I did this.

I was miserable intellectually (honestly, public policy is only slightly better, if at all), but so happy with the job security. I went in for the law firm knowing I will exit as soon as my financial goals are met. I think of moving back to policy as buying back time for the things I want to do since it cannot possibly eat away all my waking hours, and I will get time to read, think and write in future.

I guess it depends on identifying and balancing what you need and want to do from your life

Harvard p-grad here. Having a NALSAR or NLS background does help but only to the extent of being better trained and having great connections with your senior/alumni who have already done their LLM from here. That meant I knew exactly how to train, what to write and how to go about my applications. A great set of faculty or alums (who in my case was also my Partner in the law firm I was working) really helps with the recommendations. I guess the one major advantage of NLS/NALSAR supremacy has been its old school network-i.e. alumni and students...what I am trying to say is it is the students that make the university and not so much as the faculty or admin. But yes some faculty of NLS/NALSAR have been exceptionally well read and respected and yes if a word of recommendation can come from them it may make a lot of difference. Having said that my batch had people from India who did their LLB from non NLUs and I will say they were equally talented. So best of luck!

Wasn't that a casual scolding judges often do to the parties as well as to the arguing counsel? Practical exposure to courts definitely will make one aware that it is the accepted mode of practice in courts that judges make statements often harsh towards the parties, that doesn't mean it is 'judgement'. It's really disheartening to see LI forums, where people actually have exposure to the working of law acting as the same bunch of twitter bum-bums who doesn't have an iota of knowledge of how the law functions.

10km from Lower Parel includes Cuffe Parade, Bandra West, Mahim, Bandra East, and Dharavi. So the rent range will vary quite significantly depending on where you want to stay.

You'll have to take a call what you want to prioritise but at 50k for a 2bhk, you won't find a 2bhk in the nicer part of town or in the fancier buildings (think buildings with gyms, swimming pool, etc.). There isn't any one specific place where law firm people stay - you will find what you prioritise may be quite different from what someone else might. I personally started prioritising staying close to office (almost) above all else after a few years but I know people who didn't mind spending 1+ hour travelling back and forth since they liked living in Bandra West or Juhu.

I find a lot of people don't count the taxi fare to and from office when considering the "total all-in cost". It is for this reason I find staying in Bhakti Park to not make a lot of sense. That being said, I took the local trains for many years and don't let anyone convince you that trains aren't a perfectly decent way to travel to work. To make local trains a sensible option, try to not stay too far away from your starting local station and ideally stay near a place where you get taxis / autos quickly. LP / Elphinstone Road local stations are a walking distance (

Reply to Guest123 @1.1.2: This is the OP, thank you for your comment! Given your experience in Europe, I'm really interested in having your views on the following matters in the context of moving abroad:

1. Area of practice: What is your area of specialization? I've done PE VC transactions at a boutique firm for a few years. I'd like your view on whether you recommend I now get some experience at a T1 law firm or in-house at a VC firm. Do keep in mind my goal is to move abroad after a year or two at this next job.

2. Foreign LLM: Is it necessary if I want to work at a firm in Europe?

3. Language: Assuming you're in continental Europe, did you have to learn the country's language after you moved there?

Many thanks again for your time!

Don't worry, buddy. Let me start by saying that you are just starting out. At 820, you should still be able to get an okay NLU from where you can do well, so the world is not over. Also, you may consider taking the NRI sponsored route, it'll be a better option than Jindal. Costs about the same, but with your rank, you will probably get into NUJS.

All that aside, if you feel the fees of Jindal/NRI sponsored quota will be an undue burden, really don't worry about it. Taking a drop is okay, as long as you are focused in your prep. But like you said, CLAT/AILET can really be a gamble sometimes and I understand why you'd want a safety net. I would say it's still okay to drop a year and prep really well (a gap year makes NO difference) instead of enrolling in a college and paying the exorbitant fee. Esp if paying for the entire course at Jindal is completely out of the question. Think of it this way: if JGLS for five years isn't a viable option at all, then what use is it as a safety net? So why even pay a year's semester's fee?
Taking this into consideration, a T3 NLU would make more sense. But the problem with that is, CLAT 2023 is in December. You have just six months. A lot of people prepare for CLAT while studying in T2/T3 NLUs and perform very well. A lot of people in NALSAR and NLS are kids who did a year at a lower NLU/private college. But taking admission in a college, moving away from home, getting used to a new environment, new routine, new people, new freedoms can be a very disruptive process that takes some time to get used to, a couple of months, at least. When you have only six months, losing two can be a major dent.
Which is why, based on what you said, I'd say drop a year and prep at home. ABSOLUTE worst case scenario, you join the same T3 NLU a year later, big deal. But the potential upside is huge. It's not wasting a year for no reason, it's taking an intelligent, calculated risk, where the odds are in your favour. There is a chance that it may not pay off, but even then, a year's gap is really something must people don't even bat an eye over. And at least you wouldn't have spent an extra year's fee.
If you would still prefer having the safety net, I'd say go for the NLU.

Side note: JGLS does have means-cum-merit scholarships. Check in with their office, see if you qualify for any aid.

Good luck!

Think carefully.

Let's assume that, you do not get the Tier I job due to lack of opportunity in your college. But I am sure you would get through some tier 2-5 law firm. And frankly, once you have started working, it is only your work experience, which would count.

So, the following two possibilities can arise:

(a) You lose 3 years, joint GNLU and land a Tier I job; or

(b) you finish your current course, join a law firm (does not matter what tier is) and after 3 years, join a tier I.

Even if I assume that in the option (b), you would be inducted as A-0 and your entire PQE would be discarded, note the following:

(a) you would have actual work ex of 3 years. to a Tier I firm, you may be A0, but they cannot take away your actual work experience and you would get a head start amongst the freshly-minted A0s.

(b) you would (hopefully) be able to achieve some level of financial independence due to your initial years of engagement.

The culture is far better. I am attest to this personally. That alone is enough of a reason to want to move in-house.

OP- Most inhouse teams would be open to your profile. I came with M&A transactions experience. If you have PE, VC experience as well, funds will be open to hiring. I’m not sure what your PQE is but if it’s anything more than 4 years you’re in a decent position for most in-house reputed roles.

Very unsure if this is an actual query or a troll, but I'll choose to answer it anyway. Assuming you get into a T1 DU seat for Eco honours also, I'd advise making a decision according to:
1. What interests you as an area of study (most people I know don't have any real passion for anything at 17, it's more about what seems vaguely acceptable. The goal is that you should do well enough in college to have a good job/postgrad opportunities after it)
2. What you can conceivably see yourself doing for the next thirty years (explore different professional opportunities after each course and see what suits your fancy. Money is just one thing. But the work itself, will it be sustainable?)
3. What your general life goals are and how each course helps in achieving them.

The biggest handicap of law compared to the other two courses you have listed is that it has very low international permeability. Engineering and economics/finance are a lot more transferable and are usually on the list of preferred immigrants. Also, law (arguably) offers the worst WLB of the three. On the flip side, it can offer v lucrative financial rewards. There are people who become partners at T1 law firms by 30. Becoming a partner by 35 is common. That means earning somewhere around 1Cr (or 70L at the very least, that too taxed at a lower rate than an engineer's salary). CSE packages are very lucrative, but few engineers have such a steep progression, unless they start their own company or something.

In a nutshell, this is it. Engineers have better starting CTC. They also have better WLB throughout their lives. In law, your starting salary will be lower (presently about 14LPA, taxed at 10%). And the work hours are a lot more demanding. But the progression can be much, much faster. Economics is a very good subject with good opportunities and is internationally transferable. Most people warn against it because DU has (understandably, imo) a bad image as a centre of aimless airheads. But really can't say about what kind of life or money it offers.

I hope I didn't spend ten minutes answering a troll.

Here is the pdf of the story:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/67043170/will-indias-new-era-sever-its-old-power-structures-law-gov

get hold of a senior from your ug uni who has done a research degree and ask them if they can share their proposal

or

get hold of a research student from the uni where you will be doing your masters and convince them to share their proposal with you

dont do mphil

There's a difference between having an offer in hand and aiming for it. Look at it this way: you'll be starting your third year now, this is when most people start interning at T2/T1 firms, taking up big moots/serious research. If you prep for CLAT, you'll have to compromise on all those. You might also jeopardise your rank/grades. So there is a significant cost. Though since the next CLAT is in December, you will only be sacrificing one more semester, not the whole year.

So what I will say is, at the very least, don't compromise on your rank/grades. If you decide to take CLAT again, study well for both things simultaneously. And make the switch only if you get into NLS/NALSAR/NLU-D/NUJS. Because NUALS isn't a bad college, really. And you do have a lot of time, more than half of your degree ahead of you. So you can still do well from NUALS.

I can tell you that age is not a factor that will handicap you at all. The thing to consider is opportunity cost. What is it you really want to achieve and does switching colleges offer a better chance at achieving it? If so, is the difference significant enough to drop two years? If your goal is to get a T1 Corp job, I do know people from NUALS who get PPOs. And even if you don't, people work for 1-2 years at T2 and T3 firms and then make the switch. So in that case, the chances of getting into a top firm by 2025 are the same, really.

1. Nupur Sharma has a history of instigating people and spewing hatred. Context is important in law. She also did it in national television in this case. I still don't want her to be arrested for this incident though, because I find the entire idea of blasphemy being a criminal offence laughable. In any case, nobody has actually arrested her yet. That's perhaps the biggest point.
2. Zubair reshared an existing tweet that can at best be called a joke. An obscure party filed a complaint. The state machinery sprang to action immediately and have now started cooking up cases like conflating his personal account with that of Alt-News. It is this blatant partisan use of state machinery under a secular democracy that I have a problem with as a lawyer most of all.

Masters and Abroad

- countries
- First of all how helpful is masters in landing a corp job or litigation or academics abroad?

If you are a fresher it is almost impossible to get a corp job outside India immediately after llm from abroad, if you are after a law firm job abroad then do foreign masters at least after 3 years of experience and some good homework on the law firms that you are going to apply to and have a very good roadmap

for academics abroad you would need to complete phd as well preferably in the country that you are targetting

- Second of all which countries are best for doing a masters in after 5 years?

UK and US are perennial favourites

you can also check out australia and canada

- I have heard of people saying mostly US ans UK. Which ones are better. I understand that it depends on the
scholarship but I’m asking in general.

in the us try for ivy leagues and in the uk try for russell group

however if a uni is giving 75% scholarship or more and it is within top 250 unis and you have a clear idea as to what you are going to do after llm and how you are going to achieve it, then you can go to these unis as well

bottomline if you are spending your own money for llm then do it only from ivy or top 5 unis in the uk (oxbridge, LSE, UCL and KCL)

- What’s the avg scholarship one gets? What will be the expenses you will need to take?

most good us unis will have some financial assistance, they vary widely for 20% to full

in the uk, most unis will have few partial scholarships and one or two full scholarships, oxbridge have more

you will have to make up the tuition shortfall and cost of living

- What’s the way one goes after the masters to essentially cash in on this invest cus at the end ill have to take
a loan for it.

dont do llm unless you know clearly as to why you want to do llm and what you are going to do after it

a clear roadmap and plan is ESSENTIAL

do not do llm on a loan, its not worth it (unless you have a TC and you have been asked to defer for a year for some reason)

- Scholarship
- What things do you need to get a shoclarship as in the academics

top 10% in academics in the class, some extra-co curricular and a few publications

- What cgp?
- I heard your need to do social work? How should you do and how much?

check out https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/45958/unofficial-guide-rhodes-india-2022-23.pdf

- Do you need to have publications related to your masters field or can it be anything else? How many good
ones do you need?

helpful if it is allied, a couple should do

- Masters
- Is it worth it to do a masters? Will be essential to get some kind of employment abroad? Or can you get one
with our one

it is helpful to have a degree in the jurisdiction where you are applying, however you would need to do extensive homework on this when you are nearer to application

- Bar and litigation
- I have heard some people planning to do masters in us and uk and giving bar there to practise litigation there
in a firm or associates.

in the uk you would have to pass the SQE, if you want to become a solicitor, or the bar course if you want to become a barrister, although it is easy to do these courses or exam through a private provider (like university of law, think of it like an exam prep company), it might be difficult to get the pupliage/contract afterwards, you would either need to join a regional law firm or tier 2/3 barristers (there are many, but again you would need to do homework before you commit to any oath)

- How would you go about this without connections as of right now

check out the requirements on the https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/

one way I know (my info is at least 3 years old) is doing a GDL which is like a degree conversion and then do the bar course (by either at a private provider or preferably at any of the inns)

- How much would it totally cost to do something like this??

