Law school faculties are a rare breed. I am sure this post applies to all the faculties but I am in a law school and so will comment only on them. So, where was I? Yes, they are a rare breed. ‘Good’ law school faculties are even rarer. There is a very simple reason behind the situation. Why would so...
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A pensioner who said she was “tired” of her life and “suffering from intense pain” has requested Karnataka High Court that she be allowed to end her life, according to newspaper reports today.
Scene: A hard-fought, electrifying, marathon litigation bout with drummers playing to the full volume to add to the drama. The drummers stop when mediation begins. The litigators too are disappointed. And well, a request: When ‘ tak da gidh da, tak da gidh da ’ comes in the poem, please don’t skip i...
Mumbai Two associates of Indi Law Firm, Karan Johari and Yogesh Yadav have entered the Guiness book of world records. Karan now holds the record for drinking the largest number of coffee cups in one day, while Yogesh has himself in the record books for maintaining a position of yogic trance for the ...
It is a huge idea And we need someone to capture it all in a neat logo. The IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education) is a project which has taken off . We are receiving immense help and support from various National Law Schools, lawyers, law firms, media and other stakehol...
Disclaimer: This is my final post. Disclaimer stays the same. No offence is intended to anything living, alive or metaphysical. Read in peace. Law firm ‘X’ recently had one of their recruitment drives in a college not so well renowned. I attempt to decipher how and why one man dared to tell them ‘No...
Commonwealth games, the event that people have awaited since past couple of years with a strong belief that it will make India a stunning representative in the sphere of cultural togetherness and bonding through the combination and play of various sports with players coming from throughout the world...
I started this blogging competition with a philosophical (attempted) post on law and life. I am ending the competition with some more on the same lines (just to make the exit a bit dramatic). Note- Had three more posts lined up. But chicken pox got me and I took the two week ‘bed rest’ diligently. M...
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) restrained MSM Discovery, a channel distribution company, from representing Viacom. Viacom 18 Media Private Ltd., Mumbai had filed a petition with the TDSAT alleging that MSM Discovery had materially breached, misrepresented and under re...
In a judgment that can go a long way in clearing the backlog of cases dealing with offences u/s 138 of the N.I. Act, the Delhi High Court directed petitioners (alleged offenders) to not bother the High Court for no reason and go to the court of the Metropolitan Magistrate for the redressal of their ...
The other day I came across an old article about how an Indian Court had enforced a foreign divorce decree. It was an article that made me fail to understand and appreciate at the same time why human beings complicate for the sake of complication (or should we say the lack of innovation?). The probl...
Gotcha! Yea! I know why you opened this post. You are insecure. You wanted to know, “Who does this napster think he is? My college is way better than GNLU.” Well, I have to tell you. I wrote this post just to prove that we are all acceptance seekers. If someone says that your college is the best the...
The reemergence of the Naxalites (rechristened Maoists) after 30 years of near lull has been an issue that has generated a lot of public debate. Despite getting more than its share of media coverage, it has not been easy to construe the pith and substance of the multi-faceted issue. State Supporters...
It’s been exactly a month since my last post.
In the meantime, I have worked on and closed three multi-million pound deals, forgotten several important family birthdays, missed social events and temporarily lost the ability to tell which day of the week it is.
While in itself this is not particularly shocking, it inevitably leads me to the question- are corporate lawyers happy with the way their lives are turning out?
I asked around and while most of our ilk basks in the glorious sunshine of the corporate life, the few that are disgruntled have certain complaints.
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1. Ticket to Ride (Year: 1965; Album: Help!; Authors: Lennon with McCartney)
Any journey to Dante’s Fourth Circle of Hell (Avarice and Prodigality) starts in law school where (without the services of Chris Nolan’s dream-inducing protagonist) the idea is planted in young, impressionable minds that picking up a corporate job is the ultimate mark of success in law school. The brightest, i.e., who land a job with Ramachand & Saunf are regarded with the sort of awe that was previously reserved for the dashing opening bat that knocked off a century in the first ten overs of the final house match. The mental picture painted is one of a room full of geniuses pulling ideas out of the proverbial hat to solve complex legal problems that would boggle the ordinary mind. Inevitably, one aspires to be the object of such reverence.
