Essar Group has overhauled its legal function in an attempt to route more of its in-house legal work through London, with the Indian conglomerate also looking at formalising its relationships with outside law firms.

Essar Global Limited (EGL), the holding group for companies including Essar Energy, has hired Vinson & Elkins City finance partner Raminder Singh as its first global general counsel.

Singh will work closely with Mumbai-based group president of legal, Mukesh Bhavnani, and London-based Sheena Singla, who joined as the first GC of Essar Energy in October from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where she was a senior associate. The pair have a brief to grow the London legal team through further hires at all levels of seniority.

The new structure is also expected to see Essar put together a more formal panel arrangement with its external legal advisers. The conglomerate currently works with a large number of firms, including Vinson, as well as leading City firms such as Freshfields, which advised Essar Energy on its £1.3bn London listing in May, and Herbert Smith, which has previously advised Essar's telecoms arm.

Singh, who joined Essar last week (15 November), said: "I have always been extremely happy at Vinson & Elkins and would never have left for another firm, but when approached for this role it quickly became clear that the option was very attractive. EGL is a phenomenal Indian success story and it is not every day you are offered a senior role in such a sector-diverse and globally successful conglomerate."

Essar's business is divided into eight sector streams bringing in revenues of around $15bn (£9.4bn). They are housed within the Essar Group conglomerate which, in addition to Essar Energy, has interests in steel; telecoms; shipping; ports; logistics; mining and minerals; and projects. Globally, the conglomerate has operations in around 20 countries and employs 60,000 staff.