Vandana Shroff

Amarchand Mangaldas' Mumbai region offices have made 2011 job offers for 41 students, most recently picking up 12 each from GNLU Gandhinagar and Nalsar Hyderabad, nine from NUJS Kolkata and eight from NLSIU Bangalore. Last year the firm had recruited the equivalent number of freshers from only three campuses more than a month later.

"Law was often looked at as a marriage degree - three years in law, then you get married," recalls AZB founding partner Zia Mody about women's views of a legal career 30 years ago. Since then law firms have gradually fought the profession's gender bias, arguably more successfully in India than abroad. But there is still a long way to go.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai has completed its student hires for the year after making pre-placement offers to nine law students from NUJS Kolkata last week.

The firm's latest offers also included its first hire of a law student who is blind.