In most cases, however, what follows is disappointingly anti-climactic. As Folly Nariman points out in her entry Due Diligence and Dreaming Beyond It., the work can be desperately mind-numbing and after a while even the most enthusiastic worker is aware that he/she has been lured into and trapped in an Indonesian sweatshop. Upon identification of this fact, some quit pretty quickly and take up the fine arts. Others switch firms every couple of years hoping that they come across something that excites them. The rest grumble a bit about being sold a dummy pass, but decide to take one on the chin and continue on with the ride.
2. I’ll Keep You Satisfied (Year: 1963, Single; Authors: McCartney with Lennon)
Corporate lawyers are in a service industry wherein the retention of clients is a significant aspect. Fulfilling every little client whim and fancy is the corporate lawyer’s avowed goal and mission. If the lawyer doesn’t deliver to their exacting expectations, clients will simply up and go someplace else humming the Rolling Stones signature anthem. To guard against this, the corporate lawyer sleeps with one eye on his/her blinking red BlackBerry and when he/she buys a suit, he/she buys two jackets to go with it- one to leave on his/her office chair in the rare instances he/she goes home, just to make sure everyone knows he/she remains at their beck and call at all times.
3. A Hard Days Night (Year: 1964; Album: A Hard Day’s Night; Author: Lennon)
As a direct offshoot of my point above, it is a well known fact hours can be pretty bad at law firms leaving lawyers little time for anything else. As a result, law firms see some of the highest attrition rates across the board. In India, it is rumoured that a huge factor contributing to this is the conscious understaffing of law offices to boost profitability, the operating logic being the abundance of eager law graduates waiting and willing to step into the shoes of those who refuse to bear the donkey-load any longer. Each time, however, the fact being conveniently ignored is that the investment made by the firm in training these people is lost when they leave, thus exacerbating the understaffing issue and a pretty vicious cycle ensues. While conditions in the UK are slightly better, the billable hour centric law firm model ensures that associates keep their nose to the grindstone. From bonuses to appraisals to redundancies, it all comes down to the number of hours recorded.
Since the corporate lawyer bathes, brushes, eats, sleeps, prays and parties at the office itself, I am severely tempted to ask the question why they end up working a job they abhor to pay the rent for that fancy apartment they don’t even get to live in.
4. With A Little Help From My Friends (Year: 1967; Album: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band; Authors: Lennon and McCartney)
Any law firm worth its salt has a highly charged, competitive atmosphere. It’s what you get when you put a set of very bright, ambitious and politically astute people in an enclosed environment. A law firm isn’t a place for the lily-livered. The soft underbellies are identified early and slaughtered mercilessly. While Darwin’s survival of the “fittest” theory doesn’t quite fit the bill here (See Volenti “Non Fit” Injuria), Mario Puzo’s advice on chilling more with your enemies than your friends is practised widely. For example, since being slightly paranoid makes better lawyers, newbies are advised to be wary of each other, as a verbal slip during a night out drinking could make all the difference at the next round of promotions. Often, it does and life lessons of distrust are learnt.
5. When I’m Sixty-Four (Year: 1967; Album: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band; Author: Lennon)
A lot of corporate lawyers are now concerned about how they will feel when they take a look back at their lives. Ironically, it’s this maniacal self-obsession that makes them such great lawyers in the first place. Their main worry, of course, is that they won’t have too much in their biographies which will be rated PG-13. Few corporate lawyers (for no fault of theirs I might add) have had time for things like justice, making a difference and helping the disadvantaged. Bill Gates (who ranked 8th as a “Hero of our Times”) and his humanitarian philanthropy, therefore, is now turning out to be a dangerous influence on corporate lawyers.
Also, there are only so many pages over which one can stretch hostile takeover negotiations, irrespective of how brilliantly they may have been carried on.
6. Can’t Buy Me Love (Year: 1964; Album: A Hard Day’s Night; Author: McCartney)
The natural retort any semi-intelligent reader would have is why all the complaining when the corporate lawyer is paid so handsomely. Some would call it being hypocritical since the corporate lawyer was under no obligation to sell his/her soul. Undoubtedly, the argument has its merits, but as any self-respecting life guru will tell you a hefty bank balance will get you a titillating lap-dance but the nice lady won’t be waiting up to listen to you whine when you get home after a bad day.
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Admittedly, I probably fall on the more whiny side of things so my vision might be slightly skewed. But my limited survey tells me that I’m not alone.
Happiness, they sang, is a warm gun.
The lawyer,nay,elf, had spent himself, scheming to scuttle, using precedents so subtle. Pining for leisure, and a game of pleasure, he thought to himself: “ I might as well play cricket, I’ll get to bat and bowl, it’ll clear the emotional thicket, which has been ravaging my soul. ” A match was then ...
