Posting as received:

Dear Colleagues,

This is to reiterate and clarify the Firm’s policy on office attendance, external meetings, and Work From Home. Discipline and accountability are essential for our continued growth and success, and I expect all members to follow this policy without exception.

1. Office Attendance

- All members of the Firm — from Senior Partners to Associates/ Support — must be present in office during office hours.
- Senior members are expected to lead by example and strictly adhere to this policy.
- Late arrival or absence without approval will not be condoned and you will be marked absent.

2. Client & Business Development Meetings

- Any requirement to attend a client meeting or business development (BD) meeting outside the office must be done with prior notice to Ojha Ji & attendance.
- You must forward to Mr. Ojha the client/counterparty’s email or WhatsApp request for such a meeting.
- As a matter of policy, no one should leave office for external meetings without prior notice and supporting documents.
- For BD meetings, you must share with Mr. Ojha:

1. Name and details of the person you are meeting
2. Date and time of the meeting
3. Email and/or WhatsApp communications evidencing the meeting

Failure to comply will result in the absence being recorded as unauthorized. However, if you don't wish to share details with Ojha Ji for some reason, then you still need to share details in advance with me.

3. Work From Home (WFH)

- WFH is permitted only on Wednesday for counsels.
- The earlier WFH policy remains applicable. Please find attached the policy for WFH.

4. Consequences of Non-Compliance

Anyone failing to comply with this policy will be marked as absent and will not be entitled to any discretionary bonus at the end of the year.

5. Any Associate or Partner wishing to travel out of the city other than for business or take vacation must obtain prior permission from their reporting Partner or from me, as the case may be, and must also inform Mr. Ojha in advance of the proposed absence.

6. Ojha Ji : Going forward you don't have any discretion and please follow the policy strictly.

I am not happy with the way the Firm is presently being run. Discipline and commitment are non-negotiable. I expect each one of you to take this policy seriously and always ensure compliance.

Best regards,

Mohit Saraf

Mohit SarafFounder & Managing Partner

▮▮▮

My friend interned there. Work life balance is fun. They have to go in early, otherwise on good days you can leave office by 6-6:30. As an intern you're asked to leave by 6:30, without the option to take laptop home so there are no after office hours for you. They have good snacks and coffee/tea throughout the day. The camaraderie is good overall, often engage in funny banter and play cricket in office in the afternoon. They have another team that joins in. Sounds like they have a fun time.

Mandarin... Extremely tough but very rewarding. If you want to work in west Asia then definitely Arabic. But Chinese is the bigger market whether as competition or compatriots. French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Russian are fun to learn but very common. Majority people opt of these. Mandarin is the one that's tough and people avoid yet is the most useful for the next decade+.

If not for your less than ideal English (which, admittedly, might be an act), I'd ask if your previous background is a foreign law firm (Singapore/London/Hong Kong office).

1. Is the "experience in DCM" something you did as part of the system of "seats" that the British have as part of their training contract process? I.e., was DCM one of your seats?

2. The unrealistic expectations (in the context of Indian and, for that matter, U.S., biglaw) re: WLB suggest potentially magic circle background?

I am a new comer in the field of law. I’ve started pretty late but let’s say I’m not too bad. I’m currently placed at a firm that specialises in family law. The work is engaging. But I’m unable to fully convince myself to stick to litigation. The long hours and working Saturdays are not sustainable for me in the long run.

I have always been inclined to learn a foreign language. (Japanese) and I’m certain I’ll pursue it. But am I making the right move ? Will learning a new business language help me move up in the field, obviously not matrimonial or family law., but business law?

Let me tell you about NB's team at WG - if you're lucky and get a good team your avg office time would be 10-10. Saturdays and working, hope you're Sundays are spare. The work is fixed mandate is based, so more the merrier. Your hours are not counted so put in everything that you've got.

It is a good place to learn, if you are sincere about practicing law and have found yourself with an opportunity here, you should take it up in my opinion. and dont listen to people shitting on firms for their poor culture, the legal profession is not for the faint hearted. you will not get to go home by 6..

It depends on whether you want to practice from SEBI's side or the Appellants side. It also depends on whether you want to go for firm practice or counsel practice.

