Legacy Law Offices

The firm: Legacy Law Offices is a professionally managed full-service Indian law firm with a global outlook. Legacy Law Offices was founded in 2006 when it initially commenced operations as proprietorship of its founding partner Mr Raman Anand, a 4th generation lawyer who possesses over 50 years of experience across various areas of practice.

Over the years, Legacy Law Offices has transformed itself into an institutional legal service provider with a head count of 70, a footprint of having successfully rendered high quality legal services in 24 states of India and at overseas locations such as United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Zanzibar etc.

The firm is currently led by its managing partner Gagan Anand, a fifth-generation lawyer with 25 years of corporate experience and who took over the reins of the firm in 2010. He is supported by four experienced partners and a number of senior associate advocates, associate advocates and of-counsels.

The firm has well-equipped offices in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar,  Solan and Kurukshetra in India and one representative office in the USA, United Kingdom and Mumbai. In addition, the firm has a network of associate offices at Shimla, Lucknow, Dehradun, Jaipur, Indore and Jabalpur in India and a project office at Nairobi in Kenya.

At New Delhi, the capital city of India, Legacy Law Offices has a major presence and operates from its ultra modern building “Legacy House” in the heart of South Delhi which contains the law office with facilities such as modern library, video conferencing room, arbitration hall, cafeteria etc. The head office of the law firm is in Chandigarh and we are the largest law firm based out of Chandigarh, the joint capital for the States of Punjab and Haryana.

The footprint of the law firm spans across a large number of infrastructure sectors, including roads and bridges, railways, transport terminals, civil aviation health, education, skills development, IT and ITES, rural infra, power transmission, urban infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, tourism etc. Legacy’s wide client base includes global consulting firms, multinational companies, developmental banks, commercial banks, over 100 construction companies, charitable organisations, small and medium enterprises and government agencies engaged in developmental initiatives.

The unique selling points of Legacy Law Offices include its market positioning as one of the largest full-service law firms operating out of Chandigarh, which is the joint capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana, besides being the gateway to the scenic hill state of Himachal Pradesh; and its market positioning as the Indian law firm with the widest footprint across a number of infrastructure sectors in over 24 states of India and abroad.

Areas of practice
Projects, infrastructure and energy laws: The Legacy team has been regularly rendering legal advice to regulators, government entities, project developers, investors and suppliers and contractors on diverse commercial / transactional issues. The firm possesses in depth experience of providing legal and advisory services for the development of infrastructure projects in the following sectors:

• Transport terminals
• Health
• Education
• Skills development
• IT & ITES
• Rural infra
• Power transmission
• Industrial infrastructure
• Sugar mills
• Railways / rapid transit systems
• Roads, highways and bridges
• Urban infrastructure – water and solid waste management

Legacy Law Offices has successfully rendered quality legal services including project structuring, preparing procurement documents, bid process management and providing support for contract management for over 500 projects in the PPP formats. The contribution of Legacy Law Offices for the redevelopment of five railway stations on the Indian Railways network in PPP mode, redevelopment of few cooperative sector sugar mills in PPP mode, development of hospitals in PPP mode, implementation of state-wide health insurance schemes in PPP mode, Urban Infra projects and the development of power transmission line packages in PPP mode, exhibit the versatility of sectors in which it has handled PPP assignments.

On a regular basis, our lawyers render services for the developmental projects initiated by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and various Ministries of the Government of India at the federal level, many of which are sponsored by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank etc. For the implementation of such projects, our lawyers work closely with the counterpart officials of the concerned State Governments across the length and breadth of the country. Legacy’s team has rendered its legal services for various prominent developmental initiatives in 24 States of India, which include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, besides Bangladesh, Kenya, Mongolia, Ghana, Zanzibar, Zambia etc. In addition to preparing a conducive regulatory framework, carrying out Legal Due Diligence of the applicable regulatory framework and rendering advice in relation thereto, our services for the Government Departments, Public Sector Undertakings etc include legal aspects of:

• Transaction advisory in a legally tenable and transparent manner;
• Bidding documentation which follows modern procurement practices and promotes competition;
• Bid process management which is above board and can withstand judicial scrutiny;
• Bid evaluation in a fair and transparent manner;
• Post award compliance advice with regard to the provisions of the project agreement; and
• Financial closure in terms of the provisions set forth in the project agreements.