“The legal profession in so-called advanced countries is a product of Industrial Revolution whereas in India it is a product of Independence Revolution” — Mr Lalit Bhasin These are the words that made me think. Should foreign law firms be allowed in India? Are they necessary? Just as I questioned my...
This post is written to provide a cynical view of the categories of people one comes across in a Law School. 1. The Making Contacts Specialists : These people love to volunteer at moots, Conferences and other academic activities organized by their colleges. You will then find them going on a sociali...
We all want to be successful. No one can deny it. Although our definitions of success are often very different from one another. When I decided to do law, I wanted to be successful. I wanted enough money for survival and normal luxuries and also serve the society. I had a dream. My dream was my defi...
There was a lot of coverage on the IDIA initiative ( Click here to read about the initiative ). I like what they’re trying to do here. However, the numbers are stacked wildly against anyone trying to bring in change. There are three hurdles one has to get through to become a student of law at a top ...
Everyone celebrated their wedding. The groom was an NRI engineer settled in Boston who came to Punjab to marry Manjeet, a beautiful village girl. No one had ever anticipated that this fairy tale would turn into a nightmare until the groom decided to abandon Manjeet and marry again. He obtained a div...
The Bar Council of India (“ BCI ”), in a press release on Saturday, has said that it will file an application in the Supreme Court seeking modification of the order which allowed fresh law graduates to become judicial officers. It said that the BCI and the State Bar Councils are “strongly in favour”...
Thirty years ago, nobody could have accurately predicted the job market of today. The intervening technological progress must be blamed or credited for it. However, we seem to be able today to satisfactorily predict the job market we will have thirty years hence – plenty of machines and Artificial I...
Writing a great legal article is truly amazing. Not only it will be published in a good, well-known website or blog, thereby increasing your brand value and visibility, but also be read by many people who are in need of that information. It may help litigants, researchers, other lawyers or a reporte...
The distinguished Prof. Shamnad Basheer recently launched an online petition in the form of a poem to make a fervent appeal to the invisible CLAT powers to make the critical shift to a permanent, centralized CLAT body that will conduct the CLAT examination every year. However, every effort till now ...
CLAT 2015 will go down in the history of national competitive exams in India as the most ludicrous and incompetent examination that openly insulted the intelligence of thousands of candidates and played with their careers with an unbelievably sick mentality. The entire CLAT 2015 affair reflected an ...
Law and journalism are two fields which demand up-to-date knowledge in this proliferating world. Neither of them is stagnant and obsolete. As a first year law student,I used to think that legal profession only meant to argue in courts. It was later that it dawned upon me that legal field has no peri...
Why This Ko-Law-Very ?? The moment you enter an elite Law school campus,you will be tired of answering this question to everyone, from your Orientation day to Farewell.One simple question -“Why law?” Few oversmart kids would try to impress the first class by saying “Because I couldn’t make it to IIT...
Introduction Law has been the most variegated stream ever since it was incorporated in the human society. When one thinks of a vocation in law the first image that strike its mind is a dexterous person, dressed in black and white, going through some gigantic books, running in and out the court, figh...
Photo by Gulshan Sachdeva, via here.
LIFE IS NOT SO FAIR AND LOVELY At the outskirts of the Metropolitan court, I begin my day with the sight of all street smart lawyers who are out for today’s hunt. The hunters instinct is still seen in them when their roving eyes are targeting their next catch cum client. Sipping the cutting chai and...
What happens when you spend 5 years of your law school having the time of your life. Like literally, time-of-your-life!!! [Time of your life- excludes any such activity that requires paying attention in classes, taking internships seriously, taking moots seriously and/or taking anyone/anything serio...
A lady (not a lawyer) Retired Justice Markandey Katju published a blog post today entitled “Lady Lawyers” . In typical Katju blogging fashion (whenever not causing a media storm about judicial corruption), it’s a trip down memory lane starting with his time as a lawyer in 1970 Allahabad. Katju is tr...
