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As far as the quality of the exam goes, LSAT India was a different exam than the LSAT US and had an image of being easy. It just had objective questions. On the other hand, the LNAT UK exam is that same for its Indian test centres and is a much tougher and better exam than LSAT India (and a million times better than the CLAT).
Before I start, I want to clarify that this is not to offend any student from any of the law institutes(Nlus or others) but rather a question I find myself asking as a first year student at a top 10 nlu. I was checking the placement reports of my institute and others also, and despite it being top 10 of country in placements, most probably, the reports are concerning. Only 10-20% of batch gets decent placements and 5-10% more in any job they can get. The condition is even worse in rest of lower NLUs with not even 5% of batch getting decent jobs. The 2024 placement reports of tier 1s are great though, I know not the best but good enough to consider law as a career and clat as an exam. Before proceeding further, I want to clarify that I am retaking clat with very good chances of getting a good tier 1 this time so it's not really for me entirely( "entirely" because I know a small percentage of even top nlus face this problem) and maybe it's worth mentioning also, to not attract criticism, that I like studying law but that's very very unrelated to this post. Now, especially for first generation lawyers, I wonder what the rest of batch at these NLUs or other law institutes do? I know judiciary, litigation, academia are the other options available in law aside from non law-related fields like upsc, mba or even startup. At most, 30-40% of any nlu's batch on average would be truly interested in these options( as in getting job was not in their priority at all, uninfluenced by their chances of getting one ). That leaves us with more than half the batch unplaced in top t2 nlus or jgls or slsp and even significantly more so in rest of lower NLUs and other law colleges. Now I will first talk about rest of career options and then people who only want jobs right out of college because of various reasons, many of which are not by choice. Firstly, in litigation, it's extremely tough to succeed without connections and same goes for getting promoted in judiciary field, the selection rate of which through pcs and later hjs exam is again extremely low. Then academia, that's a good option for people who want to continue their studies, research and teach later on but it's a option not taken by the most, and reasonably so in a country like India. Then there is upsc and mba left, which is open for everyone so the point of preparing for clat and then dedicating 5 years in law college, which can be gruelling, does not seem really attractive. Finally, I will conclude this post with the main question, that is, the people who want jobs but could not get decent placements( majority of t2 nlus and all of t3 nlus and other law schools), what do they do? Go for the other options mentioned above even if they don't want it and even though it's not really lucrative? Or is there a good way I have not become aware of yet that makes them not regret their law choice( a bold and exaggerated statement I know but just take the sense behind it ).
Thank you
a. The partners who turned up from CAM were both ex NLIU with the initials RC and BJ
b. SAM interviews were very technical
c. AZB, Saraf and Trilegal had GDs before shortlisting folks for the interviews
d. The Saraf partners were extremely rude and dismissive of answers to questions (this seems to be common across other institutes)
e. LKS interviewed for both IDT and Corporate Law, but only shortlisted students interested in IDT
Immigration Rules, Appendix Student (see ST 12.3.): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/appendix-student#content
Financial Requirements guidance: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/financial-evidence-for-student-and-child-student-route-applicants#content
What is effectively (in this context) a statutory 'explanatory notes' guide for UKVI caseworkers/decisionmakers for Appendix Student (covers Child Student as well, ignore those parts): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/points-based-system-student-route/student-and-child-student-accessible#content
You are much better off looking at these verified sources of information than exposing yourself to the chance of potentially being mislead by trolls. The fact that you didn't/couldn't find/figure this out yourself should concern you far more, however. Spoonfeeding won't work forever.
What does this board do? Is it notional or real?
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gnlucra_we-are-pleased-to-announce-that-the-batch-activity-7226181000827965440-109w?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
2. Prep: In the UK, they always talk of this skill called 'commercial awareness' (an understanding of a market, and how a law firm, as a business, operates within a market, and how it is impacted by various things—local and international events). Law Careers Net have this excellent thing they call the PESTLE analysis technique - look it up if you don't know it already. Read newspapers like the FT and more generalist newspapers like The London Times which has a specific section reporting on law-related matters. There's this guy at Bakers who's got a good list of commercial awareness podcasts:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/commercial-awareness-podcasts-oliver-chinyere/
That LinkedIn post/article also contains advice for one good approach to developing commercial awareness. Might be worth looking into emulating that.
Naturally, make sure you can talk about your chosen firm's work in your sleep.
If you want a book to read, this is a good option: All You Need to Know About The City - Christopher Stokes.
Hope this is somewhat helpful.
1. Aspirations for foreign placements
2. Possibility of getting good LLM scholarships
3. Good domestic placements
Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, who has been at the centre of a similar row in the past, has shared her perspective on the controversy.
"In 2014, I challenged the IOC's rule that a person with a higher testosterone level should not participate in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. It was noted that hormonal levels cannot increase athletic performance. I suffered a lot at that time. I faced a lot of controversy regarding my gender." Dutee Chand told PTI.
"Yesterday, during the Olympic match, (Angela) Carini gave up and now she is complaining about the Algerian boxer because of high testosterone levels. When you play in the Olympics, you undergo several tests. I don't think it is right to create controversy about this social media." she added.
https://sports.ndtv.com/olympics-2024/faced-controversy-regarding-my-gender-indias-dutee-chand-reacts-to-olympics-boxing-controversy-6247298#pfrom=home-ndtv_topstories
Press release:
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Unveils Enhanced Compensation and Benefits Program – Redefining the Firm Value Proposition
New Delhi, August 1, 2024: Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., India’s pre-eminent law firm, is proud to announce a significant enhancement to its compensation and benefits program, reflecting its commitment to attracting, retaining, and nurturing the best legal talent in India. This market leading revamp underscores the Firm's dedication to ensuring that its top members benefit not only from the best in class work but are also rewarded handsomely, while recognizing the importance of building a support system to fuel both professional and personal well-being.
Key Highlights of the Enhanced Compensation and Benefits Program:
- Entry level associate compensation (A0) has been revised to up to INR 20 lakhs.
- All other Associate and Salaried Partner compensation has been revised based on holistic performance evaluation, taking into consideration efficiency-based performance.
- The Firm will continue with its existing unparalleled and objective variable compensation policy of up to 200% including taking into consideration efficiency-based performance for determining the eligible variable compensation component.
- Introduction of new people centric policies - work from anywhere (2 weeks annually), caregiver leave (up to 3 weeks), paternity leave (increased to 3 weeks), additional childcare leave, health check-ups and sabbatical policies for associates and partners.
Increased focus on well-being and professional development programs:
Well-being has been a core mission at our Firm, having been the first Indian law firm to have mainstreamed the conversation on mental health at the workplace and introduce free counselling for all members of the firm and their families with the help of professional agencies (like AMAHA) engaged by the firm. We are pleased to announce further improvements to our well-being and professional development programs as well, as below
- Annual Rejuvenation Break between Christmas and New Year (25 December to 1 January (both days inclusive))
- Formal recognition of Mental Health Days
- On-site physiotherapy services
- Introduction of a new Workplace Anti-Harassment Code
- Mentorship and coaching support
Execuive Chairman, Dr. Shardul S. Shroff, said, “With today’s announcement, our firm is forging a renewed path. Our people are the cornerstone of our success and we seek to enable them to thrive in their wholeness, professionally and personally with our new firm value proposition. The enhancements to our compensation and benefits program are focused on attracting, rewarding and retaining top talent while fostering a culture of excellence, collegiality and meritocracy. I am confident that these changes makes us the most progressive, inclusive, holistically balanced and preferred employer in the legal arena in the India.”
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co continues to lead in providing top-tier legal services across various sectors, including corporate, litigation, real estate, intellectual property, and more. The Firm’s dedication to client service, legal innovation, and professional development remains at the core of its success.
The thing is- these feelings arent actually important. However much we might feel them. It actually doesnt matter if we're losers. It only matters if we go out everyday and try and do better and try and be of use to other people. thats the whole damn game.
Do what you must if this doesn't resonate with you.
Eg. Delhi - General agreements - Article 5 - 500 and so on
1. GNLU: - 18
2. NLS: - 12
3. JGLS: - 11
4. NUJS: - 11
5. NALSAR: - 10
6. GLC: - 10
7. NLIU Bhopal: - 5
8. NLUD: - 3
9. NLUJ: - 3
Other law schools: - 30
Not a single tier-2 nlu made the cut.
A CS shall not approve an audited financial statement unless he understands what the CA guy has done. If he does then penalty will be charged on the company including him as he is a officer in default.
Corporate governance needs wealth maximisation of a firm so that the share holders are happy. A CS shall take care of CG that includes financial management. No lawyer can do financial management.
Sale of goods or transfer of property shall be passed in the general meeting for share holders approval. If a CS simply pass it without the knowledge of TPA act or registration act then the company will be in trouble.
So a CS shall have a legal knowledge in all field plus accounting knowledge like CA because when a CA does any mistake the whole burden comes on CS head. And if a lawyer makes a mistake again CS is responsible.
That is the reason the ICSI is making all the candidate to fail so that the cream of passed out shall know their responsibility.
"Biden went to the University of Delaware for undergrad, before going to law school at Syracuse University. Harris went to Howard University in Washington, DC, for undergrad before earning a law degree from the University of California, Hastings."
Current rank of Syracuse Law: 122
Current rank of UC Hastings Law: 82
-Insider
Earlier, their used to be an institutionalised form of ragging too and the 2025 batch made sure that these things do not continue.
Apart from that, in terms of competition, it is less compared to other states since only around 2-3k people write the exam every year and they mostly they conduct it every year. However in 2024 the vacancies were very less, only 7 seats. But this is not the general case, usually 20-30 vacancies are there minimum every year, if you prepare well, its not a difficult exam to crack.
For preparation its is very state specific, bare acts + case laws would be sufficient. However, most people who clear take coaching locally, based in Trivandrum and Kochi. Its optional based on your level of legal knowledge. Hope this helps.
Logical Reasoning- GMAT Logical Reasoning Bible
Legal Reasoning- Ratanlal and Dhirajlala on Torts, Mulla on Contracts. Read NLSIR, NUJSLR, ILR, and other Oxford Journals. It's fine if you don't catch the nuances.
English- Read fiction to your heart's content.
Quant- Your usual coaching material should be enough.
1. LLMs in the US are expensive with little to no financial aid in the top universities, especially for the commercial / private sector.
2. The barriers to entry for a JD are high (LSAT and interviews require intense preparation).
Even then, the JD is 3 times the cost of an LLM, and after paying close to 50% taxes abroad, it may take you 3-4 years at a very high paying job to pay it off. The JD remains unpopular for these reasons.
3. LLMs are not intended for people to seek employment in the US. Most colleges state that the program expects that people will return to their home country. However, what it does allow you is an opportunity to network, explore opportunities and convert it into a job if you can hustle enough. You wont benefit from college placements, but it’s similar to how folks choose GLC for access to courts + law firms + corporates in Mumbai. The college will provide you with some resources, but no guarantees.
4. Corporate folks have an easier pathway after a few years of experience, because the work is largely similar. You do diligence and circulate call notes in Mumbai, you do diligence and update trackers in NY. But you get hired based on your demonstrable ability (ie work experience).
5. PQE can be a myth, but volatility of the US job market is not. US law firms continuously review their profitability; layoffs and hiring freezing are common when business slows, which it does every 1-2 years. Those high salaries exist for a reason.
