About

Monsanto is a US-based global modern agriculture company that develops products and tools to help farmers around the world grow crops while using energy, water, and land more efficiently. Comprised of four lawyers and four support staff, the company’s legal team in India is led by law lead for India Nabeel Saleem and recently gained internal credit for their role in the sale of Monsanto’s branded cotton business and for supporting its GM cotton business unit on a range of issues. As Saleem puts it, ‘the business unit handling GM cotton business in India had to (and continues to) respond to an unprecedented number of issues arising out of commercial disputes with a select few business partners. The legal team has actively participated in responding to such issues cutting across litigation, arbitration, regulatory, price control, intellectual property and competition law issues, whilst at the same time, continuing to provide effective legal support to the remaining business units and other functions’. Describing the team’s mind-set, Saleem says, ‘the team takes a proactive approach in interacting with all business units and is not content to remain passive or falling back on the traditional lawyer -client relationship. It has actively sought for and implemented technology-oriented solutions for compliance management and processing requests from internal clients’. The legal department is also commended for its highly engaged and collaborative team which maintains an unwavering focus and commitment to being a trusted partner to all business units and enabling functions in the region.