£20k

- Is any of this worth it?

yes, if you have a gameplan and can get pupilage after the course, you can break even in one year

I was skeptical too, being from a "lower" NLU. I can assure you that you can completely relax. All T1 associates, be it from NLS or from a state govt. college, all are just rats in this big rat race and each of you will be trained in a similar manner. as it is, the tasks are mostly clerical at A0 level. How much extra you learn will solely be based on whether the practice interests you even a tad bit.

To be honest, a lot of people (not all) from top NLUs carry this confidence that brand name brings, but just remember, both of you landed the same job, and moreso I assume it was not a campus placement for you, and you proved your worth for it, so relax.

Just be sincere to your work, and take one day at a time, when you look back, you will realise how much you have learnt and level with the same NLU Grads.

On a separate note, find a hobby which will keep you sane working those hours.

Though it is very valid, I can't speak to your mental fatigue and the consequent unwillingness to transition, so I'll address more material concerns.
I went to a T2 NLU ranking slightly below GNLU.
1. Don't worry too much about your age, sure, it's something people might notice, but it's nothing more than a slight raise of the eyebrow. A lot of my batchmates were two years behind the curve, one was three years behind. They all managed to get good placements. Age is not really a factor.
2. The difference between colleges can be VERY real. The opportunities it provides, the doors it opens. Yes, individual effort always accounts for more in the long run, but immediate opportunities available vary significantly. The faculty at GNLU is a mixed bag, some are v good, some are just bad, most are just average. But the alumni network is v strong, including Rhodes scholars, training contract holders (people who got placed at a UK law firm), an ICJ fellow, several partners at Indian law firms. These people help you discover opportunities and give you a lot of v important guidance.
3. The brand value can matter a lot. Especially with Indian law firms. IMO, they are likely to see a top-ranked student from a lower NLU as equal to an above-average student from GNLU.
4. Culture and exposure: at GNLU, you will get a more stimulating environment. They have a very good mooting culture. They also host several moots and conferences, giving you great exposure. At another college, even though you may want to do something, you may be pulled back by a lack of teammates or lack of exposure. And a lot of us don't have enough self-motivation to put in the effort required to overcome these challenges, we are a product of our environment.

It may seem like it, but I am not advocating for changing schools. I'm just saying that if, like you said, you're from an NLU ranking in the bottom three, there may be some very material benefits that shifting to GNLU would offer. And the prime concern you may have, about 'age' isn't that big a deal. After graduation, many people spend two-three years working at Tier-2 or Tier 3 firms to get into Tier-1 firms. So if you get a better launching pad, you may just avoid that.

Why is it that sexual harassers are always from NLSIU Bangalore? The Group General Counsel who used to harass me used to play with his zip and many more things just to harass me.
If I ever told anyone he played with his zip while talking to me, I would have been blamed for looking down at his zip so I never wrote it down in my complaint.
This is the first time I am writing this because the matter is very old now and the company has shut down.
Anyways Karma caught him.

Knowing your CV inside out is the trick, it is repeated everywhere but what does it mean to know your CV? If you have been called for an interview, that means that 30-40% of your work is done already, now your CV is your bible.

There is no "best" way to go about "knowing" your CV, the study of CV would have to be done on a case-by-case basis, let me give you an example, if you have specified in your CV that you did some ICDR research on a particular proviso, then you just CANNOT stop at just knowing the particular research is not ENOUGH. You will need to know what is ICDR, why was it implemented, how is it practically used, what is an IPO, and so on and so forth. You need to know your topic of research very well and you must have a broad understanding of everything about the particular research that you have talked about. If you are still a beginner, then reading SEBI regulations straight up might be a little hard for you so I would advise reading articles on places like Mondaq or even LinkedIn.

Another example: Let us say you are a lateral hire and you specify that you have drafted an Employment Agreement for a company, then your knowledge of Employment Agreement would need to be thorough, be prepared for questions like
- Who is an employee?
- What kind of leaves is an employee entitled to?
- Dispute Resolution?
- The applicability of various labor laws like Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Shops and Establishment Act etc would also come in handy.

Thank about it practically, what would YOU ask a candidate if they claimed to have worked on a task "x"; this advice is left vague because there is no "right" answer. It will exclusively depend upon what you have written.

I am a first-year student from a 2nd-tier NLU. I have a lot of questions, a lot. I have separated them by subjects please answer any questions you can help me with. I and other people stumbling on this thread will appreciate it a lot.

Life in India after law
- Corporate
- How do I know if ill made for that or ill like doing it
- Are the work hours that bad?
- How long do you gotta work to have a life
- Is it worth it?
- Do people do it for a couple of years just to save money for something else like a masters? Is that a good
idea?
- Is there a good option for a good pay, condition, working hours in something like a boutique firm?
- Litigation
- Don’t really like it? Not really keen or interested in working in Indian courts tbvh
- As a first gen is it worth it? The life-work balance? Opportunities and pay?
- Something else? arbitration? Mediation
- Is arbitration something I should explore? Is there a space for it in India or abroad? If abroad how to seek it?
- Mediation? Same question as that of arbitration
- Academics
- How to check if you would like academics
- I know academics have a good work-life balance but are there prospects for it India for lets just say social
mobility, will it help someone to move up the economic scales or would it be a more, you stay where you are
kind of a job?
- Again what are the prospects in abroad for this? How to approach it?

Internships
- Connections
- I have seen how literally almost everything in law sector is based on connections and knowing the right
people. As a person with no connections how do you practically make connections with people in position to
give you favours and chances?
- How do you develop a person you know who can help you into a meaningful connection? I have known and
texted a couple of people in legal industries through competitions but it never goes beyond a couple of text
or max a call. How do you actually make sure make them into a “connection” not just for the profit of it but
connecting on a human level.
- How many?
- How many internships should one do?
- Should you do them at a law firm from sem 1 (I have seen people do it) does that help? Some even spend all
5 years in a law firm and learn everything as someone who doesn’t have that way what would be
recommended? Law firms? Boutique law firms?
- Should you do a running internship all along and balance your academics with it or are academics and
publications more important?

Masters and Abroad

- countries
- First of all how helpful is masters in landing a corp job or litigation or academics abroad?
- Second of all which countries are best for doing a masters in after 5 years?
- I have heard of people saying mostly US ans UK. Which ones are better. I understand that it depends on the
scholarship but I’m asking in general.
- What’s the avg scholarship one gets? What will be the expenses you will need to take?
- What’s the way one goes after the masters to essentially cash in on this invest cus at the end ill have to take
a loan for it.
- Scholarship
- What things do you need to get a shoclarship as in the academics
- What cgp?
- I heard your need to do social work? How should you do and how much?
- Do you need to have publications related to your masters field or can it be anything else? How many good
ones do you need?
- Masters
- Is it worth it to do a masters? Will be essential to get some kind of employment abroad? Or can you get one
with our one
- Bar and litigation
- I have heard some people planning to do masters in us and uk and giving bar there to practise litigation there
in a firm or associates.
- How would you go about this without connections as of right now
- How much would it totally cost to do something like this??
- Is any of this worth it?

1. Not entirely true - depends on the team. Quite a few T1 and high paying boutique teams do work in lower courts and partners/PAs often argue those matters. The experience in courts is real either way. On the do they allow associates to take up bit - not sure what this means. If you’re talking about bringing small matters to the firm - again that would depend on the team - some boutiques would be okay, some T1s definitely not.
2. Can’t say about Bangalore
3. Yes it is. However, some Tier 1 firms will cut experience for someone coming from non t1/t2 firms. This would depend on the hiring partner and team, but generally they would cut a few years of experience especially if someone is coming from chamber practice.
4. Money in disputes teams is now the same as Corp teams, so if you’re looking for financial stability then join a T1. You can forget about work life balance. But if you’re okay settling for lesser money then go for a mid size firm. That depends on the trade off you want to make.

All the following data are from personal experiences or heard from close friends and family -
AZB Offline Mumbai is 3,000₹.
Trilegal Online is 16,000₹
L&L/Saraf Online is 10,000₹
SAM Online 0₹
KCo Mumbai online 9,000₹ (+- 3000 variable)
Anagram Partners online 10,000₹
CAM Online 10,000₹
LinkLegal online 0₹
Gravitas Legal Online 0₹
ICICI Bank online 10,000₹
DSK Legal online 0₹
Dhir and Dhir online 0₹
Regstreet online 5,000₹ (variable)
Remfry Sagar online 0₹
Rajaram Legal online 0₹
SRGR Law associates online 0₹

I joined a PSU way back in 2016. I belonged to a decent NLU and yet I joined this h*llhole. I had received an offer from a decent T2 Firm. At first, I thought the perks were attractive (financial and otherwise). Boy, I was so mistaken! The money is not even comparable 3 years down the line. Most of the additional perks are not even remotely enough to cover your expenses (rent etc. is pathetically insufficient!). Also, You'd know that the officers in PSUs lose out on the Taxation aspect big time as they are not on retainers. Once someone joins a PSU, the market value forever decreases. You cannot even think of joining the litigation offices as the advocates will despise you and you will be under the command of people of your age. Moreover, when you join some place as an associate afterwards, you'll be reminded of the lost years.

The worst part is the working environment. Incompetency and sycophancy go hand in hand. Moreover, people having powerful connections will get good postings and others will rot in unproductive and repetitive paper work. Every year, you'll ask yourself if you have learned anything at all. The answer would be that you have forgotten all the skills you had back in the day and have learned nothing new. Moreover, getting shouted at by incompetent bosses for no fault of yours, s*cks! Personally, I had reached a place where my younger brother made thrice my yearly income and used to be 10X satisfied with his work. PSUs are not the way forward. Merit is never almost never rewarded. Anyone who knows a minister/bureaucrat gets ahead in the line. Way Ahead.

My advice- Be very careful while making this decision. If you wish to stay at a PSU all your life (& suffer the consequences), then feel free to join. A change in career midway is almost impossible. The pay is attractive now but it will be insufficient to meet your expectations and relatively much less when compared to your peers who would have climbed up the ladder in Firms/Litigation. If you have an option of joining a firm, please join it asap. The PSU I had joined had made me sign a bond for 3 years. I thought I'd leave after that. But by then no one needs you! You'll be trapped. Sad but true! Hope, you guys save yourselves from this tragedy! Best.

I don't know if anyone is going to find this useful. But if you're going to do RTI Activism. Please take some basic safety measures:

1. Always do your activism outside your home state. If you want to do it in your state, find an activist friend from another state to file the requisite applications. This will prevent you from being identified directly.

2. This is important. Go to your post office and open a PO Box. It is usually a nominal rental of like 250 a month or something. You can use this address as an address for correspondence for your RTI Applications. You may consider opening more than one and switching addresses while filing applications.

3. Lastly, if you're doing activism, never agree to come and collect the reply in person. You can always demand they send it by post. It will take a few days but you will get it by post.

4. Use a new email address for correspondence and e-RTI applications. Open this up preferably in a foreign based location using a VPN.

Some safety tips.

A guy saw you, probably thought you were interesting and asked you out. Don't overanalyze it. Gaydar is overrated. It is hard for us queer people to identify someone's sexual orientation because no one walks with a signboard on their heads or rainbow flags draped around them 24×7. Whether you are gay/bi or not is something only you can answer. There is no such thing as coming off as gay to a third person (unless you have shown any interest in men from your side) and if people think that, it is probably from a lack of education about these things. Being homosexual is a sexual orientation, it doesn't suddenly change a conventionally manly man into a less "bro" man or a less conventionally manly man into something else. I have many gay male friends who are more "bro" than all the straight men in my life and many straight male friends who are not into your typical dude-bro lifestyles. There is no one type of gay man, so such assumptions are ridiculous.
Also, just because you're not interested in women does not mean you're gay. You could be aromantic/asexual or both. Or you could be straight but demisexual. You are gay only if you are sexually interested in men and not in women at all. An absence of interest in women does not equate to being gay. If people are assuming your sexual orientation, it's just based on backward thinking based on stereotypes. You should tell them you are uncomfortable with it.
That said, on your end, I think you need to be a little more secure in your masculinity. Your comment reeks of self doubt and of insecurity in how you are coming off to others. Don't let this get to you.