Construction law: Legacy Law Offices is acclaimed as one of the most successful and seasoned infrastructure and construction law practices in India. The Legacy team possesses vast experience in rendering legal services for the development of infrastructure projects in a variety of sectors including highways, bridges, railways, transport terminals, ropeways, ports, civil aviation, power generation and transmission, health, education, skills development, bio technology, sports, urban infrastructure etc. The cumulative experience of our lawyers spans over 1,200 infrastructure projects which includes more than 500 projects in public private partnership (PPP) formats.

Mr Gagan Anand, managing partner was awarded the National Law Day Award by His Excellency, The Hon’ble Vice President of India for “his remarkable achievements and leadership in the practice of corporate law including immense contribution for the development of PPPs”.

More than 100 small, medium and large sized construction companies have retained Legacy Law Offices for advising them with regard to engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and build, operate and transfer (BOT) contracts. Our unique services for the private developers, concessionaires and construction companies include:

Contract management/ shadow filing service package (project specific or company specific):

• Overall care and conduct of the entire project correspondence, documentation etc since the receipt of Letter of Award till the end of the Defects Liability Period or Concession Period, as the case may be with the end objective of ensuring that the legal and financial rights of the client in respect a particular project are well protected.
• Scope of work typically covers rendering opinions, drafting and vetting of documents concerning the project.
• Scope of work typically covers client meetings in the law firm’s offices, but the fee for any meetings outside the law firm’s offices, appearance before Courts, Dispute Review Boards, Arbitral Tribunals etc is charged separately.

Pre-bid submission legal diligence package (project-specific or company-specific):

• Overall examination/ perusal/ review of bid/ tender vis-à-vis the qualification criteria specified by the bid/ tender inviting authority in the bid/ tender document.
• As a part of the legal due diligence exercise, the client would be advised to make corrections, amendments etc and/ or to include additional documents/ certificates etc, duly authenticated so as to meet with the qualification/ pre-qualification specified by the bid/ tender inviting authority.
• The end objective would be to ensure that the client meets the qualification/ pre-qualification criteria, the bid/ tender inviting authority finds it easy to evaluate the bid and that the client/ bidder gets technically qualified.
• As a part of this due diligence service package, we also provide assistance in drafting, preparing/ vetting etc of any replies and/ or any clarifications which may be required to be submitted to the bid/ tender inviting authority prior to taking decision regarding qualification of the bidders.

Contracts: Our lawyers possess in-depth expertise in all aspects of a variety of contracts. The cumulative work experience of our lawyers in the field of drafting, vetting and rendering legal advice regarding contracts spans over 150 years. A number of corporate houses, government departments and individuals frequently engage Legacy Law Offices for structuring and drafting complex and unique contracts, which no one else is able to do for them.

The following list indicates the variety of contracts prepared by our lawyers:

• Agreement to Sell
• Commercial Property Lease Agreements
• Concession Agreements
• Consortium Agreements
• Consultancy Agreements
• Direct Lenders Agreements
• Distribution Agreements
• Employment Contracts
• Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) Contracts
• Escrow Agreements
• Franchisee Agreements
• Joint Bidding Agreements
• Joint Development Agreements
• Joint Venture Agreements
• License Deeds
• Management Contracts
• Matrimonial Settlement Agreement
• Novation Agreements
• Operation & Maintenance Contracts
• Outsourcing Contracts
• Power Purchase Agreements
• Professional Services Agreements
• Project Site Lease Deeds
• Proprietary Information & Confidentiality Agreements
• Residential Lease Agreements
• Sale Deeds
• Settlement Agreements
• Share Purchase Agreements
• Shareholders Agreements
• Software License Agreements
• Substitution Agreements
• Supply Agreements
• Technical Collaboration Agreements
• Transmission Service Agreements

A substantial part of the work we do in the area of contracts pertains to the infrastructure and real estate segments. Legacy Law Offices is regarded as the market leader in the area of structuring and developing innovative contracts for infrastructure and real estate projects based on unique concepts, which ensure easy marketability of the projects while adequately safeguarding the legal rights of the developers.

