Archana Balasubramanian

Archana BalasubramanianPartner

“India Business Law Journal” as one of India’s top lawyers and a member of the prestigious A-List for 2022-23.

Archana is the Founding Partner of Agama Law Associates (“Agama”).

Archana, has versatile experience of over 13 years wherein she has gained immense tactical transactional understanding as well as significant industry expertise across diverse sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, media, pharmaceuticals, financial services, shipping, real estate, technology, engineering, infrastructure and health.

Archana is driven by the philosophy that the growth of her clients is fundamental for her firm’s growth. Clients commend Archana for her result-oriented approach and ability to grasp the commercial impact of legal concerns to advise in the most pragmatic manner as a business partner. She wears the hat of a generalist and approaches agreements with the disputes experience gained over the years.

Presently, Archana is catering through Agama to Listed / Unlisted enterprises, mid-sized firms and also Start-Ups. Archana advises her clients across a whole gamut of transactions essential for the functioning of any organisation in the economic-legal environment. She has successfully advised organisations in relation to standardization and negotiation of documents, statutory compliance advisory including employment advisory, corporate advisory, advice on compliance with Companies Act, foreign exchange laws as well as SEBI laws.

Archana has recently advised several logistics companies – global as well as Indian listed entities, in running and managing their existing contracts, creating templates for new business verticals and structuring transactions with clients and vendors. Archana has also been instrumental and continues to develop retail expansion strategies for her clients in healthcare and apparels sectors along with End-to-end documentation and diligence support on a pan-India basis.

She also advises clients on dispute strategy and actively provides pre-dispute advisory services for commercial litigation before various courts and tribunals. Archana and team have been instrumental in recovering and defending over INR 150 Crores for clients in the past few years. Archana has also been key in handling sensitive arbitrations related to data privacy laws in India as well as several shareholder / joint venture disputes that were successfully resolved.

Archana is strongly focused on commercial documentation. Archana has developed a highly streamlined diligence and documentation process for enterprises and has been instrumental in assisting clients save substantial costs and resources.

For Start-Ups, Archana believes that her process driven approach is quintessential for good legal health of businesses right from the initial stages. Archana provides End-to-end advisory for start-ups including on how to receive investments, structuring of business relationships with clients as well as vendors. She has advised various e-commerce entities – marketplace, sellers as well as service delivery partners in various sectors and ISPs– on their online contracts, terms of use and privacy obligations. Archana and team have also concluded an acquisition of health-tech and fin-tech start-ups through innovative deal structures leveraging maximum benefits for promoters in such deals.

Archana routinely contributes her views and opinions to various publications including the Business Manager HR. She has authored articles on various topics and issues, including disputes, insider trading regulations, corporate social responsibility and prevention of money laundering.

Archana has recently been recognised by “India Business Law Journal” as one of India’s top lawyers and a member of the prestigious A-List for 2022-23, given “Women in Law 2022” award for Corporate Law, by Legal Era “India Rising Star” Award (2021) by Asian Legal Business. Archana was previously identified as one of “The 30 Influential Business Leaders in 2017” by Insights Success Magazine. Archana was shortlisted for “Women Lawyer of the Year” by ALB India Law Awards 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Archana completed her B.L.S, LL.B from Government Law College, Mumbai in 2006. She is a member of the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa and is a qualified non-practicing company secretary.