I got to hear from my peers that SAM does not pay any stipend to its interns and AZB only pays 3000 bucks in 2022(!!!) to its intern (online/offline). I am not sure whether this information is correct. Can community please verify? (If its true) Then no stipend or Rs 3000 (which like 100 Rs per day sufficient enough for good old 80s) is too less and at worse disrespectful to the intern. This fact is surprising for and utterly shameless for firms like AZB and SAM who have very high billable/s and who talk about a fictitious diversity at their home/career pages. Not to mention interns from middle class background cannot afford (8k (travel) + 20k (Stay and food) 5-10K (miscellaneous/formals) 30-40K for cities Like Delhi, Mumbai (70k) and Bangalore which creates an unlevelled playing field which Is easy to walk by rich trust fund progeny. Please use this space to call out these firms and any other firm that abuses Interns as a form of white collar corporate underpaid mostly unpaid labor.

For anyone else considering this, take it - at least, here are some points you can consider. I’m from the graduating batch of 2022 and joined SAM recently. Batchmates have made it to Linklaters (1), KCO (10+), AZB (8+), Trilegal (3-5), CAM (3), SAM (not sure of exact numbers across offices), JSA (3+), Indus, Argus(2), LKS (5+), and various other firms/companies.

Seniors are incredibly helpful, and many of us, myself included, got internships/assessments through their reference. Join any club at college that fits your interest, build good relationships, and they’ll come back to help you out later.

I’m not going into any ranking discussion here, those become enormously subjective below the top 5 NLUs and are meaningless in terms of actual benefits that you get at placements. Placements are better than almost all law universities below the top 5 (pro), but conducted on a rolling basis (con). You have a great shot at magic circle firms now as well (in the 2018-23 batch, 3 people were shortlisted for Links’ final interview. In the Silver Circle, I know of at least 1 person who made it to HSF’s final interview). Tier 1 placements are notable - AZB, Khaitan, JSA and CAM come to campus/offer assessments. The rest you can reach out to seniors who are working there, and they’ll help you out with internships. Tons of my current juniors are doing the same. Many of my batchmates currently at Trilegal/Khaitan got similar help. I did for my initial internship too.

LLMs are quite standard and at par with other top law schools - this year, per usual, people got Oxbridge, LSE, UCL, etc.

Alumni base is one of the strongest in India - but the university has burnt bridges with some Partners. They are very receptive to you asking for help on LinkedIn though, I can attest to this from personal experience. Many seniors from Uni are SAs at A&O, Freshfields, etc. A quick LinkedIn search can get you further info.

We have a stellar record at competitions. We’ve won FDI, are the highest Indian team to have qualified at WUDC, were semi-finalists at Man Lachs, have made it to the rounds (post further international breaks) at Jessup, Vis etc. Students repreatedly get published by OUP, international blogs, OxHRH, etc. These are great from a college perspective only however, so don’t just base your decision on this.

Overall it’s a great school, and has a lovely culture. It is a little expensive however, a point well made above. That said, you also have scholarships available - although scholarships by themselves are uncertain (BA/BBA LLB have around 140 students each - so it’s competitive) and therefore shouldn’t be given a big weight in financial decisions.

Also Viman Nagar is a beautiful place to spend 5 years at. Take your call, and if you do come here, you surely won’t regret it. :)

This is a list basis work, reputation and clientele, not culture. TMT is a vast area, so in my opinion good to bear in mind the kind of TMT work you would like to do -
Media - Gowree Gokhale at NDA, Ranjana Adhikari at Indus, Ameet Naik at Naik & Naik, Chandrima at DSK Legal, Saikrishna Rajgopal
Telecom - Stephen Mathais at Kocchar; Nikhil Narendran at Trilegal, Abhishek Malhotra @ TMT Law
Data - Nehaa Chaudhari at Ikigai, Rahul Mathan at Trilegal, Mathew Chacko at SRL, Arun Prabhu at CAM
Fintech - Anu Tiwari at CAM, Aparajita Srivastava at Ikigai Law; Mathew Chacko at Spice Route, Nikhil Narendran
Gaming - Ranjana Adhikari at Indus, Gowree Gokhale at NDA
Satcom and Space - Abhishek Malhotra @ TMT Law, Anirudh Rastogi at Ikigai, Ashok GV at Factum Law
Policy - Rahul Mathan at Trilegal, Nehaa Chaudhari at Ikigai
New tech - Anirudh Rastogi at Ikigai Law, Huzefa Tavawala at NDA
Blockchain - Anirudh Rastogi at Ikigai Law, Jaideep Reddy at NDA
VC - Archana Rajaram at Rajaram Legal, Roma Priya at Burgeon, Srinivas Katta at Indus Law, Manvindar Singh at JSA

Even thou this is a troll question, let me answer this as my father was a Jawan and now working as a Gun man in a private bank, I also studied LLB and is an advocate at district court. I am from a poor middle class family.

The regular Army Jawan is academically as competent as a typical below average law student (not including about NLU or some rich mans private universities)

Officers are a class apart, and are not a part of Agneepath scheme. An average Army officer is more talented than an NLU graduate. He is also rich from wealthy families.

The initial 4 years of being an Agneever is awesome. Training is difficult, but Work and life balance and pay is better.

But after that?

You are in trouble.

At the age of 28 you don't have any skills for regular. Your army work ethic doesn't work in the private sector.

Of course - you would have a financial cushion of 10 L + some savings. But transition into private sector will be difficult.

From a salary of Rs. 40'000, you will have to do security guard or manual job which pays less than 15'000.

Generally Army Jawans retire after 14 to 20 years - they have multiple benefits including a small pension. An average jawan who retired at 40 has a better life than the agniveer who retired at 27.

Below average law student in a seniors chamber?

Initial salary will be 2000 to 3000 Rs per month.

But over 4 years - this can increase upto 30'000 Rs. Over the years - salary stays same or even goes upto 50'000 Rs per month (if they are talented) even ugly idiot lawyers after 5 years make 20000.

An Agniveers life is easy in the initial 4 years. But a below average lawyers life is better in the long run.

I studied in a Government Law College in south. Comparisons are supposed to be illustrative rather than to make a debate over that.

All of them know I'm Queer. Do all of them acknowledge it? No. You're treated about the same. Except the older bosses will stop asking you about marriage plans after a whole (this is a relief). Coming out to my colleagues was straightforward for me. They sent a list of all staff with mobile numbers and gender pronouns affixed. I wrote back "gently requesting" that my pronoun be changed to Mx. The admin did the googling and soon everyone was aware of the situation.

Work is largely Don't ask Don't tell as far as private matters are concerned. I always have felt sexuality is on a need to know basis and no one at work really needs to know. But yes with pronouns, I'm quite open and don't like it when I'm called Mr/Ms.

I'm actually lucky to work here I guess.

Hi. Having been thorugh a very difficult crisis myself, this advice might be a little strange.
But consider this - It is fine to not have a job when you graduate. It is also fine to not have a job months after you graduate. Life is tragically short. We live our lives thinking we are invincible, and our loved ones are immortal. Then suddenly, reality strikes. The only thing that stood out for me in your post was that you have to take care of your parents. Do that. Everything else is white noise. We're chasing the shiny stuff for them right? Might as well chase more time with them.

As far as jobs are concerned, find a remote gig. There are plenty out there, and while they might not pay as much, you will still manage to keep the momentum going.

LI is full of sharks, which is good in a way, since we get to learn from their experience, but they might also lack empathy. It might be best if you filter the advice received here accordingly.

Hey, the 2 weeks stint is standard, go for it! :)

I recently joined the firm myself. Initially had a 2 week stint, and was lucky to get an extension worth a week.

It was a particularly busy period, and during my extension I was the only intern. A couple of mandates were nearing filing, so I managed to get a lot of work from the SA who I was working with - I believe this was a big help.

I agree with the points some have made above, about visibility being an issue should your internship be virtual, but I wish you the best - if it’s a busy month, your work and follow-ups (even if on WhatsApp) will give you plenty of opportunities to interact.

I’ve seen some comments suggest that a PPO without a call-back isn’t readily given at Sam. I don’t particularly know if this is true - I was able to get a PPO after a 3 week stint, and I would primarily attribute it to the workload on the team (which allowed me to get a lot of delegated work).

Broad points, basis my experience, would be - (a) ask your SA for work everyday (some days might have downtime, and it’s perfectly alright for you to not be given much work then. Don’t stress out - work will come to you over the period of your stay at the firm); (b) follow-up with them should they have constructive points of feedback - always suggest that you’re ready to make changes/edits if any; (c) try to take all bits of work that come your way, but if you’re working on a deliverable make that clear to the Associate or SA who contacts you (they will generally not overload you with work - quality matters more); (d) extending on the last point - don’t worry if any Co-intern is turning in work faster, again, quality should be your priority too - and this way of looking at deliverables that I submitted, worked for me as well (of course, do finish your work within reasonable timeframes, just don’t try to over-hasten the process); (e) ask your SA for an extension about 2 days before the end of your two week stint; and (f) again, 2 days before the end of your extension ask them if they are looking for an associate at the moment, and if you could be recommended for the role, if they are.

I work in SAM Delhi, and the people I’ve interacted with so far have been really helpful and nice.

I wish you all the very best, and hope that you convert the internship to a job. Good luck! :)

Same scenario here

Early morning convos help. Try different e-date ideas: stuff that you can do over the weekends say cooking, or cleaning up.
fix up a specific time every day outside of work hours to talk and catch up.

if you see a future with her in the long run, it is defo worth putting in the efforts :)

Basically the subject.

@Kian@R Please approve this thread. It may be useful/fun. Also, I'm open to all questioning. Even an offensive line. So if it's approved, gentle request for moderating questions with a light touch.

Worked there in their Banking team a while back. Found it to be a very good place to work. Heard they recently have increased the retainer fee as well but not sure of the actual figures.

The seniors are really good to work with, ive never faced any issue during my time. Their work is real estate centric but they've been doing Banking and IBC for sometime as well. Would recommend 100%.

The only thing you need rn is your own confidence in your decision and way forward.

The people at your organisation seem supportive, which is great. Don't worry about everyone accepting and supporting you. That's something very rare irrespective of your transition.

There will always be haters. At the end its your capability which will show who and what you are, so just work hard and focus on that.

Good luck!

It isn't pretentious to take care of oneself and dress nicely. When you dress nicely, you demonstrate to the rest of the world that you care about yourself and that your life is in order. As a client, I would want my lawyer to dress nicely; if he dresses with attention, it suggests he takes himself seriously, which means he will treat my work seriously as well.
Moreover, a well made suit is similar to modern day armour in that it makes you feel better about yourself. Furthermore, it requires discipline to get up on time, shave, and then dress nice, which, as I already stated, shows that your life is in order. We often dress nicely for a date or a party in order to look our best. Why not do it on a daily basis? Why not strive to be our best every day?
My grandfather used to dress immaculately every day when I was a kid, as if to show us that he was ready for anything. He was extremely proud of his work and the way he handled himself. It had a lasting impression on me, and I now link "dressing nicely" with discipline. It's not a matter of pretense; rather, it's a matter of taste, confidence, and habit.

If you like being in-house, see how you can create a role for yourself (even perhaps within the same organisation - may take a year and some deft relationship building) that is more exciting. Both in-house jobs I've had I've been able to fashion something for myself that is more than/ different from the original JD advertised - because once I was in the door I could prove my chops and display ambition. I wouldn't go back to law firm life if you paid me 10x to. My time, health, relationships, fitness, hobbies, occasional navelgazing -- all matter too much to me ;-)

I mean, dude I wrote comment 18, I think it’s click bait for y’all to allow this bullshit in here in the first place. Best case scenario you thought you could win this argument and legitimately believed this issue was worth the bother. In which case you’re wrong- you don’t play chess with a pigeon, it’ll shit all over the board and then strut around smugly as if it won. Worst case scenario - you decided website needed clicks so why not do a troll war. You play stupid games though and you’ll win stupid prizes. Y’all want to think long term about what this website and forum can be for the legal profession? Or you want to be my mad uncles Facebook wall?
Moderation exists for a damn reason- filter out this garbage. The more you let people like this set the rules for the game- the more you will fail. Refuse to play. Refuse to discuss nonsense issues like this. If you want to do political discussion- at least ensure it’s worthwhile no? We’re lawyers, we can all reasonably come together to discuss policy, but this isn’t what it looks like.

