Tribute: Girish Gokhale, Former General Counsel at JSW, passes away today

Girish Gokhale, former President – Legal & Group General Counsel, JSW Group, passed away at the Bombay Hospital on November 23. He was earlier admitted at the hospital due to deteriorating health conditions.

Gokhale, prior to joining JSW, served as Senior Vice President, Legal and Secretarial for Lafarge India Private Limited. He gained extensive legal experience over three decades at some of India's leading companies, including nine years as Chief Legal Advisor for Larsen & Toubro Limited, where he was responsible for significant cases such as:

• Successfully defending the acquisition of land for various projects before the Gujarat High Court as well as Karnataka High Court;
• Advising, drafting, finalizing the scheme of demerger of Cement Division of L&T and negotiating for acquisition of various companies on behalf of L&T in UK, USA, Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, etc.

Prior to that, Gokhale served at Tata Industries Limited as Legal Manager and was later appointed as Senior Legal Manager at the firm. At Tata Industries Limited, his work involved coordinating various activities of the Group Companies and the work of newly promoted Joint Ventures. He was heavily involved in advising Corporate Management on strategic issues with government/industrial/environmental policies and guidelines for foreign collaborations and joint ventures.

Post JSW, Gokhale was also working with DSK Legal. His sudden demise has come as a shock to the legal fraternity.