Alliance Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law (ACCL) under School of Law, in collaboration with Office of Career Advancement and Networking (CAN), Alliance University organized a one-day workshop on "Legal and Regulatory Requirements on Designing Start-Ups". This workshop was created to enhance the knowledge and skills of students around legal landscape in the start-up ecosystem. It was a great way for students to get hands-on skills on various legal aspects of start-ups.

The workshop started off with the Dean of Alliance School of Law, Dr. Kiran Dennis Gardner, giving an opening speech. She shared views from her years of experience and deep insights with just a few profound words. Later, Dr. Shyam Kishore, Associate Dean, Alliance School of Law, shared his experiences as a member of the legal profession in the corporate sector, where he mentioned how the application of law is intertwined with other business functions. To quote his words, "This is an area with immense potential" made the students much more confident in their decisions towards corporate world and start-ups. Finally, Dr. Rashmi K.S., Associate Professor at Alliance School of Law introduced students to the workshop objectives and introduced the guest of honor, Ms. Smitha Chandrashekar, Legal Director, HARMAN International, quoting her achievements and success in the corporate world.

In the first session of the workshop, Ms. Smitha Chandrashekar shared her insights on legal and regulatory requirements on designing start-ups. She spoke about her "humble beginnings" and about how a lawyer must embrace and prepare for any sector they join for a job. She guided students and asked them to attain the very important skill of "analyzing risks". Further, she explained the funding process followed in start-ups in India. She gave a fair idea of equity funding and debt funding, followed by details of funding from angel investors and venture capitalists. At the end, she answered a plethora of questions and doubts that students had.

The next session was by Adv. Gaurav Sahay, Partner at Link Legal Midway. He spoke about investments in general and lined up his perspectives on the same. Further, he discussed the importance of lawyers in setting up a start-up with legal and affiliated validations. He also spoke about the concept of due diligence, valuation report, GST and most importantly the Non-Disclosure, Non-Solicitation and Non-Compete agreements. He offered crucial guidance on how to approach and conduct oneself in the corporate world with "courtesy". He also gave time for a thorough Q&A to the students, and he ended his session with his humble and life-advice “to be patient". He said success comes to those who are patient.

The workshop ended, with many students coming closer to their dream of becoming a corporate lawyer or becoming an entrepreneur. It was an exceptionally good learning experience as the speakers covered practical and legal aspects of start-ups, the role of lawyers in relation to the business world, political affairs, and legal ethics.