Isn’t it fascinating how Ayn Rand’s caricature of the evils of socialism is someone who hates the individual liberty of some random architect, and thus uses his cultural capital, material capital, and general tools of power under capitalism to ruin him? Ayn Rand’s paradigm is possible only under capitalism because under socialism, the means of production would be collectively owned and nobody would have Toohey’s power. That power, btw, the power to force servility and subservience, and to breed yes-men and ruin everyone you don’t like? A feature of capitalism. Impossible outside capitalism.

Add to the conceptual absurdity of Ayn Rand’s work this little nugget: she died collecting social security checks, from the big exchequer of the big state (welfare is a form of central planning btw).

Free speech is a red herring here. It's all nonsense, isn't it? we're really discussing whether it's our right to point out the awful stuff in other people's religion when unemployment is the highest it's been, when fuel prices are sky rocketing, and in the aftermath of a pandemic that left almost every household in the country with dead friends and relatives? This is what you want to focus on? Why is this more important to you than food in the bellies of infants?

This is what the government undoubtedly wants you to focus on, they'd rather you spend your time hating minorities than asking questions about governance and transparency. Why is this more important to you?

I'm an atheist, I can tell you there are as many offensive/ ridiculous things in Hindu scripture. there's also ridiculous offensive stuff in Christian scripture. Nupur Sharma did not go out there and call every religion and tell us how they were all built on these awful stories, she's no free speech hero. She's not David standing up to Goliath, she's not pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, she's the carnival barker eager to distract you so that you don't ask the actually important questions. The commitment to free speech is not just about " I should be able to put others down", its a responsibility to ensure that our speech is meaningful and leads to a better world.

Kian and R, I blame you for allowing this thread to begin with, knowing well about the trash that it would produce. Many of these comments actually count as hate speech, no matter how disguised they are. It adds exactly zero contribution to free speech and enlightened debate and all that jazz. I've got half a mind to screenshot and report these. If you can't run a forum meant for actual lawyers and the law, then close it. Don't add on to the already existing garbage in the Internet.

Don't listen to average Joes instead invest heavily in your attire and always dress fancy because first impression is the last. If you're pleasent looking your life will become much much easier.

• Get 2 pair of suits made, a charcoal one and navy blue one as they are most versatile. Remember to spend good amount of money in suits and make sure the fitting is perfect. I personally would suggest you to go to Raymond and tailor make your suits, after you make the big bucks you can switch to luxury brands. For now Raymond will do. Remember fitting is the key, be very minute with the details. Style your lapels according to your width and height. Brands are secondary but fitting is primarily and will decide how you look.
• Buy a decently priced analog watch, digital watches make you look juvenile. I personally would suggest you to get a metal strap because they are more versatile but if you have the money go for leather watches because they look good. You can start with Seiko, Fossil or Hilfiger and you can upgrade it over the years.
• Invest in a good quality cologne. My personal favourite is Dior Sauvage and Davidoff Cool water for the summers but if you don't have that kind of money you can go for Titan Skinn, Rasasi, Zara or even Club de Nuit. Don't go for a cheap cologne because they smell too artificial.
• Buy 3,4 pairs of shirts. I personally like to wear only white shirts but you can buy beige, powder blue and even light pink shirts. Also, if possible tailor your shirts too and get French Cuffs. They look good and a good pair of cufflinks will elevate your style like no other. Only wear tailored pants. Black, navy blue and steel grey are the only colours of pants you should wear.
• Buy exquisite ties, remember ties will always elevate your style and so invest in good quality silk ties and make sure to wear them daily. Don't buy too flashy ties at the end of the day you're a lawyer so dress accordingly.
• Lastly, match your belts and shoes. Always buy leather because they look good. Invest heavily on shoes and belts because they will last a lifetime. Buy Oxfords, brown and black are the only colours to follow. Don't buy tan and don't wear Brogues or Monk Staps. You're in a formal setting so dress accordingly.

I think these are the absolute basics to keep in mind. There are many more things you can do to elevate your style but that's for another day and because you're an associate I am not explaining to you what to wear in parties.

PS: Dress impeccably but don't garner attention and always remember less is more.

Firstly, NUJS has been established by an Act of the state legislature. Remember how the domicile quota was introduced? Didn't even bother having a discussion etc in the EC/GC. At any rate those worthies then and now could care less.

Secondly, unlike certain univs that started as "state univs" but were "taken over" by the centre and bestowed INI status, such as IIEST in WB or RRU in Gujarat (there are other examples as well), the GoI has repeatedly underlined that NLUs (including NUJS) are not "central univs"; will not receive regular/earmarked "central funds"; and that the GoI has no intention of taking them over.

Thirdly, NUJS is a bit of oddity like some other NLUs, which are state univs with CJI (or CJ of HC) as Chancellor. But having CJI or CJ as Chancellor does not change the fact that NLUs are state university. "National" means zilch. NLUs were fluffed up as IITs/IIMs for law but the founding father(s) were always aware of the realities. NLUs are designed to be VC fiefdoms.

Fourthly, I really don't think NUJS is included in the new Bill. The CM is going after state univs that historically had the Governor as Chancellor and also erasing his/her presence from current and upcoming private univs. NUJS does not feature in that "list". NUJS matters to certain party apparatchiks, including regime friendly judges (former and current).

Fifthly, despite the presence of CJI as Chancellor and other non-party folks especially the "venerable" judges and academics, NUJS has been in terminal decline for almost a decade now. The rot began to stink with PIB and has now reached epic proportions under NKC. We must not forget the contributions of Lord Taluk and his friends such as a former AG, an evergreen Lokayukt and the newly crowned SHRC chief. There were others as well.

Sixth, when the domicile quota issue hit us, there was a mob frenzy that this was that "one big thing" which will bring NUJS down. The same sentiment is being worked up again. The univ will largely be what "we" make it to be. If "we" are a self-serving lot, then the powers that be will continue to do what they have always done. But are "we" going to shun the easy ways and desist from striking private deals?

Someone mentioned technical multiple choice questions were asked in 2021 so I don't think the info I can provide would be of any help. But in 2020, there were 6 to 7 personality based questions. These questions were mostly direct questions about your schooling, family, etc. Afaik. The only technical question was related to a article 25 of the Constitution afaik. The word limit was probably 300 words.

Nope. Having to work for a living is not slavery. It sucks that your work conditions are not what you want. but its not slavery. Slavery is its own beast. It's not this indirect pressure of " do this job to maintain your lifestyle". slavery- is work for ZERO money, backed by the ever-present threat of violence. " Do what I say or we will kill/ mutilate/ torture/rape you". Slavery is not " I will hire you, give you terms, and hold you to them", slavery is " You are not a person, you are a thing that I own and I can do with as I wish to". Actual enslaved people were raped so they could breed more enslaved people, actual enslaved people were tortured and lynched. Your body is still your own. and yes it might be a bad/ selfish/ undesirable choice for you to quit your law firm job, but it is still a viable freaking choice. Don't act like you have to do a law firm job to survive, plenty of people in the world survive and don't do law firm jobs.

Not everything is about you. You don't have the worst lot in life. I get it- law firm work sucks. But slavery is not an abstract concept. It is a real thing. It happened to many many people not very long ago, and it happens to people today as well. This is why no one empathizes with law firm folks- they have no self awareness/ awareness of society. You can whine about your work without calling it slavery. You behave selfishly in not even bothering to understand what someone else has gone through and not even bothering to be respectful in your language and then whine about how no one has sympathy for you? its ridiculous.

Hi, I am a fresh graduate, let me explain the whole thing.

Since 2nd year, I have tried to get as much Internet exposure, as I could. Later, I got featured in The Telegraph for the website, which I made back then. The reason it got featured, was because, I learned SEO and through consistent efforts, it has been getting millions of impressions a month. [Reference: https://www.telegraphindia.com/edugraph/campus/two-students-of-symbiosis-law-school-hyderabad-launch-virtual-platform-for-legal-help/cid/1844895].

Soon after the publication, I was approached by many businesses, journalists, channels, etc.

Meanwhile, I have also been active on LinkedIn and have been posting as many informative pieces as I could and connecting with people who could ideally ask me for any legal help. [Example: Startup founder, developers, etc]. There are two kinds of posts on LinkedIn. One, which attracts likes, but no clients (superficial stories stuff), and the other which gets almost no like, but lots of queries (later converting to clients). And yes, interviews also help, it authenticates your credentials.

During Covid, I started making YouTube videos (Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RohitPradhan/). I was so serious that I invested 70k from my savings for the equipment and also learned video editing. I got the inspiration to start the channel, from one Delhi-based lawyer who makes YouTube videos (Amish Aggarwal). Fast forward 1+ years, I am a kind of a pro in video editing. (high-paying gig in foreign). I use SEO tools like VidIQ to find topics that people are trying to find on YouTube and then make videos on the same (usually on holidays/weekends).

I have been to multiple forums and it has been worth it. By the end of 2020, I had six figures monthly earnings through freelancing, though it's super volatile. For example, One foreign client approached and asked if his brand could get trademarked in the US. All it required was simple due diligence and research and the offer was 45k INR for the same. Back then, it was mind-boggling for me and a "nice deal" for them.

Because I started to earn, I started to pay interns, content-writers, freelancers, etc as a student. It felt good because I was doing my bit against unpaid work prevalent in the legal community.

For anyone who is planning to start their online presence, I would say, expect nothing and give as much as you could to the platforms.

Now coming to the dark side. I never got internships at any Tier-1 firms. It always feels that it had to do with my side-hustle. So, I always wonder about the kind of work culture, they have and what I am missing out on. However, on the brighter side, I learned lots of soft skills and about client-oriented issues.

Having said that, I have seen many hate posts on people who have been active on Social Media and promoting themselves. I never understood the reason for the same, but I feel, it has to do with cringe content out there. So I try my best to not make one. :-P

I hope this comment gives some value to you all there, who are thinking to go online.
Rule of making good content: The Office Season 3, Episode 16 - Time Stamp- 20:13 (countdown)

Chernobyl level toxic. You will turn into Hritik just to be able to type more and faster- and fill your time sheets. Then suzzanne will leave you. Your hairline will become like Rajesh Roshan. Your Pinky will lie unused for ages. Then you will quit reciting Zindagi Na milegi dobara dialogues. You will open a dive school somewhere and won't even get Kat coz now even she's married. You and sallu can have a biriyani together and drink virgin mojitos.

Ok bye moshy moshy.

Hi,

I have been through this process and having considered it strongly, would advise you against it unless you are absolutely not cut out for law and want to do a MBA to switch fields.

Doing MBA from an IIM does not make financial sense if you are at a T1 Law firm. International MBA is a different scene.
Post MBA, your salary is going to be 25-30 LPA approx assuming you get into MBB Consulting. You will be making more money as a SA at a T1 law firm and the work life is just as bad. Also, as a lawyer, assuming you make it to IIM A/B/C your options are severely limited post MBA. We can forget about PE/Investment banking, since we'll have to compete with CA gold medallists and CFA holders who have worked on balance sheets for the last 10 years. Product management and tech consulting you will have to compete with IIT/NIT toppers who have spent 3+ years writing code and developing software. Our only options are strategy/esg/management consulting. And everyone wants the limited MBB jobs that are available. Not to mention that there are a fair chunk of SRCC/Stephen's grads in IIMs who have already spent a few years in consulting and are now eyeing a bigger post MBA position at MBB. Especially a year outside college, there is very little practical knowledge and big picture understanding that we have. My thought process was this - as a lawyer I can be at the top of my game but as a management grad, every day will be a struggle to catch up with my competition, who knows tech inside out, can do complex calculations in their head, and know financials inside out.

Here is my guesswork for future leaders (say in the next 10-15 years) these will be the persons leading the current top 10 (solely in my opinion) law firms, in no particular order or ranking:

AZB: Ashwath in Mumbai and Gautam in Delhi.
CAM: BRO and SIS Shroffs.
SAM: A few more Shroffs (and maybe NSC).
Trilegal: Nishant (he is never going to give up control, unlike most original founders).
KCO: One of the next gen Khaitans (with haigreev still around to advise) and a few others namesake to fill up management.
S&R: Sudip in Mumbai, maybe along with Rachael to form the new S&R.
L&L: Dead and buried.
S&P: Kakkar.
JSA: Whoever is the most political to win the exec committee elections.
Induslaw: Manan or some other new lateral partner.

I interned at their Mumbai office fairly recently. Honestly, had a great experience. Of course, there were some odd people. But that would be true for any place. And as an intern, you should try to focus on exposing yourself which makes AZB Mumbai the ideal choice, you tend to work on matters that the teams are actively looking at. Also, don't feel too disheartened if in the first week you get a lot of list of documents, just show them that you are willing to work and interest will definitely come your way.