6. Immigration laws are not on our side. International students have to get lucky in the H1B lottery. If you don’t clear it, you leave the country in 6 months or less. The application can be filed only by employers, so there is an inherent risk in hiring a person who may have to quit in under 1 year . Unlike techies and doctors (and STEM folks) the US doesn’t have a shortage of lawyers (least of all foreign qualified ones!)
7. US law firms are exploitative in different ways - working hours can be roughly the same, often more than T1 firms (unless the T1 team has a culture of 12 hrs/day through the year). In India you get reprimanded for inefficiency or low hours or you lose bonus, in the US you get laid off. No gain without pain!
That being said, plenty of Indians manage to do it every year, you just have to be very goal oriented about it.
https://www.barandbench.com/apprentice-lawyer/recruitment-tracker/rectracker-this-law-firm-hired-61-freshers-and-offered-around-18-lakh-per-annum-as-starting-package
KCO also released their hiring breakdown, GNLU is leading the pack with 10 offers. Followed by NUJS and JGLS.
Good times for GNLU ahead.
for 2025 batch - 18L
Parity across Delhi and Mumbai
2024 Hirings as under:
SLSP - 7
OPJ - 5
NALSAR - 3
GNLU - 2
NLIU - 1
WBNUJS - 1
DSNLU -1
DNLU - 1
Argus is now pretty lucrative for the 2025 batch
I can also list worst IHL Professors in India as well.
Axiom pays 12L+
C&M has more matters in terms of variety and quality. Since it's quite established, the matters keeps on coming.
Axiom5 runs based on reputation of Samir and Rahul. Both are legends.
The thing is if you switch from c&m to any T1 after a year, you'd still be considered as A0 unless you're quite good. But if you switch from Axiom, you'll be A1 (fair chances).
Obviously A1 is paid more than A0.
Both are terrific firms but reputation wise, Axiom is better. If you are someone to whom reputation doesn't matter as much, go for c&m. I'd go for c&m bcz for A0, the ground work is of PA Level of T1, responsibility is of SA level, you get access to all documents, you are fully involved in the matter, and learning exposure is unparalleled. I would switch to T1 after 3 yrs. I'd have learned so much tht they'd keep me as SA.
There is NO sharing on the basis of what your team makes, none.
The level of ignorance here is matched only by the low tone.
op, as a nalsar senior I can pretty much say its never an issue as such infact its only a plus point. if your age is hopefully a sign of maturity, then you will be glad not to be 18 in your first year,trust me. Anyways, best of luck, mate, and always feel free to approach seniors or anyone who you are comfortable with instead of anonymous forums. Lastly don't regret something like your age in first year its extremely common for 20 to be the right age in 1st year while only recently it has fallen lower imo.
1. JGLS- 16
2. NUJS- 13
3. NLUJ- 12
4. GNLU- 10
5. SLS PUNE- 8
6. NALSAR- 8
7. NLIU BHOPAL- 7
8. NLUD-6
9. HNLU RAIPUR- 5
10. NLUO- 5
11. TNNLU- 5
12. NLSIU- 4
13. GLC- 3
14. NUALS KOCHI- 3
15. OTHER LAW SCHOOLS- 16
https://www.barandbench.com/apprentice-lawyer/recruitment-tracker/rectracker-trilegal-hires-128-students-from-batch-of-2024
2. Do a JD after, or while working on, your PhD (depending on what the immigration rules allow).
Doing a U.S. LLM + SJD combination isn't helpful for employment in the U.S. market, as those are graduate law degrees intended primarily for foreign students (with the latter being intended as being a doctorate in law for foreign students who wish to become academics in foreign countries but who want U.S. exposure and training). Therefore, doing a JD is of vital importance.
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Anyway, for those who are mindlessly scrolling on here, want to do serious work in life but can't because, of course, nobody who scrolls this site has any basic research skills, here is her actual LinkedIn profile. ▮▮▮
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/iram-huq-06b69746/
To answer the question, I didn't know about this place called N.L.S. until now, and I'm quite intreagued to learn about it. But seriously, you guys sure as hell gotta develop a thicker skin, if you're from there. Hell, we used to kid even LLM's who'd been to law school at Oxford for Christ's sake, so how do you think we'd treat folks from a place most of us hadn't heard of in a country half of us couldn't find on a map?
Guys, you carry on like this and the attitude of even folks like me who'd kid LLM's just to troll, rather than to put 'em down, will be like that of that there guy the limeys call Sherlock Holmes. The old Brit once said something pretty smart, apparently: 'Now that I know it, I'll do my best to forget it'. That'll be about how folks at Harvard would start thinking about N.L.S.
Of course they only show the glamorous parts which is probably 10 percent of the legal audiences "combined" daily lives, but the rest 90% reality intelligent viewers like us are supposed to assume has already happened. So there will be scenes where Camera will start with Mike working and then cut to him waking up in the office itself. This is the "reality" part, which they don't show fully. The late nighters, the reading and vetting of documents, the highlighting and editing of every single word, the hard diligence etc. But as intelligent viewers we have to assume that the characters have already done that off camera.
Another important thing is shows like The Practice and Boston Legal took case stories from multiple litigations and multiple firms and presented as if the same firm or a couple of firms are handling almost every important case in the country. Which I totally support. All of our shared experiences and life stories and career highlights and epoch making events are different. So if a show takes 20-30 events that may be do not happen at a single law firm at a single point of time but has definitely happened at multiple places, multiple firms and at multiple eras of time and just coalesce all the masala into one show, I find absolutely nothing wrong with it. (I know so much drama can't happen at a single firm and that too all the time). And obviously you need to have SOME suspension of disbelief otherwise why the hell will you watch movies and shows! Overall, they did a fabulous job.
Regards,
Nalsar’27.
so dont make ur age any barrier . good luck , world is waiting for you:)
Check these links for consolation. No one will validate until you prove yourself to be of tough mettle. No one really cares about age, but check these still.
https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/186775-switched-college-late-to-nalsar-from-christ-will-grad-at-27-did-i-mess-up
https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/195176-5-year-law-course-from-nalsar-or-should-i-continue-what-i-am-doing
https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/199972-i-made-it-to-nalsar-the-creme-de-la-creme-of-nlus-and-this-feeling-of-despair-wont-go-a-vent-sort-of
The problem with these situations is that the people who are jealous of you (stupidly, because you're not asking to be treated like an object) will egg you on to get confrontational. That is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to protect yourself. Be pleasant. Make very good excuses and stay out of his orbit. Ideally, you do not want him to get angry at you but you also don't want him to take liberties with you. Focus on your work and try to do it well. Don't undermine your own intellect or labor to make jealous people feel better. His attentions are not your fault. He may be favoring you for the wrong reasons but that's on him. You don't need to tell people you are worthless because you are not.
The world is full of powerful men who treat women like playthings and people who then blame women. This was a horrible experience but if you learn to trust your instincts and protect yourself, it will help you in the future. Sometimes the only way is to beg another safer senior for work or to quit citing a health or familty problem. But those are last ditch measures. If you can manage the situation and get through it without harming yourself, then that is a good way.
That being said u being 18 while in 2nd year is an anomaly itself.
And change your partner if you don't like him as such.
1.https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/248998-nluo-placements-2023-how-are-they-really
2.https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/266648-what-is-happening-at-nluo
3.https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/369628-nluo-got-more-placements-than-nlud-for-2024-batch-is-it-for-real
We are not happy with the lack of foreign exposure. It’s like our batch is collectively prone to being domesticated in Indian law firms and they are even happy with a 11 LPA package from Indus, not realising that their counterparts from certain other tier-1s are getting paid much more with a lower grade. Foreign law firms aren’t particularly fond of our college based on previous experiences of underwhelming candidates being sent to A&O/Linklaters.
A rusty domicile crowd is a huge problem which in fact generates the worst possible problems for our uni. The admin is even fed up of their tantrums producing antics left and right.
We may not have a protest going on, we may not have serious allegations against our admin, but the issues are there. It’s high time we fill this ‘void’. It’s making us feel really left out.
Let the careers & lives of ragging seniors be rotten. Do not withdraw complaint despite any fear or favour. This is sheer sadism & it hurts at many levels, especially mentally. People will come crying to beg to withdraw, then all saam, daam, dand, bhed will be used but stand upright.
Be a complainant & witness if you see such things & support the victim. You owe yourself that.
1) Novelty: The aim of your paper or blog should be to add something to the existing scholarship on the topic you have picked. Now, how do you do this? Simplest answer is "reading". Read everything and anything about it. Even papers that are not directly related to your topic but can be relevant from a particular lens. The more you read on an issue, the more your brain will form connections, and you will come up with your original thoughts.
2) If you are new to academic writing, do not pick very hot burning legal developments. Way too many people write on a monumental development in any area of law. Try finding something that hasn't been discussed a lot on several fora.
3) Minimise the descriptive part of your piece. I have reviewed articles where kids have simply paraphrased a judgement and used fancy words to make it seem analytical. For blogs, you only have around 1500 words. If your analytical part is mere 100-200 words, it's not going to get accepted.
4) Formatting: It gives a very wrong impression when kids don't even bother reading the submission guidelines of the blog. If the blog requires you to hyperlink sources (the ones you can), and you have put footnotes, it shows you have done a sloppy job.
5) Proof-reading: This is a no-brainer. If you can't do this properly, don't become a lawyer.
Lastly, just like anything else, remember that it is a skill. You will get better with time. Don't beat yourself up if your article is not accepted. Trust the process, you'll get there. All the best!
1. Relentless trolling and vicious attacks against Sudhir Krishnaswamy, by jealous tier 2 college guys who have never set foot inside NLSIU and are resentful that Sudhir is improving the institution with his excellent faculty hires.
2. Similarly, non-stop attacks against Jindal despite Jindal doing better than many NLUs in the placements and foreign scholarships scene — again, by jealous and resentful people, who are also angry that Jindal-ites are wealthy (as if you guys don’t aspire to become wealthy and send your children to good universities).
3. Likewise, attacks against NUJS NRI quota students. FYI some of the most successful NUJS alumni are from the NRI quota and an NRI quota girl alum has just been awarded the Salve scholarship at Oxford this year.
4. Then, further hate against those going abroad for LLMs. You are either a traitor to your country and a bootlicker of the white race, or a spoilt rich kid — because, of course, we must opt for third-rate LLM courses at NLUs and be called “Lallams” by you lot!
5. Comments in Hindi, in blatant disregard of those who are not comfortable with Hindi. I speak Hindi and have scored good grades in Hindi in school, but I would never speak in Hindi in front of a pan-India crowd, as there are people who are from the South, Bengal, North East etc. Please show this courtesy too. It’s absolutely fine if you throw in a common Hindi word here and there, eg bindaas, jugaad or chapri ( as I have done). The English language happily absorbs words from foreign languages. But please don’t type entire sentences in Hindi!
6. Finally, a sharp increase in aggressive, abusive, incel-like language (which is strangely missed by moderators).
Downvote and abuse me all you want, you’ll only be validating my comment.
Any doubt NLS is the place to be?
I see IndCorpLaw, IRCCL, and other NLU blogs and journals and frequently try to see where I am going wrong. I have a few publications in journals (which are not very famous or esteemed), and I have a few drafts on which I am constantly working in my free time.
