New Delhi / Bengaluru — Madhu Damodaran has joined Singhania & Partners LLP as Partner in its Employment & Labour practice. His appointment significantly deepens the firm's bench at a moment when India's consolidated Labour Codes in force since November 2025, together with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the DPDP Rules 2025, are reshaping the regulatory landscape for employers managing large Indian workforces.
Mr Damodaran brings over 25 years of experience in employment law, industrial relations and labour compliance, combining legal practice with operational leadership of compliance functions at significant scale. His prior roles include Group Legal and Compliance Head at Quess Corp Limited, one of India's largest private-sector employers; founder and shareholder of Simpliance.in, India's first digital labour law compliance platform; Director and Business Head of CoAchieve India; Director of Operations, APAC Employee Services, at Convergys, where he led compliance for tens of thousands of MNC employees across more than 30 Asian countries; and Senior Vice President at TeamLease, which he joined as a founder employee. He began his leadership journey in 1999 as Head of Legal and Company Secretary at Volvo India, holding the dual role of India legal head and Corporate Secretary.
He is a qualified Company Secretary and holds an LLB. He will be based in the firm's Bengaluru office.
Alongside his legal practice, Mr Damodaran holds a number of senior honorary positions, including as a Member of the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), nominated as Employer Trustee by the Employers' Federation of India. He has represented India at the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva over three years as an Employer Delegate Advisor on the Government of India delegation, and contributes to Tripartite Consultations convened by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. He is a Member of the National Industrial Relations Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Member of the CII Karnataka State Council, Co-Convener of the CII Karnataka State IR Panel, Member of the Executive Committee of the Employers' Federation of India, and Member of the National Regulatory Affairs Committee of the India Staffing Federation.
The firm's Employment & Labour practice acts for a portfolio that spans major staffing and workforce solutions providers as well as multinational technology, financial services, analytics and engineering employers with very substantial India workforces including global groups with Indian headcounts in excess of 10,000, and multinationals in the firm's pipeline that are establishing large India hubs across office footprints of over 100,000 square feet. Managing employee data at this scale increasingly intersects with India's data protection regime: the DPDP Act 2023 and the DPDP Rules 2025 impose significant obligations on employers around the collection, processing and cross-border transfer of HR, payroll and biometric employee data. The Employment & Labour practice works closely with the firm's Data Protection & Privacy team led by Dipak Rao, Shilpa Shah, Jivesh Chandrayan and Sonil Singhania, to deliver integrated advice to employers navigating both regimes.
Commenting on the appointment, Ravi Singhania, Managing Partner, said:
"Madhu's arrival comes at a defining moment for employers in India. The Labour Codes are now in force, subordinate rules continue to be notified, and the compliance architecture under EPFO and the social security framework is being recalibrated. With the DPDP regime now bringing employee data squarely into scope, employers managing large Indian workforces are navigating two simultaneous regulatory transitions. Very few practitioners in the country combine Madhu's operational experience of running compliance at the scale of Quess Corp with the entrepreneurial perspective he brought to Simpliance. His arrival meaningfully strengthens what we can offer to multinational employers operating in India, and we are delighted to welcome him to the partnership."
Speaking on his appointment, Madhu Damodaran, said:
Singhania & Partners has built, over many years, exactly the kind of employment practice I was looking for — one that combines rigorous legal advice with a deep understanding of how large, complex organisations actually work. The firm's MNC client base, and in particular its relationships with global groups managing very substantial India headcounts, align closely with what I bring: having run compliance at scale, I know that the gap between regulatory intent and operational reality is where most employers encounter their greatest exposure. We are at a genuinely consequential inflection point — the Labour Codes are in force, their subordinate framework continues to take shape, and the DPDP regime is simultaneously bringing employee data obligations into sharp focus. The convergence of these two transitions creates both complexity and opportunity. I hope to contribute from Bengaluru, which is increasingly a hub of Technology Services Business of real scale by translating my experience at the intersection of law, policy and operations into advice that clients can act on with confidence."
Mr Damodaran joins partners Jivesh Chandrayan, Dipak Rao and Gunjan Gupta in leading the firm's Employment & Labour practice.
Partners Vikas Goel and Abhishek Kumar lead the firm's employment disputes and contentious workforce matters. The practice was named Award-winning firm for 2025 in Labour & Employment in the India Business Law Journal A-List Icons 2026, and is ranked in Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2025 and Asialaw 2025.