Tip- Be a lil smart about who you take work from (after a couple of days you will understand some of your senior's patterns).

A physical interview will proceed in the same manner as an online interview. So have the same level of preparation. However, it is advisable to carry at least 3-4 copies of your resume so that each panelist has one and you have one extra copy to refer to. Additionally, it would be great if you carry certificates that support your achievements, in the event the panelists want proof. Stay calm and you'll do well. All the best!

Comments section of LI with 'Anonymous On' reminds me of that quote- " give a person a mask and they will show you their true face".

While I am from CAM and not a millenial- wonder why this incessant cribbing and threats and wailing and crying- quit macha! Why be miserable if you are. No one's got you by your balls. Show your indominable free spirit! Go save yourself and the world and the turtles.

Go start a cafe in mussoorie. Or are you too used to Avocado on toast, and your Pumpkin Spiced latte?

Math question.

Cam AC works all day regardless of number of people. If 100 people WFH, 100 additional ACs run that day. Offset it with lesser cars/cabs. At what number does this become carbon negative?

Any college kid want to do the math? Send answers to CAM HR for a shot at an internship.

I am a very goal oriented and hardworking person and it'll get weird but this is why I am not able to make any friends here. Everyone in my batch is into drugs or rating girls or chasing girls with no idea of where they'll end up post law school. They look at me with tainted eyes and consider me selfish and outlier while all I do is mind my own business and not get into pity politics or toxic masculine discussions (almost inhumane comments too), I'm not able to get many friends around me who are serious about getting a good job and hence feel lonely many-a-times. I am mostly a very strong person but I feel it sometimes, the lack of good company around and it's as if it's a lone wife I am fighting. And hence I now realise why people encourage you to join tier 1 law schools because the crowd itself makes it worth the time. Here my friends pull me down on every occasion and try to gang up against me with shitty politics and groupism. I don't get into any group because they are ideologically pathetic and all with the end goal to lie and get laid with chicks. This is just not me fundamentally.

3-4 questions to fellow seniors and passouts:
1) Should I change myself? Even if I don't want to study or slog hours, I like sports, watching sports, reading books and talking things about life (talking meaningful things is almost impossible with all these YOLO and Create Memories Now For Later people around me).
2) Is it normal for people in law schools to not have many friends and develop good friend circles later on in life? How did you people deal with lack of a social life in your years at law school.
3) When everyone is so casual around you, how did you keep yourself motivated and focused (not so much applicable to Tier 1 passouts due to the crowd control based on merit and opportunities with it)
4) Should I start approaching fellow law students from my batches of other colleges and talk positive career related and productive stuff with them (on LinkedIn and other platforms? This thought has concurred to me many times before also but am too lazy/shy to go ahead)

5) Last and foremost, I don't see any girl who is of my type with similar interests, and those who are there are out of my league. This is out of context from the entire problem above but is it fine to pass out of law college without any relationship if I can't find a girl with my bandwidth and aukaat? Or should I like other folks start forced conversations and follow girls everywhere in hope of getting settled with anyone pretty? I am not in the zone for a relationship now and don't think I would be able to enter that phase in the next few years too. The school seniors make it seem as if law school is the last phase to get laid and post a law firm job you'll never be able to date anyone ever? How true is it? I would assume women too would mature with age and it would be possible for lawyers to date (or somehow squeeze them in schedule) well into their 20s? I really would appreciate insights as I in my head would date well with more in matured women somewhere in mind 20s (no Old Young Milf jokes please).

I think I have written a lot so I welcome you all to help me with the two broad issues I face. With not many (very few) good productive friends around me and with not wanting to date right now (mind you it's not incel mindset or anything, I have rejected a couple of girls due to not being "my type")
Will I turn all right, will I make it fine without becoming a half nutted brain-dead monster, had anyone else been here and how you're holding up now in your life? Is this complex phase common and will it pass?

If anyone wants to talk via anonymous emails please write at dangeruousformulaw@gmail.com

R I beg you to let this go please, I need people speaking into my head right now or I'll be worse off.

Since when are rich white billionaires the heroes of the labour movement ? Do y’all even know history? You want favourable work policies your natural allies are trade unionists and farmers and blue collar workers and women. They’re the reason you have the weekend, they’re the reason you have a lunch break and they’re the reason any further developments in labour norms will happen. Not because elon musk is on your side ffs.

She should've won.

The case in general was so poorly conducted. The judge herself put forward this trial to be made public (Johnny agreed and Amber did not) which has resulted in the circus it is today. The court reporter was seen partying with Depp 5 days before the verdict was released. The jury was obviously influenced by the propaganda that they saw on social media and even otherwise were absolutely incompetent (lack of actually paying attention during the trial, didn't fill the form correctly, barely any deliberation). In fact this case shouldn't have been tried in Virginia at all. There is no basis and the judge's reasoning for the same is pathetic. It's like saying that just because there's a McDonald's outlet in Virginia, therefore it can be tried there. The real reason Virginia was chosen by Depp's team was because it's a state in which domestic abusers are let off easy.

Even if we were to ignore the procedural irregularities, there's loads of evidence against Johnny Depp to prove that he is in fact an abuser. This case is a loss for victims (not just women) and is going to set a dangerous precedent for the future. If despite so much evidence, you still cannot prove abuse then what hope do victims have in the future when going against powerful people. It's going to enforce a culture of silence. Nobody cares about victims anyways, but this is going to make it worse. People going around talking about how he's a victim. He's not. He's so far from it. You want to talk about real victims there are hundreds of other cases but this is not that one.

This is gonna open a bag of worms as you can see former abusers (Depp's friends) are planning on or are already bringing cases against the people who accused them (Marilyn Manson etc.). The model of PR and bots has proven to be successful. Watch them exploit it and try to turn their cases around.

It's disgusting to see how she was treated and years down the line, documentaries are going to release about how she deserved justice, but its gonna be useless then.

This case is going to set a dangerous precedent for the future. - lack of video evidence when getting raped, perpetuation of the myth of "perfect victim", perpetuation of the myth of "mutual abuse", dismissing previous court trials for by saying that it was just one judge (or whatever other bullshit reason they gave), saying that such mean and repulsive texts are just venting (how can you think that its just venting. Even I've vented in the past but it doesn't go beyond saying stupid, idiot. Such repulsive texts are not made by normal people) etc.

Stop watching edited meme clips and actually see the evidence. It's so clear, its a shame she lost. I hope she appeals and wins the case, though I wouldn't blame her if she chooses to take a break from this shit show and spends time recovering.

Isiliye you buy a BMW when you have enough money for an Audi.
Sheer driving pleasure. The 330i Sport has a weight distribution of 50:50. Also, as always, it's a RWD car. It's engineered to put a smile on your face.
Love is overrated. Train yourself to be confident in your own skin and to enjoy your own company. Don't get me wrong, I am not against spending time with one’s family - Just that better finances will enable you to give your family confidence. Will give your parents the confidence to grow old - Unless they're sarkari babus with fixed pension or that they’ve saved up enough already.
My mom’s insurance costed me north of a lakh. No way I could have afforded that with a 50k job. Alto or not.

This is true. My Mom was having cancer and lived in a different city. My sister took care of her. I had to work to pay the bills. I couldn't get time to visit as often as I should have. I wasn't there the day she died cause I was working to help some company recover its blasted bills. Now my sister talks about all the time she spent watching TV with my mom before she died (cause cancer is slow, you get a lot of time where you do nothing) and I feel nothing but regret. I now hate my job. The people there. I hate everything. I am angry and I am devastated at the same time.

Choose people. You're career is not as important as time with people. You can't buy back time. You will soon get into the cycle where you work to earn so you can buy things for your family in order to apologise for not sharing the time you spent making that money with them. People want time. We owe it to give our people time.

I related so much to this question as I read it. I've been in your shoes, so here goes.

No one expects technical expertise from an intern. Show up, show a willingness to learn the law as you go along. Ask questions but always do your own research before you approach your seniors. You'll be surprised how many LLB/CA fora, blogs, law firm articles, etc. you'll come across which may answer your queries in fairly simple language - take this understanding BACK to the bare act and interpret it yourself. Read at least the index of the bare acts on the field you're interning in - that way you know what it covers, and where to look.

Again, a willingness to learn is all they expect of you. Don't be concerned about not knowing the specifics of law firm life - you'll learn about DDs and corporate law as you practice it. Although if you're in your 1st/2nd year of law school, serious interning opportunities are limited.

Lastly, general advice is to apply to a small team, perhaps at a Tier 2, make yourself indispensable as a long-term trainee there, and you have chances of getting an offer. Unfortunately, if you're from a no-name college, that is the only way to go about it. This does limit your chances to trying newer fields and teams, but numerous one-month internships only really work for NLU grads. You'll find it easy enough to move from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1.

Be sincere, and i assure you, your seniors will notice and appreciate it. Good luck!

Honest feedback: Currently, the HNLU VC is better. He has been trying to attract good faculty, not sure to what extent he might have succeeded so far. Difficult to get good people to HNLU because of the location.
NLIU has got a much bigger alumni advantage. As in, many more of their alum are currently in the industry, with partner positions in firms etc. Because of them, the placement scene will be better, so will the internship options.
Infra-wise, I visited both campuses and there is not a lot of difference. They are also collaborating on several programmes and events these days.
Crowd-wise: There is not a lot of quality gap between CLAT 500 and 2000 TBH, mostly the former has had a good day during the exam. NLIU students in general are somewhat more deferential to authority from what I have seen, although that might be generalisation.
Finally, if you get into the habit of working hard from now and get the best possible CLAT rank, that will be a good start for you to keep working hard while in either of these law schools and eventually, that will bring you to success.

Today's TOI clarifies that the rule applies to top 50 overall QS universities. The report quotes IIT graduates who are unhappy and complaining of discrimination. It turns out that IITs rank in certain specialised rankings within the top 50, but not overall.

Also, one needs to be in the the top 50 BOTH in QS and Times Higher Education. Thus, only 6 UK universities qualify at present: Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, KCL, UCL and Edinburgh. But as pointed out LSE only barely makes the top 50 in QS and could slip out.

Along with these universities, around 20-30 other universities make it to the top 50 of both lists, given below. The list of foreign universities is given below. Mostly from the US, but a few from Europe, China, Canada, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.

It is hard for the IITs to compete with Chinese, Japanese, Singapore and Hong Kong universities. There are rich countries with massive education budgets.

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL Switzerland)
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Karolinska Institute
Kyoto University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
McGill University
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
National University of Singapore
New York University (NYU)
Northwestern University
Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University
Peking University
Princeton University
Stanford University
Tsinghua University
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of California, San Diego
University of Chicago US
University of Hong Kong
University of Melbourne
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Munich (LMU Munich)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas at Austin
University of Tokyo
University of Toronto
University of Washington
Yale University

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list/high-potential-individual-visa-global-universities-list-2021

1. The sentiments of OP sound like a "pandemic batch" issue. Training was a challenge for all law firms in the pandemic. That does not make JSA an inherently toxic place or a terrible working environment. Having worked with other law firms, I know JSA has many wonderful people who do care about their teams and colleagues.

2. Bill share is a "variable" component that is not guaranteed to anyone. You are told this when you join, so if you do not understand how "variable" works, then it will be a problem for you.

3. JSA does not pay the same as other T1s. Whatever reward you get comes after several years here. But your life will not be completely destroyed by work.

4. JSA doesn't have the same business model as other firms so there is no basis for comparison. It also has a different training model than others. But you need to have some basic skills to do well here and if you do not meet that standard, no amount of training can help you.

5. OP has put all the blame on the system. I assume he or she has taken the time to reflect on why, by their own statement, other associates were in "war rooms" with their SAs and PAs while he or she was not.

There are two sides to this, and because LegallyIndia is crowded with the As, you may not get the whole picture of the SAs, PAs and others who have no time.

I identify as a religious individual and a devout Hindu. I have got absolutely no problem with jokes cracked about any religion including mine. For those who believe in the existence of God, it shouldn't matter because He is unlikely to be affected by any of that, just like we aren't affected from whatever the ants around us discuss about us. For those who are non-believers, God is just an imaginary delusion of some other people, so what's the problem with jokes about such delusion? Only humans get offended from jokes cracked about God, and that's not really their concern one way or another.

