“For the first time in the history of judiciary, the Bar Council of India has decided to address the woes of new entrants in the Bar by providing `5,000 as stipend, per month, for a period of five years,” reported the New Indian Express.
The BCI’s members and various state bar council chairmen and vice chairmen met recently in Delhi, according to the report, and resolved that advocates who accept the stipend can in return provide legal aid to poor litigants under the Legal Service Authority Act 1987.
The BCI charges law graduates Rs 2560 as registration fee to take the All India Bar Examination for their practice certificate.
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Author should start a Twitter account: lawyerhymes. Would be popular no doubt!
Quoting kianganz:
Lousy Rapper .... Bring it on!
Quoting TT:
5K pm for 5 Years?!?!?! Do they want young lawyers to live independent lives or not?!
My office peon wrinkled his nose when offered 6K.. "Kya Sir, I have to live a life you know..". My driver gets 12K (+OT of maybe 2-3K extra pm).. my maid at home gets 7K..
Jeeezzus!
Suggestion: (a) Make it mandatory for every senior to have at least 'x' juniors ('x' being a function of the senior's years in active practice + amount of tax-filings) (b) fix a stipend (base, 'living wage') of about 20K (c) performance-linked pay of 2 to 5% for matters billed and recovered, where the junior has delivered a pre-defined set of contributions (continuity of handling a matter, relevance of research, file maintenance, punctuality, etc)..
And if/once that happens, we may stop dreaming!
I respect the spirit with which you have voiced this opinion. But, you should know that litigation practice (a profession driven by perspectives and not 0's and 1's) isn't the same as selling mobile-phone connections, where you can have performance-linked salaries. The law firms, some of which also practice litigation do that, in a way already...
Clients approach an "independent counsel" (the category of lawyers to whom this benefit concerns) for arguing/ drafting a case or advise. The selling point in this scenario is only that lawyers perspective on the subject (not his juniors, who is completely responsible for his significance in the scheme of things and must climb from level 0). Juniors/ apprentices learn on the job and are traditionally expected to build their own practice, alongside.
There is however a very unfortunate mutation of this practice that is taking place now. Younger counsels (the better known ones, in particular) expect 100% commitment to their chamber (like a law-firm) and also pay rather poorly (even though they earn well themselves).
I find this rather strange and very unfortunate, considering that we generally associate poor pay (and shabby treatment) to the old school of lawyers. The younger, better known ones are sadly more insecure than their senior counterparts and a lot more whimsical !
I've digressed !
The point in short is that this Rs.5,000 is an addition to what a junior counsel at the bar would earn from his chamber and independent billings.
Rs.5,000 can surely not cover rent and food, but it can make things easier for those who aspire to practice litigation...
Quoting WTF?!?!:
Quoting Kaoboy:
To impose paying a junior would only lead to lawyers avoiding juniors in the first place. The need of the hour is for lawyers with established practices to pay their juniors out of their own volition. The whole argument about a lawyer being a traditional guru granting wisdom is ancient and leaves the option of litigation for those from affluent backgrounds.
Puke.
Quoting Puke:
Especially rare to find a person from a relatively poor background, who has figured what it really takes to be a good advocate capable of receiving implicitly trust from a client.
And the practice of law (whether litigation or advisory/ documentation) is SO fraught with mine-fields that often-times, a young lawyers first mistake may well be his last brief!
But the rarest of the rare few who struggle like crazy and swim upstream, dodging all kinds of predators, temptations and obstacles along the way, are the ones who become truly sought after - at once empathetic as humans and powerfully effective as lawyers! They usually beat hollow, the ones who claim to be "To the Manor Born"..
For this set, the 5K pm stipend is a non-issue. For the rest of the gang, this is still a touchy issue and a very embarrassing dictat from the BCI.
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