Role Purpose:

To provide end-to-end legal support to the Facility Management Team across commercial contracting, estate management, dispute and litigation risk mitigation, and contract lifecycle management. The role will be responsible for drafting, reviewing, negotiating, implementing, monitoring, renewing, and closing facility-management and operational contracts, while ensuring legal compliance, effective risk allocation, and alignment with business and operational requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Facility Management Commercial Contracts & Estate Documentation:

- Draft, review, and negotiate facility management agreements, annual maintenance contracts, manpower and security services agreements, housekeeping, waste management, landscaping, parking, utilities, equipment maintenance, technology, and other operational service contracts.

- Review and advise on estate management matters, including common-area operations, access and usage rights, handover and takeover documentation, maintenance obligations, vendor deployment, asset protection, occupancy-related issues, and coordination with owners, occupants, associations, and service providers.

- Ensure contracts contain clear provisions on scope and service levels, performance standards, fees and payment, statutory compliance, insurance, indemnity, limitation of liability, confidentiality and data protection, audit rights, business continuity, termination, transition assistance, and dispute resolution.

2. Contract Review & Contract Lifecycle Management:

- Manage the contract lifecycle from intake, legal review and negotiation through approval, execution, storage, performance monitoring, amendment, renewal, expiry, termination, and post-termination obligations.

- Maintain and monitor contract repositories, obligation trackers, renewal calendars, deviation registers, and approval records, and provide timely alerts to relevant stakeholders.

- Develop and standardise templates, clauses, checklists, and negotiation playbooks for recurring facility-management and estate-management arrangements.

- Review procurement documents, requests for proposals, purchase or work orders, statements of work, service-level schedules, change orders, and related correspondence to ensure consistency with the principal contract and approved commercial terms.

3. Negotiation & Operational Legal Support:

- Lead or support commercial and legal negotiations with facility-management vendors, contractors, consultants, agencies, occupants, associations, and other counterparties.

- Provide pragmatic, solution-oriented legal advice on operational issues while safeguarding the organisation's legal and commercial interests.

- Support the Facility Management, procurement, finance, projects, security, IT, and business teams in vendor onboarding, deal structuring, approvals, implementation, and timely closure of contracts.

4. Legal Risk Mitigation & Compliance:

- Identify, assess, and mitigate contractual, operational, estate, regulatory, and litigation risks arising from facility-management activities and service-provider performance.

- Advise on compliance with applicable labour and employment requirements for deployed manpower, health and safety obligations, environmental and waste-management requirements, fire and life-safety norms, municipal permissions, licences, data protection, and other laws relevant to facility operations.

- Review and advise on insurance, indemnity, liability, warranties, service credits, penalties, audit rights, business continuity, suspension, termination, and exit-management provisions.

- Conduct periodic legal risk reviews and recommend preventive controls, documentation standards, and corrective actions to reduce claims, disputes, and operational exposure.

5. Dispute, Claims & Litigation Risk Management:

- Proactively manage disputes involving vendors, contractors, occupants, associations, property operations, service deficiencies, damages, recoveries, and contractual defaults, with emphasis on early resolution and litigation avoidance.

- Draft and review breach notices, cure notices, show-cause notices, settlement terms, termination notices, recovery communications, and responses to legal notices.

- Preserve evidence and maintain complete records of contracts, approvals, correspondence, performance reports, incident records, and other documents required for claims or proceedings.

- Coordinate with external counsel on litigation, arbitration, mediation, and regulatory proceedings; prepare case briefs, collate documents, monitor timelines, and implement legal strategy and outcomes.

6. Cross-functional Collaboration:

- Work closely with the Facility Management, procurement, finance, projects, security, IT, sustainability, and estate or asset management teams.

- Train and guide business stakeholders on contracting processes, key legal risks, documentation discipline, escalation protocols, and contract compliance.

- Prepare periodic status reports on contract reviews, execution, renewals, disputes, litigation, material deviations, and key legal risks for management review.

Key Skills & Competencies:

- Strong exposure to commercial contracts supporting facility management, property operations, and estate management.

- Excellent contract drafting, review, negotiation, legal research, and issue-spotting skills, with close attention to commercial terms and operational risks.

- Working knowledge of contract lifecycle management processes and systems, including repositories, obligation tracking, renewals, approvals, and reporting.

- Ability to anticipate disputes, preserve evidence, manage claims, and support litigation or arbitration strategy.

- Ability to provide practical, business-friendly legal advice in a fast-paced operational environment.

- High level of ownership, responsiveness, stakeholder management, and ability to manage multiple contracts and deadlines.

- Sound understanding of Indian contract law and laws relevant to real estate, facility operations, employment of deployed personnel, safety, environment, and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications & Experience:

- LL.B. from a recognised university; an LL.M. or relevant certification in contract management is desirable.

- 12+ years of relevant post-qualification experience in commercial contracts, facility management, estate or property operations, disputes, or litigation risk management, preferably with a corporate legal team, real estate or facility-management organisation, or law firm.

- Demonstrated experience in independently reviewing and negotiating complex service contracts and managing legal matters across the contract lifecycle.

- Practical exposure to dispute prevention, legal notices, claims management, coordination with external counsel, and litigation or arbitration support.

Preferred Experience:

- Prior in-house legal experience supporting integrated facility management, commercial real estate, business parks, malls, hospitality assets, or large multi-site operations.

- Experience with contract lifecycle management tools, legal trackers, digital repositories, and process standardisation.

- Exposure to estate-management matters, vendor claims, occupant or association disputes, regulatory inspections, and multi-city operations.