Corrida Legal provides end-to-end legal solutions for businesses in India. We handle the entire operational cycle for our corporate clients, which includes advising on corporate law, employment law, commercial contracts and engagements, labour law compliance, HR documentation, India entry, foreign investment, data protection and dispute resolution. We have worked with multiple startups and their founders, and we are also advising a gamut of multinational companies and their global capability centers (GCCs) that require practical legal support for their day-to-day operations. Our services involve the reviewing and drafting of documentation for the business which promotes scalability whilst ensuring the least operational burden on the business.

When a founder starts his or her business, one of the first things that go on the backburner is legal compliance and documentation, which end up becoming blinding loopholes at the time of dispute. Even if a startup is able to raise good capital, the founder has to be aware and wary of the common pitfalls in the documentation, more specifically the shareholders' agreement and the share subscription agreement that they execute with the investors. At Corrida Legal, we help founders protect their rights whilst ensuring that the startup is built from day one as a legally sound structure. Our comprehensive services not only ensure that you are legally compliant to the effect that you are ready to seek investment but also ensure that each action protects the rights of the founders and the startup.

Our core area of expertise is drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial and operational contracts, including vendor agreements, service agreements, consultancy agreements, NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, technology contracts, platform agreements and other business documents. We help our clients achieve their business objectives whilst being legally compliant and protecting their rights. We also undertake the activity of negotiating the contracts with the other party to ensure protection of our clients' rights.

We are the preferred law firm for foreign companies entering India and setting up operations, especially the GCCs or Global Capability Centers. We have helped establish multiple GCCs with a focus on ensuring complete legal compliance from day one. Such compliance includes drafting documentation in a manner that safeguards the data that the parent entity shares with the Global Capability Center here in India and having the requisite operational contracts to not only comply with applicable laws but also to demonstrate due legal compliance, including data protection, at the time of an inquiry or a dispute. We help foreign companies in their incorporation, appointment of local directors, scouting for local offices, setting up operations and hiring and in preparing and maintaining the legal documentation required for the same. We also understand that maintaining a GCC can be a daunting task and thereby assist the foreign entity in preparing internal documents which are not only legally compliant in India but are also operationally similar to the practices followed in the foreign entity.

Employment & labour law is our core area of expertise and we assist our clients in keeping compliance with the existing and upcoming laws. We liaise with the labour authorities and the government on labour related enquiries and we regularly make representations to the ministries including the Ministry of Labour and Employment. We handhold corporates on labour law related issues and advise them on the following aspects:

Offer letter/Contract of Employment/Retainership letters;

Personal Data collection notices and consent forms for new joiners;

Service rules and Legal/Compliance/HR policies;

Investigation in cases of breach by employee of internal HR/Legal & Compliance policies;

Employment related litigation including cases alleging wrongful termination and arrears, non-deposit of TDS (Income Tax), trade union disputes etc.;

Legal Audits on HR compliance with applicable labour laws and advise on the actions to be taken to ensure compliance;

Employee trainings: We conduct employee trainings and provide training materials on employment laws and on as HR/ Legal/ Compliance policies;

We advise management and businesses on the following aspects:

Issues and compliance with labour legislations such as new Labour Codes namely the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and state-wise Shops & Establishments Acts;

Removal of personnel, unauthorised absence of employee(s), vendor resource breaches, change in team structure, CSR initiatives & spending and HR events;

Secondments, Short Term Assignments, Dual employment, withholding tax requirements and fixed term contracts;

Compensation and ESOPs, non-compete and non-solicitation advisory & documentation.

We provide end-to-end solutions with respect to HR policies and employee contracts. Not only do the new labour codes require specific compliance specifically with respect to appointment letters, etc., but these documents also need to be prepared in a manner that they do not come across as intimidating to the employees, especially in a startup ecosystem. Our policies are drafted in a manner that ensures the best protection of the business interests, while also being communicative and welcoming to the employees. Whilst preparing the organisation's policies, we ensure that such documents adequately cover all the concerns of the organisation from confidentiality to the conduct of the employee.

POSH compliance is ensured by Corrida Legal by implementing the following activities and processes for its clients:

POSH Policy: Preparation and adoption of POSH policy along with board resolution.

