About

‘The ever-developing role of an in-house counsel has given me an opportunity to grow as a legal professional by ensuing the steps of first to listen, second to think, third to decide, fourth to implement and fifth to control implementation’, says Landmark Group head of legal Praveen Maheshwary when discussing his prevailing theories of in-house legal work. ‘If you leave out even just one of these, or fail to involve the team and to secure the diversity of its know-how you risk getting sub-optimal results’, he points out. He is well-placed to offer advice to budding general counsel, given the success he has enjoyed at Eurostar Group from 2007 and his current role in Riyadh from 2016. On these two chapters in his career, Maheshwary said, ‘While working at Eurostar Group and Landmark Group, I successfully set up new business lines at different locations of the Middle East and also implemented the new changes in legislation with respect to employment laws, nationalisation and feminisation, VAT laws, custom laws, and legal organisational structure’. It is clear that his time with these companies has proven to be an extremely busy and highly challenging but rewarding experience. He has also led the company’s legal team expertly, adopting new techniques and strategies to get the most out of it. ‘During my tenure with Landmark Group as head of legal‘, he says, ‘we have implemented the automation of processes and procedures involving contract management and introduced a centralised documentation system, a standardisation of service contracts and other new measures. This has resulted in a reduction of turn-around times leading to reduced efforts and clarity of responsibility, leading to diversion of man hours and money towards efforts which more directly aid the further growth of the business’.