Almost half of the final-year batch of Nalsar Hyderabad want to work for a top five corporate law firm when they graduate, with only 9 per cent wanting to work for a litigator at the Supreme Court, according to a survey.

Legal industry services provider Rainmaker conducted a survey of 62 fifth-year students at Nalsar to find out about their ambitions.

A total of 44 per cent of students responded that they wanted to work for a top five law firm, with almost 15 per cent wanting to work in-house and less than 10 per cent preferring mid-size law firms.

That adds up to almost 70 per cent looking to do transactional desk work or "dignified clerking".

By contrast, far fewer than 10 per cent of students were looking to work as each of a litigator at the Supreme Court (9 per cent), High Court litigator or lower court litigator (a handful of per cent).  

Only 5 per cent of graduating students wanted to work for an NGO with a similar percentage wanting to pursue further studies overseas.

This leaves several people / firms / sectors in a bit of a pickle.

1. Mid-size law firms will have to be content to be second-best in recruitment preference to their larger rivals (or even only the five largest/top).

2. The national law schools do not appear to be feeding much talent to the Bar and Bench at all, as widely and rightly feared and expected by many on that learned side.

3. Follow the money.

Indeed, more than anything, the results suggests that the very highest paying jobs are by far the most popular. The slightly less high-paying ones follow behind and barely anyone wants to do those jobs that pay subsistence wages.

Simple economics or something deeper?

A somewhat hypothetical question perhaps, but if all the jobs on that list paid the same (say, a wage of around Rs 30,000 per month), what do you think the distribution would look like?

Would 50 per cent want to become a Supreme Court legend or legal freedom fighters?