I am surprised your partner hasn’t spoken to you about this.

Depending upon the firm, salaried partners (10-12 PQE) may or may not be required to bring in work. It depends on whether their equity partner is a big or mid rainmaker. If it is the latter, then minimum expectations are you bring in revenue that covers your own small team’s cost (inclusive of bonuses) along with a 30% overheads cost. Ideally in a team sizing of a salaried partner and a couple of SAs and As, this would mean 3 cr to 5 cr.

Bringing in the work is both a mix of your abilities as a good lawyer and your social skills. You do not need to be a second generation lawyer (although it helps). Connections are built through friends, college mates who went in house, through introductions by existing clients to their other GC friends and of course through regular business development.

In order to reach this, by the time you are 8 PQE make sure you have at least one if not two dependable juniors who will help you execute the work such that you can take out 2 hours in a week to develop your market skills and connections. These are the juniors who you too will lead in the future when you become EP and to whom you will hand over part or your entire book as you grow.

It is not easy but it is also not as difficult as it may seem. You have to balance your work execution, client persuasion and team management along with whatever semblance you have of a family life. The real difficulty is scaling up to the next level, i.e. a 10 cr book.

For non-M&A teams, you have to figure out the right mix of taking up a couple of large mandates and smaller but voluminous matters to reach your targets. Start this exercise at 7 PQE and work towards it religiously. You will be able to achieve it.

If you have other questions, please feel free to ask. Its important that this conversation needs to be had in an otherwise self oriented profession where personal ambition/greed trumps healthy team and succession planning.

- Not that Old First Gen EP

Second year law student at a tier 69 uni. started with litigation internships from my first year but eventually realised i can't sustain it without a godfather in this profession. tryna pivot towards corporate and recently interned at the NCLAT tribunal and found IBC kinda interesting. What should I read to build a base in corporate law and IBC, which internships should I target going forward, so i can at least land a tier 2-3 firm by the end of my degree??

Us folks at NLS who know the faculty are already celebrating this proud achievement!! The faculty are an accomplished scholar on legal philosophy who teach third and fourth year undergrads. They are going to be supervised under Prof. Toh from UCL on an advanced topic in legal philosophy, having also secured admissions at Oxford and other prestigious places. Our pasts colleagues have also pursued their doctoral degrees with full funding at Oxford, Yale, NYU, Melbourne, UNSW, NUS and Vienna. NLS students are truly lucky to have the best of Indian legal academia.

T2 NLU-BO'27. I want to pivot to pure nclt practice post graduation. have done T1 internships in this area aswell but hiring prospects look slim. what counsels can i join who will pay decently & have good practice. any other options? Im ok doing a bit of sebi/sat work aswell. dont want to do pure litigation at other courts

I would say the entire foundation of the CCI is faulty. MCA works to facilitate corporate ease of doing business and handles broad corporate policy. MCA also controls the budget, has a role in CCI appointments and a general supervisory role. The CCI acts as a prosecutor and judge against corporate misconduct. This is a setup for failure. Too many pressure points above the CCI.

“For thirteen years, I’ve been described and reduced to binaries too. Victim. Liar. Journalist. Activist. Liberal. Promiscuous. Survivor. Reliable. Strong. Broken. Political plant. Bubblegum feminist.”

https://nishswish.substack.com/p/shadow-twin

Hopeless grad from 27, who tried all my best to get into S&R and had everything which a T1 firm needs (top 10 batch rank, Tier 1 internships, moots, publications, etc). STILL FAILED TO CRACK S&R.........

Is it because of their selective hiring of creams of NLUs and the highest pay among all T1 OR is it because they dont participate in DAY 0 and are highly selective in terms of giving out PPOs?

These long term internships allow firms to reinforce the elite hierarchy only people that are wealthy enough to have a home in mumbai can bear the costs of unpaid/low compensating firm, this indirectly bars out other hardworking individuals that can afford to do only 2 months internship at max due to cost issues and attendance policy issues, please throw the paralegals out of the system or make a even playing field

I am being offered an assessment opportunity in a small litigation firm with stipend upto 15k during assessment which will be increased to 25k if placed after assessment and there will be additional 7k addition if i get my Bar registration. i am confused if this is an opportunity i should settle for. there is also a possibility that i will get placed but the stipend after placement is so low that I am not able to decide. Also since i am not from a mid private law school i feel like there are anyway less opportunities and as a beggar cant be a chooser i should take it. any suggestions?

