Most GCCs and foreign entrants get the incorporation right and then run for a year or two on whatever the setup consultant or global counsel handed over. That gap — no accountable India counsel post hand-over — is exactly where employment claims, POSH complaints, DPDP exposure, and transfer-pricing risk accumulate quietly.
Multinational & GCC Advisory
Lynx Legal Partners LLP is a Mumbai-based foreign investment and multinational corporate law practice. India now hosts roughly 2,100 Global Capability Centres — a majority Americas-headquartered — and it's the mid-market and PE-backed captives, not just the flagship names, that are growing fastest and need a legal partner who's actually reachable.
We work alongside the EOR/PEO providers and GCC-setup consultants who handle incorporation, and we're built for the moment they hand the entity over to you — when someone internally has to own employment contracts, POSH compliance, data protection, and transfer-pricing positions on an ongoing basis, not just at Day One.
A fixed-fee India-entry & compliance pack — covering entity structure sign-off, employment and POSH readiness, a DPDP gap-check, and a transfer-pricing/PE exposure check, priced upfront. Clients typically move into a standing GCC India-counsel retainer covering employment, contracts, DPDP, IP, and international tax — and, for those that scale, IPO-readiness advisory.
For a GCC or captive, almost always a wholly-owned subsidiary. A liaison office cannot earn revenue in India at all — it is limited to communication, market study and coordination, funded entirely by inward remittance. A branch office can trade but not manufacture, and is taxed as a foreign company at a materially higher rate than a domestic company. A private limited WOS is a separate legal entity, hires and contracts freely, and accesses the concessional corporate rate under s.115BAA. Both LO and BO need RBI or AD-bank approval under the FEMA establishment regulations. Corporate structuring.
Yes — in most sectors, including IT, software and business services, 100% FDI is permitted under the automatic route, with no prior government approval. Caps and conditions survive in a narrowing list: defence, insurance, print media, broadcasting and multi-brand retail among them. The trap is Press Note 3 (2020) — an investor from a country sharing a land border with India, or whose beneficial owner sits in one, needs government approval regardless of sector. Post-investment, FC-GPR must be filed within 30 days of allotment, and FEMA pricing guidelines apply.
Six things, almost every time. POSH: no Internal Committee constituted, no policy, no annual return. Employment: offer letters on a generic template with no IP assignment or confidentiality. Registrations: shops-and-establishment done for the registered office only, not for every state where staff actually sit. DPDP: nothing started. FEMA: FC-GPR filed, but the annual FLA return (due 15 July) missed. And the intercompany services agreement either doesn't exist or doesn't match the transfer-pricing position finance is filing. DPDP practice.
From the day you cross ten employees — not from first revenue. The POSH Act 2013 requires an Internal Committee with a woman Presiding Officer, at least two employee members and one external member from an NGO or association, women forming at least half. Contract staff, interns and consultants count; "workplace" extends to remote work and offsite travel. You also owe an annual return to the District Officer and a disclosure in the Board's Report. Maharashtra began active inspections in May 2026 under s.25, with a 31-point checklist and twelve categories of officials empowered to inspect.
A GCC is almost always a cost-plus service provider, and the fight is about the mark-up. Your CA owns the benchmarking study, Form 3CEB, Master File and CbCR — that is accounting work. What sits on the legal side: the intercompany services agreement actually matching the margin you file, permanent-establishment risk for the parent (secondment of expatriates is the usual trigger), safe-harbour versus APA strategy, and representation once an adjustment lands — DRP, ITAT and beyond. We work alongside your existing CA rather than replacing them. Tax advisory.
Materially less — but the structure matters more than the rate. We price defined work as a fixed fee agreed before we start, and ongoing India counsel as a fixed monthly retainer covering a named scope: employment and contract review, POSH and DPDP upkeep, the board and secretarial calendar, and a standing point of contact. That gives your finance team a predictable line item rather than an unpredictable hourly run-rate. Hourly billing is reserved for contested matters, where scope genuinely cannot be fixed in advance.
That is how most of these mandates run. Your global counsel cannot advise on Indian law — under the Advocates Act 1961 and Bar Council of India rules, foreign firms may address foreign law and international arbitration, but Indian-law advice must come from an Indian-enrolled advocate. So we act as your India-law arm: taking instructions from your GC or lead panel firm, drafting to your group templates and playbooks, and reporting in whatever format your board already reads. We are frequently the India leg on a matter someone else is running, and we are comfortable in that role. How we work with international clients.
Have a question that isn't here? Send it to us on WhatsApp — we answer scoping questions without a meeting.
Send us your entity structure and current HR/compliance status — we'll flag what's exposed, fixed-fee, same week.
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