private practice cemented her transactional expertise and developed a strong commercial understanding of the power and renewables sector.

Her transition to in-house counsel marked the next phase of her career. At Apraava Energy (formerly CLP India), she led the legal workstream for project finance and M&A, advising on marquee transactions such as CDPQ’s strategic acquisition of a 40% stake in the company. She played a central role in multiple acquisitions and refinancings, overseeing structuring, documentation, and regulatory strategy, while advising senior management on evolving FDI norms and sectoral regulation.

Currently, as General Counsel of Cleantech Solar, Suchita oversees the company’s legal and corporate secretarial functions across India and Southeast Asia. She leads a team that supports the company’s rapidly expanding renewable energy portfolio, ensuring regulatory alignment, robust governance, and strategic risk management. Working closely with the leadership team, she advises on shareholder changes, acquisitions, and joint ventures, while spearheading ethics and compliance initiatives and building scalable legal frameworks for sustainable growth.

Throughout her career, Suchita has been recognised for her ability to integrate legal judgment with business strategy. She believes that effective legal leadership is not about control, but about creating alignment between business goals, compliance, and ethical values. Her leadership style is grounded in clarity, integrity, and collaboration, guiding her commitment to advancing sustainable energy transitions globally.

An alumna and gold medallist from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (B.A., LL.B. Hons.) and a registered solicitor in the courts of England and Wales, Suchita has contributed to legal scholarship as co-author of articles in the India Business Law Journal and as a reviewer for M.C. Bhandari’s Guide to Company Law Procedures.

In an industry defined by change, Suchita remains grounded in one constant: the conviction that law, when practiced with purpose, can be a powerful driver of sustainable progress.