I know this is such a repetitive topic, but this is such a discouraging profession. After being in profession for a few years, I don’t think men form these court corridor alliances to intentionally leave women out of work building circles, but the things as they are do not help and only makes it discouraging. I saw few talented women leave practice in last 2 years. I could not ask them their reason. But I wonder if law firms are only real way for women ( please read 1st gen, though even 2nd 3rd gen women aren’t going anywhere with all the family ties except judgeship in rare cases) to reach some height in litigation. Also , litigation sphere is highly unsafe for women, specifically chamber set ups. It puts women who do not come from connections at a greater risk. You may vary with opinion , but these experiences make it very very hard to focus on work and grow without mental shackles. It’s a rant, don’t go attacking or telling me how things have improved for women. You may put stories of inspiration of 1st gen women litigator which can help think straight. Need mental strength.

There is only 1 PE/VC team in Argus Delhi. Nothing to comment on the associates because the team entirely changes every year but the partner is extremely bad. Incompetent and inhumane. On multiple instances, people in the team have had panic attacks inside office premises because of her and it is extremely scary to see that.

The report would have said cede control and let the next gen take over. Dilute equity Step back. Same as what another foreign firm suggested (when alleged talks of a take over/ merger were happening in a city by the Thames). Did not listen then. Not listening now. Wont listen ever it seems. And then it will be too late. Hope and pray for good sense to prevail for the sake of the thousand plus lawyers and equally more staffers who have placed their futures in the hands of those who handle their collective destiny.

https://www.iima.ac.in/inmedia/cyril-shroff-and-iim-ahmedabad-co-found-cyril-shroff-iima-gc-leadership-academy-first-its

This shows even law firms prefer business schools (national institutions), in this case IIMA, over state universities (NLUs) to focus on legal leadership initiatives. Think of it - even the so-called Tier 1 NLUs are not considered good enough for this innovative development.

I am a fresher from a tier - 2 college working in bombay, I was extremely scared of not getting a job because of the current job market and ended up landing a job with a boutique firm which honestly pays well. Only after joining i figured it was a Lala firm and there is nothing to learn over here. Most of the days I sit idle or work on clerical stuff which is of no help to me. What should I do? It's only been a month since i have joined, i don't know if switching right now will look good but there is no learning or growth over here. I don't have any network yet which could help me shift, how do i do it? how does lateral hiring work in this kind of situation?

I can tell that you have never actually litigated, or even practised law, for that matter. I am no fan of the current CJI, but have you bothered to read either NHAI v. Tarsem Singh, which was adverse to NHAI, or the Permanent Commission judgments, which were directly adverse to the Ministry of Defence? He has led benches that have issued various directions concerning the protection and treatment of members of SC/ST communities, as well as greater sensitivity in POCSO cases and cases involving crimes against women.

It is also amusing how sanctimonious you sound while attempting to correct other people’s grammar and language, even as you make elementary semantic errors and commit logical fallacies. You openly admit that you are largely oblivious to Indian politics, yet attempt to pronounce authoritatively on whether particular judgments favour the Union Government. Sit this one out, please, and do 'consider' taking back what you said.

We should do away with all attendance requirement, and shore up the evaluation standards. Only one chance for an exam every year and it will test things covered in class, open book exams, real life fact scenarios to which the law can be applied. Same for vivas and presentations. If a student can learn everything on their own and clear all the necessary components of evaluation, then they should be allowed to do so. The teachers should take this as a challenge and focus on making challenging and relevant evaluation models.

Lemme tell you how, I woke up at 6 am everyday, 6 days a week, went to college attended 3 lectures a day sometimes if lucky 2 spent time till 10 in college and then had to reach office by 10;45-11, spent another 12 hours in office to return home by 12 and repeat the same cycle, I did this for 7 months in my 4th year and spent a year at trilegal in my 5th to get my PPO, go ahead I'd love to see you cry about having to sit in campus all day and still not being compotent enough to use your advantage of being at an NLU compared to a no name law school and not being able to get a job.

The HR will have a list of interns and she will go one by one and ask for your preference. If your name is on top then u will get your preferred practice area. However, if your name is at the bottom then practice areas like B&F, Tax and projects would be left.

Also, the HR does not understand M&A/PE/VC. She only understands Gen Corp and gen corp includes labour and employment, TMT, Real Estate and all other allied practice areas. So practice area in SAM is mostly on luck.

Hi everyone! I am an LLM graduate and a newly enrolled Advocate, currently seeking an opportunity to work as a Junior Advocate with a litigation practice at the Bombay High Court, particularly with advocates practising before the Bombay High Court.

