To LawyersAnonymous

Dear Sirs

Kindly stop dillydallying, vacillating and fantasising. If you applied a semblance of the effort you put into this post, in your day to day affairs and assignments, your seniors would not need to treat you like irremediable dotards.

Kindly note that further useless prevarication will result in your termination with extreme prejudice.

Yours always warmly

General Secretary

COLFLOL

Committee of Law Firms for the Lazy & Lethargic

(A disciplinary sub-committee of Grade A Lala Firms)

Ideally, you should build an all round CV, not only from a placement point of view but from an experience point of view as well. You should learn to enjoy the grind of preparing for a moot, the long nights spent polishing a memo, the nerves and the disappointment of the oral rounds, and the strange comfort of meeting new people while you are at it. Then comes the slow, deliberate process of writing for journals, and the quiet ecstasy that follows when your piece finally gets published.

There is a different kind of thrill when you play a sport for your law school, when the crowd shouts your name while you are batting and the opposing crowd sledges you which once a while is so funny makes the whole stadium erupt in laughter. And there is a deep, steady satisfaction in completing an event you have organised for a committee, watching it come alive after days of planning. All of these experiences are worth having. They are what make law school beautiful.

At least till your third year, you should try to experience everything, and in that process build an all round CV. It will be far more fun, and far more storyworthy, if you do it like this.

But from a placement point of view, firms care only about grades and a bit of technical knowledge of corporate law and that's about it. So take a pause and ask yourself, do you really want to define your entire law school life only by placements?

Focus on your grades over eveyrthing else....excellent grades will always make up for an otherwise lackluster CV, but a good CV may not always make up for mediocre grades. CGPA is the most important, and soem firms hire only based on it. You can slack off in other places, but dont slack off wrt grades

T1 A2 and I think I’m breaking, where you stare at your computer screen at 11 PM on a Sunday and genuinely cannot remember what day it is or what matter you’re supposed to be working on. I am either stressing doing work or stressing in anticipation of work.

These have been coupled with constant dress downs from seniors. Everything else in my life has effectively stopped. Gym, friends, dating - Nothing. I can barely manage to eat meals that aren’t ordered on Zomato at 10 PM.

The worst part is that I’m doing this to myself. The culture is toxic, yes, but I’ve internalized it. I feel guilty taking a Saturday afternoon off. I check emails while brushing my teeth. I’ve become the problem.

So I reached out to a senior from my law school who went in-house 2 years ago. He’s now at 7 years PQE, making around ₹40 LPA at a decent MNC, and he told me that the work-life balance is incredible. Vacations are actually disconnected, no emails. He has hobbies. Friends, family, etc., he’s in touch with everything and sleeps 8-9 hours everyday.

That said he mentioned all his batchmates are making ₹80L, ₹1 Cr+, and some already have secondaries in foreign countries. Meanwhile, he will probably top out at ₹60-70L in five years. His increments are shit as well.

He tells me that he will not recommend his path to anyone because if anyone can survive the grind for even 10 years and make partner or counsel, they’re set for life- financially and reputation-wise.

He told me that he’s just not in that race anymore, you know? But he’s too happy to be a bystander to join back in but doesn’t wish it on me. In his words, I can strive to be at a level where he could not and I should not join him in the stands but keep running.

And now I’m more confused than ever.

I’m miserable. I’m failing at my job. My mental health is in shambles and my physical health isn’t far behind.

But this senior who seems genuinely happy is telling me that I’d be an idiot to follow his path because I’d be leaving money on the table and capping my career growth?

What do I do?

Curious about Mr. Apar Gupta's practice. Other big names as per chambers (apart from those already mentioned in this chain) are also Mr. Sajai (JSA), Ms. Namita (Indus), Ms. Shreya (Indus), Mr. Rishi (DSK), Mr. Walia (KCO), Ms. Ranjana (SAM). Mr. Krishna from SAM is also doing quite a bit of niche work.

Super specialist trailblazers would have to be Mr. Matthan (TL) and Mr. Rastogi (Ikigai). Also, sup with Ms. Khimani - she launched a legal teach platform of sorts for musicians to enter into contracts?

PS. All of the above is purely speculative from a billing perspective for others to drop their thoughts.

Correct. Also, Faizan Mustafa's opposition to the BJP is deeply ideological and committed, rather than based on self-interest. While many people can switch loyalties between the BJP and the opposition, he won't do that.

Now the question is how will he navigate this? Because there will be pro-BJP people entering the governing body and finds will be at the mercy of the government. My guess is that he will build ties with the JDU and LJP, which are seen as secular parties and don't conflict with his ideology. So he will invite JDU and LJP ministers for lectures. This outreach will protect him and CNLU.

As expected, mass downvoting by LI readers, even though the CJI himself is from a backward caste. 🤣 LI readers will not accept any criticism of the reservation policy, even though it's completely flawed!

So you guys believe that the children of an SC IAS officer deserve reservation but the children of a GC peon or driver don't??

Chief Justice of India BR Gavai on Sunday affirmed that he is still for exclusion of creamy layer in reservations to Scheduled Castes.

