About

Yogesh Wadhwa, vice president and lead counsel at General Motors India (GM India), possess a wealth of experience gleaned from a career that has encompassed a variety of roles and sectors. Beginning his career with India’s oldest law firm, Fox Mandal, Wadhwa spent the next decade moving through the in-house legal teams at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Halliburton and Cairn India. Now in place at GM India, Wadhwa has developed a delegative leadership style, prioritising ‘empowerment’ and ‘teamwork’ that ‘allows [legal team staff] to take more responsibility’ when completing their workload. Over the past year, much of the work of GM India’s legal team has focused on regulatory matters, and they have been involved in a number of lobbying efforts – an area that Wadhwa points to as being particularly challenging. Wadhwa believes that ‘legal is integral to any business decision done’ company-wide, and indeed he occupies a place near the top of the company hierarchy. A part of senior management, he has direct contact with the overall group GC, who is based in America, and engages in ‘dotted line’ reporting with the CEO. This allows Wadhwa ample opportunity to show his business credentials, and he considers that the ‘right balance of business and legal acumen’ is what makes a top quality in-house lawyer. Evaluating his success, Wadhwa is grateful for his time working as a consultant before moving to a legal role; where he was provided with ‘exposure to deadlines [and] presentations’, which has proven invaluable in his later career.