Corporate law: Legacy Law Offices handles a broad range of corporate, commercial, taxation and intellectual property work for companies, trusts, funds, entrepreneurs and government departments. A significant part of the work carried out by the Legacy team is of an international nature and the team is experienced in acting for both Indian and International Clients at all levels. Clients increasingly rely on us to provide them with an international perspective in giving advice.

We assist a growing number of clients based in India and abroad in relation to their business and individual legal needs. The Legacy team is well experienced in advising on all aspects of corporate and financial structuring. To further enhance the services that we offer our clients, we have a highly skilled network of law firms around the world which work with us. It means our services have a truly global reach.

The Legacy team provides a responsive, flexible and cost-effective service of the highest professional standard.

We offer our clients a customized service by operating in Client Service Groups (CSGs) chosen according to a client’s business requirements and tailored to meet their individual needs. Each CSG is headed by a group manager and functions under the overall supervision of an appropriate partner.

Our lawyers combine legal expertise with an understanding of business which enables us to provide clients with innovative and effective legal solutions.

Communications, media and technology: The legacy team advises on the full range of issues that may face a company, including: corporate finance – M&A, joint ventures, privatization; outsourcing and facilities management; software and systems procurement; licensing, intellectual property and rights; dispute resolution; competition issues and compliance.

The areas in which we work are:

• Information technology
• e-commerce/ m-commerce
• Media
• Communications

Real estate: Our well experienced team regularly advises a number of real estate companies, developers, brokers and individual property purchasers with regard to a variety of real estate transactions. Legacy Law Offices is regarded as the market leader in the area of structuring and developing innovative contracts for real estate projects based on unique concepts, which ensure easy marketability of the projects while adequately safeguarding the legal rights of the developers.

We also conduct Legal Due Diligence in respect of lands and variety of real estate projects.

Legacy team extends a personal touch to the individual clients who are in the process of buying, selling or leasing any property and renders sound legal advice for ensuring that the commercial interests as well as the legal rights of the clients are well safeguarded. Individual clients who depend upon our reliable team of lawyers for assistance in accomplishing their property transactions, can rest in peace after leaving their worries to us.

Our lawyers possess rich experience of representing property purchasers and real estate developers before consumer courts and Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA).

Travel, tourism and hospitality law: Legacy team advises hotel owners, developers, private financiers, banks and many leading hotel operators on all aspects of their hotel projects. We pool our expertise in real estate, the environment, planning and construction, licensing, commercial contracts and employment to safeguard the interests of operators, owners and lenders by delivering successful deals.

We invest heavily in developing our hospitality sector know-how and legal training and disseminating our knowledge for the commercial benefit of our clients. Our offices will give you instant access to the skills and experience required by a growing and diversified business.

Internet law: Legacy covers a wide range of legal issues under the head of internet law including privacy, censorship and sale of goods on the Internet. We also give advice in following areas:

• Data protection
• Information technology law
• Privacy law
• Telecommunications law

Dispute resolution (litigation): In the traditional dispute resolution market dominated by individual advocates, wherein many clients lose their peace of mind upon being a victim of the “pay for senior counsel to see his junior appear before court” and “pay for a junior counsel to see his clerk appear before court” phenomenon, the professional dispute resolution team of Legacy Law Offices provides a pleasant alternative to the clients requiring services in the practice area of litigation and arbitration.

The dispute resolution practice of the law firm spans across a number of Arbitral Tribunals, the Supreme Court of India, High Courts of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal etc including a number of other Courts and Tribunals in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab. The dispute resolution team has been substantially augmented during the past few years and comprises of seasoned litigators having consistency in their approach towards the legal profession, who harbour compassion for the interests of clients and take pride while working as part of the larger Legacy team.

