In today’s dynamic business environment, companies irrespective of their size, face increased legal, compliance and regulatory challenges. Larger companies typically meet these challenges by employing an in-house general counsel – an attorney (or group of attorneys) employed full time – to provide legal support and guidance to the company. However, for many businesses, this may not be a viable option. The cost of hiring full-time, in-house attorneys/ lawyers to provide advise regarding entity formations, transactions, corporate governance, employment matters, dispute avoidance and resolution, regulatory compliance checklists and other legal matters may simply be too high. At the same time, companies may also find that engaging a law firm on an hourly basis is not the best solution, as legal fees can escalate quickly.

A&A offers an alternative

We provide outside general counsel services/in-house legal services in India and the UK on a fixed fee/ retainer basis.

Ahlawat & Associates eases the challenges of, day to day legal requirements coupled with the high cost involved in housing professionals to ensure quick efficient advice, by packaging all legal assistance both day-to-day as well as a transaction under an umbrella at a pre-agreed, fixed fee. This approach has served A&A and its clients to align their business interests to find the most efficient and cost-effective solutions to all legal and compliance matters. The aim of this service is total transparency and providing our general counsel clients with the comfort of never having to doubt whether a question is worth asking or whether an issue warrants a consultation, as there is no additional or hidden cost involved. A&A’s incentive is to resolve the clients’ challenges quickly and accurately and not to create billable hours.

Since each business’ requirement is unique, our services are tailored to meet each client’s specific requirements and based on understanding the legal needs for smooth transactional and operational compliance, our specialized resources are assigned to provide dedicated services.

Although we offer a full range of legal services across a broad spectrum of practice areas including but not limited to Corporate, Merger and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Real Estate, Education, Intellectual Property, Employment and Labour, Licensing and Registrations, Taxation (Direct & Indirect), business setup (globally), it is our General Counsel/In-house Legal Services that we prefer our clients gravitate towards, as it optimizes not only effortless functionality for the business/ client, but also provides us with an opportunity to cater to the needs of the client to enable total legal compliance as well as provide immediate counsel for urgent as well as successful expansion needs of the business. Regular legal advice, not only improves an organizations ability to understand different legal issues thoroughly but also safeguards business owners interests in certain situations including being sued for discrimination by employees, legal violations and negotiating the sale of a business, contracts and in a business transaction requiring varying levels of negotiations, document preparations and reviews.

The Scope of General Services

General Counsel/ In-house legal services that A&A provides to its clients can be broadly categorized into three segments:

Advice on daily functioning and operations in the company

Corporate governance and Company Secretarial Services

Advice relating to human resources/ employment/ labour related concerns for the company

Advice relating to day-to-day operations of the company:

Reviewing operations of the organization, key contracts, vendor relationships, processes and key documents

Drafting, negotiating, reviewing and dispute avoidance and resolution with respect to commercial contracts (including but not limited to employment, independent contractors, vendors, customers, re-sellers, purchase-lease and licensing agreements)

Assistance and guidance on managing intellectual property.

Drafting, review and modification of privacy policies, terms of use and other internet and information technology matters

Pre-litigation dispute resolution and assistance with collections strategies.

Assistance with regulatory compliance, processes and strategies.

Risk analysis and mitigation strategies

Comprehensive general day-to-day counselling and advice

and advice Ongoing advice on the legal implications of business decisions

Early dispute identification, avoidance and resolution

Advice relating to employment / human resources:

Drafting of the employment manual/ employee handbook and other employment-related agreements/ policies and regular revision of the same as per law

Review, assess and revise restrictive covenants (non-competition, non-solicitation, non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements/NDA’s), tailored to the company’s business and protectable interests

Employee review assistance

Employee separation processing/ Termination of employees

Assistance with labour law compliance

Corporate Governance and Secretarial Services:

Entity formation analysis and filings

A periodic check on corporate or other central, state or district filings, fees and others company compliances

Assistance in managing minute books, preparation of board and shareholder resolutions and attendance at board meetings

Review and implementation of corporate governance procedures

A&A further enhances the general corporate services to its retainer clients by providing feasible options for fulfilment of their expansion needs such as conducting comprehensive due diligence and transactional needs including drafting, negotiating and reviewing business documents such as shareholder agreements, purchase agreements, merger documents, disclosure letters, other ancillary company documents, power of attorneys, partnership or operational agreements, buyout agreements and other bylaws.

Apart from the above mentioned corporate general legal services, A&A also provides reduced rates for arbitration and litigation matters to retainer clients who engage our General Counsel Services.