Your own legal team on a fixed monthly retainer, from Rs 10,000 a month. Contracts, DPDP and GDPR compliance, POSH, fundraising documents, IP, legal notices, and dispute resolution, drafted and advised by Bar Council-enrolled advocates. Built for Indian startups, private limited companies, and growing businesses.
Share your stage, team size, and the legal workload you are dealing with. An advocate from our team will recommend the right tier and send a clear monthly proposal. No long-term lock-in, cancel anytime.
Every growing Indian company hits the same problem. The legal work, contracts, hiring, compliance, fundraising, the occasional dispute, becomes constant, but hiring a full-time in-house lawyer or a company secretary on payroll is expensive and premature. Paying a law firm by the hour for each task means unpredictable bills and a lawyer who has to be re-briefed every time.
A legal retainership solves this. For a fixed monthly fee starting at Rs 10,000, you get an advocate who knows your business on call: drafting and reviewing contracts, keeping you compliant with the DPDP Act and other regulations, handling POSH and employment documentation, supporting your fundraising, protecting your IP, and sending or replying to legal notices when a dispute arises.
My Legal Pal provides legal retainer services across India, for DPIIT-recognised startups, private limited companies, LLPs, and established businesses. One advocate-led team for your whole legal function, at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house. For global startups and cross-border companies, see our fractional general counsel and international retainer service.
These patterns are not unique to any one industry. They are what almost every growing company runs into.
A good in-house counsel in India costs Rs 12 to 30 lakh a year. For most startups and SMEs that is either unaffordable or hard to justify, even though steady legal support would be genuinely valuable. So the role goes unfilled and the risk quietly accumulates.
When you engage a lawyer per task, they need time to understand your business each time. For a company with frequent legal needs, that means paying for context-building over and over, and working with someone who never really knows your contracts, your cap table, or your history.
Without dedicated support, founders end up handling it themselves, hours lost to DPDP, POSH, contracts, and HR policies instead of building the business. Worse, things get missed, and a missed compliance deadline becomes a penalty.
A dedicated advocate who becomes part of your extended team, knows your business, and grows with you.
One point of contact who knows your business, your team, and your priorities.
Fast turnaround for urgent matters, 48 hours, 24 hours, or same-day by tier. No waiting in a queue.
Cumulative knowledge. Every conversation builds on the last, instead of starting from zero.
We flag risks before they become problems, with a compliance calendar for DPDP, POSH, and ROC deadlines.
A predictable legal budget from Rs 10,000 a month. No surprise invoices.
Direct access for urgent situations and real-time guidance when something lands.
The three ways a company buys legal support, and why a retainer fits most growing Indian businesses.
| Dimension | In-house counsel | Legal retainer | Hourly / per-task |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Rs 12 to 30 lakh a year | Fixed, from Rs 10,000/month | Unpredictable per matter |
| Response time | Immediate | Priority, by tier | Standard |
| Knows your business | Deeply | Yes, growing continuity | Fresh each time |
| Proactive monitoring | Yes | Yes, compliance calendar | No |
| Scalability | Fixed | Flexible, change anytime | Variable |
| Best for | Large, constant legal volume | Growing startups and SMEs | Occasional one-off needs |
For most startups and SMEs, the retainer is the middle ground: the continuity of in-house counsel, the flexibility of an external firm, and a cost you can plan around.
Three tiers, scaled to your stage, from Rs 10,000 a month. Every plan is advocate-led. Monthly, cancel anytime, no lock-in. Included documents and notices are per month and do not roll over; anything beyond your plan is handled with credits or quoted case by case. Prices are for legal advisory and drafting; government fees, stamp duty, and CA/CS filing fees are charged separately at actuals.
Not sure which tier fits? Tell us your workload and we will recommend one.
A retainer brings all of your recurring legal needs under one advocate-led team. Coverage scales with your tier, and spans the following.
The daily contract workload of a growing company: drafting and reviewing MSAs, service agreements, vendor and distributor contracts, NDAs, consultant and contractor agreements, and SaaS or subscription terms, with priority turnaround instead of a fresh quote each time.
Compliance is where Indian companies carry the most hidden risk. We keep you aligned with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP), GDPR where you serve EU users, and the mandatory POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) policy and committee that every company with 10 or more employees must have. Plus your terms of service, privacy policy, and cookie policy.
Board resolutions, minutes, statutory registers, and annual ROC filing coordination, delivered together with our company secretary partners so your corporate compliance stays clean. (CS and government filing fees are charged separately at actuals.)
