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Akshaya Suresh

Partner

akshaya@cla-india.com

  • LinkedIn

Practices & Industries

Technology Laws

Mergers & Acquisitions 

Data Security & Privacy

Corporate & Commercial Contracts

Transactions 

Start-ups

Education

ILS Law College, Pune

Akshaya has more than 15 years of experience. She focuses on transactions, mergers & acquisitions, technology laws, privacy & data protection, corporate & commercial contracts, and IP. She is also a member of the POSH committees of various companies
 
In her previous role, she led the legal team at Freshworks and was a key member of the leadership there. She set up the legal team from scratch in a nascent start up environment and scaled the function to effectively manage go-to-market, M&A, capital raise, data privacy, compliance, contracts, IPR, litigation, governance & CSR. Prior to Freshworks she was with J Sagar Associates, a leading law firm in India.
 
Akshaya is an alumnus of ILS Law College, Pune. Akshaya has mentored many startups in setting up their legal and privacy functions and has presented at various industry events and forums like the Start-up Weekend, MCCI and IAPP.

Work Highlights

  • Acts as an outsourced legal counsel for several early-stage and growth companies, including Fyle, Chargebee, Facilio, Sprinto, Digiclarity, Prescinto, Effectiv, Zelthy and NextBillion AI. Advises on designing standard agreements, review and closure of global commercial agreements, general corporate, employment matters, pre-litigation strategies and privacy and data protection. 

  • Advised certain MNCs in connection with ‘other service provider’ (OSP) licensing requirements.

  • Advised MNCs and prominent Indian business houses on their stock option schemes (ESOPs), cash-settled stock appreciation rights (CSARs) and structured employee benefit schemes.

  • Advised a global company providing cloud-based logistics optimization solutions on becoming GDPR compliant.

  • Advised a global company providing cloud-based guidance and performance support for web applications on implementing a privacy framework for them, that can address privacy and data protection requirements in EU, US, and India.

  • Advised a global company providing billing platforms for subscription-based SaaS and eCommerce businesses on becoming CCPA compliant.

  • Advised on restructuring the holdco of a SaaS company from an Indian to an overseas entity in compliance with FEMA. This included setting up an overseas corporation, founder agreements and inter-corporate agreements.

  • Advised an up-and-coming video personalization platform on achieving compliance with global privacy and data protection laws.

  • Advised internationally renowned law firms on privacy and data protection regulations in India, including re: user behaviour analytics in India, operating search engines in India and setting cookies in compliance with Indian law.

  • Advised a key player in the telecom and SaaS space on their Data Retention Policy in India and employees’ privacy at the workplace.

  • Managing an exhaustive intellectual property portfolio of a large consumer-packaged goods company in southern India and assisting with various actions to protect their intellectual property assets.

  • Advised Chargebee on becoming compliant with regulations and notifications of Reserve Bank of India relating to payment systems and payment-related data. 

  • Advised Bizongo, a company providing a label designing platform for pharmaceutical companies, on enabling compliance with requirements under Part 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 regarding electronic records and electronic signatures. 

  • Advised a company providing electronic signature solutions on achieving compliance with global privacy and data protection laws. 

  • Advised TVS SCS on implementing a privacy framework that addresses privacy and data protection requirements in the EU and UK. 

  • Advised companies on the new EU Standard Contractual Clauses for international data transfers as well as updated guidance from EU data protection bodies regarding privacy and data protection laws. 

  • Advised Prescinto, an upcoming AI-powered for renewable energy designing standard agreements, review, and closure of global commercial agreements, general corporate, and employment matters. 

  • Advised a C-PaaS company on SAR requirements and applicability of telecom laws in India to their products

  • Advised a US Enterprise Customer Data Platform and issued a Transfer Impact Assessment (TIA) report on transfer of their customer data originating in the EU to their operations subsidiary in India

  • Regularly advises early to growth stage SaaS and PaaS companies on GDPR, CCPA and HIPAA compliance and drafts policies and agreements for the same.

  • Conducts training for staff on POSH and GDPR compliance

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