Says BJP trolls who have no idea about actual events in Bengal other than from whatsapp forwards or RW mouthpieces. As someone living in the state, who is no fan of TMC, I can say for sure that the situation is nowhere near anything demanding President's Rule or such drastic actions. A fact that senior BJP leaders in the Union Government are actually aware of.

No, it doesn't. 5-7 years back when I had quit my job as an associate this was one of the major factors that I had considered. My partner rarely left the office before I did and she was always there on time in the morning. I had a much longer commute from Navi Mumbai but that was beside the point. Even those who leave early from office are constantly checking their devices for emails and sending us emails asking for updates, reviewing other people's work and so on. So, no not unless you open your own firm, as long as you are working in a law firm built by someone else, partner is just another highly paid associate.

Be upfront about it.
On words of a senior competition partner, "Form drafting is simple. It only requires dilugence."

You will learn ropes easily once you have worked on a couple of Forms. Good practices would not be a stickler on M&A experience specially at your level.
This however comes with a grain of salt - if you are interviewing for a partner who only looks after M&A and not behavioural matters, the partner may not be able to appreciate your talent. So you need to prepare yourself on the basics of competition M&A work. As a starting point, try answering the below queries:

1. How would you assess whether a transaction is notifiable to the CCI? Here you need to know about the de minimis exemption, parties test, group test, Schedule I exemptions (focus specially on item, 1, 2, 8 &9.

2. When is Form I filed and when Form II?

3. What do you mean by gun-jumping?

4. Your views on Amazon Future invalidation order.

5. Interconnected transactions

Compensation figures for this year at Ikigai:
PA2 - Fixed 3.2L-3.6L, Bonus 20L
PA1 - Fixed 2.9L, Bonus 15.5L
SA2 - Fixed 2.4L, Bonus 13L
SA1 - Fixed 2.05L, Bonus 11L
A4 - Fixed 1.6L, Bonus 5L
A3 - Fixed 1.3L, Bonus 3L
A2 - Fixed 90k, Bonus 2L
A1 - Fixed 70k, Bonus 1.6L

1. Acquittal rates in criminal cases are based on lack of admissible evidence as well as prosecutorial competence, not the actual event or veracity of the complaint. Anyone who actually practises law should be aware of that.
2. Judges' comments can only be about the case that they are dealing with. No judge would comment about misuse in a case where they actually find the person guilty. In addition, since when are those comments anything more than anecdotal? Which judge has backed up his comment with verifiable stats, even if limited to the cases that he himself has dealt with?
3. There is an equally large if not larger number of lawyers arguing exactly the opposite thing. There is a reason statistics and anecdotes merit different treatment.
4. If everyone is filing false cases, how come the accused are not countering with suits for malicious prosecution after getting acquitted?
Remember that for every 498A matter filed, there are hundreds that do not see the light of the day. There is no criminal legal provision that is not susceptible to abuse.

This entire post and all the rumours associated with it have got nothing to do with NUJS or any NLU. It is meant for state universities that were having the Governor as the Chancellor, because of the Centre-State ongoing tensions. There are a couple of Bhakt trolls here who report everything about TMC in every post imaginable without any relevance or context. They are responsible for this post.

There is a beautiful temple where I grew up, it is over 800 years old and from a cursory look of the architecture it was clear that the temple was not like others, later I came to know that it was built by converting/repurposing (depending on your view) a Buddhist stupa. Can the Buddhists reclaim this temple?

On the contrary, it is YOUR research skills that are poor and so is R's moderation (to mark it featured and to mark as contested the comment that she has only 1 SC appearance in 2021).

You searched all of Indian Kanoon, including orders older than 2021 and HC orders. The search string you should have used is:

"Karuna Nundy" doctypes: supremecourt,scorders fromdate: 1-1-2021 todate: 31-12-2021

This still throws up 1 result.

Yours is a philosophy that recognizes force theory of law whereby sovereign is the one that has force and can implement its commands. As per that view you say that one's valid ownership titles can be decimated and extinguished by the sovereign if the sovereign applies that force to implement its commands of destructing temple and then issuing a firman to incongruently install domes on top and to resist any attempts at (regaining back control of)* such forcible conversion of property - no matter what the principles of equity, justice and good conscience may lead one to. As per that view, you also say that Britishers did not recognize valid title - and so there's no valid title merely because British was a sovereign, without considering the principles of equity, justice and good conscience.

Non-recognition by a sovereign is no basis to rejecting ownership titles. An ownership title is vested by the dint of application of one's labour and not because of recognition by a sovereign or not. The labour has to be justly applied and not through application of force or through an act of theft. I am owner of a car I build because of the above principle - not because the sovereign recognized my ownership. Well, my view is again a philosophy that I subscribe to.

I can bet on my life that my philosophy is what will usher in world peace, and your philosophy will only result in creating a system which is wrested between sovereigns with waxing and waning amounts of force.

I'll also tell you what your line of thinking and what your philosophy entails - Nazism. As per Nazis, jews were sub-humans who had no right of existence. As per your philosophy, it was okay for Nazis to kill jews because the prevailing sovereign of that time did not recognize their right of existence. Congratulations - you just legitimized the holocaust and many others preceding it.

I'd shudder to think of the value systems you have been raised on.

Depends on the firm:

Trilegal mein kuchh khaas nahiin poochhenge, since they are desperate to hire (and since people leave in a few months). You will simply be asked about your past competition experience.

SAM and AZB have multiple rounds. The first round will be very technical and grilling. At SAM you will be required to make a presentation at a later point.

Don't know about the rest.

It get the general point you're making but your search skills are rather underwhelming.

Nundy : https://indiankanoon.org/search/?formInput=%22Karuna+Nundy%22+sortby%3Amostrecent - 213 appearances

Vrindra : https://indiankanoon.org/search/?formInput=%22Vrinda+Grover%22+sortby%3Amostrecent - 320 appearances

Indira : https://indiankanoon.org/search/?formInput=%22Indira+Jaisingh%22++sortby%3A+mostrecent - 428 appearances

Mukul Rohatgi for context : https://indiankanoon.org/search/?formInput=%22mukul+rohatgi%22++sortby%3A+mostrecent - 5361 appearances

Of course, IndianKanoon only accounts for indexed orders/judgements and correct spellings of the names.

Well, while I agree with what you said, I think we should all be clear: the top-notch engineering FAANG jobs do not let you work from 9 to 5 either. They are as stressful. Then there are investment banking and consultancy jobs. Those are a different level - you get to thank your stars if you get actual sleep two days a week.

Source: have both in my family

Batch unity as a concept is nonsense. No one owes you anything because they’re in the same class. And people are allowed to have different opinions on things. If you want to do collective action- it rightly should be hard- and you should learn to convince people who disagree with you without resorting to bullying . Yknow, what lawyers do.

There once was a regulator. It was kind of cool. It was becoming the in-thing lately, and a lot of people were taking notice.

Outside the non-existent glitz and the glamour of a few headlines here and there reporting on some antitrust cases here and there, there were a bunch of lawyers that typed away drafts and gloated about being in a practice area that wasn't just mind numbing. They relished it. They craved it. It drove their want to make those tedious documents.

Driving all of this were some basic tools, yet some without which the lawyers would not be able to make their cute little documents. Some might say, the CCI's website was one of these. Easy to use, sensible and not frivolous. Functional. Functional.

However, all good stories involve a villain. This story's villain is a man who wants his face everywhere. Bill boards, TV, newspapers, vaccination certificates. Vaccination certificates. And the villain wasn't content with putting his face on tax payer funded vaccination certificates while in the midst of a pandemic that broke the world as we knew it. No, he wanted the cute little competition lawyers' cute little CCI website. So he went, and took it. Disfigured it. Plastered his face ON BASICALLY THE ENTIRE FRONT PAGE. Changed the entire lay out.

Some might say that it was messaging to certain platforms. Some might say it's the usual narcissism. Whatever it may be, a tragedy has befallen nonetheless.

This is a eulogy to my good friend. It's been a good 4 years. May you rest in peace as i work through the new format of this step child which absolutely could use some of the earlier drop downs.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it (unless you're lame / vain)

While there is knowledge in knowing that a 1000 people want to do what you do, there is wisdom in realising that perhaps one of those 1000 is not you.

Quitting a job like this is not really a question of "How?". It is a question of "Why?".

You need to be 100% confident in "Why?" you're quitting.

One smell test I always use is "Can I be honest with my boss about this reason?".

If the answer to that is no, then I suggest you think this over.

But if the answer is Yes, the day you should have quit was yesterday.

Hope this helps.

use contaxxx if you have any. Firm of late have not been accepting normal applications on such short notice. Some firms are even allotting slots 10 months from the date of application. So I dont think you will have any luck unless you use some personal connections. further you may try going to a high court / supreme court judge for a clerkship, not equivalent to a firm internship but may be helpful if you havent done it already and have llm motivations. You may try senior advocates as well.

For firms there are 3-4 buildings in nariman point area- eg Mittal Towers, Mittal Chambers and some more which house a lot of smaller firms with strong niche practices (PE, VC, Maritime Disputes etc). Just look up their directories for the names of the firms, shoot emails, call them up etc. You may have a chance with these firms. But for tier 1, 2 firms with dedicated HR departments its going to be diff to get an internship 5 days before starting.

1. There's a fair amount of stable positions now, resulting in less advisory and structuring work. Hopes are on litigation which will start once audits are over. Once you've good deal of litigations, they also generate advisory. Compliance work is getting automated day by day.

2. Monotony would depend on your work portfolio. If you keep on running after new things, you'll be future proof and also have good new stuff to work on.

3 and 4. I guess only KCo has serious IDT practice. SAM, JSA and Trilegal have it but not so big. Not sure about AZB and I think L&L doesn't have it. CAM doesn't have it now. Growth depends on how's growth of practice. Generally IDT is better in work life balance. The challenge with IDT in tier 1 firm is the numbers would be smaller compared with other practice areas so might have impact on growth and comp.

Hi - I am you, just several years on. Exactly the same story. I wish I could back in time self give myself this advice. This is a dead practice area. 3 years is nothing in the long run. I would say make the switch now. Talk to every head hunter you can find and actively pursue a law firm job. Be willing to start at level 1, but join a gen corp / m&a practice area, where the opportunity to grow and move is boundless. Even if you get a small law firm, move out from IDT. Use a year or two to learn the basics of corp law in a small law firm and then apply again for a bigger law firm. None of it is rocket science. You’ll pick it up if you work hard.

You can obviously write well and will be able to handle client communication etc. Try to sell that and be honest about your motivation to switch.

With 2-4 years relevant experience in a mid size law firm you’ll be a good hire for the bigger law firms (as most people in that age bracket are leaving) and there’s always vacancy for good candidates at 2-4 years experience.

All the best! Don’t let it get you down. But do consider cutting your losses now and leaving IDT while you are still so young!

Environmental law - you are almost always representing a deviant business competitor or a personal enemy.

DV aid - never seen faker cases. Liars. Almost all of them! Have you read the petitions?

NRC defences - Not from Assam so I am not sure. :-\

SC NRC is way too political.

So, just a small update. The PL season ended with City obviously winning it with Pep.

The FPL ended with following standings -

1. Ole Bhature (Ravin Kapur)
2. Boom Boom (Sukhmani Singh)
3. Myson Mount (Prafful Dawani)
4. Khatri ke Khiladi (Shikhar Khatri)
5. Nothing toulouse (Shekhar Yadav)

Looking forward to next season as I'll win it haha. Cheers to everyone who played this time out.

I am no longer with the bar and on the other side at the moment. The police and the defence go hand in glove. It's quite a formidable task to deliver justice single handedly with almost no support from the prosecution. The law abounds in ways and means to delay and protract proceedings. The judges too cannot pounce upon seniors like they do on the juniors. It's the downtrodden that suffer the most with almost no support from the police and advocates. Given the endless ways and means, deplorable state of judicial infrastructure, justice is barely done in time.

Sample this: a property recovery suit taking five to seven years to attain finality. There is much more to explain, but I would refrain from doing so.

fairly easy to change in Khaitan if there is a change in practice area or office location. Multiple examples. So many A0s and Fs changed their teams. Trust me, if the lawyer is good, management will do everything to retain talent. They are forward looking (and not petty) that way.

Switching between teams of the same practice area may be challenging, but also can’t be ruled out. There are some teams / partners that are known to be difficult and the management is well aware. So the management is usually empathetic. But to make that work, you would need to take the help of a seniorish member (PA / above). Amar is usually fairly receptive.

The work involves largely incorporation of controlling entities with legal partners in off-shore jurisdictions.