The legal work a raise generates: founders’ agreements, SAFE and convertible notes, CCPS, term-sheet review and negotiation, shareholders agreements (SHA), share subscription agreements (SSA), ESOP documentation, and due-diligence support, handled by a team that already knows your company.
Trademark registration and prosecution, IP assignment from founders and contractors, copyright, and the IP clauses across your contracts, the clean IP position investors diligence.
Offer letters, employment and appointment agreements, contractor agreements, HR and workplace policies, employee handbooks, ESOP letters, and advisory on hiring, exits, and full-and-final settlements.
When a dispute lands, a legal notice to send or reply to, a recovery of dues matter, pre-litigation strategy, and negotiation, mediation, and arbitration support to keep matters out of court.
Past the free-template stage but far from needing an in-house lawyer. The Starter retainer gives you an advocate on call for the contracts, hires, DPDP compliance, and early fundraising that suddenly need to be done properly, from Rs 10,000 a month.
Post-raise, the legal volume jumps: customer contracts, a growing team, investor obligations, IP, and compliance. The Growth retainer is your outside legal team at a predictable cost the board can plan around.
Established Indian businesses that need steady legal and compliance coverage, contracts, employment, secretarial, and disputes, without the cost of a full in-house department.
Indian companies with EU or international customers who need GDPR alongside DPDP. We cover both, and for a genuinely global footprint, our fractional general counsel service extends across the US, UK, UAE, and APAC.
A legal retainership is an arrangement where, for a fixed monthly fee, an advocate or legal team provides ongoing legal support to your company, contracts, compliance, fundraising, IP, employment, and disputes, instead of billing you separately for each task. It gives predictable cost, priority access, and a lawyer who knows your business, without the expense of hiring in-house.
Our legal retainers are Rs 10,000 a month (Starter), Rs 25,000 (Growth), and Rs 50,000 (Corporate), scaled by the documents, notices, and compliance you need. The retainer covers legal advisory and drafting; government fees, stamp duty, and any CA or CS filing fees are charged separately at actuals. The point of the model is a predictable monthly cost you can plan around, far less than hourly work or an in-house hire.
For most companies below a large legal volume, yes, considerably. An in-house counsel in India costs roughly Rs 12 to 30 lakh a year in salary alone, plus benefits. A retainer gives you comparable coverage from Rs 10,000 a month, with the flexibility to scale up as you grow and bring legal in-house later when your volume justifies it.
Depending on your tier: DPDP Act compliance and privacy documentation, GDPR where you serve EU users, the mandatory POSH policy and committee for companies with 10 or more employees, platform terms and cookie policies, and secretarial and ROC compliance coordinated with our company secretary partners. We keep a compliance calendar so deadlines are met before they become penalties.
Yes. On the Growth and Corporate tiers we handle the legal side of a raise: founders’ agreements, SAFE and convertible notes, term-sheet review, shareholders and share subscription agreements, ESOP documentation, and due-diligence support, so you go into a raise with clean paperwork investors expect.
Yes. Retainers are monthly with no long-term lock-in. Scale up a tier as you grow, scope down in a quiet quarter, or cancel anytime. The model is meant to flex with your business.
The monthly fee covers legal advisory, drafting, and review. Charged separately at actuals: government and statutory fees, stamp duty, trademark and ROC filing fees, and any company secretary or chartered accountant charges for filings we coordinate on your behalf. We always tell you these in advance, no surprises.
Bundled in your retainer, or available individually.
MSAs, service, vendor, employment agreements.
Data compliance, privacy, and cookie policies.
Protect your brand and IP.
Send or reply, recovery and disputes.
Negotiation, mediation, arbitration support.
Cross-border retainer for global startups.
This service is led by Prakhar Rai, an advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of India and the founder of My Legal Pal. An alumnus of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, with a Master of Business Laws, Prakhar has 10+ years advising startups, private limited companies, and entrepreneurs on contracts, compliance, fundraising, and corporate matters. Retainer clients work with qualified advocates who understand Indian company law, the DPDP Act, and the day-to-day legal needs of a growing business.
Reviewed by Prakhar Rai, Advocate (Bar Council of India). Last updated: July 2026.
Contracts, DPDP and GDPR compliance, POSH, fundraising, IP, and disputes, advocate-led, on a fixed monthly retainer. Built for Indian startups and companies. Cancel anytime.
Government and CA/CS filing fees excluded · +91 8004800100