I’m specifically looking for a senior who is willing to teach, involve me in matters, and give me genuine exposure to drafting, court appearances and arguments. I’m not looking for a role where I only assist with research or paperwork I want to learn litigation from the ground up, take responsibility, and eventually be entrusted with handling matters independently.

If you know of any good advocates or chambers in Mumbai who are known for mentoring juniors and providing meaningful courtroom exposure, I would be extremely grateful for any leads or recommendations.

Thank you!

Started my career as an advocate back in 2019, but jumped over to the corporate side in 2023. I honestly thought it would be a much more comfortable life and better money.

The reality couldn't be further from that. It’s just endless "fake urgency," zero work satisfaction, the savings aren't actually what I expected, and there's honestly very little respect in the field. Most in-house counsel are basically just email pushers and contract redliners for most of their careers until reaching a senior post, and hitting the pay celing is a reality. Unless you happen to be in a super exciting industry, the standard 9-to-5 is just endless same format agreements, office politics or clearing other advocate's bills.

Looking at how the litigation market is shifting right now, with all the new regulations, AI, and data practices coming into play, I really feel like it's time to start something of my own, grind out 1-2 years of honest work, and finally build a practice of my own.

I just want to know if anyone here has made the jump back from corporate to litigation? What was your experience like, and how rough was the transition? Would love to hear your thoughts.

While NALSAR students have rightly opposed CJI Surya Kant from being invited, NLU Jodhpur is all set to welcome him in the Second VC Conclave (read absolute wastage of Univeristy resources for a fun holiday for all NLU VCs). Astonishing that NLUJ student community has nothing to say about this.

Rahul Hemrajani was one of the best professors we had at TNNLU—really knowledgeable, passionate sharp, and friendly, and his political science classes were amazing. He is an ex-LKS Tax lawyer. I would say he's slightly stingy with marks. There's no favoritism and all, but he tends to give lower marks in general.

It is the fear of lack of prosperity. There is an unemployment problem. NEET is only a proximate cause. For example, I paid income tax on my first job as a lecturer. Today, that same job pays about Rs65,000 a month, which is not eligible to pay income tax. Which means that the available incomes to people who enter the job market are not sufficient for them to be prosperous. And I define prosperity as earning enough to at least pay income tax. And it means that anybody earning less than Rs 1 lakh a month, and therefore not eligible to pay income tax, have no discretionary income. They are not prosperous and they have no pathway to prosperity.

India is a reasonably high-growth economy that is not high-employment. Which means that the growth that is happening is not inclusive. Most people are not participating in growth and therefore they are not producing it.

Read more at: https://www.theweek.in/magazine/theweek/specials/2026/08/08/it-is-a-prosperity-crisis-jobs-only-a-manifestation-rathin-roy.html

Gave three rounds of interviews for the position, then got ghosted. Apparently, they shut down their office in Pune, put a hiring freeze in place, and made everyone go on permanent WFH.

PQE 1 folks took the interview; it wasn't very structured, and honestly, the way they conducted the interviews left a bad taste in my mouth.

RGNUL. Strong alumni base in litigation and tier-1 firms of Delhi. Plenty at partnership level are from RGNUL. Strong performance in judiciary so plenty of sitting judicial officers are judges. It doesn’t harm to know judges from when you were in college. AIR-98 from UPSC was from RGNUL in 2025. Post the implementation of three year rule, plenty will pivot to UPSC prep and the results are expected to get better. The university allows time, resources and infra to study properly. Living there feels like living in a resort. Even practising advocates from RGNUL have solid conceptual understanding. It is correct that the previous VC believed that NLUs must produce judges, professors, legendary lawyers and upsc toppers instead of corporate slaves. I agree with him.

That alone is not enough to make them good teachers. Good scholars, perhaps. At least the PhD. Foreign LLM these days means almost nothing. Most of the teachers who have shaped the entire generation of law students graduating till 2010 have been products of Indian universities. That did not prevent many of them from being excellent teachers and some, good scholars too.

The point to be noted is that he/they went with a business school (a national institution), not any NLU (a state university). Rightly so.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/cyril-shroff-iima-gc-academy-to-focus-on-leadership-beyond-law-paridhi-adani-11890964

(I graduated with a UK LLM a while back.)

I don't know of such people for a reason: because they aren't any good. If you don't have the substance and you don't know how to articulate it, and if you don't have common sense, nobody can help you. They can only mislead you. I didn't bother with anything like this, and yet got quite a good outcome.