Last year, when the pandemic hit India and a national lockdown was announced, we at Lexygen were one of the very first Indian law firms to do our bit for the alleviation of stark difficulties caused to Indian businesses, by announcing our Lexygen COVID Pledge, under which, over a period of 3 months, we donated approximately USD 70,000/ INR 50 lakhs worth of top-quality legal advice to a mix of startups and later-stage Indian businesses, that were helped a lot by the timeliness and strategic utility of our advice when they were facing much financial pain.

While our whole nation was hoping for a quick recovery from the pandemic in 2021, we have all been hit instead with a second wave of the pandemic that has been more virulent, and far more fatal than the first. While we as a nation grapple with the deep emotional damage caused by the innumerable deaths of friends, family and dear ones, this second wave also direly threatens India’s economic progress, which would even more massively dent our already hurting society. In our view, it is important to protect from the pandemic the fragile sections of our entrepreneurial ecosystem, as they are not just value-creators, but also job-creators.

Therefore, after much discussion, we at Lexygen are pleased and HONOURED to present the Lexygen COVID Pledge 2.0! We all agreed that given the circumstances, we should substantially increase from last year the amount of free legal advice that we’d provide. Below are the key features of the Lexygen COVID Pledge 2.0:

1. For a period of 3 months, from May 17, 2021 till August 16, 2021, Lexygen will offer, on a ‘first-come, first-served’ basis, an aggregate of up to USD 150,000/ INR 1.10 crores’ worth of legal advice FREE OF COST, to the following categories of entities/persons (“Service Recipients”) who seek our help:

• Any and all Indian startups are welcome as Service Recipients. However, startups that are engaged in healthcare/health-tech businesses with a strong COVID-related focus would be given priority.

• Legitimate not-for-profit organizations that are undertaking or plan to undertake high-impact work in any of the areas relating to COVID-relief – access to hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen etc., rehabilitation of COVID-ravaged families are good examples.

• Special funds that are being set up to raise structured capital for research & development, for direct sourcing of vaccines etc. and other similar COVID-related initiatives.

• Any other entities/persons as we may determine in our discretion.

2. In order to ensure that the Lexygen COVID Pledge 2.0 has a broader impact, we will spread the USD 50,000/INR 36 lakhs per month worth of free legal advice across 20-25 Service Recipients per month. We may at our discretion, increase or reduce this allocation to maximize impact.

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

4. 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 2-3 business days.

5. To generally streamline enquiries and requests under this Pledge, we may make and implement necessary rules at our absolute discretion.

6. We will keep confidential and not make any announcements of the names of any Service Recipients who avail of our services and advice under this Pledge, unless they specifically agree to allow us to do so.

7. An integral part of our Pledge is that we will strive to deliver the same very high “Lexygen Quality” work to Service Recipients under this Pledge as we provide to our paying clients!

8. Lastly, and very importantly, we are well aware of, and sensitive to, the added workload and stress that our undertaking of the Lexygen COVID Pledge 2.0 places on all Lexygenians in these already busy times. To help alleviate this, 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 all such time on a fully billable matter!

We urge all of you eligible Service Recipients out there who believe you need our help under this Pledge to write to us (info@lexygen.law). We keenly look forward to serving you and hopefully, helping you to emerge stronger from this situation! Thank you!