Amar Sundram is the General Counsel - Senior Vice President (Legal) and Chief Compliance Officer at NEC Corporation Pvt India. He has been an in-house Senior Corporate Legal Professional, having rich experience in strategic thinking, formulation of operational guidelines and a business enabler to complex legal issues. With over 26 years of experience, he has worked with both Indian and multinational business houses including DCM Shriram, Birla, Tata, AT&T, Reliance, Citi, Ernst & Young and Royal Bank of Scotland. Amar has held senior leadership management positions in many of the organisations that he has worked for.

He has handled high-stake international and domestic mediation and arbitration involving critical issues of law and multi-jurisdictional complexities. He has also spearheaded litigations in the Supreme Court, different high courts of India and the courts in the US. A topper in LL.M from the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, Amar has advised corporates on various legal issues in the arenas including regulatory, compliance, taxation, arbitration, insurance, financial laws, employment laws, cross-border transactions, government contracts, technology related laws, power, and criminal law.

A known name in the legal world, Amar was listed among India’s Top 100 General Counsels by Legal 500 in 2016 & 2018. Under his leadership, the EY India legal team was selected amongst the top 100 in-house teams (2017) by Legal 500 and also his team at EY ranked in the top five finalists for Asia Legal Awards (2019). Further, his legal team at Royal Bank of Scotland, India was declared the best legal team by Legal 500 (2019).

Recognising his contribution in the field of Corporate Law and Strategic Planning and for his exemplary commitment in legal policy implementation and corporate leadership, Amar was conferred with the title of ‘Honorary Professor’ by Amity University, Haryana in the year 2019.

Amar was honoured as Shining Star of Indian Legal Fraternity (2019) by the Corporate Counsel Association of India, was declared the Best General Counsel (Banking) by the Indian National Bar Association (2019), ranked among the top 100 General Counsels in India by Business World (2021), recognised amongst the Best Leading Lawyers by the World Intellectual Property Forum (2022) and recently has been recognised as Top General Counsel of India by Forbes India Legal Powerlist 2021 (result declared in March 2022).

Amar holds various honorary positions – the latest ones being a member of the Advisory Board of UK-India Legal Partnership (UKILP) and a founding member of General Counsel Association of India (GCAI).

I firmly follow the principle behind the Japanese word “ganbaru” which most aptly demonstrates the reason behind my success. Ganbaru means to commit oneself fully to a task and to bring that task to a logical end. I believe in working with perseverance and staying efficient and productive at the same time.

To be a successful corporate in-house lawyer, change your mindset. Move away from only raising the question to also providing a solution. There is a difference between point blank saying “NO” to a complex legal problem versus saying – ‘I understand what you want to do, here is how you can approach it’