Legal & Compliance for Business
Businesses rarely fail legally for one big reason. They accumulate small ones.
A business that works for two people and twelve customers stops working the same way at twenty people and two hundred customers, but the paperwork often stays at the first stage. This session describes the common gaps in general terms so you can check your own business for them. It is general information for awareness, not legal advice. Whether any of these is a problem for you is a question for a qualified lawyer or chartered accountant.
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Growth makes small gaps expensive.
In the first year, one person knows what was agreed with everybody. By the third, nobody does. Staff have joined, customers have multiplied, a partner has put in more than anyone remembers, and the brand carries real value.
Most of the mistakes in this session are not exotic. They are the ordinary things that are easy to defer and hard to repair, such as a partner who joined on a handshake or a logo whose designer was never asked to assign the rights.
This session is general information for awareness, not legal advice. Treat each point as a question to check, not a finding about your business.
What the session covers
34 topics across 7 areas. Seven areas where gaps commonly appear. 6 apply to almost any business; the rest only in a particular case.
Partners and Co-Founders on a HandshakeThe most common source of serious disputes.5
Hypothetical example: three friends start a design studio and agree equal shares verbally. After two years one has moved to another city and does little, but still expects an equal share. A made-up case showing why a conversation at the start helps.
- No written record of who owns what share or what each person will do
- No arrangement for what happens if somebody leaves or stops contributing
- A partnership with no stated duration, which is treated as a partnership at will and can be dissolved by any partner giving written notice to the others
- An unregistered partnership firm, which faces limits on suing third parties to enforce contract rights under Section 69 of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932. Registration is voluntary, but it has consequences
- Taking capital or loans from family and friends without writing down the terms
Deals and Orders Nobody Wrote DownValid in principle, hard to prove.5
- Customer orders accepted by phone with no confirmation
- Verbal price changes, scope changes and extensions
- Large orders from a new customer with no advance or written terms
- Contracts signed without being read, especially a larger company's standard form
- No central place where agreements are kept
People Without PaperworkInformal arrangements that stop working at scale.5
- Employees working without appointment letters, when India's four labour codes, in force since 21 November 2025, make appointment letters mandatory for workers
- No clear record of pay, hours and leave
- Calling someone a contractor or consultant without checking whether the arrangement is really that
- No written confidentiality terms for people who know your customers and prices
- No process for exits: final dues, return of property, handover
A Brand You May Not OwnValuable, and rarely checked.5
- Choosing a name and logo without searching whether someone else already uses a similar one
- A company or LLP name approved by the government is not the same as owning a trademark
- A logo, website or software made by a freelancer or agency with no written assignment of rights
- A domain name or social accounts registered in an individual's personal name
- Using the registered-trademark symbol before the mark is actually registered, which the Trade Marks Act, 1999 treats as a punishable offence
Filings, Registrations and NoticesQuiet failures that compound.5
- Companies and LLPs have annual filings with the Registrar of Companies, and missing them can attract additional fees and consequences
- A shop, business or establishment registration under state law not obtained or not renewed, where it applies
- GST and tax filings left entirely to someone else with no checking
- Notices from authorities or lawyers ignored, mislaid or left with a junior employee
- No compliance calendar
Money Mixed UpIf it appliesWhere personal and business risk meet.4
- Business and personal money in the same accounts
- Personal guarantees given for business loans without understanding what they mean
- Founders' loans to the business with no paperwork
- A structure that no longer fits the size of the risk, such as a proprietorship carrying large contracts
Deciding What to Fix FirstA practical order.5
- Anything involving ownership or large sums comes first
- Then anything with a deadline or a penalty
- Then anything where one person's memory is the only record
- Then the housekeeping that makes the rest cheaper
- Booking time with the right professional, rather than trying to fix everything alone
Questions to take to your lawyer or CA
- Does our structure still fit the size and risk of what we do?
- Which agreements with partners, customers and staff should we put in writing first?
- Do we own our name, logo, website and software, and can we prove it?
- Which annual filings and registrations apply to us, and are we current?
- Which of our current arrangements are most likely to cause a dispute?
A quick gaps check
- Is there a written record of who owns what share?
- Does everyone who works for us have a written appointment letter?
- Are our biggest customer and supplier arrangements in writing?
- Who owns our brand, domain and website, on paper?
- Is there a calendar of filings, and a name against each?
How the session runs
The facilitator describes each gap through a made-up business, then asks participants to mark which apply to theirs. Gaps are ranked together, and each participant leaves with a short list of what to raise with their own professional. The session gives general information, not legal advice. It does not discuss real businesses, and nothing said should be taken as a finding about anybody's circumstances. Who leads it and who answers questions is agreed with the host in advance.
What your students leave with
- A list of common legal gaps in growing businesses, to check their own against
- An understanding of why informal arrangements between partners and with customers become harder to manage as the business grows
- A general sense of the consequences of missing appointment letters, filings and ownership paperwork
- A way to rank the gaps worth closing first
- Awareness of when a structure that suited the early stage may no longer fit
- A short list of questions for their own professional
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Growth makes small gaps expensive.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.