About

Neeta Sanghavi has aspired to be a lawyer since she was a child, and recalls that she was ‘fascinated by lawyers from a very young age’. Now in her current role as head of legal for India at global banking firm Credit Suisse, she has attained a position in the upper echelons of the in-house legal market. Sanghavi has broad experience of legal matters and, prior to moving in-house, she had a noteworthy private practice career, including as a senior associate at UK firm Simmons & Simmons. Her in-house roles have been focused on major players in the financial sector, starting at Lehman Brothers, moving on to UBS and then finally to her current role at Credit Suisse in 2014. In common with other international banks operating in India, Sanghavi’s team is compact but effective in supporting the concerns of the business in the region. During her tenure, Sanghavi has improved the efficiency of the team by streamlining internal processes and creating a matrix of external law firms that could be used for pressing legal matters. Strategically, Sanghavi rates the most positive effect she has had as her successful efforts to enhance the nexus between legal and regional offices at Credit Suisse, which she believes helped ‘build trust through honesty and accountability’. Sanghavi considers the perception of in-house counsel as a ‘conservative’ force as the largest barrier to departmental success, which she measures using feedback from other business units and calculated cost savings. Sanghavi is inherently business-focused, advising that, instead of specifically focusing on the legal issue, she considers this in the context of the ’surrounding legal and regulatory environment in order to deliver the best results for the business’.