The problem in general is that all I am doing in the name of research is reiterate the same provisions, adding some judgements, past research papers, and some of my personal analysis before concluding that 3–4k word paper. This bothers me, as I'm not really adding anything new to the table. All I do is read and rephrase the descriptive information, add my interpretation, and get done with it.
Now I don't want to pursue academia, but I'm concerned that all I am doing in the name of research is just putting on a facade and not adding anything substantial. If anyone's had similar trouble, I'd like to know your experience and how you improved as a legal writer.
Often times the ones who are most vocal about availability and not taking breaks (PAs, Partners) will be juggling their breaks. Complete switch off is difficult unless you are on a long leave with transition cover or have let everyone know about your limited availability/ weekend travel plans.
In your early years, you can make it easier for yourself by:
- doing work as soon as it is assigned rather then when it’s due, if it’s assigned during reasonable hours
- work sincerely at least 6-7 hours a day, without long breaks, preferably in the morning because things tend to be less likely to be due EOD if they are assigned post 5 pm
- upward management is key, if your supervisor works 8 am - 5 pm you know when you will be expected to be available to discuss, if they work 3 pm - 11 pm it will be different
- with time you will be able to identify client, partner and supervisor patterns. I had a partner who expected acknowledgement emails and confirmation that someone is working on it ASAP, seniors who had no intention of reviewing a draft DD report till 2 weeks later but wanted you to finish the first cut overnight, clients who wanted a memo ASAP but would get around to it in 2-3 days and then keep changing the scope
People come on these platform to share their frustrations, not share how and when do they take their time off.
PS: To the guy who made the (not) trollish comment to which I have replied, continue speaking the truth, you will be rewarded some day for your efforts.
Let me share with you my anecdotal observations, having graduated from a T1 NLU and worked in a T1 firm (General Corporate):
- Most people get married after becoming SA, which is in 4-5 years. Switching firms, taking sabbaticals, having exceptionally busy years is not uncommon.
- If you unfortunately land up in teams where availability has to be 24x7 which means working most weekends, being at your desk at 9 pm and 10 pm on a regular basis, dating or even spending quality time with people outside of work will be difficult. There are far too many teams like this.
- You will be surrounded by DINKs and people who are having kids only after becoming a partner. Therefore, people may be less empathetic towards people “choosing” to have kids at a younger age of 27-30.
- This is compounded by the fact that work in law firms is client-service and demand driven and people operate on very short timelines. The lower you are in the hierarchy, the more you are required to be flexible with your availability, as your Counsel / PA / Partner’s priorities, conflicts and deadlines will largely be accommodated over yours.
- There is a very steep learning curve the first 6 years, and you are not the master of your own time. It’s doable to try to fit in a gym routine or occasional doctors appointment or dinner plans, but much harder devoting chunks of your time to your young family.
- Instead of an accommodative workplace, you might find yourself amongst toxic partners who discourage you from having any commitment that takes you away from being available to work, on a sustained basis.
Long story short, it’s an uphill battle and most people prefer to manage work from an in-house or smaller firm. Note, that this doesn’t automatically guarantee better work life balance or hours.
What you can do, is grind it out for a couple of years for the learnings and then see if you are able to make time for having a family. If not, look for a place where your bosses and peers also have families and as a matter of culture, stop by 6 pm unless things are urgent.
You will discover that you can’t have it all, but if you prioritise something, you will find a way.
B.A. LLB is the equivalence degree to a JD in the United States. LLM is usually just an additional option if you want to qualify the bar exams there. The US cohort including the Indian Americans don’t take LLM seriously at all, plus the prestige factor lies with the JD making the LLM students less shiny. Plus, you have to understand that Harvard students are known to be arrogantly snobbish when it comes to their law programme. My friend from Virginia who is pursuing his JD at NYU stated that HLS even crushed Yale law grads time to time. So it’s not uncommon for them to look down upon a law school which isn’t well known in the whole of Asia. Let’s be honest, even your Indian peers (especially your batchmates) salivate to even get their journals in the Harvard student law review where even the JD students are given first preference. Also, it’s incredibly harder to get into the Harvard JD programme when you compare it to their LLM programme. LSAT US (not india) is not a joke. Either you need to have a certain 175ish grade / life altering extra curricular or legacy admission (but that too if your dad or uncle is a governor). For LLM there is no exam and let’s be honest even if by any great misfortune the HLS students come across something like CLAT- they will start laughing at us despite the unpredictability the exam holds every year. NLUs are not even as prestigious as IITs (which are quite well known to Harvard and MIT grads, even Yale too), so it’s difficult if you expect Harvard to take note of us. Plus, the inferiority of top Indian law schools are exposed vividly when we ourselves including the NLS cohort refer certain institutions as ‘Harvard of the East’ / ‘Yale of the East’. We already admit that their institution is already bigger, just hang out with your cohort and mingle with those JD folks who are actually nice, not everyone can be bad.
All of them have India desks which ostensibly do the same work as what an India-branch would achieve. It's more cost effective to stick an Indian TC in the India desk and outsource routine advisory to a T2 law firm in India. Our bill for "local counsel coordination" is often 2-3x what the actual law firm charges, so clearly there is no scope on ground for any significant revenue generation.
AND
Try litigation.
OR
Work at small firms if you're dire need of jobs:
Wadia Ghandy is switching to bigger office in Ahmedabad.
OR
Apply for long term internship at LKS Ahmedabad. You'll get paid at least 18k per month which is more than enough to cover your expenses in Ahmedabad.
AND
Have faith in yourself. I took 2 years drop before clat. It's okay if you're a 2022/23 grad and is not placed yet. It could or couldn't be fault of your own but there's no point in going down that road. The best you can do is go forward.
Be smart while applying. Banglore is not a legal hub to begin with. Ahmedabad is expanding with lks moving to New office and so does wadiya. Also, kco opened new office very recently. Consider going to Ahmedabad for it's cheaper. Do the following from tomorrow:
1. Apply to wadiya and/or lks for internship.
2. Regularly apply to firms in Delhi for job interview.
3. Talk to your friends/confidant regularly.
4. Cut down on your expenses.
5. Stop using social except LinkedIn.
6. You must think some other fellow is nothing compared to you but has a job. Everyone thinks that but such thought process isn't going to bring any good. If you can't be happy for other person.. at least have the maturity to only focus on yourself.
7. Exercise or walk. Don't meditate. Start meditation when something good happens.
8. Idk whether world is cruel or not.. if there's only luck factor or not. There's no point in thinking about such things so don't waste time. Focus on yourself. Try to grow. You must have had amazing days be it with your friends or family or cousins or even strangers. There are people who have your best interests. They deserve that you're happy. Just consider doing those things I mentioned.
All the Best!
I'm going to save this link. Lmk if something good happens. I'm counting on you ❤️🤝.
But law firms do tend to attract workaholics who only think about work and make it their identity. There are quite a few places like this.
Take a break, then try to find your next job. Reach out to people you know to get a sense of how the workplace is.
The lawyer of opposite party In Lower Court is a Senior Advocate in High Court and its this influence resulting in the Clerk refusing to take the complaint.Even prior other complaints against this Judge that were made almost three weeks back are not even given an Outward number.This is not just some lazy clerk,its a clerk who's probably taking a 100 rupee note or some favour,obviously without a trace,from the law firm of the Senior Advocate of the opposite party.There's a habit of the clerk insisting that outward number will not be done on same day but after 3-4 days.But the numbering is not done for weeks sometimes and the complaints become redundant.He once asked me for Rs100 when I requested my complaint to be treated as urgent.When I refused, I faced consequences.The Lower Court Judge had come to know about my complaint on next date and passed adverse observations on me in an order.When I challenged the order with adverse observations,the High Court remanded the matter to be redecided by Lower Court who withdrew those observations.Thats when I bought this new complaint and the Clerk in High Court has refused to take it.
What is the legal remedy here-Should I report the matter to ACB as I am facing consequences for not bribing or take up Contempt against the Clerk for interfering administration of justice
I've put together a list of questions commonly asked in job interviews for associate positions. Please take a look and feel free to add any questions you think would be helpful. Let's make this list as useful as possible for everyone!
Thanks.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SI81Z9yCuFXeR6hkprvI1aTWG9DD3QOhZIrc8dOWZzY/edit?usp=sharing
1. A written commitment regarding refund of mess, internet and reading material fee, as these facilties were not provided to students
2. Show cause notice to all faculties involved in anti-student activities
3. Removal of anti-protest declaration from admission forms
4. Immediate redressal steps for water cooler cleaning in hostel and mess
5. Removal of 70% attendance rule in each subject till more transparent system for accounting attendance is in place
6. Option to opt out of mess
7. Extra curricular attendance leave in addition to medical leave
8. Initiation of constitution of interim student body
9. Notification of non-negotiable student visiting hours for VC Office
https://www.barandbench.com/apprentice-lawyer/protests-break-out-at-nusrl-ranchi-on-water-contamination-vc-denies-existence-of-protests-on-campus
ki raaz-e-Mohabbat baya'n na ho
mumkim kahan tha
ki aag lage aur dhua na ho
I know you haven't asked for this advice, but you have other options than a Stephens + JD or a Stephens + three year Indian LLB or Indian LLB + American LLM open to you. You may wish to consider these too.
I know of someone in England that did an undergrad at Stephens and then an LLB at Durham. The guy has secured a training contract at Latham & Watkins' London office (Latham being an American law firm, and one of the largest in the world). So even if the U.S. doesn't work out immediately, you still do have the other options, such as the possibility of going to England with an Indian undergraduate degree which is not in law and studying/practicing there. NB: Don't try NALSAR BALLB + LLB in England, because the visa authorities in England don't allow that kind of thing. An LLB from England would be (i) on the same academic level as your NALSAR BALLB (i.e., Bachelors degree, RQF Level 6); and (ii) in the same subject, meaning that an LLB in England after a BALLB in NALSAR wouldn't represent 'academic progression', which the British rules on student visas consider to be very important. If, like the guy I know, you were to get a TC at a big American firm in London with a combination of a Stephens BA + an LLB from a Russell Group university, you could have a few years' PQE in London, sort yourself out with a British passport and immigrate to the U.S. with that. A longer pathway, but still gets you to your eventual goal. Immigration rules justification: you could do two undergraduate degrees - a Stephens BA + a UK LLB - because, while both of them are at RQF Level 6, they are degrees in different subjects, and as they lead to a career in the law, would still constitute a credible academic plan.
Or if you really want to have all manner of experiences, some UK law schools (King's, UCL and LSE specifically) have what are called 'dual degree partnerships' with U.S. universities. Essentially, you do a four year law degree, called LLB - JD, recognised for purposes of being a practicing lawyer in both the UK and the U.S. Two of your four years are spent studying law in the UK, and two years are spent studying law in the U.S. To give you a sense of what the partnerships for such degrees look like, King's collaborates with Georgetown, giving its English and American Law degree holders a degree of LLB - JD (two years spent at King's and two at Georgetown) and both UCL and LSE have collaborations with Columbia (so, depending on where you get admitted in the UK, you would spend two years in the UK at UCL or LSE, and two years at Columbia), getting a qualifying law degree that could allow you to practice in both England and Wales and the U.S.
