We at Lexygen have had our ears close to the ground with respect to the COVID-19 outbreak and its potential implications to our society and economy for a while now. We have recognized the grave threat it poses and have been committed to do our bit to mitigate its viral advance. On March 11, 2020, when the first couple of cases were reported in Bangalore, when there were not even any Government-imposed restrictions on crowded public places, we announced a MANDATORY “Work From Home” policy and placed a formal travel ban (international and domestic) on all Lexygenians till March 31, 2020 – being arguably, the first law firm in India to do so! We now continue with our third successive week of mandatory WFH.

While the above measures by us would certainly help in fighting the spread of COVID-19, we also recognize that this crisis is not merely about limiting the spread of a pandemic. Its adverse effects will likely run much deeper and longer than the eventual containment of the pandemic itself. We already see many instances of the adverse impact at work. Companies that, only a month ago, were clocking several millions of Rupees in revenue, suddenly face a ZERO revenue situation with no certainty as to how much longer this will continue. Migrant workers are fleeing urban centres in droves, fearful of lack of jobs. Companies that were in discussions for deals are suddenly finding the funding tap drying up on them. All these impacts are REAL and they are HERE already. We at Lexygen have had discussions about how we could contribute and add value, in our own small way, to help address this deep pain in the Indian ecosystem.

Accordingly, we are pleased and HONOURED to announce the “Lexygen COVID-19 India Recovery Pledge” (the “Pledge”), the details of which are below:

• Effective April 1, 2020 till June 30, 2020, Lexygen will offer, on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis, an aggregate of up to 100 hours of legal advisory time per month ABSOLUTELY FREE OF COST, to companies and entrepreneurs in India who are facing dire financial and business difficulty on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. We don’t necessarily want to limit this offer only to “startups”, but would rather, base it on trust wherein we would ask YOU to judge for yourselves whether you need this support. This offer will be available to just about everyone who genuinely needs this support (including our valued Lexygen clients), but on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis. We estimate the monetary value of our free advice offered under this Pledge at INR 20-23 lakhs per month (USD 28,000 to USD 32,000 per month), translating to INR 60-70 lakhs (USD 85,000 to USD 100,000) for the 3 months period.

• In order to ensure that our contributions have a broader impact and are not limited to a very few companies, we will spread the 100 hours across 20-30 companies/entrepreneurs per month.

• The broad areas of law on which we would provide advice under this Pledge would be corporate laws, FDI laws, material contracts, labour laws, startups-related issues, legal metrology issues, commercial disputes resolution strategy, and so on.

• We would be keeping confidential the names of the companies/entrepreneurs who avail of our advisory services under this Pledge, and would only share the details in a public forum if specifically authorized or allowed to do so by the parties in question.

• Whoever wishes to avail of our services under this Pledge may do so by sending us an email to info@lexygen.law. We will do our best to respond to all such emails within 2 business days.

• To generally streamline enquiries and requests under this Pledge, we may make and implement necessary rules at our absolute discretion. All decisions by us as to who we accept to provide advice to under this pledge, and who gets how many hours of free advice etc., shall be final. Further, we will be unable to entertain any requests under this Pledge to advise or act against any of our clients.

• We will require every company/entrepreneur to enter into a legally binding Terms of Engagement with us. Just to be clear, these Terms of Engagement WILL NOT contain any term requiring the company/entrepreneur to engage us for any future assignments or to pay us any fees at a later date. If we choose to advise you under this Pledge, the time given to you under the Pledge for that month will be absolutely free of cost.

• We take IMMENSE PRIDE in the quality of our work, and the same philosophy will apply to services provided by us under the Pledge. We will give you the same quality of work that we would extend to any full-paying client of ours. In fact, in order to most effectively enforce this quality assurance, we will give all Lexygenians contributing their time and expertise pursuant to this Pledge full billing credit for their time as if they had spent this time on a fully billable matter!

We urge all of you Indian companies/entrepreneurs out there who believe you need our help under this Pledge to write to us. We keenly look forward to serving you and hopefully, helping you to emerge stronger from this crisis!