Penal Provisions Notice: A notice enunciating the applicable legal provisions needs to be published in terms of the requirements under the POSH laws.

Internal Committee: Establishment of the Internal Committee which has key membership requirements including that of a chairperson who needs to be a woman employed at a senior position, two more employees – preferably committed to the cause of women and one external member.

Annual Report: The Internal Committee is responsible for preparing and submitting an annual report to the employer (management), which includes comprehensive information regarding the handling of sexual harassment-related cases within the workplace. This report needs to be filed by the company with the local District Officer.

Annual training: The Internal Committee needs to undergo a sensitization session and the company staff needs to go through a training session on an annual basis. Compliance with this aspect needs to be shown in the POSH annual report as well.

Inquiry: Any sexual harassment-related complaint needs to be dealt with in the manner and timelines prescribed in the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the rules made thereunder. There are specific timelines, inquiry procedure and confidentiality obligations prescribed under the law.

External Member: The Internal Committee needs to comprise of one external member who needs to be well versed with employment laws. The external member will be from Corrida Legal.

We help ensure data privacy and protection in our clients' policies, processes and engagements. We are experts in the field of personal data and advise clients on the extant data protection law, namely the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and international law compliance including those pertaining to the California Consumer Privacy Act, UK and EU GDPR. Our scope of advice includes the following:

Data Privacy Policy, Consents and Notices: We draft comprehensive Data Privacy Policies keeping in mind the scope of processing being conducted along with data retention requirements. We advise on the consent and notice requirements for processing of personal/ sensitive personal data. We create consent processes for collection of personal data from employees/ job applicants.

Data Protection in Contracts and External engagements: We conduct a firm-wide review of contracts and third party/ vendor engagements to ensure data protection. We also advise on the controls that third parties need to have in place whilst collecting personal/ sensitive personal data.

Data Privacy Training material: Corrida Legal provides curated training material on Data Privacy and Protection for Employees and Management/Team leads. Please reach out to us on contact@corridalegal.com for more information on our training materials.

Legal Data Privacy Audit: We conduct a firm-wide check on the resting and processing of personal/ sensitive personal data in order to ensure adherence with the applicable personal data laws. We advise on changes/ improvements to the data collection/storage process to ensure due compliance.

GDPR Compliance: We advise clients on ensuring compliance with GDPR aspects if they are processing data pertaining to GDPR countries. We advise clients on preparation and maintenance of Records of Processing and the Breach Notification Procedure, as mandated under GDPR.

Aadhaar compliance: We advise on Aadhaar collection and processing requirements including consent of the Aadhaar user, redaction of Aadhaar and maintenance of Aadhaar Data Vaults.

Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023: We use a two-pronged approach to ensure our client's readiness for the new law: (1) Data footprint assessment: Conducting a thorough check on the resting and processing of personal data through checklists and department-wise/management briefings. This step helps maintain a clear record of resting of personal data/ sensitive personal data. (2) Privacy policies and governance framework: We prepare the privacy policies, notices and consent drafts required for the processing of personal data. We also put in the controls and governance, as required for processing of personal data.

As a law firm, we are at the forefront of conducting workforce investigations, restructuring, and handling employee exits in an amicable manner. We understand that all these three aspects mostly lead to legal disputes in situations where the employees are not communicated with properly. So, our intention is not just to conduct a particular initiative for our client or to advise on the same, but to ensure that there is the least amount of legal exposure arising out of the same. Whilst in the instance of a dispute we ensure that each piece of evidence is reviewed and utilised to its fullest, we also ensure that each communication prior to initiation of a dispute is in an employee-friendly manner.

Corrida Legal provides end-to-end corporate law advisory, in addition to assisting on a range of commercial matters and providing contract drafting expertise to its clientele. We advise on complex transactions and day-to-day issues on compliance with the Companies Act, 2013 and other corporate & commercial laws. We are a client-focused law firm and are experts in understanding the commercial concerns in transactions. Further, employment & labour law is our core area of expertise and we assist our clients in keeping compliance with the existing and upcoming laws. We liaise with the labour authorities and the government on labour related enquiries and we regularly make representations to the ministries, including the Ministry of Labour and Employment.