Then there's a token issuance agreement which is the crypto parallel of the share subscription agreement.

Indian lawyers mostly co-ordinate CS + CA and foreign lawyers in setting up the structure.

This is a US-centric issue. It exists because American law firms try and maintain a 100% offer rate for their summer trainees - this is to make them more attractive to law students looking for where to intern (yes, this matters to people). These offers are a win-win - firm keeps its 100% offer rate while not actually having to hire the person they don't want, and person gets to leverage the offer for another job elsewhere.

Obviously this is not an issue here because Indian law firms don't have a public offer-acceptance rate. It's only an issue on LI because some bored law student saw a US Instagram feed and decided to post about it here.

have a look at https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/media/45958/unofficial-guide-rhodes-india-2021-22.pdf

try to achieve what rhodes requies and then even if you dont gets rhodes you will have a high chance for uni/college scholarships at oxbridge

1. top 5% by academic merit
2. evidenced social transformative skills
3. a couple of publications in reputed journals and a research assistantship

Its a Mixed Bag, from what I know, I have been a Corporate Counsel for the last 12 years, initially, it can be a challenge but what's important is the Industry and area of practice. I would recommend Media, Entertainment, Fashion, Advertising, Media Planning and Technology for LGBTQ Lawyers to work in the industry, they can be much better. Prefer US and European companies over Middle-Eastern and Chinese ones. For Litigation and Counsel Practise. Mumbai and Delhi have a great LGBTQ ecosystem if you know where to find it. ;-)

But one thing is very clear, your sexual identity would not be defining you. Your work would. I am pretty much known and around. Like me there are many around also, just need to look ;-)

Not a litigator here but just want to say, inadvertently, the best, most informative system is the Supreme Court's system for how much case-related information it carries on a single page. You practically don't need anything else and can find out everything about the case, down to the case number of the impugned and so on. But smoothest system may be the DHC's system, tracking cases is simple. Now, for the award of the worst case management system, the winner is: Allahabad HC. Just try doing the whole captcha thing at every single step of the research. Incredibly frustrating. (The number of times you have to do captcha-based verification should be one criteria, if anyone is undertaking research on this topic).

I am not sure employing blockchain or any such thing will immediately help the system. The SC E-Committee is working hard to put systems in place, demerits or merits aside. Proper equipment, internet connectivity, ensuring that orders are uploaded are basics that no technology itself can improve. Some will has to come from within for judges.

One thing I would like to see some improvement in is the way case categorisations work. Each HC has their own system of categorising cases, (and then into abbreviations, but let's think about the larger problem) and the SC has its own method of doing this. Its pretty difficult to track down if you are researching across courts (as opposed to being a practitioner at a single court) because say enforcement petitions or criminal appeals are tagged in one way at the DHC and another at the Punjab & Haryana HC. Hope others recognise what I am referring to. Happy to hear their thoughts.

Its 4 am on a Friday. I am looking at changes someone recommended to my draft.

My blood is boiling right now. I just cant stand it anymore.

(a) Is it just me, or has the language being used by lawyers become unclear and pompous and drowning in jargon?

(b) I am also looking at a draft sent by the other side, I don't know what they are smoking. (i) Their agreement reads like a tax statute in terms of cross referencing. (ii) I am unable to read a clause without being directed to another clause which again refers to another clause, which then refers to another clause, which then refers to a schedule and then which refers to Biden's Mummy's Insurance Agent's grandfather's brother in law's third will and so on.
(iii) The agreement also uses such (for the lack of better words) obtuse, vague and obfuscating language, I am unable to understand the agreement. Its not that I am stupid, (I think) I am unable to comprehend it. But I am not sure myself now, because they are a T1 firm's team. And god the drafting mistakes and cross referencing errors

(c) Why can't you have short sentences? Whats the need for a 10 kilometer long sentence?

I see this issue mostly with the newer partners and the younger crop, these guys do not know how to give clear and proper briefings or instructions. They are from the 3,000 free SMSes generation. The older gen seems to be still better. God knows what will happen when the whatsapp gen will become partners.

Disgusting, the way people talk in firms nowadays - vague jargon filled speech which amounts to nonsense. Dafaq do you wanna say bro/sis???
'
Please fucking read (a) The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law and (b) On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. These should be mandatory readings given how bad things are.

I am no Shakespeare, and I am fairly average, but for the love of fucking god, write clearly and in a simple manner. You're not gonna win the Pulitzer by writing a pompous tharoor like sentence where simpler language would've sufficed. Please do not take pride in 1870s style drafting. It sucks. DonkeyCojones!!! You guys shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard.

For the sake of making the other person's work easier, for the love of humanity, your language does not make you sound smarter.

God I am not even touching the litigation drafting, that's another beast for some other person.

Hey.

I understand what position you are in all to well having gone through it quite a few years ago. All I'd say is, it's definitely possible for you to make it to a college of your choice.

With that said, the only way to do it is hard work. You may even have your boards and will have to compartmentalize. It's up to you to do justice to this balancing act.

There's a quote that I came across recently (if someone knows the source please do share) that I wish I'd heard during my prep - "The best time to begin was yesterday and the second-best time is today."

These seven months are yours. Manifest your goal and commit to the prep.

Go win this Queen/King!

This split decision was expected. One of the judges actually mentioned verbally in the course of proceedings that many high courts were openly commenting that this is all a facade; that things will end up in the SC after a split verdict; judges are merely engaging in a drama.

At the SC, depending on the CJI and then the Bench (and of course the political "mahoul") the SC is likely going to lob this off to the Executive/Legislature. If there is softening or weakening of the ruling establishment, SC may give voice to its "preferences" through oral observations or even a powerful dissent (because the SC will do a split and bump it to a higher bench and docket politics will continue).

There are enough examples. Not too hard to guess. And this has played out before as well.

Delhi for disputes. Going to a T1 from a non-T1 or chamber means your experience will be discounted to some degree, but the firms will claim that they will make it up subsequently by moving you to the correct level as per PQE. If your previous experience is Disputes then I suggest you stay with Disputes or max RE as Corp will be a steep learning curve IMHO.

During the pandemic I have seen numerous students from various NLUs joining the online chess community, and competing with others across the globe. We have even seen numerous cricket starts like Yuzvendra Chahal, KL Rahul, Ben Cutting, Jimmy Neesham etc. on this platform.With chess having one of the favourite pastimes of law students post the pandemic, can you all share what's you chess.com rating (the most popular chess platform)?
Also is it true that chess helps in enhancing the critical thinking skills of a lawyer?

Here are my two cents.
1. Instead of looking for a topic, just start reading. The more you read, the more number of perspectives you learn. The more perspectives you learn, you start forming your own based on the rationale behind each opinion. The more you read you also understand how to analyse a problem critically and how to articulate your opinion on it.
My approach to writing is problem solving. I spot a problem and through my writing I try to find solution to that problem.

2. Don't confine yourself to one subject or even just legal reading. Read economics, history, perhaps something relating to management. Variety of reading allows you to domain hop. In essence, sometimes you find a solution in one domain which you can apply to the domain that you want to write on.

I hope this helps.