Sure, if you're passionate and really love handing out judgements, no big deal. However, it's not the best career for a slow & peaceful life. Moreover, I've noticed post-covid the political interference has risen, earlier it would be behind closed doors and very far and few. Now it's openly rampant. However if you still prefer judiciary, Himachal>Uttarakhand.
https://jurysoutblog.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/statement-of-solidarity-with-the-nujs-student-body/
This is incredible news! Last time you saw an NLU SBA setting apart placement rivalries and supporting another NLU SBA was in the pre-Covid 2010s. There was a wave of NLU student protests during that period, with almost 12 NLUs protesting against their VCs in a span of 3-4 years. One of the hallmarks of those protests was cross-NLU support, with each NLU SBA offering a letter of solidarity to the other. Unfortunately, several factors led to this phenomenon dying down, such as:
1. Covid
2. A new generation of students with a different mindset. Some students were more interested in fighting woke culture wars than fighting for administrative transparency.
3. NLSIU SBA selfishly dissociating itself from other NLUs, following Sudhir's reforms and the Karnataka HC judgement holding that only NLSIU is a national institution (which NLSIU alum ASG Vikramjit Banerjee had selfishly argued before the court).
4. Death of LI and change in attitude of BB. In those days, LI used to be a news site and BB used to be an honest and pro-student news site (unlike now, where BB has blacked out news of the NUJS student petition against the VC and news of corruption in other NLUs). LI and BB used to regularly publish campus news and take a pro-student perspective Different SBAs also leaked news to LI and BB, and there was a competition between LI and BB on who would get the scoop first! Sadly, this died when Kian quit this space.
So it's a welcome change seeing GNLU trying to revive the era of inter-NLU solidarity. But fingers crossed on whether this will stay. 🤞
Coming to your situation, I am facing a similar hell for some years now, and this has worked for me to an extent (albeit, I am still psychologically dead, and have very much trouble making meaningful friendships and relationships in law school (just dated 4 girls in the past few years and ended on very bad terms, possibly ruining their outlook on relationships as well)
1. Maintain less contact- Dont visit home, go on internships in vacations
2. Ace your academics, and spend a lot of time focussing on studies. The comfortable backing of loving parents that your batchmates have, isn't going to work out for you. After a certain age in life, people are averse to changing their outlook and emotional stance over time, do NOT expect them to change ever. Get top grades and aim for a job placement ASAP in your fourth year itself.
3. Speak to your bank manager and try getting the terms lightened, like giving you a gap
4. Try getting sources of earning income. Anything, YouTube, long term internships, just open linkedin and keep applying everywhere regardless of JD. Lie on your CV. Anything. This will help you slowly grow less dependent on your parents. Until this, keep your expenses low when it is derived from them.
5. Please please make friends. Such situations drain you emotionally and you do need stuff apart from acads as well to help you survive law school.
6. If you have ancestral property/ business, try speaking to a lawyer and getting your share asap.
Technical matters aside, I do not really know what is the exact situation in your home. However, you are probably staying away for most of the year anyway with law school and internships. If possible, try to adjust a little bit during the short period of time you do reside at home. Parent-child bond aside, it would also help your financial situation for the next three years at least, since other than the university fees, you would also need extra money for your other needs, internship travel and stay etc. It is often the case that the parents do love their children and want the best for them, but cannot understand that they may be alienating the children because of misunderstanding. Try to talk to them about it, if you have not done so already. Best of luck!
Of course, don’t sit to memorise all of it - but know where to look for when doing a deliverable. Nothing can prepare you for this. It’s either for you or it’s absolutely not. Not everyone’s cup of tea. If you don’t understand it and lose interest in it then it’s not for you and your fresher year is the best time to switch. But it takes time and patience. If you still can’t find enough fucks to give within 6 months then quit - and I say this with a lot of optimism. If you think the grass is greener on the other side, then it probably is.
Also, like, chill out until you start off. Don’t bother trying to prepare for a job you can easily learn while you’re at it. You’re not going to get this time back. Live your life. Take YOLO-ing seriously. Time is money and every moment is costly.
Legally India started around 2008 to 2009 in our _________? when we still had blackberry's and terrible ragging culture everywhere from law schools in bhopal to culcutta.
From 2009 to 2013 Legally India was the OG of corp law shit posting and reporting in India. We all used to love reading LI. After 2014s I stopped scrolling through LI.
Met a friend in Singapore a month ago who also quit law practice in Mumbai to join banking. As we reconnected, talked about our old days. I opened legally india, old Facebook accounts after a decade to have some fun and recollect. Tears rolled out. Shocked to see that legally india ceased to exist as a proper website.
A lot of changes happened in law schools and profession in INDIA.
FAST forward to 2024, Plenty of national law universities - back in the day we used to know lot of people even from other NLUs. Plenty of large law firms - some even as big as new york practices. Exponential growth. Some folks who barely passed out of law school even became partners and good Litigation Counsels in Mumbai and Bangalore. How?
Clat as an exam started in 2007 and there was only one good coaching center in the whole country - Law School Tutorials by Sachin Malhan from 90s NLS. Now there are plenty?
Law schools (nlus) have became less cohesive but more bigger, diverse and accommodating. Even NLS with it's legacy batch of 60 changed.?
One big change is offices - past one decade almost every large firm changed offices.
Nariman to Mahalaxmi Parel and Bandra
Good old Delhi to Noida and Gurgaon (feel bad, uncomfortable)
Bangalore offices became bigger. Tech boom is real.
Proposed large Chennai and Hyderabad offices never started or failed even after a decade? How why?
Would be great if someone can revive LI! Or atleast preserve the website to prevent shut down. This is a history treasure trove of corporate law profession in India.
LI was even better than Roll on Friday (UK) at its peak. Indian lawyers will be benefitted if LI gets back on foot.
LI used to make good money from New York and Mumbai law firms even while keeping it's reporting independent.
PS - many details have been changed here and there to protect my privacy.
The above is a short primer. You can give Pedagogy of the Oppressed a read for greater depth.
"I've never heard of anyone being called transphobic for exercising their autonomy over who they want to have sex with. So bizarre. These projections often are."
Are you not seeing the denial that transwomen commit crimes or are you wanting to see the denial? are you moving goalposts? It is obviously inaccurate to say no one ever said that these people dont commit crimes when there are these posts on this very thread? Ive only responded with reduxx links and terfisaslur.com links to these posts.
Where is the proof that its overexagerrated? Do you understand how numbers work? https://fairplayforwomen.com/transgender-male-criminality-sex-offences/ Here is one link
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/24/government-figures-70-per-cent-of-transgender-prisoners-are/#:~:text=figures%20have%20revealed.-,At%20least%20181%20of%20the%20244%20transgender%20inmates%2C%20more%20than,grievous%20bodily%20harm%20and%20robbery. Here is another
Here is a third: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/18973/pdf/
A fourth: https://torontosun.com/news/national/study-finds-nearly-45-of-trans-women-inmates-convicted-of-sex-crimes
- i can provide more. Half of the males in prisons who claim they are trans have committed and been convicted of sexual crimes and that rate for non-trans males in prisons is 17%. That is a significant difference. That means these are not over-exaggerated. The propensity to commit sexual crimes for the trans identified males is literally statistically higher compared to regular "cis" men. And regardless- even one is too many. even one woman being assaulted by a transwoman- a male in a womens space is too many and its not just one. Its a significantly higher number than that and its more likely to happen with a transwoman than with a "cis" man.
California prisons are providing women prisoners with condoms because 40 males are at last count in womens prisons. why provide all women with condoms? because its not likely that he will just rape one and leave it be. And these women are in prison- they cannot leave. And many of the women are in prison after a long history of dealing with male violence and when they go to prison they get told they will still have to deal with male violence so they best carry around condoms so at least they dont get pregnant. This should turn your stomach.
https://www.iwf.org/2024/03/19/why-are-womens-prisons-in-california-passing-out-condoms/
https://womensliberationfront.org/news/ca-womens-prisons-anticipate-pregnancy-sb123
What youre arguing- is that for all the rapes and sexual crimes women have to endure- transwomen only commit a small percentage- so they should get a pass to be in sex segregated spaces. How many rapes do you think are acceptable risk? Do you know that for all the people who own guns very few actually end up using it on another person? do you think we shouldnt have gun control laws then? or do you think the small minority of mentally ill people who murder school children by the hundreds mean that we should actually have gun control?
Thats how safeguarding works- you recognise broad patterns in criminality and then exclude anyone from that group and you do background checks. So everyone who might have serious mental illnesses is excluded from owning guns, and everyone who has a history of domestic violence is excluded from owning guns. And everyone with a male body is excluded from sex segregated spaces.
This is why there are sex segregated spaces in the first place. Not all men harm women- most men do not- but we have sex segregated toilets and prisons and rape shelters and schools to protect from the statistically significant percentage of men who do harm women. If a statistically significant percentage of transwomen are in prison for sexual crimes- and that is proven by authenticated government backed studies- then thats enough justification for excluding transwomen from sex segregated spaces.
If you learn the history- we had unisex bathrooms and prisons and schools and sports and the like before- the reason we moved away from that was because women were being harmed and were being disadvantaged. I cannot believe we have to relitigate it because some males say they feel like theyre "a woman on the inside". Every predatory male has an incentive to say that because then he is put in the womens space- its a nothing statement that requires no surgeries or hormones or medical interventions at all- its purely an internal state that is unverifiable. You leave the door open to that when you decide to prioritise claims about identities and genderfeels over biological material facts like sex.
Of all the men who rape women- im willing to bet that disabled men and old men are a very small number- but we dont allow disabled men and elderly men into womens spaces and womens prisons and rape shelters and toilets do we?
Youre essentially arguing "not all transwomen" when no one has argued all transwomen- we've only argued that there are enough- that there are statistical material facts that warrant sex segregation and safeguarding. And that these studies and numbers and the reporting of all of these incidents is blacked out or it is attributed as "womens" crimes. It gets harder and harder to tell these truths. That is why reduxx exists, as distasteful and "phobic" as you might find it. A phobia or a sceptre- is fear or something thats not real- this is not a phobia or a sceptre- its fear of something that IS real.
Just because transwomen might be subject to male violence doesnt mean women have to sacrifice their hard won rights for sex segregated spaces and safeguarding and sex based rights to accomodate them. Gay men are subject to male violence, pedophiles in prisons are raped consistently- that doesnt mean we put them all in the womens prisons because gay men and pedophiles and transwomen (conceding that these are distinct groups) are still male- and they still can and do harm women, we should find another solution.
To argue that the solution then is for women to give up their protections and rights is to argue that women have to perform penance for the crimes still committed by men. I reject the idea that any woman anywhere is responsible for the criminal actions of every man.
My solution to this problem is to have single occupancy third spaces for any male that feels threatened in the male space. I agree with you- even one male bodied person getting raped because he wore a dress that day or because hes gay is too much- im not comparing harms- you are dismissing harms to women. Im suggesting that the solution isnt to erase womens sex based rights. Rights arent pie generally- until you want a piece of the pie I have specifically carved out for me. Everybody has a property right- but nobody has a right to come on to my property and claim it for themselves or demand that we share- to argue that that is legitimate- is to argue that there are no property rights except for the people who feel comfortable ignoring property rights.
