Corporate Legal Retainerships in India

Given the complexities of the Indian regulatory environment, compliance has become a business function that must be practiced continuously. Recent developments such as frequent amendments to the Companies Act and other laws governing workplace relations, notification by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to regulate foreign investment into India, introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other tax reforms, and increased enforcement of financial and criminal law have increased the level of compliance required of Indian corporations.

The value of a structured, ongoing corporate legal retainership will assist Indian businesses to maintain legal security as they continue to expand.

At Finlaw Associates, we provide a structured, ongoing, strategic, proactive corporate legal retainer service in India that is designed to operate as an extension of your internal management team.

Our clients include start-ups, micro-small-medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), growth stage companies, financially backed companies and established corporations that are looking for ongoing and reliable legal services that are based on a sound understanding of the Indian legal and regulatory environment.

What is a Legal Retainership Model?

In India, a legal retainer model allows a company to regularly receive legal advice, guidance on compliance, and other continuing legal support from its lawyer in exchange for payment of a specified fee on a monthly or annual basis.

A retainer allows the company to have access to legal services as needed but structured differently than when obtaining legal services only at the point of need (e.g., when a legal dispute arises or when an urgent matter requires immediate assistance). By integrating legal thought into the business' regular routine, the attorney will provide the company with more

predictability regarding its legal obligations as well as less exposure to risk and provide a system for compliance to be achieved systematically instead of reactively.

For businesses that are regulated and operate in market environments that have ever-changing regulatory requirements, the retainer will eventually become a business requirement versus being an optional service offered by an attorney to a business.

Why Ongoing Legal Support is Vital for Indian Corporates

Indian corporations are governed by many different regulations, which often overlap. A single business transaction may have implications under not just the Companies Act, but also the Indian Contract Act, various GST laws, FEMA regulations, labour laws, and a host of regulatory rules applicable to each industry.

Without having a structured ongoing legal support system in place, Indian businesses can leave themselves vulnerable to compliance issues, regulatory inquiries, breach of contract claims, liability for their officers’ actions as directors, and damage to their reputation. The trend toward increased enforcement of laws such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the new criminal statutes only heighten the necessity for continuous legal oversight.

Having a well-crafted corporate legal services retainer system in place allows for the identification of risks at an early stage, documentation of compliance appropriately, and underlying management decisions are supported by law.

The Scope of Services Provided by Finlaw Associates in Relation to Corporate Law in India

In India, Finlaw Associates provide comprehensive support through our Corporate Law Practice and our supplementing areas of legal expertise, which will be used to assist you with your day to day operational, from corporate governance to regulatory compliance.

Contractual and Commercial Advice

Your business is built on contractual relationships. Therefore, we can assist you to develop sound and clear contracts by working with you to draft, review and structure your commercial agreements, supplier and contractors’ agreements, employee documentation, shareholder agreements, investment documentation, joint venture agreements, technology agreements and confidentiality agreements.

Our documentation will comply with the Indian Contract Act 1872 and all relevant regulations to ensure it is enforceable and clearly definable.

In addition to drafting the documents we will also be able to support your negotiation process and come up with a strategy for making sure your future commercial risk is limited.

Regulatory and FEMA Advisory

India has an extremely complex regulatory environment. Accordingly, our advice is sector sensitive. Additionally, we provide independent advice about the Foreign Exchange Management Act, Reserve Bank of India regulations, foreign investment structuring, any Securities and Exchange Board of India implications, and compliance standards established by the Information Technology Act of 2000.

Our national and international law retention model guarantees that all regulatory changes are continuously monitored and properly implemented in the day-to-day operation of your organization.

Legal Oversight of Taxation Matters

Tax professionals calculate and file taxes, however, legal structuring of your transactions is critical to minimizing future disputes. Under the Income Tax Act and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) statutes, our advice is primarily focused on how to structure your transactions, comply with the contract terms, and understand how your transactions may affect your compliance with other regulatory authorities.

Risk Management and Preventive Legal Audits

A unique feature to our legal retainership model for businesses in India is its prevention orientation. We perform internal compliance reviews to assess compliance risk based on the exposure of the business to regulations, evaluate contract risks; and map regulatory exposure means to identify soft spots in your compliance process prior to those soft spots resulting in liability.

Preventive legal oversight significantly reduces long term litigation cost and exposure to enforcement actions.

Provide Immediate Advice to Management

Business leaders need legal advice that is timely and commercially practical. Business executives and owners that have retained us for business legal services in India, continue receiving structured advisory support on strategic decision making, expansion planning, interpretation of compliance laws, and contingency plans in crisis.

We provide a responsive legal aspect within the context of your business growth objectives.

Why Should You Use a Corporate Legal Retainer in India?

A corporate legal retainer in India gives you the ability to know your legal costs ahead of time as well as provide a strategic long-term relationship with one firm, as opposed to using multiple firms on an ad-hoc basis that creates uncertainty in respect to both the cost of attorney's fees and how long it will take to complete an engagement between the law firm(s) and your company.

The corporate legal retainer in India allows you to focus your attention on compliance to avoid any penalties, disputes or negative publicity as you will have embedded legal oversight within your day-to-day business processes.

Our corporate legal retainer services in India are designed to provide clients with how long it will take to complete an engagement, what the anticipated outcomes are going to be based on institutional knowledge, as well as developing a relationship of trust and business understanding.

Finlaw Associates - A Strategic Legal Partner

As a partner in your legal strategy, Finlaw Associates provides much more than just legal advice; we provide long-term compliance support.

Finlaw Associates is structured as a legal retainer firm to be both regulatory aware, provide governance insight and align business with law.

We believe that with positive legal infrastructure, the investor can have confidence; the governance is strengthened and provides the ability to create sustainable growth. The legal retainership model of structuring provides corporations in India with an efficient method of managing the complexity of commercial transactions and regulatory changes.

Corporate Legal Retainerships in India

Because Compliance Should Never Be Reactive

At Finlaw Associates, we provide a structured, ongoing, strategic, proactive corporate legal retainer service in India that is designed to operate as an extension of your internal management team.

What is a Legal Retainership Model?

Why Ongoing Legal Support is Vital for Indian Corporates