About The Author

Professional Background:

Kalpana Muthireddi is a dual licensed business lawyer with a good understanding of business needs. The material in this book is based on her experience as a lawyer and corporate in-house counsel. She currently provides legal advice and support to start-ups and small & medium businesses.

Licensed to practice in India and US (New York Bar), with educational qualifications and experience from India and US, she is a technology, commercial and outsourcing  transactions attorney, with experience handling legal matters in emerging and cutting edge technologies viz., Blockchain, cloud computing (XaaS agreements) & other IT space enterprises and Biotechnology.  

An alumnus of premier institutes such as the Vanderbilt Law School, USA (LL.M - Dean’s List); and the National Law School of India University (M.B.L); she was also the alternate candidate for the Fulbright Scholarship.

With experience in successfully working with cross-functional teams and customers worldwide in a global matrix environment, her forte is providing sound and practical legal advice and maximizing business potential while minimizing contractual risk.

She started her career as a litigating attorney and has practised at the trial and high courts of Karnataka, before joining in-house. She was a senior in-house counsel with several Fortune 150 and Fortune 500 corporations including leading IT service provider, Wipro limited for several years where she handled business to the tune of around 1.2 Bn USD annually  before setting up her practice.

As the first in-house lawyer for cloud computing contracts (as early as 2010-11) at Wipro, Kalpana advised the cloud computing services group at Wipro, (later named the “Integrated Cloud Group”), in addition to other high value, high volume agreements for other verticals and service lines.

Her work with emerging technologies extended beyond cloud computing agreements to other areas.  In the US, she worked with a biotech company working on adult stem-cell based therapies and her current work includes block-chain and related technologies.

She is the author of – “LEGALESE Decoded – Tips and Strategies To Make Sense of Legal Concepts in The Business World” [https://www.amazon.in/Legalese-Decoded-Strategies-Concepts-Business-ebook/dp/B094Y2B3HR].  published in 2021.
She has also co-authored a book on blockchain, titled - “Glocal Policy and Strategies for Blockchain: Building Ecosystems and Sustainability” - a peer reviewed book published in May 2023 by IGI Global. [ https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/blockchain/323222]

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Areas of Expertise

She advises organizations, (start-ups, small and medium industries and MNCs) on legal, contract and compliance matters. Her office is also equipped to provide outsourced legal services and high level support to large corporations and MNCs as an outsourced general counsel/ legal counsel which include, among others:

1. Interim legal support to in-house legal teams on  time bound and project basis;

2. Legal support while a corporation is looking to hire the right candidate(to the level of an Associate General Counsel);

3. Guide and create an in-house law department for smaller organizations in order to make them self-sufficient to handle contracts, compliances and business advisory services.

4. Other legal advisory and consulting services including structuring and negotiating contracts.

This aspect of her practices focuses on providing legal services to large corporations and MNCs as an outsourced general counsel/ consultant on a project or contract basis to provide continuous help with projects for a set period of time. The work is handled either as a stand-alone project or as an on-going requirement, such as consistent support with contracts, compliance and legal advice on a continuous regular basis for a given period of time.  

Standalone projects include contract review and negotiations/ deal structuring/ creation of customised negotiation and contract handbook/ support the in-house team to handle excess work flow or any other requirement that is handled as a one and done requirement.

On-going projects include creating a law department for a company (start-ups and small entities), and putting the processes in place/ Training/ development of compliance and regulatory norms and policy development. These are long term projects running into several months or a year depending on the requirement.

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Prior Experience

Besides, extensive in- house & law firm experience working with Fortune companies and market leaders, she has substantial experience advising on legal and compliance matters,  structuring, reviewing and negotiating complex, high-value technology, outsourcing & commercial transactions. She advised the cloud computing services group at Wipro, the “Integrated Cloud Group” as their first in-house lawyer for cloud computing contracts. 

She successfully handled both outbound/revenue and inbound/procurement contracts, for US, Canada, UK, EU and other regions, including technology and commercial transactions across domains as diverse as aerospace, biotechnology, cloud computing, supply chain, outsourcing, IT, real estate and commercial contracts among others.

She has experience managing, mentoring and leading teams, managing outside counsel, creating playbooks, refining contract templates, advising business and technical teams on legal policies, contracts, and compliances.  

As legal counsel for businesses, she counseled and conducted contract and general legal awareness sessions for the in-house business and delivery teams; contracts compliance audits and interacted with internal risk-audit teams on risk assessment and mitigation. She supported and implemented legal initiatives such as contract risk awareness sessions among the business and technical teams. Was part of the “Women in Leadership Program” at Wipro, a mentoring program for women employees with potential for senior leadership roles.

Multi–cultural and multi-lingual; she is a good presenter, and has successfully presented several webinars, in-house presentations and was a speaker at the ITech Law 9th International Asian Conference (Bangalore, Feb ‘13).  For more information, you may contact her at legalese.decoded@gmail.com | +91-991-608-7424 | or visit  www.legalesedecoded.com|  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalpanamuthireddi/

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