But of course you will find that trans activists and trans people oppose this solution. They dont just "want to be safe" or "want to pee" they want to be validated as "women" by being in womens sex segregated spaces. its the validation theyre after- not just the safety. Safety is a concern easily addressed. All of this money that goes into stonewall and ACLU, and human rights watch and all of these organisations who spend hundreds of millions arguing that sex isnt real- take that money and build third places for gender non-conforming males.
Validation requires that women give up their language, their sex based rights, their sex segregated spaces, their safeguarding and even their bodies to please males. No one in a free society should have to validate the internal psychological states of anybody. Not at this cost and not at any cost.
The problem with surgeries at "too young an age " is not that the surgeries could go wrong. its that children are not capable of understanding the implications of these surgeries and are therefore unable to provide informed consent. All children. And then that the surgeries even when they go perfectly- do not do what they are claimed to do. You cannot actually change sex- every cell in your body is coded xx or xy. You will be a permanent patient by doing this. You can gain a superficial appearance to a sex organ by moulding your body through surgeries- but neo-phalluses dont function like regular penises and neo-vaginas have nothing in common with regular vaginas at all- real vaginas self clean, they expand and contract as necessary, they help shed the uterine lining, they dont close up on their own, they dont tear up to have fecal matter from intestines spill into them. neo vaginas do none of those things. Quoting andrea long chu- its a wound thats carved into your body that the body will forever try to heal from. The organic body parts are signs of a healthy body. Modification procedures almost always result in ill health. Even hormone therapies. Exogenous hormones produce cancer, they produce osteoporosis, they might even impair brain development. There is a reason that we decided to prevent adult athletes from taking exogenous hormones- because they were killing themselves by taking these drugs trying to win competitions. It is impossible for a child to understand what the loss of sexual function, the loss of orgasm, the loss of fertility can all mean. It is impossible for children to consent to this just as or even more than it is impossible for children to consent to alcohol or cigarettes or tattoos or sex.
"Gender fluidity" implies that male children should be allowed to wear dresses and girl tomboys should be allowed to climb trees without being punished. I agree with that- most gender critical terfs agree with that. Where we disagree is telling children that just because a boy likes pink and playing princess and a girl might like trucks and playing sports means that those kids actually belong to the opposite sex and should be validated as such, that their names and their bodies should be changed, that they should be put on a pathway to transition including puberty blockers, exogenous hormones, and harmful surgeries. I want those kids to completely be themselves , and I want those kids thought that there are no "male" behaviours and "female" behaviours- they can be as masculine or as feminine as they like- that doesnt change their sex or who they are. I want to abolish gender- you want to reify it to be so important it requires sex changes and body modification.
This is exactly what the cass review found- they found that when children were found to be behaving in "gender nonconforming" ways, they would get primed and asked by their teachers and by care workers if they were sure of their "gender identity" and prompted to go on a "gender journey". Kids being kids would see that gay and trans kids were getting praise and attention for being brave. Social contagion is a real thing. Young girls would think " i dont look or feel like a kardashian- i must be a boy". Mermaids- the leader of ngos in youth gender stuff- literally told young boys and girls- that there are GI joes and barbies- and if they are male and think they arent like GI joes or theyre female and they dont feel like or relate to barbie- they should go on a gender journey. That prompts kids to think that the sex their born with is something they should change to match more closely their personality. https://www.transgendertrend.com/questions-school-mermaids-training-teachers/ This is harmful. This suppresses gender nonconforming behaviour in the worst possible way. considering this is mostly being done to kids who will grow up to be gay or are autistic- this is literally conversion therapy and conversion surgery. https://andrewdoyle.substack.com/p/the-new-gay-conversion-therapyhttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/02/tavistock-trust-whistleblower-david-bell-transgender-children-gidshttps://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2024/03/inside-the-collapse-of-the-tavistock-centrehttps://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/it-feels-like-conversion-therapy-for-gay-children-say-clinicians-pvsckdvq2
Medical professionals knew they were doing this- and they continued to do it until those evil bigoted terfs stopped them. The cass review found this and the World professional association for transgender health- the WPATH had its files and emails leaked where doctors were joking about how these kids cannot consent and how they were "transing the gay away".
You think that trans people in india may not buy into child transition- but they absolutely have. Hook line and sinker- there is no dissent in the community because one usually doesnt find dissent in religious groups- because their entire movement is aping what their counterparts in the west did. Do you remember when "Vqueeram" aditya sahai was outed as a fetishist by right wing groups because he was tapped to write a guidance on gender inclusion in schools? Im sure you felt outrage at that. Did you read what was in the guidance? I did. https://clpr.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Inclusion_of_Transgender_Children_in_School_Education.pdf Here is a copy. Look up "puberty blockers". The guidance literally says that school teachers- you should know how capable school teachers in india are of making medical diagnoses- should talk to gender non conforming kids about the availability of puberty blockers. that they should " Convey that these are available and accessible for adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria, who may later identify as transgender persons. ". 80% of children and adolescents experiencing dysphoria end up not transitioning- puberty actually solves the dysphoria and they realise they are just gay, regular old boring gay. He wanted to give the same drugs we give to castrate rapists and to cancer patients to those kids. Why? because they acted a little flamboyant?
Do you know what the original reason for puberty blockers and prescribing hormones to kids was? it was because trans identified males were upset they didnt "pass as women" - to the eye in their appearance- because puberty had given them obviously male characteristics- wouldnt it have been wonderful if they had never had those characteristics or were able to block those characteristics from forming so they could have different more feminine appearance. This is a cosmetic intervention. It has nothing to do with suicidality. Children by and large dont commit suicide and when they do the causes are very complex and knotted, and like i have shown elsewhere- not just for children but even for adults- transitioning doesnt lower the risk of suicide infact it may increase it. Because living in a mutilated body that makes you a permanent patient has got to be awful.
This is madness- and this suppresses gender nonconforming behavior through the worst ways- and it wont stop itself if we dont seriously and skeptically reconsider the idea of sexed souls and gendered identities.
Notice- through all of this- I havent denied or compared harms the way you want me to. Im not denying that trans identified males may face harms. Im denying that the solution to those harms is to follow blindly whatever trans people might want- regardless of what rigorous science says or what other groups might be affected. You have an all or nothing approach. I dont. You have decided that anyone who disagrees with you must hate gender nonconformity or hate trans people. You decided at the very outset that disbelief in gender souls was "hate speech". Hate speech used to mean threats, incitement to violence, and slurs. I havent done any of those things. But you have consistently admonished me to be kind while the other guy gets to say women are irrational because of their periods, that we're all bigots for disagreeing, that we're all hateful for daring to have a different opinion and that we're all too stupid and dumb and we dont read because we dont buy the bullcrap judith butler sells. You have done nothing to police his/her tone have you? its only my tone you find objectionable. Because appearing to care about trans people and going on about how beautiful and brave and stunning these people are is more important than actually caring about what happens to women in prisons or children who might be homosexual. That is your measure of kindness and I reject it entirely. Dissent by itself is not unkind unless you are in a religion where apostasy is criminal.
If the only claim of "transwomen" was that they needed protection from discrimination based on gender performance- nobody would disagree. But their claims dont stop there. Its not just- "hijras should be able to get a job" its not just " men who wear dresses should be able to go to universities like everyone else. They arent stopped from those things. Its " you must treat us as women because we say we are women", "why cant we change sex on government ID". The claim isnt " we want separate spaces for protection" or " we want open categories in sports" its "we want to go into the womens room and into womens rape crisis shelters and womens schools and we want to compete in the womens category". No body is protesting trans people competing in open categories- the problem is that male bodied people want to compete in female categories. The problem is that there are no sex segregated spaces anymore because "identity" which is unverifiable undetectable and unfalsifiable is supposed to be more important than sex - which is a material fact in every single mammal. There is only one oppressed community on this planet that you can identify your way into and none of us can say boo according to you- thats women. why is that?
No one is saying we must ignore the material oppression of trans people where this oppression is found- but arguing against discrimination or arguing against material oppression doesnt require i believe their shoddy philosophy or their religious beliefs or practice their rituals. I dont need to believe "trans women are women" to think they shouldnt be raped- I dont think men should be raped. I dont need to believe they are women to think they should be allowed to go to school and get a job like everyone else- they should and people who traffic kids and prevent them from going to school should be jailed and everyone regardless of sex who is trafficked should be offered ways to come out of that "profession" including adult education and skilling and vocational education and university education if theyre capable. You only need to believe that they are women to believe that sex doesnt matter. Male people have all rights every male person has ever had. No male has rights that are exclusive to women- adult human females. thats all im saying- that sex matters.
You need to stop thinking you know what the right answers are or youre on the right side of history because of vibes. All evidence would show that the gender critical terfy side are actually maybe the ones on the right side of history. You cannot be accusing me of hate and ignorance and policing my tone when you cannot honestly say youve considered and read any of the literature ive brought up in this exchange before forming an opinion. I have read judith butler and I proved, I am familiar with statistics on this stuff, I am familiar with the medical aspects of it- i have bothered to find out what hijras are and what intersex is, and ive read studies and papers on gender medicine. I have been in very lib-fem spaces that are all gaga over gender identity nonsense and now im an apostate because- one night- i said - im so sure about this stuff I bet I could listen to what evil terfs say and counter everything. And I couldnt. And I had the decency and honesty to change my mind when confronted by evidence and arguments I had not considered. You dont have that decency or honesty - which is why instead of saying "youre right and im wrong". Youve made it about tone. Instead of acknowledging when I have facts that dont bode well for your argument- you have shifted goal posts.
Transwomen dont harm women- not enough transwomen harm women- not all transwomen harm women- even if they do harm women women should put up with it- youre only concerned because you hate trans people (because its inconceivable someone would actually be concerned about women)- even if they do harm women- those women are probably bigoted anyway so it doesnt matter. This is the narcissists prayer redone. And it follows exactly the pattern your arguments have followed in this exchange. Go look in the mirror.
P.S. By partners I don't mean super-rich law firm heirs like the children of Cyril and Shardul Shroff. I mean your regular NLU alum partner.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/running-away-from-internet-on-zerodha-co-founder-nikhil-kamath-s-doesn-t-want-to-have-kids-remark-101715843329901.html
Fee structure: - Regardless of how rich you are, the fee structure will always be an issue in terms of decision-making. GNLU is bloody expensive, one of my juniors mentioned that it’s apparently 14k USD 💀 for just the tution fees. NUJS on the other hand, has an advantage as the total course fee won’t exceed 45-50 lakhs over the course of your duration. The ROI will be automatically a bit better
Placements: - I always keep on saying this that NUJS has an exceptional placement record. It has a slight edge over GNLU in terms of domestic placements, still, the difference is quite marginal. Plus within the T-1 NLU cohort, there isn’t much of a difference with regards to placements.
Scholarships: - GNLU wins hands down here, you will get a variety of academic scholarships, they have a separate scholarship dedicated to litigation and most importantly some of them don’t even need the income criteria. NUJS lacks a concrete scholarship which can dampen your chances of motivation, considering you are the NRI-S student.
Infrastructure: - As I have heard from my pals, the NUJS BH isn’t that pathetic. It’s tolerable, some rooms are nice while some other rooms are comparatively pale. The GH is terrible btw, however, from the second year everything gets sorted. My biased mentality will creep in here. Please don’t choose a college based on Infra, doesn’t make complete sense. If you are really into luxury, then GNLU can’t offer that either, some rooms are still cramped up.
