So, the last six who are standing would effectively be: Sayak Maity, Kathya Braganca, Dnanyesh Sabnis, Poornima Sampath, Ankit Mishra, and Gauri Rao. Kian, can you confirm?

That made my day...ROFL

Does no one know what the /s stands for?

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%2Fs

Sarcasm is hard to convey on the interwebs.

This seems to be biggest misconception in the market. Even I before going inhouse used to think the same. But let me tell you, working culture, kind of work and money is far far better than inhouse counsels.

only if you're at the top rung in an in-house role in a big organization will you be assured of lots of moolah.

Hi, there are a few misconceptions.

1. Your impression of an in-house lawyer may be true for the most part but things are changing now and in-house has become very competitive with truly efficient lawyers. I am an in-house lawyer and I do all the work without referring any matter to law firm(s) and when I say work, it includes acquisitions, structuring, investments, strategic partnership, et cetera with the likes of AZB, Shroff brothers, Trilegal and others on the opposite side. There are things in-house offers which law firms generally do not and you are not just stuck with your defined area.

2. 'Long working hours, extreme pressure, taking-calls and responsibility, et cetera' is same in an in-house role because you are responsible for what gets signed. As law firm lawyer we always pass on the decision making to the Company.

3. 'let someone else burn midnight oil for the answer' goes with my point 2 above and why continue in a law firm if it is an issue for you?

Law firm lawyer here, who has also seen a fair bit about how top in house teams function. Seems like you're peering into the outside world from the tiny hole you've dug yourself into. It's one thing to be unaware of how something functions, but another to harbor delusions of your own so called law firm 'life'. Long working hours? This is how it goes- even if you've spent the better part of the daylight smoking cigarettes, getting coffee, and showing how hard you're supposed to work, before you know its now getting dark outside and you now realize you actually have to put in a few hours. So you amble to your desk and start typing furiously into the night, telling yourself this is the thug life and that's what you're built for. Extreme pressure? Yeah, only if you have neglected to do it when you had all the time in the world but were too busy discussing that crocodile leather belt your colleague is wearing or the new macchiato in town. Taking calls and responsibility? Haha. Unless you are at partner level in most firms, this is something you will never have to be concerned about. You think you take calls, but you never really do. Taking instructions and executing it is not the same as 'taking the call'. Far too many law firm lawyers are just glorified secretaries doing what they are told and not having a handle on how they are to do it.

While its not true for the majority of the in house teams in India, there are at least 3-4 which operate very efficiently, handle a lot of the work in house, and only outsource it to firms when a vast due diligence is required. They also pay at par with most tier one firms. The up side is you get to learn a lot of the commercial side of transactions sitting in meetings with business heads, structuring transactions, knowing how the financing works, and seeing it from start to finish. Also, no one calls them on a weekend and lights a fire up their ass asking them to send that document in the next 2 hours. You might think you are the bees knees because you're associated with a job that gives the impression of being demanding, but life's a bit more than that.

Tatas are one of the most, how do I put this? not-so-smart-corp groups in the country. Except for TCS, all heavy asset companies are in the red and have been in red for a while. Legal team is always a cost to the company, whatever brilliant arguments one may come up with, you are the one driving sales for a company and if your cost cannot be explained, you get shafted out. That simple.

Which law firms does he refer work to now? Mostly AZB and SAM or does he use others too? Does he decide which law firms the operating companies use?

He is an in-house counsel. So he will try to diversify work as much as he can because ultimately, he will one day want to join some law firm, and therefore he will keep good relationships with all the firms, and more so of the firm where even he may want to join in future.