From SEBI's side:

Firms:Go for TLP or K Ashar. They have the most matters in SAT. However K Ashar is mostly only SAT/HC litigation while TLP has advisory, litigation and SEBI criminal prosecution. There are 3-4 more SEBI empanelled firms, which also have a decent amount of work.

Counsel: Senior Advocate Shiraz Rustomjee is a regular from SEBI's side. Incredibly intelligent lawyer who is extremely polite. For juniors, go for Sumit Rai (not sure if he takes interns, but he is omnipresent at SAT), Shreya Parikh (Shiraz's junior and equally smart).

Appellant's side

Firms: JSA, Khaitan and Trilegal always have some work but it's mostly advisory. Joby Matthews (family firm) is the most proportionate ratio of advisory/ litigation you will find, plus he handles matters at the SEBI level as well.

Counsel: Senior Advocate Pesi Modi is the only senior advocate I have seen who exclusively does SAT litigation. Ofc every other senior does drop in but Mr Modi specializes in SAT. Saved the best for the last, junior counsel, Mr Kunal Katariya is your best bet to learn SAT litigation, incredibly smart and respected.

If you do M&A and decide it's not for you, you can join a litigation chamber if you don't mind the pay cut. But if you join the chamber first and decide it's not for you, the T-1 job may not be easily available. The first is a safer bet, the latter carries more risk.

Since you have family support, you can consider taking on the risk. However, a more pertinent question to ask yourself and answer honestly - the two require completely different skill sets. Do you think you are better suited for either of them in particular?

My biased view as a first gen litigator who left a T-1 firm - the short term discomfort of court practice is worth the long term reward. It will test you differently at different times, but if you remain steadfast, betting on yourself will pay off. You will have more room to grow and express yourself, you will interact with people more, have more control over your time when you go independent, and make more money if you provide a level of assistance that clients value.

you're only allowed to write those if you have reregistered for the course or if you've claimed an exemption due to your participation in any competition representing the university. if you miss the midsems because you're sick or for mental health reasons, your end semester grade is scaled up (eg, if you get 40/50 i.e., 80% in the endsem, they will assume you would have gotten 80% of 25 i.e., 20 marks in the midsem).

Why deliver ultimatums that cannot be enforced? Suppose the plea for modification by VC is accepted by SC, what then? What else, allegation of 7 cr deficit and 2.6 cr research grants? Suppose the VC is able to show that you acted on misleading info or that deficit was caused due to expenses approved by FC etc? What if the govt steps in and says that they will make good the loss in due course of time and a contractual staff is made the fall guy. Ok maybe an AO or AR as well for negligence but not embezzlement. For research grants, VC may show that it was all part of the NAAC process and was approved by the AC and FC. Say, one of the research investments gets venture funded, then what? It is high time you question the SJA brass and their shadowy faculty gurus. Stop being a c....m. You know what happens to it once the act is done .

Gen z is going to solve everything, they are also going to colonize another planet and advance humanity! Bro Gen Zs are equally corrupt, entitled and devoid of moral scruples as anyone else, with a delusional lackadaisical attitude and non existent work ethic. Just being born in a certain time period doesn't make anyone evolutionary superior.

Corruption? Okay, so where is the documentation concerning Rs 7 crore deficit? Received wisdom, esp the misleading kind from a certain faculty member/s is very risky business. Are you prepared to respond that NUJS had a big surplus and therefore embarked on construction activity? Also how will you take on PWD for the approx 17.85 crore bill? NKC signed off on that with FC and EC approval. Same for another 8 crore campus dev bill involving a little over 6 crore on campus wifi. That went to WEBEL just like PWD. Do you now understand who, what and how to fight? Faculty can fight their battles. They don't bleed as we do.

May I request Legally India website to kindly not permit any more comment on situation in WBNUJS for next 10-15 days? Our VC Sir has stated on record that he will file curative petition against order of Hon'ble Supreme Court seeking modification of order regarding certain allegations. If Hon'ble Supreme Court accept it then VC Sir will be totally vindicated and whole basis for student protest will be null and void.

NKC told the same thing to Indian Express as well. Interesting and take note that TT broadcasted what VC had to say but did not even make routine reporting on the much discussed SC order nor student protests.