Location: - Gandhinagar is growing, no doubt about it. But, again by the time you graduate, you are still gonna be hopped up on Kolkata as nujs is still stable and it’s anyway in the heart of Cal.
Final verdict: - Nujs wins, considering your situation, I still feel nujs makes more sense compared to GNLU, although again the difference between them is marginal. Yet for a NRI-S candidate, nujs is proving to be more fruitful.
You'll do fine OP. It can be difficult to filter out emotions triggered by other people's lashing out and it is human to want to protect oneself. You are already getting there. Remember that you can work to understand why they are angry and where they are coming from without presenting yourself as a target for their anger. I think you are a kind person that hope that you run into more people who see and value your kindness.
==============================================================
AIBE 18: 1,44,014 candidates appeared for the exam of which 74,368 failed, responded BCI to an RTI plea.
As per the response to a Right to Information filed by Shibu Babu, 1,48,781 students appeared for the exam held on December 10 last year. 74,368 candidates failed the test while over 4,700 were absent. BCI declared AIBE 18 result 2024 on March 26, 2024.
Source - https://news.careers360.com/51-63-percent-of-candidates-failed-in-aibe-18-exam-bci-reveals-rti-reply
..............
Q
AIBE Exam or All India Bar Exam is literally an open book exam. Even a non lawyer could write the exam. There is no need to study. It's easier than any LLB subject exam.
How is it possible that 51% of candidates fail in the exams?
Are they from fake colleges?
How did they pass LLB if they end up failing in AIBE?
Most LLB subject exams require some prep whereas AIBE doesn't require anything?
I have since then worked at another reputed mid sized firm and greatly upskilled myself and am recently thinking of applying to my ex firm but for a different partner in Bom office. Can my ex partner block my application? Partner is pretty senior and can’t imagine them being this petty, but Ive been surprised before.
Now, I acknowledge what other people have said, that letting resentment build and then saying hostile things anonymously is not helping anyone. It's possible that the non-binary people I know are just bad people, and not necessarily because of their gender. This thread has given me a lot to think about and read up on.
I don't fully know what my stance is on this issue. I still think that there's a large overlap between difficult mental illnesses like bpd (really hard for the people around them to handle!) and identifying as non-binary. Whether one causes the other, I have no idea. Not my place to comment on this, I understand.
I'm less angry now than when I first started this thread, time and space really helps. Anyway, thank you to everyone who gave me perspective! Some of the recommendations of material to read has been really illuminating. @LI I'm sorry this thread became an extremely angry and hostile space, I honestly wasn't trying to stir up some controversy. Surrounded by enough drama as it is, definitely don't want more.
I want to perform good. In spite of all the toxicity, long hours, etc. I really want to give my best shot at this. I am come from a lower middle class background and the money is very very important to me. I don't want to look or sound stupid when I go there. I am already very intimated by the kind of people you find at T1 firms.
Even non-work related tips would help. Anything I should read/learn/do to fit in well in the firm? Things that are appreciated/frowned upon. Please don't put trollish responses. I really need some valuable inputs. Sincere responses here will decide how I spend my days before joining. Will be grateful to the LI community 🙏
Also, Mods I feel a lot of kids are in the same boat currently. Could you please mark this as featured so that more people can benefit from this thread? Thanks a lot.
Keep a copy of resignation email.
Download other things you may think is important as you won’t have access to it later on.
Experience letter ( law firms usually don’t issue this, but you’re an employee do ask for this)
My family recognised that I was still in a relatively good position, just that I would need to work harder to get to where I am now as a recent graduate vs if I were in NLS. I am proud for reaching where I am, but I also recognise that luck was a factor as well in this shitty job market.
Even in T3, be in the top 3-4 of your batch, there can be no excuses. Your parents just want to be able to boast that "my kid went to NLS/NALSAR". Fuck that, you do you. Embrace your past, climb to the future.
All the greats have had their firsts! Youtube had ""Me at the zoo", Instagram had a photo of pier number 38 at South Beach Harbour, SF, etc.
That leads me to wonder, what was the first ever thread on LI?
I currently work in capital markets team in a tier-1 firm.
Does any tier-1 or decent paying tier-2 law firm (or any particular team- corporate/capital markets) allows permanent work from home with decent working hours (no specific team preference)?
Wanted to understand so that I can consider shifting to my hometown for personal reasons.
Alternatively any WFH role in decently paid policy tank.
Thanks in advance
But keen to know about others too, share some good and funny stories, please!
Firstly, all the non binary people I know are extremely kind and gracious about mis gendering slip ups. They are not about people who persistently and deliberately misgender them after being corrected but that is understandable.
Secondly, your people are probably reacting to their environment. Everything you are saying now was said 20 years ago about gay and lesbian people. Being bullied and having to erase essential parts of who they are got to them. It was not their fault. Anyone would react to being treated that way. It is your institution's fault for not creating a better environment for them. It is also your institution's fault for not extending support to them as they struggle.
If you are too depleted to help, you can compassionately express your need for time and space. Letting resentment build and then engaging in what is effectively hate speech against a whole group isn't good for you and it definitely isn't good for the person you refer to.
And finally, no they don't all come from privilege. The ones who don't just suffer in silence because intersectionality makes everything worse. You probably have no idea who they are and may be saying these very hurtful, dehumanizing things to them.
1-4 pqe
Mine would be Aristotle, Groitus, Austin and Dworkin.
If you are truly interested in understanding, please read Judith Butler. You can start here https://www.jstor.org/stable/3207893?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=3
Bear in mind that women and gay people were all called crazy and attention-seeking when they questioned being treated as sub human or abnormal. Your second explanation is the one that fits. It may be tiring to understand and adapt but it is even more tiring to live among people don't recognise your personhood.
Be humble if you’ve achieved something. People get brownie points for “not” doing something they have the power to do.
OTOH, if you’ve not achieved anything, don’t be humble. You aren’t that important ;)
This is my take on it. I feel that when people are humble in general, they are not irritating. They do not rub salt in other's wounds or put them down in any way or make them feel bad about themselves or cause trouble for others.
Same time you do the contrary, they will make it their goal to put you down. When you are neutral and not in their way they simply don't care, you are just another side character they encounter. But when you actually instigate/ boast/ put them down, it becomes their focus in their journey.
Everyone likes a confident person, Nobody likes an over confident person. It becomes their objective to prove the confidence wrong.
Better him than that ▮▮▮ ▮▮▮ ▮▮▮.
https://www.barandbench.com/news/kapil-sibal-contest-scba-president-two-decades
1. Do NOT post stupid posts like "happy to share I have received an internship offer from xyz", or "share your new position" as an intern with your "network". Only one kind of post is decent enough for people not to hate you and that's a post-internship post where you thank folks in your team and HR and summarise what you did or learnt. Please don't be cringy enough to upload your internship certificates either as posts or in your profile.
2. Do NOT like random posts by others (like the above, jokes {yes even law related} and "my struggle" posts that don't culminate in some specific recent achievements or selfies by attractive people in formals posted purely to increase engagement). People unfollow you and might even remove you as a connection.
3. When you post an internship on your profile, also mention your team and a few lines on the work you did.
4. Please for the love of God have a professional photo and cover photo. Using pictures of scales (⚖️), suits/ties and collar band is extremely cringe and gives "class 12 CLAT aspirant" vibes. Please no selfies and no Snapchat filters.
5. Please never use the word "ante-penultimate" for 3rd year.
Maybe its not awkward but it seems it would be time consuming for sure.
With editing as well, yes it does help to hear your work read aloud some times, but more often than not I need to see the different paragraphs and how theyre structured when I edit. I move around sentences a lot and it would be annoying to me if I couldnt see and had to rely on screen reader to know whats going on. Perhaps im not taking into account how well people can adapt.
In any case Im glad you find these tasks to be doable and not too cumbersome. Good Luck to you! and thanks for answering stupid questions!
Second, I am sorry we didn't get to read your (non-abusive, of course) pun! Laughter is always a nice way to smash barriers, of whatever type. Call me ghoulish if you like, but I actually kind of want to read some of those comments marked "trollish" and placed into the "unpublished" pipeline by mods (out of a morbid sense of curiosity just to see how badly those people would have embarrassed themselves if they had been published) :)). Also, I am glad that you seem to have learned/taken away something useful from this yourself.
1. If you work at an institution with reasonably good accessibility infrastructure and a good disability service (I know this sounds largely like an institution in the west at this point, but let's go with it for the sake of argument, as such things should slowly be coming to India, and this point would translate well if you were to work as an academic in the west), follow all reasonable/sensible advice you receive from those in your institutional administration to make your teaching materials accessible. For example, if they tell you that the best accessibility practice would be to upload/assign a PDF as a reading on a Virtual Learning Environment after putting it through SensusAccess or some equivalent accessibility conversion package first that converts image-based PDFs into accessible typed text, it might be better to just do it, rather than see it as “another useless request from the administration”. Remember if you don’t, your student will have to, only increasing the unfair burden on them. At the same time, use your discretion wisely and follow your instincts. Ask yourself, "Is this advice necessarily the best way to do things for a blind person?". This might especially arise if, for example, a document with lots of Mathematical symbols is involved. Therefore, in one sentence, listen to your student, good advice on accessibility practices and your instincts.
2. I think any student with support needs would appreciate if you asked them what they needed in a classroom to better facilitate their learning. Even if you know, just ask, because the answer might be different from blind student to blind student, as not all blind students are the same (one may have a tiny amount of vision where another has none, one might have learned Braille where another hasn’t, one may choose to ask a fellow student to support them by being a notetaker while another might be able to juggle hearing the professor speak while at the same time typing out their notes and listening to the screen reader… you get the point, we aren’t a monolith). But never, ever, ask about or discuss things like accessibility or exam/assessment adjustments in front of other students. You are opening your future blind/disabled student up to potential humiliation and bullying, which you don’t want. In addition, if you are going to do some kind of exercise that may not be the typical back-and-forth of students discussing and answering the teacher’s questions, e.g., getting a student to read something aloud, ask again in advance how your blind student can/will do it. To go with the reading aloud example, some blind people may not find it easy to read aloud, either because they haven’t learned Braille/don’t use it often or find it hard to coordinate between listening to a screen reader, while at the same time reading, which might make them feel embarrassed or humiliated in participating in such an exercise.
3. Learn to be as verbal as you possibly can. Remember, everything you do visually (writing on a board, illustrating how price elasticity of demand works etc.) has to now be described. Get very good at describing in a way which isn’t spoon-feeding. One very embarrassing thing that often happens in classes with blind students is that, when there is a show of hands to answer a question, the teacher says ‘yes’ while looking at/pointing to the blind student. This will leave a blind student confused as to whether you want them to answer or not, leading to awkward pauses. Always say the name, or if you really have trouble remembering names, don’t break these awkward pauses with impatience; remember your student is navigating layers of judgementalism from their fellow sighted course-mates, in a classroom designed for and by sighted people, in conformance with the expectations of a sighted society, in a sighted world.
4. Returning to point 1, it is always good practice to let your student, university library and university disability service (if and where any such thing is available) know of what textbook(s) will be assigned in class in advance. If chapters from multiple books will be assigned, this is also fine, just let all applicable stakeholders know. This gives time for accessible copies of the set text(s) to be procured well in time from publishers if and where available, or scanned by librarians/disability support officers where that is needed.
