The legal desk
General Counsel and in-house legal, contracts, compliance, corporate, litigation and legal operations. A standalone desk, started where our clients already needed it and widening from there.
In-house legal hiring turns on judgement and fit, and a CV shows neither. That is the whole difficulty.
In-house legal is not the litigation market. The work is commercial — contracting, regulatory exposure, risk the board can act on — and the people who are good at it are usually judged by how few problems reach the executive, which is precisely the thing that does not appear on a résumé.
Our route in was shipping and trade: charterparty and cargo disputes, P&I, marine insurance, sanctions and customs exposure. That is legal work our maritime desk has been adjacent to since 2008, and it is where we can point at something rather than assert it.
The desk now runs broader — General Counsel appointments, contracting and compliance teams, corporate and litigation roles, and the legal operations function that larger teams build once the inbox stops scaling. Where a mandate sits outside what we know, we say so instead of taking it.
The roles on this desk
General Counsel
First legal hires and established GC appointments, including the board-facing part of the role that most searches underweight.
In-house legal
Legal counsel and senior counsel roles inside commercial teams, from single-lawyer functions to regional benches.
Contracts
Contract managers and commercial counsel — drafting and negotiating rather than reviewing what someone else drafted.
Compliance
Regulatory, trade, sanctions and financial-crime compliance, including the anti-bribery programmes auditors ask to see.
Corporate law
Corporate and commercial counsel covering governance, transactions, joint ventures and group structuring.
Litigation
In-house disputes counsel managing external panels, arbitration and the commercial exposure behind a case.
Legal operations
CLM implementation, matter and panel management, legal spend and the reporting that makes a legal team legible to the executive.
Live roles on this desk
Every mandate below is live. Confidential searches are not listed here.
Marine Claims Executive
2 months agoP&I correspondent Confidential
- Mumbai
- Legal & Claims
- Mid-senior
General Counsel
4 weeks agoShipping and logistics group Confidential
- Mumbai
- General Counsel
- Executive
- ₹70,00,000–95,00,000 per year
Contracts Manager
5 weeks agoPort and terminal operator Confidential
- Navi Mumbai
- Contracts
- Mid-senior
- ₹22,00,000–30,00,000 per year
Compliance Manager
6 weeks agoInternational freight forwarder Confidential
- Gurugram
- Compliance
- Mid-senior
Legal Operations Lead
8 weeks agoEnergy trading group Confidential
- Bengaluru
- Legal Operations
- Senior
- ₹32,00,000–42,00,000 per year
Placeholder — additional legal advisors to be added
Who runs this desk
Legal mandates are briefed and shortlisted with practising lawyers involved, not by recruiters working from a job description.
Adv. Surangama Sharma
Advises Nevoxel and its clients on employment contracts, compliance and the documentation shore-side hiring runs on, including TMSA-aligned HR practice.
[Desk lead]
Replace with the advisors now working with the legal desk, and delete the isPlaceholder flag in src/content/expertise.js.
Before you get in touch
Is this only maritime legal work?
No. The desk covers in-house legal across industries — General Counsel, contracts, compliance, corporate, litigation and legal operations.
Shipping, trade and insurance law is where we started and where our network is deepest, so it is the work we can evidence most directly. We would rather say that plainly than imply an equal track record everywhere.
Do you place into law firms?
Our focus is in-house. We take partner and senior associate mandates only where the firm’s practice sits in a market we already know — shipping, trade, insurance or logistics — and we will tell you when it does not.
Can you run a legal search confidentially?
Yes, and most senior legal mandates should be. An incumbent GC is often still in post, and the in-house legal community in any Indian city is small enough that an open advertisement is an announcement. See <a href="/employers/executive-search">executive search</a> for how a confidential mandate runs.
I am a lawyer with no maritime background. Is this desk for me?
Yes. Most roles on this desk are judged on legal and commercial experience, not sector history. Maritime and trade exposure is an advantage on a minority of them and irrelevant on the rest.
Talk to the legal desk
Whichever side you are on, it starts with a conversation rather than a form letter.