Addressing a programme "India and the Living Indian Constitution at 75 Years", BR Gavai opined that children of an IAS officer can not be equated with the offsprings of a poor agricultural laborer when it comes to reservations.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chief-justice-br-gavai-backs-exclusion-of-creamy-layer-in-reservation-to-scheduled-castes-9645736/amp/1

While it’s true that SC and DHC have recently designated many seniors, that’s not true for BHC. In Bombay, designations remain fewer and rarer. Typically, lawyers get designated in their late 40s, as opposed to Delhi where lawyers get designated in early 40s or even before. To maintain parity, shouldn’t BHC also be more liberal in its designations?

I’m an A0 working in a random law firm doing corp law stuff. We have a general practice, client centred work - basically do what the client asks for. I hate it all. The deadlines are unrealistic, there is no senior guidance, absolute lack of training, high expectations, and the nature of work feels more clerical (mapping documents, copying precedents, data entry). I dislike that the commercial aspects of things take priority over the law, and many times the client’s wishes are catered to. All of that is fine, but I need the law.

I’ve done litigation internships. Got great feedback, my seniors relied on my first cuts which were filed. I liked going through the files to find arguments to craft and do research on the law. It was exciting. I like the fact that my seniors had control over their time, had vacations, but more importantly, they had ownership of their work and the money they made.

Dad’s a lawyer and I’m thinking of moving to litigation given that it flows more naturally to me, and I cannot find myself interested enough in corp law work. I’ve thought about this, and I don’t think I can do this long term.

How is litigation in a city like Mumbai or Delhi? What are the growth prospects? What makes young lawyers choose corp law jobs (apart from the money)?

Moreover, if there are folks who moved out of law firms to do litigation (either in a firm or chamber) how was it like? Would you recommend moving to a firm’s disputes practice first or directly to a chamber?

TIA

Mamata Banerjee

www.telegraphindia.com/world/why-mamata-banerjee-could-have-been-new-york-city-mayor-in-place-of-zohran-mamdani-photogallery-prnt/cid/2131375

I absolutely and totally disagree that this is a "fantastic comment". For one thing, to argue "abstract politics", as this one has done, is not at all true. The kind of people we are thinking about won on tickets of bread-and-butter issues. Mamdani, for example, is famous for speaking about rent freezes.

Be that as it may, however, I agree that the application of a troll tag is deeply disappointing and should be reversed immediately. Flagging legitimate speech like this which, whatever the quality of the argument(s), is on topic, is as bad as the practice that some U.S. testing agencies (like the LSAC) had at one time of flagging the LSAT results profiles of disabled test-takers to law schools to show that reasonable accommodations had been implemented.

Hi, I am currently an A1. I noticed that there are few folks particularly at A3 and SA levels who have changed their roles into . I understand that their work is not as hectic as that of associates. Is it a better option career wise to be a consultant and take pay cut in a law firm than going in-house. From taxation point of view consultancy makes sense.

I totally agree with you!! It doesn’t matter which college ur from it’s just that u need the skills. And I respect u how u didn’t try to pull down nlu just bc ur a non nlu just like the other guy. And I feel like nlus are worth it if tier 1 coz there so much opportunities which u might not get in a non nlu but still non nlu can reach the nlu grads with their hardwork! It’s like IIT and a normal engineering college

Bruh be honest do u think in today’s world u will actually find many people aiming to work for society well being? Common. Clat aspirants have done their hard work and they deserve the money . And of course u might say corporate slavery and all. Do u think it’s easy to get such slavery? The high paying one lol. Can u name 10 jobs which is high paying at the same time less works except 9 to 5? Well u might not find many. In this world u have to get the money through hardwork. Does working in corporate will find their life eventually and figure it out

NCLAT-Arun Kathpalia, K. Datta, Abhijeet Sinha, Navin Pahwa, Abhinav Vashisth

NCLT, Delhi- P. Nagesh, Sudhir Makkar,Gaurav Mitra, Sumesh Dhawan, Pooja Mahajan, Sidharth Yadav and abhishek anand

NCLT Kolkata-Joy Saha, Ratnokar Banerjee, Rishav Banerjee and Shaunak Mitra

NCLT Mumbai- Ravi Kadam, Gaurav Joshi, Hemant Sethi, Rohit Garg, Shyam Kapadia and Nausher Kohli

I am working in an in-house role. The place and people are great but the work is not challenging. I want to switch to a law firm as soon as possible. The issue is that t1s have pretty much zeroed down on ppo's as the dominant hiring route because it gives them a chance to test the candidate over a period of 1-2 months. Now, should any opportunity from a t1 for assessment internship arise, then should I quit my job and intern? This must come across as irrational at first blush but I feel if it converts, then the risk is worth it. I graduated this year so i feel like this is the time to put in those hours, do the grunt work, hone your craft and really grow.

I joined Saraf in the month of August (not mentioning year). After one year, they were diligent enough to give me proportionate bonus because I was there only for 8 months. Fair.

After that I stayed for an entire year. Completed 12 months. Then I also stayed for an additional 5 months. I put down my papers in August. But my bonus for the entire 12 months + additional 5 months was gone. Now because the firm had delayed the payment of Bonus, and because I was on notice when Bonus was released, I fking did not get my rightful bonus. How ▮▮▮ of a firm it can be. If you are giving proportionate bonus for joining late. Atleast give the bonus for the duration I served, let aside the extra months.