5. If you are teaching a class on legal research/database usage, learn how databases are perceived by screen reader users. In simpler terms, understand how to navigate legal databases using only keyboard keys/shortcuts, rather than a mouse. Instructions such as “scroll here” or “click on the red arrow” won’t work, with workable alternatives being things like “Scroll using tab/arrow keys [where appropriate]” or “select the ‘advanced search’ option”, because screen readers can’t be used with a mouse meaningfully, and they read out the names of icons/buttons to their users, and do not describe colours/arrows. If you are training your student to use one of the prominent western legal databases (Westlaw, Lexis Nexis etc.), find out if your university/law school can arrange for your blind student to receive training from specialists who work for those databases who know how to train blind people to use them; if your law school hasn’t done such a thing before, get them to do it. Relating to verbalising and descriptions above, remember that stuff their sighted counterparts will take in by looking will often have to be told to a blind person. For example, the convention of underlining case names in the OSCOLA citation style is something the sighted will pick up organically from looking at articles/books’ footnotes/end notes, but something you may have to tell a blind student. Don’t be afraid to mention this as assignment feedback, if necessary. Suppose you are marking a Tort essay that is to be written using OSCOLA and you see that a blind student isn’t underlining case names, something they should have learned about in legal research classes, just give it as feedback, they may not have been told by a careless sighted colleague of yours and may not be told again by colleagues who may take pity or whatever, but instead have such things come back to bite them later.
Also, there are plenty of resources online to read up about queerness, including several created by queer people or groups. Make use of them.
NB: If in any of the other replies I have given above, if you have received a reply from "Guest", that is likely because I forgot to change the display name from "Guest" to "Blindlaw2003".
2. Following from no. 1, better training should be given to academics on how to communicate accessibly (e.g., describing slopes of demand/supply curves in an Economics class).
3. Networking problems: I often find it hard to network on my own in various situations, because the nondisabled feel uncomfortable to come talk to me for various reasons. Law schools can easily solve this problem by introducing a system such as having a blind person be accompanied by a sighted guide in a networking situation who can help them navigate around the room, while at the same time, helping them find and talk to people. There are precedents for this being done, read a book called ‘Haben: The Deafblind Woman who Conquered Harvard Law’, by Haben Girma (the first hearing-impaired and visually impaired person to attend and graduate from Harvard Law School with a J.D.). She describes how the Office of Career Services sent a careers advisor with her into an employer networking event to help out precisely with this.
*Sad to see, a "Lawyer" jumping to conclusions without proper investigation.
Trilegal also has some partners with really good work as well (Arjun Ghose and Kosturi Ghosh etc.) and KCO has a strong presence.
AZB Bangalore has had a lot of attrition at the partner level recently, but still decent with Srinath etc.
SAM has a growing presence in Bangalore with some really good corporate partners. But it’s a much smaller presence than what is listed above.
JSA and Indus also have decent and strong offices in Bangalore.
The above is purely listed based on work quality and not basis the toxicity and work hours.
This should help https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/166008-retainer-fee-vs-employment
PS: If anyone wants to know how/why I felt excluded, I'll say only this: try to imagine navigating the city, either on foot or by public transport, either on your own or in company, if (1) you were to be completely blind; and (2) you have Cynophobia (have dog/cat phobia) (hint, Bangalore has a street dog problem, whatever its other virtues, also think about street/public transport accessibility).
I used to stay alone, it was a non-negotiable, in my hometown I had my own room, and it was just my grandma and parents. So I took up living in an SRA, I didn't have any furniture, zilch. I used to have one thin mattress, no gas connection, no fridge, no other appliances, 2 plastic plates, 1 bucket. No almirah, Used to live out of 2 suitcases and a laundry bag. I used to hand wash my clothes and iron them. It was a fuck all living situation. I moved out soon to Delhi after 2 years of living that way. Rent was almost half of my pay.
The other major expenses included, taxis, alcohol and cigarettes and food. There were days I had spare change by the end of the month.
I then started obsessively tracking my expenses, it helped me bring in control a lot of my wasteful expenses like swiggy and faasos, taxis and so on. Eventually helped me to build a bit of saving as well. But at the cost of almost no going out with friends, no vacations, no splurging, no entertainment like OTT and so on.
1. You could possibly have 'queue cards'. Little cards or pieces of paper where you have a key word or phrase about each topic or sub-topic you will cover written down. You briefly look at each card during your presentation and it will help jog your memory.
2. Speak in front of a mirror. Time yourself. If you've got a ten minute presentation, make sure you are doing it within ten minutes. Don't rush - by speaking too fast - or slow down too much. Keep on practicing until you can say your lines within the stipulated time-limit with minimal (or no) stumbling or hesitation.
3. Record yourself a couple of times. I have found that the knowledge that I am speaking for a recording is a realistic simulation of what I will feel when speaking in front of lots of people. You'll feel the nervousness and everything. However, if you can breathe, relax your mind and body and speak calmly for the recording, you can do it in front of a live audience.
4. Try summarizing (in the target language, i.e., the language you will be delivering the presentation, English for you) the topic you'll be speaking about to someone who knows nothing about the topic, if possible - a friend or family member who has some level of familiarity with the target language. As a bonus, maybe even do a mock presentation in front of them. Again, this gives you a simulation of what the real thing will feel like. In a good scenario, if your friend or family member is fluent in the target language, they can give you some feedback on your grammar, syntax etc as well afterwards!
it is difficult to prepare a research proposal and do your llm in the same year, so make contacts with the profs at the place where you do your llm and start discussing ideas, base your proposal on the disseration, and show the proposal to some of the indian origin academics who are in your area and ask for comments, there was alist made by some commentators
once you have the proposal ready, send it to all the unis which have pgr scholarships, most russells and plate glasses have half a dozen scholarships each which pay international fees + stipend
What should I do? I still some have his very valuable papers. I know what you all are now thinking and I don't want to be that person. I don't wish to shred them just yet. I just want to do great work and be paid fully and on time.
@Mod: Please allow the comments here as quickly as you can, will be grateful.
Chin up. Apply for another job. Just say - you wanted to try out a new practice area/ field of work. Took a break in between. Don’t bitch about your previous employer during the interview.
Life is about falling and picking yourself back up. Topping in exams doesn’t teach you this. It’s ok.
All the best!
Books:
1. H.L.A. Hart, 'The Concept of Law'.
2. Ronald Dworkin, 'Law's Empire' (maybe also try 'Justice for Hedgehogs').
3. Lon L. Fuller, 'The Morality of Law'.
4. John Finnis, 'Natural Law and Natural Rights'.
5. J. Lear, 'Aristotle: the Desire to Understand'.
Articles:
1. H.L.A. Hart, 'Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals'.
2. Noam Gur, 'Ronald Dworkin and the Curious Case of the Floodgates Argument'.
3. Kristen Rundle, 'The Impossibility of an Exterminatory Legality'.
*4. Eric Heinze, '*The meta-ethics of law: Book One of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics'.
5. Brian Leiter, 'Legal Realism and Legal Positivism Reconsidered'.
He has not disclosed which magazine/website sent him the mail, but Google shows that a website/magazine called Enterprise World gives an award by this same name:
https://theenterpriseworld.com/sahiba-ahluwalia-a-rising-force/
NOTE: Not suggesting that the lady featured in the link above paid for publicity.
Sorry to say this, but SILF has won this round of the battle as well... despite rules having been made for the entry, no one followed up..
The Indian corporate law firm scene is likely to remain the same. Space currently occupied by the old ruling families will be ceded to new age gangs of boys, who will be no different. So sit back and try and enjoy the ride
ps- please note that all my previous internships have been general corporate or Banking Finance related.
Wondering what avenues/ opportunities are open for me and worth exploring.
Favour with your candid views and suggestions from various perspectives.
Chennai as a city has the lowest fresher corp law pay across India.
https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/266717-highest-paying-law-firms-in-chennai
https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/311680-meaningful-reviews-of-bangalore-and-chennai-based-offices-please-no-tier-restrictions-etc-if-you-know-either-of-a-great-place-or-of-a-major-red-flag-to-be-avoided-do-tell
If you're interested, please say hi with your username (with a posting history of comments, preferably) and let us know which side you would want to join (dark or light) and why.
BUT, there has to be an order to things. Focus on being good/ indispensable in your work. I dont know what hair band you use or how you other wise dress - long hair cant be an excuse to look shoddy. Someone wearing red pant and green shirt (no matter howsoever formal looking and branded) will be asked to revisit his wardrobe.
Your question was a bit free-flowing (as if no one ever had this idea of keeping long hair during job), hence I believe the initial negative feedback. No one gives a crap how you keep your hair. Just dont end up losing your job because of this. In life, you will face situations where you will have to give up (hard earned) things that will be more valuable than hair. So, I guess, just take a chill pill for now, grow your hair, push your boss back a bit, then tell us in 6 months what happenned. Sounds good?
Current status: 6 years, 14 hearings, still no hearing on substantive arguments by counsels. But at least some progress, so a decision by 2030 is possible, perhaps even earlier. Interesting that the survivor is not giving up but continuing to fight.
- You need patience in this space. Starting salaries are low but will go up with time. Don’t be depressed early on if you get low pay. I myself am an example. Thought I don’t earn as much as a CAM corporate partner, it’s still very good pay. I started by earning peanuts.
- The top lawyers and law firms in this field survive entirely on foreign clients. Indian clients are 🤮 both in terms of work and billing. If you happen to be in a firm which advises mainly Indian clients, that’s not a good firm! Many small boutique firms have very good foreign clients. Join them.
- The future if this field is tech. Tech. Tech. Tech. You must keep yourself up to date with the latest developments in this space and get to know about the tech itself.
- Finally, just like in corporate law, there are some law firm owners who unfortunately are oligarchs in this practice area: keeping salaries low, promoting nepo kids and making no investment in continuing education and training. If foreign law firms come in they will hopefully fade away.
Whether I should still go for it and try my luck?
1) The IP practice in India is dominated by boutique IP firms who operate primarily in cities that have a branch of the IP office or a High Court that regularly takes up IP matters (typically Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata). These boutique law firms are involved in the bulk of prosecution work, which is the bread and butter of any IP lawyer.
2) A pure IP practice can be classified into three major areas - prosecution, litigation and transactions. Prosecution pretty much relates to all IP filing work (including responding to office actions, opposition proceedings) and corresponding advisory work. This accounts for a bulk of income for IP firms. Litigation, naturally, relates to IP disputes. Most firms work straightforward cases related to trademark, copyright or patent infringement. Since IP is still growing in India, complex cases involving various questions of law usually go to a few boutique firms who have a history of doing good IP litigation work (such as Anand, Remfry, Singh, Saikrishna etc.). These offices are primarily based in Delhi due to the IP Division having judges such as Pratibha Singh, who were former IP lawyers and have a deeper understanding of IP law. Transactional work is available with very few firms, but typically involves drafting and negotiation of agreements (licenses, assignments, co-existence agreements, JV agreements etc., that are IP centric). Such work is also very sector specific, with firms such as ANM Global, Khimani etc. dominating the M&E industry and regularly making production, artist agreements.
