Commercial risk needs to be identified and priced in the boardroom long before a dispute reaches arbitration or court, legal and finance leaders said during the panelFrom Courtroom to Boardroom: Managing Commercial Risks and Financial Impact in High-Value M&A and Technology Transactions at the fifth edition of ETLegalWorld Commercial Disputes Conclave 2026.
Moderated by Mehak Oberoi, Founder, ConstructHer Legal Network, the discussion focused on translating legal exposure into financial and operational terms that boards can evaluate.
Dr. Mukul Shastry, Group General Counsel, Cube Highways, described “unpriced ambiguity” as a major source of disputes. Boards, he said, should conduct a pre-mortem around critical contractual assumptions and examine what could go wrong several years into a transaction. In infrastructure, inaccurate traffic projections and long dispute timelines can severely affect debt-funded projects even when companies eventually win their claims.
Niti Mittal, General Counsel, Coforge, said technology transformation contracts often falter not on headline provisions such as liability or termination, but around poorly defined obligations, uncontrolled changes and unclear deliverables. Independent validation of outcomes and robust obligation tracking can prevent disagreements from escalating.
Technology creates risks beyond the balance sheet
Jogendra Singh, President, Group CFO and Board Member of Hero Enterprise, said organisations need to look beyond traditional total cost of ownership when assessing technology investments.
He identified data and IP control, cybersecurity, vendor concentration and exit risk as critical considerations, particularly as AI adoption increases. Organisations must understand who controls data, whether vendors can use it for model training and how easily systems and information can be transferred when relationships end.
Ajay Bagri, Chief Financial Officer, SEIL ENERGY INDIA LIMITED, said disputes may be unavoidable, but unexpected financial exposure should not be.
“Disputes are inevitable. Surprises shouldn’t be,” he said, stressing the importance of clearly communicating contingent liabilities, contractual protections and recovery strategies to lenders and investors. He cited his experience managing refinancing alongside significant cross-border receivables to illustrate how transparent risk articulation can preserve lender confidence.
Legal teams need to speak the language of finance
Rajeev Goswami, Vice President – Legal (Dy General Counsel), Indus Towers Limited, said legal teams risk being perceived as deal blockers if they focus only on drafting positions.Instead, GCs should quantify the financial impact and probability of contractual deviations. “If you tell them the risk in a monetised term,” boards and CFOs are more likely to understand and act on the recommendation, he said.
Suparna Bhattacharyya, Chief Financial Officer, YANMAR India, added that multinational subsidiaries must adapt global risk frameworks to local operating realities. Local management, she said, must assess business conditions, contractual protections and risk appetite rather than automatically defer to headquarters.
The panel’s broader message was that avoiding costly commercial disputes requires cross-functional governance: legal, finance, commercial and operational teams must jointly assess risk, track obligations and challenge assumptions before contracts are signed.
The remarks came as the fifth edition of ETLegalWorld Commercial Disputes Conclave 2026 is currently underway in New Delhi, bringing together legal professionals, policymakers, industry leaders and dispute resolution experts to discuss the evolving commercial justice ecosystem. The conclave, themed “Building Trust, Speed & Certainty in India’s Commercial Justice Ecosystem,” is examining the institutional and legal reforms needed to strengthen India’s position as a trusted destination for global business, investment and dispute resolution.