Advocate [...] [...] [...] from [...] High Court. I will be honest and straight to the point. He came to my college to deliver a lecture on [...] law. He told us co-wrote [...]'s [...] law book. I went to discuss my internship with him. My alarm bells should have gone off when he asked me to close the door as the AC was on but since it was his office and the AC was on, I just assumed it was logical and normal. Plus, he has his office in his home. In the next room, in the living room which is at a little elevation, like, you need to walk down the stairs to reach the office but it's not completely the basement, just on a lower plane. The living room looks into the office. So, when I came at the time that I had taken by appointment, I saw his mom, his daughter who went studied law in [...] University and his wife sitting together in the living room and watching TV. I felt a sense of security as there were 3 women there. I went in and after the discussion was over, he proceeded to show me the books on his bookcase, as I had mentioned that I read a lot and would be diligent in reading up on the cases in the course of my internship. He then proceeded to touch me under my shoulder, next to my breast, on my rib cage bone under the pretext of showing me around. I removed his hand and couldn't believe what was happen. It is important to note that I was in my first year. I had been with my parents all my life and was extremely naive. I wasn't even allowed to keep a smartphone till I got into college. I had the dabba phone as for my 10th, 11th and 12th. I was living in the hostel, away from my parents for the first time. And I had made the appointment during office hours. Anyways, I froze in shock. I recalled the lesson we had in 3rd standard about "Good Touch, Bad Touch" but I had no idea if what had happened was normally accepted in society or not. (In a confused state, I later asked my college friend if the ay he touched me was bad or not. I literally demonstrated what happened but I didn't say it happened to me. I said it happened to my hostel friend. She looked at me as if I had gone mad and shouted at me that "Yes! Of course! How can you not know that?! Who did that?" I repeated my practised lines that it didn't happen to me but she doesn't believe it, to this day). That bastard kept his expressions perfectly normal as if it was understood that I had come for sexual favours or something. I feel rage, anger and hopelessness as I write this. I still remember how I was feeling that day. I was so confused and he kept on touching me there. Being the frightened, frozen, confused idiot I was, i simply didn't know how to react. Plus, his home was on [...] highway. Inside a colony. It was quite silent and my mind was swirling. During all this time, he kept on conversing as if everything was perfectly normal. He talked about how he came from a family of lawyers. His dad was a lawyer, as was his grandfather. And in the middle of all this, he talked about HIS DAUGHTERS! Can you imagine what a lowly creep he is?! He talked about how his daughter was in [...]. She studied in [...]. She got in due to his reference etc. Then he proceeded to tell me a list of Must-Read books. I opened my book that I had marked for "Internship". It was a new Classmate book and like a small, school child I had marked everything properly. I can't believe how naive, innocent and even worse, sincere I was about all this. I left the first page and started writing the list of books from the second page as we all do in a fair copy. When I sat down, on the pretext of checking the spelling (Seriously?!), he came and sat next to me. He pretended I had made a mistake and on the pretext of pointing that out he reached towards my copy and started touching me near my vagina. You know where the small pockets are in womens' jeans? There. By this time, I was thoroughly scared and frozen. i kept looking at the door but could not move. I kept removing his hand, shuffling in my seat, trying to be polite. I had literally no guts to stand up for myself. I was scared that he might pin me down and rape me if I made a move for the door. I literally thought this was it. I was going to get raped today. And in the closed office surrounded by silence, which, by the way, did not have glass walls as in other corporate cubicles, it was like a room, I will be molested and assaulted and if I made a move, I would be killed. So, I kept pushing his hand away , either from my pelvic-area, near to my vagina, or my the area next to my bra cup. This "His touching Me and Me trying to push it away" kept happening for a good 15 minutes. 15 MINUTES.(It seems surreal but the flight or freeze option when presented with a threat is very real. I have always thought of myself as a brave girl, someone who has been called strong an courageous and I was so ashamed of myself for not acting in that way. In a way, I still am. I still blame myself for not being better prepared at "duniyadaari", not having strong reflexes etc. ) I was so numb and by this time, I was working on autopilot. the voice inside my head told me to make a move, but it was getting engulfed by fear and foreboding. I almost felt that I would faint due to the anxiety and paranoia I had. Probably due to my body being in a state of active alert and responding by increasing cortisol and adrenaline. Just at that time, my mother called. I had told her about this interview. I had even shared the name of the Ola/Jugnoo Rickshaw Rider I was in as [...] Highway is a very far place. I had given her a time of 1 hour. That I would call her immediately when I went on the road to book another rickshaw. My mother later told me that she had a feeling of unease and she felt that she needed to call me. I had told everyone to not disturb me but she still did. i guess it was her mother's intuition. And as soon as I heard the phone ring, it was like the immobility paralysis/spell of numbness broke and I regained my ability to act and not be resigned to fate. I got the pretext of walking up and walking away without raising suspicion. I was so paranoid that I if I acted suddenly or in a manner that clearly showed how threatened I felt and how I badly I wanted to run away, he would pounce on me. I was so so relieved to hear her voice. She talked to me and I saw him straighten up from the corner of my eye. I just made up stuff on the phone that "Haan, OMG what happened? I'll be there. Okay, No Problem, I'm just leaving". I didn't cut the phone. I couldn't tell her to "Don't cut the phone" so I just kept the phone on. I just made some polite courtesy stuff "Thank you Sir but I will have to leave because ______ happened." He was like, "Ohh, so early? Okay, No problem. You can go". He said "YOU CAN GO" I was so shocked with fear when I heard that. My mother literally saved my life today. Then he said, "But first let us take a selfie before you go". And I didn't want to record my interaction with him. But then I thought what if he has a camera here and was recording everything? So, he took out his phone and took a selfie with me. I forced myself to smile when I was having heart angina. (I was first diagnosed in 11th when I almost fainted due to anxiety in the September Semester exams. My doctor said it's anxiety) I just wanted everything to get over and wanted to get out of that cursed house and society as soon as possible. I still remember his facial expressions and his intimidating and scary body language. He clicked a stupid selfie and then went for another as he felt it was not good. I was so scared I got another clicked and picked my book, my pen, my bag and went straight to the door. Opened it and didn't look up. While going out, I could see that his another daughter had come and now there were 4 women in the living room. It made me sick and disgusted that he did all this when they: his daughters, his mother, his wife were in the next room. I didn't trust them to complain to them. I thought they perhaps knew of his nature and were silently accepting and complicit of his predatorial nature. Maybe his daughters had gone through the same or maybe they might literally pin me down and kill me if I said anything. I still remember my knees shaking as I slipped into my loafers. I still remember how it was not properly fitted around the soles of my feet but I stumbled out. My heart was pounding and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I still remember my shaking hands opening the door. I wasn't able to pull it properly as I felt so weak and numb. I saw a servant of his house and I walked faster after seeing him. I didn't slow down until I was out of the society/colony as I was scared if anything happened to me, in that silent society, where I could just see houses and couldn't see anybody out strolling, NOBODY would come help me. I didn't even adjust the soles of my loafers/ballet flats till I had walked out on the road/for a good 10 minutes. Only then did I stop to adjust the soles of my shoes and called up my mom. I explained to her what all had happened and cried a lot. My mom cried and was furious. She told me to tell dad. I couldn't bear the shame to tell my dad. In a way, I felt I had dishonoured HIM and brought him shame due to my weakness. If I was stronger and smarter, I would have understood everything and got the f out immediately. Also, my dad is in a very prominent position so I felt the public shame and disgrace would be unbearable. I am from a conservative family and community so that made me numb with what I perceived as the shame of my actions. I then called my brother who couldn't pick up. Then I called our family friends- an uncle -aunty I am very close to and who, have treated me like their own daughter. I didn't want to call any other family members apart from my immediate family members as I didn't want to dishonour my family. What if the person I told this let it slip my mistake? There would be a huge issue created. Me going out to another state- [...] to study, live in a hostel was a big deal in itself. Anyways, this elderly couple who have thought of me like their own daughter hold prominent government positions. They immediately went to my father's office and explained to him what happened. They even explained why I wasn't able to tell him directly. My father was very sad that this happened to his daughter. My father is loved, respected and admired by everyone. Everyone knows his character and can attest to the fact that he has never even laid eyes on another woman, mistreated even a daily wage labourer, forget about sexually assaulting a woman. He calls all servants by "aap". I have even heard my housemaids say this that "Sahib's home is one of the safest places we work at. He doesn't even enter the room where we work. Unlike XYZ where he looks at us creepily" I heard them on my way to the kitchen when they were all making pickles. They were conversing in Hindi. I just mentioned this incident to highlight just how conservative we are. At my home, "Purdah" is also followed. Anyways, being brought up in this environment, I was shocked at what happened. I had heard and read about sexual assault but hadn't even KNOWN anybody who went through it. I was living a very sheltered life, shielded from the realities of the world. I never had a boyfriend. Anyways, my brother came to know about this and all hell broke loose. I am quite young as compared to him. He's like an ACP. I can't divulge his real position. So he asked me for his contact details. I was frightened and didn't want to cause a scandal so I refused to give it to him. By this time, I was back at the hostel. I remember sitting on the bed hearing him say he would anyways find it in seconds. I remember putting [...] [...]'s card on my bed and clicking a picture and sending it to my brother. He didn't know that my father and brother and extended members in my father's as well as mother's family are in very prominent positions in the government, police and armed forces or else he wouldn't have dared do something like this. This is not something that I am proud of because it highlights the pathetic state of affairs in our country where "Might is Right" but this is what happens. My brother then talked to him. He wouldn't tell me what he told but a fewer years later he told me that he had threatened him with dire consequences (his life) and talked about sending some goons to rough him up. Before that, I had messaged on [...] [...]'s number only for confirming the appointment and confirming the address. For 2 days, there was silence. then on the 3rd day, despite my brother threatening him with dire consequences he messaged me. I asked him to never contact me again and blocked his number. Now, I am lucky that I was born in a family that had the money, power, the right caste and religion but I shudder to think about what would have happened if my mother hadn't called at the right time. And if I was a girl who did not have the privilege that I do, there would be no consequences for this disgusting, vile bastard. Atleast I know that if, God Forbid, something had happened to me, my brother would have ordered his killing. This incident has been horrible for my mental health. I have become extremely paranoid. I put alarms on my phone whenever I go out. I share the name, photo, number of the rickshaw if I take any. I don't take cabs because I feel a rickshaw is safer as I can jump out one. I have stopped even trying to get an internship under a male advocate unless he knows my family personally. I only intern under female advocates. I only go out in groups with my female friends or with my family. I don't stay out after sunset. I try to look as inconspicuous as possible. It is important to note that my hair was plaited in a braid, I was fearing full formal pants and a full length, 3/4 sleeved opaque kurti along with a scarf when I went to meet that fucking pig. It was afternoon as I had gone directly from college. And when I came back, the sun was up in the sky. I am still shaken by that incident and don't go for internships outside my hometown or with people I don't know. My anxiety has worsened and I have been told to go for therapy. For many years, after that incident, I kept following up on rape and murder cases and sexual assault cases so that I never let my guard down. So that I would always be alert. It was horrible and it made me relive all those frightening memories but I felt it was for my own good as I was always on guard when I read them. It however made my anxiety, paranoia worse and one psychiatrist diagnosed me with clinical depression. I haven't attended a single fresher's or farewell party after that incident. In one of the sessions with my psychiatrist, i finally came to terms with the fact that I wasn't wrong, this wretched weasel predator was the one who was wrong. I remember I was asked to introduce the guest speakers who came for seminars and extra classes or other functions as my communication was good. I was told to prepare an introduction for someone. When I asked and found that this bastard was coming back, I excused myself from the hosting and stayed absent that day as I did not want to accidentally be seen by him. My grandparents came to know about this and my suspicions came true. They felt that I had dishonored our glorious family name and there was no need for me to go to college. My kakas and buaas would give me the side eye. So, I had to live in my own home as if I was walking on eggshells. I had to double down on my good behaviour, punctuality, discipline, fully covering myself at all times, my capris got replaced with full length salwar suits when I was at home, I couldn't stand in my own balcony if someone started staring as I would be the one who would be blamed. I had to attend all kirtans, bhajans ceremonies at our house and couldn't talk to my neighbourhood boys who I had grown up with. Not that I am not religious, it's just that my freedom has been constrained to an unbelievable extent. I had to go home on the first day of my holidays itself. And after this incident, I was removed from the hostel and was made to live with a distant aunt who lived in the same city. I don't think I will be even allowed to practise in a city of my choice, let alone a metro. It makes me so mad that these bastards, perverts and beasts get away with anything and everything while the victims are policed and shamed. They lose their lives, their health, their strength, their respect in the eyes of others, their dreams, their peace of mind and much more while these demons' lives are not affected in the slightest. I hope he goes to hell and dies a thousand deaths everyday. I hope he too goes through sexual assault and goes through the same fear paralysis I went through and dies from the ensuing heart attack. (No, I don't have it in me to not wish him that. I am not that forgiving) I hope he is publicly shamed and stoned to death. Monsters like these have made lives of countless women hell. Abuse of Power is real and commonplace. There is nothing worse than preying on young, vulnerable girls. May he die a slow, painful death and rot in hell for eternity.

Keep the following in mind (non-exhaustive):
1) About you - your personal life, background and interests.
2) About the Firm - its history, why that firm, why that specific team, about their recent big transactions, how you can add value to the firm
3) About the preferred location - why that city, etc.
4) Basic HR questions (very important) - your 5 year plan, LLM plans, strengths, weakness, overall personality, etc. [This is basically never ending, I can go on and on]

Law:
5) Basics of Contract Act
6) Basics of Transfer of Property Act
7) Basics of Companies Act (irrespective of the teams, basics is very important and a must know)
8) Depending on the team that you are interviewing for, apart from the above mentioned basics, you will need the relevant detailed domain knowledge of M&A/Securities Law/Banking & Finance and so on, team wise.
9) Your CV, inside out - no compromises there. Be 100% ready.
10) Basics of CPC also helps.
In general, stay abreast to recent amendments too, SC/HC mainstream landmark judgments in the area of law you are interviewing for. [Amendments + latest judgements]

All the best! I know the list is pretty long and it might get even longer, with more inputs. But, these pointers should suffice for an interview.. The more you read, the better it is!

Various courts, on their websites, provide for accessing Case Status on the basis of certain parameters. However, barring for the district courts and some high courts which use the e-Courts website, all other HCs and the SC have their unique interface. Which of these is most accessible and why? Delhi HC’s system is perhaps one of the more advanced, providing for all details of applications (including whether pending or disposed), easy accessibility of orders, and info regarding who filed what. E-courts on the other hand does not provide the orders - mostly because the clerks at lower courts cannot be bothered to update case details regularly and efficiently. It is a very backward system. Which other court provides a sufficiently advanced interface which provides all the required info and is effective? What are the shortcomings in the CS interfaces you regularly interact with? Do lawyers in lower courts find e-Courts efficient? Do you think the government should adopt blockchain and technology and create a uniform system for getting case statuses?

Collect DD reports from your team on each sector and make it weekend reading.

You will know what sector has what stakeholders, agreements, approvals, issues etc. You will pickup how to present those and what mitigants to offer.

If you are in a half decent place, walk up to a senior in their free time- say you read the DDRs in your free time and want to discuss/understand. You will learn and at the same time also earn brownie points.

The suggested books above are also a good start.

Once you do all of the above- send in your job application to us. :-)

Seriatim Reply:

1. How do one take membership of
a. Delhi Bar Association
b. Supreme Court Bar Association

Fill up a form, pay the application fee.

2. What are the benefits of taking above membership?

You will have access to the Bar Room. You will be able to vote in Bar Council Elections as the voters list is prepared in coordination with the Bar Association. Bar Associations will have other facilities like canteens, toilets, printers etc that are useful. Bar Association membership is now mandatory unless you file an exemption form with the Bar Council explaining how you will take benefit of welfare schemes without a bar membership. The officers of the Bar Association will also help you get your experience certificates and letters of good standing as and when you need them in the future.

3. I'm enrolled with Delhi Bar Council and have cleared the AIBE exam.
a. Can I practice law in any court of the country?

Yes

b. If no, please advise the further steps. I wish to appear before the High Courts in UP and MP also alongwith the Delhi High Court.

You can appear. But you will have to check if you can file Vakalatnama on your own. Some states mandate a locally enrolled lawyer only be entitled to file a Vakalatanama. These will be in the rules framed by the High Court under the Advocates Act.

c. Since I have cleared AIBE exam, can I appear before the Supreme Court? I understand that I can't do filing as only AORs can do it. I'm not sure about the appearances.

Yes you can.

4. I have seen an old application form of Supreme Court Bar Association and it requires signature from Advocates having standing of 10+ years. I have zero contact. How do I get this done?

Go to the bar room. Say hello to people. Introduce yourself. This requirement is so you get to know people in the profession as law is a social profession. Ask the person at the counter, he will do the introduction to get your signature. Office bearers will be happy to sign so you can vote for them!

Guys, please help!

Helped.

Read Graham Vinter's book. For Indian aspects, Srivastava's, though it's not as good. Other than that, read up related primers and articles from iclg, mondaq etc. Go through sample contracts available online. Practise being thorough in document review. That should be good enough for a beginner.

I can say from first-hand experience (I used to work there and left for personal reasons) that most of the negative stuff written above is rubbish. Lexygen has great work and most of the people there are really nice and helpful folks. The last thing anyone can say about them is that they're toxic! It's very sad that this firm and the good people there are being unfairly targeted by some people with vested agendas.

OP, if you are genuinely considering Lexygen I would suggest that you don't listen to these baseless comments. Apply to them and figure out for yourselves what you think of the firm and then decide. I'm not saying everything is perfect but it is surely one of the better options today in the market if you want to do PE/VC and M&A.