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Last year, European Union has ratified the ‘Right to Repair’ regulation. According to these regulations, the manufacturers of the household electronic appliances i.e. lighting, washing machines, dish washers, and refrigerators, will have to make it easier for the consumers to get them repaired. Thou...
by sflc_admin | October 9, 2017 According to the Cyber Laws and E-Security Group under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Group (MeitY), as many as 23,030 websites /URLs are currently blocked in India. This information was received as a reply to a Right to Information application fil...
by sflc_admin | October 4, 2017 We live in an era where human activity is producing unprecedented amounts of digital data. The popular saying these days is ‘data is the new oil’. The high value of this data along with the lack of awareness among people about rights has prompted corporations and gove...
by sflc_admin | September 27, 2017 The second Digital Citizen Summit was organised on September 21-22, 2017 by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. SFLC.in was an associate partner of the summit. The summit aimed at fin...
Notable technology and rights related litigations
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by sflc_admin | September 22, 2017 SFLC.in is organising a workshop on “Secure Communication ” in association with Sukhbir Singh, TOR Developer, on Saturday, September 23, 2017, from 11:00AM-:1:30 PM at the SFLC.in premises at K-9, Second Floor, Birbal Road, Jangpura Extension, New Delhi -110014 nea...
by sflc_admin | September 18, 2017 The ongoing Internet shutdown in Darjeeling, West Bengal completes 3 months today. This day, three months earlier, mobile Internet was shutdown in the city due to the ongoing agitation for a separate Gorkhaland. Two days later, on 20th June, the orders were extende...
Written by the Civil Liberties team at CCG A 9 judge bench of the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgment last week, which unanimously recognized the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution of India. The Court found the right to privacy to be a part of the freedoms g...
Today, the Supreme Court heard the ongoing matter of Sabu Mathew George vs. Union of India . In 2008, a petition was filed to ban advertisements endorsing sex-selective abortions from search engine results. Advertisements endorsing sex selective abortions are illegal under Section 22 of the PNDT Act...
by sflc_admin | September 4, 2017 On Sep 2, 2017, SFLC.in organized a discussion titled “Celebrating the Right To Be Let Alone” to commemorate the recent recognition of right to privacy as a fundamental right, discuss the privacy judgment, its key takeaways, the impact it will have on pending Aadhaa...
The sub-committee of Insolvency Law Committee (ILC) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India (MCA) in its report dated October 31, 2020 has proposed the framework for the pre-pack and prearranged insolvency resolution process which the Government may adopt with / without modificatio...
Analysis of the Condonation of Delay Scheme, 2018 of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs The Scheme is by way of a General Circular No.16/2017 dated 29 December 2017. It is in exercises of powers u/Ss. 403, 459 and 460 of the Companies Act, 2013. Who can avail the scheme? A company registered under th...
Diwali is one of the most anticipated and celebrated festivals in India. It is also a festival of giving gifts, which is often a challenge for compliance professionals who struggle with policies and nuances of law around this time, on giving gifts that might seem like bribes. Under the Prevention of...
The RBI has amended the Master Directions on Financial Services provided by Banks. This is a significant move permitting Banks to invest in Category II Alternative Investment Funds. As of June 30, 2017, Alternative Investment Funds ( AIFs ) had raised the cumulative figure of Rs. 48, 129 crores, aga...
Image credit: Scroll.in, September 26, 2017 Sociologists know that the formation and survival of civilization is conditional upon the universal adherence to a framework of acceptable norms and guidelines of human conduct and interaction. Moses therefore set out as God’s message, the directive to lov...
Financial investors in India are scared of regulatory uncertainties. Not that uncertainties are exclusive to our country but it’s a critical risk factor that is assessed by those making substantial investments. Historically, one of the most important regulatory concerns for such investors is related...
India has long recognised the right of foreign creditors to participate in the winding up of Indian companies. As early as 1961, the Supreme Court of India, in Rajah of Vizianagaram (AIR 1962 SC 500) , clarified that foreign creditors have the same right as Indian creditors in winding up proceedings...
Photo credit: Indian Express, August 23, 2017 Through its historic ruling delivered by a five-judge bench in the case of Shayara Bano and Ors v. Union of India on August 22nd 2017, the Supreme Court of India ( SC ) liberated Muslim women from the perpetual fear of arbitrary and whimsical divorce. Th...
The ability to attract large scale Foreign Direct Investment ( FDI ) into India has been a key driver for policy making by the Government. Prime Minister Modi seems to be going along the right track, with India receiving FDI inflows worth USD 60.1 billion in 2016-17, which was an all-time high. Henc...
On August 31st 2017, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank Limited* delivered its first extensive ruling on the operation and functioning of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ( Insolvency Code ). The Court said that it is pronouncing its detail...