Cairn GC Nitin Banerjee joins Vedanta Limited

With over 20 years of experience in the legal fold, Nitin Banerjee, General Counsel, Cairn Oil & Gas (the oil and gas vertical of Vedanta Ltd), recently joined Vedanta Limited as its Group General Counsel, a post which was vacant since the exit of Mukesh Bhavnani. However, until the addition of a successor at Cairn, he will also head the legal function at Cairn.

At Vedanta Ltd, Nitin will be reporting to the heads of Vedanta’s 12 businesses in India.

Nitin had in November 2017 joined Cairn as its GC, where he was responsible for the legal and compliance affairs of this major industry. At that time, Vedanta had stated that "Nitin will be a member of Cairn Business Executive Committee (EXCO) and will help drive the company's vision to contribute to 50% of India's crude oil & gas production. He will also be an integral member of the Group Legal Council and play a key role in driving the overall legal vision and charter for the legal function across the group."

An international corporate commercial lawyer, Nitin is qualified both in India and the UK. He brings considerable skill in energy and infrastructure projects, M&A in the oil and gas sector, commercial and regulatory company law, as well as litigation and arbitration management, corporate governance, and policy in the up, down, and mid-stream oil and gas industry. He was also involved in the Vedanta Group Legal Counsel team. During his tenure at Cairn, the company had expanded and opened new facilities in India and South Africa and increased its portfolio of energy offerings.

Nitin had joined Cairn from Vodafone India, where he worked as Senior Vice President, Legal Transactions, from April 2016 to October 2017. In that role, he headed the legal operations for Vodafone's Enterprise Business, Technology, IT and Networks, Strategy, and Wholesale Mobility businesses.

Prior to joining Vodafone, from April 2013 to February 2016, he was Vice President - Legal & Governance at BG India (BG Group); from August 2012 to February 2013, he served as Partner at J. Sagar Associates; June 2010 to July 2012, he was Head of Legal at BG Tanzania (BG Group); from March 2008 to May 2010, he was Lead Counsel of AMEA Region at BG Group; from January 2005 to February 2008, he was Deputy Legal Counsel at BG India (BG Group); from May 2002 to December 2004, he served as Senior Associate at Trilegal; and from May 1998 to April 2002, he was Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers.