About

Mrinal Sinha has been head of legal for Shell companies in India since 2006, and leads the legal country-wide function. He leads his team with the philosophy of understanding the commercial and larger business perspective or objectives and how to make the legal advice and solutions fit into it. He says that, ‘with better appreciation and being more sensitive to people issues in [the] local, regional and global context including diversity and culture, the legal team can deliver maximum value to the business and handle legal issues in multijurisdictional scenarios’. Sinha has standardised several contractual matters and developed legal processes, minimised outsourcing of legal work whilst maximising the use of the internal legal team in miscellaneous contexts including M&A activities which has reduced legal costs. During his time at Shell, he has overseen a tax case worth US$1.3bn against the investment of US$400m and the merger of British Gas into Shell, which took considerable work. Other transactions Sinha has been recognised for include licensing issues, restructuring of businesses and investment vehicles, investment in start-up and new energy, various M&A and the expansion of a retail business in India and the Middle East.