Madhu Damodaran has joined Singhania & Partners LLP as a Partner in Employment & Labour practice at the firm's Bengaluru office.
Damodaran is a 1990 graduate of Bharathiar University. He is a member of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
Damodaran has 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.
Alongside his legal practice, 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 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.
Prior to joining Singhania & Partners, Damodaran was the Regional Managing Partner at AMLEGALS.
Damodaran's appointment significantly deepens the Sighania & Partners' bench at a moment when India’s consolidated Labour Codes is in force since November 2025, together with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and the DPDP Rules 2025.
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, 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."
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