Traditionally, law firms in India have operated in a largely self-regulated environment, governed by professional bodies like the Bar Council of India (BCI). They are rarely the subject of litigation themselves and typically feature in legal proceedings only as representatives of clients.
Consumer protection laws also generally do not apply to them and regulatory scrutiny is limited to instances of professional misconduct or procedural lapses like vexatious litigation.
However, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), 2023 changes this landscape significantly. Unlike most laws that target specific sectors, the DPDPA applies horizontally to any entity that processes personal data regardless of industry. Law firms, despite their traditional exemptions and protected status, will not be immune from this Act. As private entities that routinely handle large volumes of sensitive and legally privileged personal data - such as clients’ information for both litigious and non-litigious purposes including filing suits, providing legal advice and assisting in negotiations - law firms clearly fall within the scope of this legislation.
The DPDPA introduces not only compliance obligations, but also the risk of regulatory penalties and litigation in the event of data breaches or failure to uphold data protection standards. This law is not something that can be relegated to a firm’s IT team; it demands a cultural and operational shift involving all stakeholders, from partners to administrative staff.
The DPDPA introduces three primary actors - namely data fiduciary, data principal and data processors.
Law firms are going to be categorised as data fiduciaries because they primarily determine the means and purposes of processing of personal data. Based on the type of clientele, there are broadly two kinds of law firms:
Corporate clientele – Law firms dealing with corporate clients will, in all probability, handle low amounts of client personal data. For them, handling data of points of contact or other individuals belonging to such corporate clients should be done as per carefully spelt out data protection rights and duties in their engagement letters with their clients. Additionally, NDAs, retainership agreements or other contractual documents entered with the client must be reviewed from a privacy perspective.
Private clientele – Law firms practicing in areas such as civil, family law and criminal litigation will be directly interacting with individual clients and processing significant volumes of client’s personal data. The risk posed with respect to individual client data is more for them.
Nevertheless, any kind of law firm will be processing individual personal data of their own employees, retainers, consultants, people accessing their website etc, and this is sufficient to categorise them as data fiduciaries.
Finally, vendors who are engaged by the law firm on a third-party basis like end-to-end human resources (HR) management services will be characterised as data processors.
The DPDPA prescribes additional compliances for a class of data fiduciaries called ‘significant data fiduciaries’. Full-service law firms or multi-city-based law firms are likely to come under significant data fiduciaries by virtue of their high-volume personal data processing due to large clientele and high-volume workings in multiple courts, tribunals or regulatory bodies.
DPDPA imposes the following key obligations on law firms:
Notice and consent – Prior to collecting personal data of clients and employees, law firms must put in place consent mechanisms to obtain and record consent from the clients, retainers, employees, interns etc. For this, the firms must first identify all touchpoints where data is collected such as firm’s website, CCTV cameras inside office premises, candidate job application portals, biometric identification systems etc.
Notify Data Protection Board of instances of personal data breach - In the instance of any breach, law firms will be required to notify India’s data protection regulator and affected data principals of the personal data breach within specific timelines.
Rights of data principals – Law firms must establish policies to handle data principal requests such as erasure, nomination, access, or correction.
Reasonable security safeguards – Law firms must adopt basic safeguards such as encryption, access controls, logging and tools to detect unauthorised access, at the minimum.
Grievance officer – Law firms must set up mechanisms to address data principal grievances under the DPDPA. If classified as a Significant Data Fiduciary, they will be required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO), ideally at the CxO level, to orchestrate data governance in the firm. Many foreign law firms already have grievance handling persons and the same is disclosed in their privacy notices, accessible through their official website.
Data processor management – Law firms, as data fiduciaries, will be liable for the actions of third-party vendors providing services like cab rentals, catering and health insurance. Consequently, firms must review or establish contracts with these vendors to include necessary data protection clauses.
The HR departments in law firms are data-rich. They regularly receive resumes, academic qualification certificates, employee related details like salary details, POSH proceedings etc.
Most of the personal data processing in HR departments is for purposes related to employment. The DPDPA does provide exemption from obtaining consent from employment purposes under Sec. 7(i)–
“(i) for the purposes of employment or those related to safeguarding the employer from loss or liability, such as prevention of corporate espionage, maintenance of confidentiality of trade secrets, intellectual property, classified information or provision of any service or benefit sought by a Data Principal who is an employee.”
However, a reading of this Section would indicate that this exemption is applicable only to current employees and it excludes all processing which happens post-employment or pre-employment.
In some instances, where an employee or intern voluntarily emails their resumes to HR departments and the HR departments do not consider the application or take any action on the resume received through email, the DPDPA compliances will not kick in as DPDPA does not apply to personal data which is provided voluntarily by a data principal. But HR departments will need to be vigilant about data collected through designated online portals available on their websites, as in such a case, they can be said to be actively inviting applications unlike the former scenario wherein a candidate is voluntarily sharing their data.
Recently, the BCI amended the Rules for Registration of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2022, which opened the door - albeit in a controlled and reciprocal manner - for foreign law firms to practice in India. The practice area is restricted to non-litigious legal services in India, including corporate and transactional work as well as representation in international commercial arbitrations involving foreign or international law. While their physical presence is limited to 60 days within a 12-month period, this does not exempt them from India’s data protection regime. Under Section 3 of the DPDPA, any foreign entity offering services to individuals in India falls within the law’s extra-territorial scope. Moreover, data processing activities conducted at overseas offices even after their departure from India will continue to trigger the DPDPA’s applicability.
Compliance with GDPR or other international privacy regimes does not ensure compliance with the DPDPA. The Indian law adds distinct requirements, like consent notices in Indian languages and allowing data principals to nominate a representative. So, DPDPA goes a step further than what foreign law firms may be used to.
Globally, law firms have faced penalties for failing to protect personal data. Under the UK GDPR, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined some law firms approximately EUR 113,000 in 2022 and around EUR 70,000 in 2025. In both cases, cyberattacks exposed sensitive and privileged data, which later got leaked on the dark web. Investigations showed firms lacked basic safeguards like multi-factor authentication and monitoring. For Indian law firms, the lesson is simple: once the DPDPA takes effect, breaches of this kind could come at a heavy cost.
Several law firms in India have shown significant efforts in enhancing operational standards to ensure that client and partner data is handled safely. Several law firms have implemented standards like ISO 27001, which improves information security, risk management and compliance with regulations.
While the DPDPA introduces many compliances, if law firms conduct regular data audits and data processing impact assessments, they are at a much better standing in terms of DPDPA compliance. Since DPDPA will place legal accountability on law firms once enforced, this transitory phase is apt for law firms to consider undergoing DPDPA implementation.
Sudeshna Banerjee is a Partner at K&S Partners IP Attorneys and Aman Varma is Senior Manager – Legal and Regulatory Affairs at K&S Digiprotect Services, a sister concern company of K&S Partners.