Dispute resolution (arbitration):

Arbitration, mediation and conciliation: The Legacy team has got a very successful practice in the area of alternate dispute resolution including arbitration, mediation and conciliation. Legacy Law Offices was awarded as the “Commercial Arbitration Law Firm of India”.

Our team of lawyers are prepared to cater to your unique needs including investment treaty arbitration involving media investments, energy projects or any other international investment disputes. International and national clients can expect high quality services from our competent lawyers in relation to arbitration matters concerning construction contracts, investment treaty, service delivery contracts, joint venture agreements, service and supply composite agreements etc.

The cumulative experience of our lawyers in relation to infrastructure projects related arbitration cases spans over 800 infrastructure projects related and other contracts having provisions for alternate dispute resolution. We regularly represent a large number of clients, particularly construction companies and infrastructure related government departments as their legal counsel before Dispute Resolution Boards and in arbitration proceedings concerning construction disputes. Our team of lawyers possesses the experience of having successfully represented clients in arbitration claims for a cumulative amount in excess of INR 75,000 crores (US$ 10bn).

Our managing partner Mr Gagan Anand has the distinction of having prepared and argued an Execution Petition in October, 1998 before the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in respect of the first conciliation settlement which took place in India under the provisions of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996. Each year he personally handles a few selected high stake arbitration proceedings generally involving contentious claims exceeding INR 100 crores (US$ 16m) per case. The Legacy team led by Mr Anand is credited with having obtained arbitration awards for a cumulative amount of over US$ 100m against the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in disputes emanating out of EPC and PPP mode highway construction contracts.

The Legacy team also possesses vast experience in handling related litigation proceedings under Sections 9, 11, 34, 37 etc of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996.

Whatever we do, we will constantly strive to achieve result beyond our clients’ expectations.

 Doing business in India: The Legacy team is experienced in advising on all aspects of doing business in India including establishing the place of business in India. It renders reliable legal services to foreign companies interested in doing business in India and the work of the law firm in this regard includes establishing subsidiary companies in India, project offices, branch offices, joint ventures, foreign collaborations, import-export transactions etc. The lawyers of the law firm also serve as directors on the board of the Indian subsidiary companies of foreign companies which are the clients of the law firm.

Insolvency law: Business can experience financial difficulties such as change in economic conditions, unforeseen events, simple mis-judgements or major mismanagement, leading to financial defaults and non performing assets (NPAs). We handle both recovery plans and formal insolvency work, combining our banking and regulatory expertise with specialist understanding of sectors such as civil construction, manufacturing, technology, communications and e-commerce. We also work closely with colleagues specializing in corporate, tax, employment, real estate, intellectual property and dispute resolution.

Our lawyers regularly provide advice and legal opinions to Resolution Professionals (RPs) and Committee of Creditors (CoC), besides representing various stakeholders including corporate debtors, financial debtors etc before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) benches situated at New Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kolkata etc.

Sports law: The firm represents an exemplar of the sporting fraternity including national level sports management organizations, sports personalities, sporting leagues and sports foundations. Our practice essentially covers aspects of legal advisory, contract management in establishing or implementing and sporting developmental projects including sports stadiums, recreational complex and educational academies. The firm also engages actively with the government and stakeholders in the sports community, as and when legal expertise or inputs are required. Our legal services in this regard encompass:

• Inputs and guidance for legal structuring including design, finance, contribution, operation and maintenance.
• Drafting and vetting Memorandum of Association, Rules and Regulations, Constitutional documents of concerned institution.
• Defining the rights of various categories of users, day to day operations, including strategic advice and professional inputs in legal matters.

Intellectual property: Our intellectual property practice covers all the facets of intellectual property such as copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, geographical indications and so on. Our law firm possesses rich experience of rendering legal services for the registration of copyrights, trademarks and patents. We also render legal assistance to those in whom intellectual property rights vest in order to safeguard their exclusive interests.