3) A few full-service law firms (T1 and T2) such as Khaitan, AZB, SAM and now CAM have fully functional IP teams. However, these firms (barring Khaitan) do not do a lot of prosecution work due to the clerical nature of work, and abundance of competitors who are willing to do such work for much lesser fees. These firms typically work on IP transactions (assisting M&A teams with IP portion of transactions), negotiating IP agreements and allied agreements for larger clients. They also tend to do a lot more advisory work across IP and allied fields. The IP team in AZB, for example, also handles a lot of pharmaceutical regulatory work whereas Khaitan seems to be doing a lot of technology related and advertising regulatory work. Can't comment on SAM, and CAM has recently started an IP team so not too sure about the kind of work they do.
4) Breaking into a boutique firm is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than joining a full-service firm with an IP team.
5) Ideally, one should always be very clear with IP prosecution before venturing into other areas of IP (including litigation or transactions).
6) The industry is slowly (but surely) becoming more sensitive towards IP as a practice area. This is also evident with the increased involvement of IP and Tech teams on commercial deals (go check any deal reporting by major law firms and see IP partners who have assisted such deals). However, understand that as a practice area, IP is very very concentrated and there is an over-availability of lawyers. If you wish to succeed and make it to the top (which is where the money is, unfortunately), you need to have a very deep industry / sector understanding, along with experience in allied fields such as TMT, Data Protection and Privacy etc.
7) Hours are not, as others claim, "chill". This is completely dependent on the firm you work for, and the quantum of work they have. This is especially true if you're working for a fullservice firm's IP / TMT team. Due to the smaller team sizes, the quantum of work often gets overwhelming.
8) Money, especially in early phases, is significantly lower than Corp Teams unless you manage to break into a Tier-1 firm. (Do your research about differential pay here too).
9) If you're interested in pure IP work, join a boutique firm. No better place to learn and do only IP work. Personally, felt that such work was very mundane and wanted to have a taste of all work under IP and related fields, thus chose to join a T1 full-service firm. Work is fun, regularly get to work across sectors including M&E, Pharma, Tech. This means work isn't purely IP, but also a lot of compliance, advisory and regulatory work.
10) DO YOUR RESEARCH about the kind of work the firm does. Boutiques may also place you in over-specialsed and demarcated groups such as 'prosecution' team, where you may be stuck doing purely IP prosecution. While you gain immense expertise in the prosecution field, I feel like you shouldn't limit yourself to only one area, especially as a fresher.
1. Aishwarya Birla (NALSAR grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
2. Anupama Sharma (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
3. Aparajita Lath (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
4. Aparna Chandra (NLSIU grad, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
5. Arun K. Thiruvengadam (NLSIU grad, currently Professor at NLSIU)
6. Arul George Scaria (Mahatma Gandhi University grad, NALSAR LLM, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
7. Ashna Singh (RMLNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
8. Ashrita Prasad Kotha (NALSAR grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
9. Atrayee Majumder (NLSIU grad, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
10. Balu G. Nair (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
11. Bhanu Tanwar (NLUD grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
12. Darshana Mitra (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
13. Divya Deviah (JGLS 3-Year LLB, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
14. Gauri Pillai (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
15. Harsha N (HNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
16. Kunal Ambasta (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
17. Madhubanti Sadhya (CU grad, NUJS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
18. Malini Chidambaram (JGLS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
19. Manish (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
20. Meenakshi Ramkumar (JGLS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
21. Mihir Naniwadekar (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
22. Mrinal Satish (NLSIU grad, currently Professor at NLSIU)
23. Nikita Ahalyan (DU 3-Year LLB, NLSIU LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
24. Nigam Nuggehalli (NLSIU grad, currently Professor and Registrar at NLSIU)
25. Padmini Baruah (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
26. Pranav Verma (NALSAR grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
27. Preeti Pratishruti Dash (NLUO grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
28. Prerna Dhoop (KIIT grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
29. Radhika Chitkara (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
30. Rahul Hemrajani (Symbiosis grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
31. Rahul Singh (NLSIU grad, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
32. Rashmi Venkatesan (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
33. Sahana Ramesh (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
34. Salmoli Choudhuri (NLUD grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
35. Sanyukta Chowdhury (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
36. Sarasu Esther Thomas (NLSIU grad, currently Professor at NLSIU)
37. Saurabh Bhattacharjee (NALSAR grad, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
38. Sharadha R. Shinde (Karnataka University grad, NLSIU LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
39. Shreya Shree (NLSIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
40. Smitha Krishna Prasad (Symbiosis grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLSIU)
41. Sudhanshu Kumar (CNLU grad, currently Associate Professor at NLSIU)
42. Sudhir Krishnaswamy (NLSIU grad, currently Professor and Vice Chancellor at NLSIU)
43. Rosmy Joan (Mahatma Gandhi University grad, JGLS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
44. Sunishth Goyal (NALSAR grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
45. Rohan Cherian Thomas (GNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
46. Hemangini Chandra Sharma (NLUJ grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
47. Poosarla Bayola Kiran (DSNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
48. A. Sridhar (NALSAR LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
49. Niharika Salar (NUSRL grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
50. Prakhar Ganguly (Vidyasagar University grad, NLUD LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
51. Prerna (NUSRL grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
52. Nandini Biswas (GNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
53. Ishita Das (NLUJ grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
54. Vivek Mukherjee (NLIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
55. Varun Malik (Amity University grad, NALSAR LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
56. Rajesh Kapoor (Symbiosis University grad, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
57. Sidharth Chauhan (NLSIU, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
58. Ashwini Kumar Pendyala (Kakatiya University grad, NALSAR LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
59. Sourabh Bharti (DU grad, NALSAR LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NALSAR)
60. Shameek Sen (NUJS grad, currently Associate Professor at NUJS)
61. Shouvik Kumar Guha (NUJS grad, currently Associate Professor at NUJS)
62. Paramita Dasgupta (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
63. Aman Gupta (NUJS grad, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
64. Anirban Mazumder (Burdwan University grad, NLSIU LLM, currently Professor at NUJS)
65. Lovely Dasgupta (NUJS LLM, currently Associate Professor at NUJS)
66. Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan (CU grad, NUJS LLM, currently Associate Professor at NUJS)
67. Tilottama Raychaudhuri (Symbiosis grad, NUJS LLM, currently Associate Professor at NUJS)
68. Faisal Fasih (CU grad, NUJS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
69. Sampa Karmakar Singh (Burdwan University grad, NUJS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
70. Vijay Kishor Tiwari (DU grad, NLSIU LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
71. Surja Kanta Baladhikari (CU grad, NUJS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NUJS)
72. Anup Surendranath (NALSAR grad, currently Professor at NLUD)
73. Roopa Madhav (NLSIU grad, currently Professor at NLUD)
74. Daniel Mathew (DU grad, NLSIU LLM, currently Associate Professor at NLUD)
75. Vishal Mahalwar (MD University grad, NALSAR LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLUD)
76. Dakshina Chandra (NALSAR grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLUD)
77. Kheinkor Lamarr (NLIU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLUD)
78. Dinesh (GGSIPU grad, NLUD LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLUD)
79. Garishma Bhayana (NUJS LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
80. Ruth Vaipei (NE Hills University grad, NLUJ LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
81. Aniruddh Panicker (NLUO grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
82. Vini Singh (HNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
83. Sayantani Bagchi (CU grad, NLUO LLM, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
84. Kritika Singh (RMLNLU grad, currently Assistant Professor at NLUJ)
"if [sic] you are disabled, won't you find it problematic to do the kind of document work in law firms? Law firms dont [sic] have special systems for the impaired and especially clients arent [sic] willing to accommodate the same in costs as well.
"Might as well prepare for the judiciary or IAS? (hint hint PWD)
"Pls dont [sic] take this the wrong way, its just a suggestion/ comment jk"
Lots to unpack here, apologies (especially to mods) for the length of this. Glad that someone marked this comment as "contested", despite the disclaimer. I am a blind person and a law student and find this deeply problematic in many ways.
1. Most obvious: problematic implications re reservations.
2. Accommodation and costs: Most blind people use computers with screen readers (read-aloud/text-to-speech software) that reads out everything to them that's displayed on a screen, including what they type. I myself use one such software package, called Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA). I use this software for everything: from reading the above-quoted comment to typing my response here on LI, and to do everything I need to digitally, whether academic or personal work. Making documents accessible to such software isn't all that difficult. Platforms/software such as SensusAccess, Brickfield Accessibility Toolkit and ilovepdf.com can convert inaccessible (i.e., image-based/scanned) PDFs into accessible formats (typed text). All these software packages are well within the reach of most reasonably performing firms, financially. There are methods to communicate the substance of more visual documents (e.g. maps, patent designs/diagrams etc.) to the blind. These have included (in the U.S., particularly) using paralegals/interns as human readers (I know of someone using these very methods as a blind person for IP work in India). Law firms anyway take on such people, so this isn't too difficult either, is it? Hope that sufficiently addresses your "special systems" point.
3. Further, people in India and beyond have been working at law firms for some considerable time. The first blind person to get the Rhodes scholarship from India worked at a T1 law firm before going to Oxford and has recently returned to law firm life. Others have commented in this forum and this thread about blind lawyers who are/have been doing it in India right now or in the recent past - see above. I myself have commented, in encouraging the OP to think about all opportunities, including TC's in London, about visually impaired people working at some of the world's most competitive firms (specifically, Clifford Chance and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer). Therefore, I encourage the person who made the above-quoted comment to please engage in some deep reflection on whether they are, intentionally or not, acting as a gatekeeper to the legal profession.
1. Trilegal: Rahul Mathan at the helm ensures a lot of government work but he is less active on client work than before. ‘Statesman’ status. Generally a very well regarded and busy team. Nikhil Narendran, Jyotsna are good partners to work with. Nikhil is particularly focussed on telecom. Jaideep Reddy for fintech/crypto. Team is nice to work in.
2. CAM: Arun Prabhu is good. But the practice is not the same tier as Trilegal.
3. Ikigai: Cutting-edge work in a lot of new areas like AI, metaverse, blockchain. Works with almost all big-tech companies, especially in social media, ecom, cloud, satcom, fintech. Strong data practice too. Anirudh Rastogi is the managing partner, known for emerging tech/blockhain, Nehaa Chaudhari for policy/data, Aparajita Srivastava for fintech. Sreenidhi Srinivasan for data.
4. NDA: old tech and media practice with good clients but several good lawyers have left or are leaving the firm. Better work-life than at other big practices. Works in a lot of new areas of tech like crypto, drones etc. Gowree Gokhale is good for media and gaming. Huzefa for new areas. NDA puts a lot of writing on areas of tech.
5: Indus: It is a gaming and entertainment practice led by Ranjana Adhikari from NDA. Well known partner but in the gaming circles.
6. Spice Route: Key areas are fintech and data. Mathew Chacko heads up both practices in the Bangalore office. Mumbai office doesn’t do as much tech. Do a lot of vc investment work in tech startups too, headed also by Mathew. Senior Associate Aadya Mishra also known for data work.
7. Saraf: Building it out. Too early in the game to comment.
8. SAM: low key but good TMT team with big clients. Sahana Chatterjee does a lot of TMT policy work. Tejas Karia’s team does TMT litigation for large clients, but can be quite routine for the most part.
9. TMT Law Practice: Abhishek Malohotra has an established telecom litigation practice. His team also does gaming and data.
10. Anand & Anand: been building a tmt practice, but still best for IP aspects of TMT.