It’s been two years since I joined a T1 and I have come to realise that these places are a repository of medicore people who will probably not survive outside for a hot second. I say this because seldom do great things happen when people around you or you yourself for that matter are self absorbed and find joy one upping your peers over petty stuff.
Most lawyers in tier 1s (irrespective of practice area) are glorified clerks who probably will do great as a PA because they write great mails. Their law is below average because there is no push to do better. The system thrives on fear and not on bettering or anything. Because if they don’t make you fear then you’ll leave them. They thrive on killing your confidence so that you come to think that’s it’s safer to stay than to try anything new.
There is a reason perhaps why none of the toppers each year from top law schools will literally choose anything else over law firms. Anyone who has stayed here beyond a few years will be medicore and be happy over perhaps winning some Lex Lehsun award (which they in all probability paid for).
To add more context, here’s the law firm play book -
- attract naive college kids with a 1 lakh package - sounds a lot but when you start living on your own in big cities, you realise it’s not a that much.
- dazzle them with fancy offices, idea of prestige of working at a big brand, working with big companies etc but make them to do clerical work so their exit opportunities are hampered
- create a sense of fear and create a competitive environment where everyone is competing for limited spots and now colleagues won’t hesitate to backstab each other
- tell them how there is serious competition in the market where everyone is undercutting each other fees so they have to work harder (read: work till 4am in the morning and say bye bye to weekends)
- make them work late nights for such long periods, they are now in sleep deprivation mode where their cognitive ability to take rational balanced decisions slowly fades away and they are okay indulging in petty office activities
- make them so tired and exhausted, all lawyers want at the end of the week is a quick relief - where they end up getting hooked to ordering fancy food during late nights(thinking heys it’s on client tab so why not), drinking expensive wine and now they can’t leave the profession cos a normal job won’t financially sustain their self destructive habits
So at the end of the day, (in the initial years) you have mostly due diligence experience with limited exposure to drafting/ negotiation of the main documents and your exit opportunities are seriously hampered. You think to yourself - you can’t go anywhere outside the limited circle, and you’re getting paid decent, so you tell yourself better to stick to the hellhole for a bit longer and not think about the future now.
Disclaimer: This is a slightly pessimistic view on law firms. Obviously not every team is like this. Some teams have better culture, and usually in smaller teams partners care more about their associates and have a healthy humane interaction with their juniors. But basis the way most big law firms are structured and function (massive team sizes), most partners/ seniors don’t have an incentive to be humane considering the insane work load, long hours and competition within law firms.
See that’s Tier 1 at work for you. Starve you to the T so that when you finally get in you think that leaving would be the biggest mistake of you life. They remind you of it everyday- remember how you were begging for an internship here?
Most lawyers in tier 1s (irrespective of practice area) are glorified clerks who probably will do great as a PA because they write great mails. Their law is below average because there is no push to do better. The system thrives on fear and not on bettering or anything. Because if they don’t make you fear then you’ll leave them. They thrive on killing your confidence so that you come to think that’s it’s safer to stay than to try anything new.
There is a reason perhaps why none of the toppers each year from top law schools will literally choose anything else over law firms. Anyone who has stayed here beyond a few years will be medicore and be happy over perhaps winning some Lex Lehsun award (which they in all probability paid for).
To add more context, here’s the law firm play book -
- attract naive college kids with a 1 lakh package - sounds a lot but when you start living on your own in big cities, you realise it’s not a that much.
- dazzle them with fancy offices, idea of prestige of working at a big brand, working with big companies etc but make them to do clerical work so their exit opportunities are hampered
- create a sense of fear and create a competitive environment where everyone is competing for limited spots and now colleagues won’t hesitate to backstab each other
- tell them how there is serious competition in the market where everyone is undercutting each other fees so they have to work harder (read: work till 4am in the morning and say bye bye to weekends)
- make them work late nights for such long periods, they are now in sleep deprivation mode where their cognitive ability to take rational balanced decisions slowly fades away and they are okay indulging in petty office activities
- make them so tired and exhausted, all lawyers want at the end of the week is a quick relief - where they end up getting hooked to ordering fancy food during late nights(thinking heys it’s on client tab so why not), drinking expensive wine and now they can’t leave the profession cos a normal job won’t financially sustain their self destructive habits
So at the end of the day, (in the initial years) you have mostly due diligence experience with limited exposure to drafting/ negotiation of the main documents and your exit opportunities are seriously hampered. You think to yourself - you can’t go anywhere outside the limited circle, and you’re getting paid decent, so you tell yourself better to stick to the hellhole for a bit longer and not think about the future now.
Disclaimer: This is a slightly pessimistic view on law firms. Obviously not every team is like this. Some teams have better culture, and usually in smaller teams partners care more about their associates and have a healthy humane interaction with their juniors. But basis the way most big law firms are structured and function (massive team sizes), most partners/ seniors don’t have an incentive to be humane considering the insane work load, long hours and competition within law firms.
They do so to maintain DIGNITY / Image.
AFAIK, Dua Associates is dying out. Still when you apply for an internship , you get a rejection mail within a day!
Internship in Dua is a matter of personal contact solely. Just a bunch of Old People running the firm.
That’s precisely the point