Labour and employment benefits: We provide the following services in the area of employment law:

We prepare HR manuals and provide standard policy documents for employers including disciplinary and grievance procedures, consultancy agreements, written terms of employment and employee handbooks.

We give advice on dismissals, industrial relations and collective issues, the protection of businesses through restrictive covenants and confidentiality.

We conduct contractual negotiations when an employer is looking to appoint or dismiss an employee.

We seek court remedies such as injunctions in order to protect a business.

We handle employee claims before various courts.

We handle the litigation arising from employment related issues, whilst also providing critical advice to clients on non-contentious in-house matters, with a view of avoiding court action in the future.

Employment benefits: In today’s competitive marketplace for human capital, executive compensation arrangements and employee benefit programs are indispensable tools for attracting and retaining first-rate talent. Our employee benefits team advises on all types of employee share scheme including employee stock option plans, hybrid employee benefit plans etc. We have advised a variety of companies on introducing innovative employee benefit schemes including Wealth Creation Policy.

We provide:

•  creative advice and tax-effective solutions.
• give clear guidance on the corporate and shareholder aspects of employee share incentives with a particular awareness of the views of institutional investors.
• schemes which best suit your employee culture and are compatible with any share incentive arrangements which your company already has in place.
• work closely with you at all stages in bringing an employee incentive scheme into your organisation, and will continue to assist you in post-implementation activities such as advising on ongoing reporting and other regulatory requirements.

Public procurement: Legacy Law Offices works extensively in the area of procurement laws and possesses a vast track record of advising a number of government departments, public sector undertakings and multilateral institutions, particularly in relation to procurement processes for a variety of the developmental projects including those developed under the aegis of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Ministries of the Government of India, State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana etc in India and Governments of few foreign countries. Our team of lawyers possess a track record of having handled and successfully accomplished a large number of public procurement processes for the aforesaid organizations amongst others, which led to the award of work and successful financial closure on a number of developmental projects across a variety of infrastructure sectors.

Our lawyers are widely recognized and acclaimed for :

• structuring of procurement/ bidding processes and designing bid evaluation criteria;
• preparation of model biding documents and contracts;
• preparation of innovative tailor made procurement documents including tenders, RFPs, EOIs, contracts etc;
• bid process management;
• independent evaluation of bids for public sector undertakings;
• role played as member of jury for the evaluation of presentations;
• dispute resolution including arbitration and litigation in relation to the procurement related disputes.

In the international sphere, our lawyers possess experience of having rendered legal advisory services in respect of procurement related regulatory frameworks in Mongolia, Kenya and Tanzania

Family law: The law firm provides excellent and much sought after legal services in relation to matrimonial counselling, divorce, maintenance, child custody, domestic violence cases etc. In the family law market dominated by independently practicing advocates, over the past few years Legacy Law Offices has emerged as the preferred institutional legal service provider.
The breakdown of a family relationship is often the most difficult period of the lives of all concerned and should be handled with great understanding.

At Legacy, we are able to talk you through the issues and options and help you to decide the best way of proceeding in your particular case. We deal with a whole range of clients from those without substantial assets to high-net-worth individuals with assets in different jurisdictions.

When you look for a lawyer, choose someone you have confidence in, and with whom you have a good rapport. After all, you are trusting this person with assisting you in making decisions which may affect the rest of your life and perhaps the lives of your children. To meet the aforesaid requirement of our clients, we have a number of lawyers at Legacy who are good and compassionate human beings.

At Legacy, we are conscious of the costs involved in instructing a lawyer and we will consider whether it is financially worthwhile for you to adopt a course of action at any given stage.

Criminal law: The firm has extensive experience in representing high profile and celebrity clients’ in criminal matters at pan India level across different courts, including Supreme Court of India, High Courts and District Courts.

The firm practices in the following areas of criminal litigation:

• White-collar crime
• Corporate fraud
• Defamation
• Prevention of Corruption Act
• Murder trials
• Narcotics and drugs violation