Btw, NKC believes that student protests is giving NUJS a bad name. I guess we acquired that when PIB was allowed to continue for a full term and more and the word continued with NKC appointed who had been previously rejected twice by NUJS (check EC records) for Professorship and thrice as potential VC by NLUs in Lucknow, Mumbai and Ranchi before we lapped him up.

The tru measure of power is its absent presence. NKC will not be really gone. Like Sauron, will merely change form. Don't just go for the head. Rip apart stem and root.

For example, when a certain Registrar was evicted did it change anything? Later when PIB got evicted and a certain handpicked Registrar scooted (only to be brought back by NKC for a skil set that doesn't include teaching), the expected change didn't happen. This doesn't mean that students or SJA were wrong then. Just couldn't take out both root and stem. Let's do that this time.

What do you expect, a cakewalk? Just this gets you riled up? The game hasn't even started. Talk to your seniors esp those who led protests in 2018. Of course they are demonized by many in faculty who are pissed because SJA acted independently and kinda messed individual deal agendas

I agree. NKC will never resign over tweets and grams or even media reports. He is a Hazra veteran. While we are young, we needn't fight like a younger man to recall a prescient quote of Bane. We need to get smarter about tactics and not depend on received wisdom from contested quarters of faculty and staff

NKC doesn't need your respect. You know what he truly needs from us or our parents etc. He also needs support from a certain set off shadowy folks. RG Kar showed something. Why not take lessons and move on or do something smarter other than name and shame, esp without zilch documentation of the alleged financial chicanery.

Why did you flag it as a rumour, LI?

The incident's been reported by the Hindu:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/nalsar-student-dies-of-health-issues-during-get-together/article70081549.ece

Don't give such fuckall advice if you can't say anything useful.

I hope you're not the same clown who says this same shit ad nauseam in every thread that discusses corporate law firms.

You need to realise acting like a troll on LI is not making the case for litigators doing "real work" - you only look like a midwit.

I feel that one would best understand the cause for the protests, if one actually steps into our uni(as a student, faculty or anything). One would see that it is a haven of untapped potential, held back only by an incompetent administration. Even in the NIRF rankings this year NUJS has almost touched NALSAR and NLU-D....a year or more of even more accelerated growth(under a more competent admin) would take us back to our glory days or even higher...and maybe we'll finally dethrone the "Harvard of the East" :-)

At their age and experience, it is possible for them to work on that schedule - heck, even if they worked half the time of what they said, they still will be able to manage themselves. That being said, if the demand of the matter requires more time and effort, they will be happy to burn the midnight oil, provided the monetary incentive is high too.

See the latest incident playing out at Baker Mckenzie - Brooke R. is being sued by BM for making sexual assault allegations against a BM partner.

https://abovethelaw.com/2025/09/top-biglaw-firm-files-defamation-lawsuit-against-former-associate-after-she-made-sexual-assault-allegations/

This is probably one of the most informative comment I have come across Ll. I’m currently an a1 at a tier 1 and wanna shift to in house eventually maybe in a year or two. I had some doubts regarding the same, do you mind if we connect over mail/call for a short discussion on what I can be doing to strengthen my cv for the shift. Your opinion on learning about marketing/sales etc particularly stands out to me, would be great if we can connect.

You mean the Dube couple? 🙈 Bro, please aim higher, to say the least! NUJS needs someone of the stature and credentials of Sudhir. Get an alum. Nemika Jha (topper of the first batch) teaches corp law at Jindal and is a Harvard grad. Also worked in T1 Indian and US firms, plus at the SC. Perfect candidate.

As someone who has done litigation, trust me do not go for it as you'll regret it. For the first year or two, you'll only have to wait around in court seeking adjournments and passovers and while you waste your time in the morning, you'll have to make up for it in by sitting in a dusty chamber till night drafting applications and preparing for the next day' cases all the while getting paid less. Even if you choose to move to a firm later on, you will not be on the same par as your other classmates in firms as they would've been working on huge transactions and gained significant experience and learning. It's better to join a t1 as an a0 as soon as you can cz people will cut you slack for being a fresher but if you come with experience, you'll be held to higher standards. I wouldn't recommend litigation unless you have a godfather.

https://www.barandbench.com/Law-School/bits-law-school-appoints-former-cji-uu-lalit-as-honorary-professor-of-law

A retired CJI joined private college