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A constituent part of the global airliner duopoly along with its competitor Airbus, Boeing’s expansion into India has been undertaken in earnest only over the past two years. Dr Akhil Prasad, who heads the team and is the director, country counsel India and company secretary for Boeing provides details as to what the establishment of Boeing’s business in India has entailed: ‘It was like opening several Boeing businesses in one go and with equal urgency. The Boeing India legal team took up the challenge to work proactively with businesses in order to match tight business timelines. This has helped the business achieve its objectives fairly quickly, with legal providing timely counsel and appropriate risk assessment whenever needed. During this growth phase, legal has played an important part in assisting the business in risk assessment, where lots of grey areas existed and the business needed support and counsel’. In addition to the incredibly complex nature of business support that is associated with launching a prominent company like Boeing in a large and vibrant market such as India, the legal team has had as much to do in terms of developing its own internal structures and processes to fulfil its challenging goals. ‘Some of the most notable work has been set up by the legal department’, Prasad recalls, ‘which [previously] operated from outside India and catered to only a part of the Boeing’s business in India. We now provide advice and counsel to all Boeing business units in India, including commercial aircraft, defence, engineering and research. [We] also assisted with the restructure of the business, implemented a strong compliance and risk assessment program, established joint-ventures for manufacturing in India and cover many other important areas’.