They will low ball as you as much as possible. I know freshers who were maing 50k a month in mumbai QP office and A2s who were making 80k approx in hand. My flatmate worked there. You have to negotiate really hard, they lowball like crazy. ▮▮▮ the partner who sits in Mumbai and administers leaves is really stingy with leaves. ▮▮▮

Now the pros: Work is really great, you will learn a lot. ▮▮▮

Nothing to do with politically motivated counsel. Have never seen Dr. AMS making political points. And even Dave for all his aggressiveness, hasn't been in any party as such. Same goes for others. Was that a pertinent comment, I would think not. Was it unusual or dramatic, definitely not.

Hey BO25, that may have unfortunately been the quality of work. I started in my 9th sem (July) and have gotten a callback in the same semester (August), with an interview in hand at the moment. So OP as long as you're doing good work and interacting with the team positively, I don't see why you won't get a callback. Offers are usually subject to vacancy, but if you do good work, and the team recommends you, your partner can make an exemption.

Hi everyone,

I am seeking assistance as I want to shift from a boutique corporate firm to a tier-1/tier-2 firm. I have 3+years PQE working in the corporate law practice at a boutique firm. While the firm I am working at has good culture, work environment, etc. I am lookin to make a switch as the firm is not offering the exposure I had expected. While I think I am doing good at the current firm as I was promoted to SA before even having completed 3 years PQE, I wish to work on more challenging and interesting matters. However, I do not come from NLU background and as I said, I am working at a boutique firm. I need guidance on whether it is possible for me to switch to tier-1/tier-2 firm and how to really go about it.

The ▮▮▮ batch was worse. Someone actively spread rumours about a certain individual because he had defeated another guy in a committee election earlier. The hatred did not stop there; people tried to file a grievance against his election even after he won the election. Post the elections, they tried to malign his image through confession pages. That's how toxic the batch of ▮▮▮ is.

Hi there...so Deloitte is coming for the Campus Recruitment in Symbiosis Law School, Pune. They are offering a fixed pay of 6,00,000 and in total nearby 7,60,000. After adding some allowances the final would be between 8-9 lpa. Shall I go for it. I was very confused as I was having a call back internship next month from a well reputed Tier-2 firm. I don't mind joining in-house at the initial period of my legal journey. But I wanted to know whether this opportunity is worth considering or not. Let me know please any insights would be fruitful.

Regards,

Desperate Job Paglu

Think of it as a prelude to full blown work life that far surpasses any internship you can do. You sign your Articles while in law school and work for 3 years. You take 9 months off to give this extraordinarily rigorous exam. Even if you fail - the intense learning stands you in excellent stead. And thereafter, you are a solicitor. You are part of an elite group of advocates which helps quite immensely in the one aspect that is fundamental to the profession - clients, culture and social circles. It's something you do for personal fulfilment more than anything else. Hope this helps.

1) Somewhere derogates the dignity of the court.

2) MJ coming into his own, and keeping true to that surname.

3) RN does browbeat people but usually because of his superior arguments. The entire incident could've been better handled.

4) Fun watch, nonetheless.

If you're getting a regular salary income, then you cannot claim presumptive income for income received from professional/other sources.

You may do either, but occasionally the IT authorities question a filing if the other sources income is too high. Then you'll have to show it as business/professional income, file ITR 3, provide bank balance details etc. Try filing ITR 1 first as income from other sources. If it works, then great.

Retain engagement letter, communication, expenses proof like flight tickets (if you're claiming any).

Hi, got an interview with a Tier-2 law firm corporate law firm, can you help me with the kind of questions they might ask. 1st round of interview done. it consisted of basic tell me about yourself, three SC judgements of 2025, What are you views on Trump tariffs, what a free trade agreement is, what kind of work you have done in prior internships. Then was asked some case law type questions related to company law, some I was able to answer, some I wasn't able to. Now got a 2nd round interview day after tomorrow i was told it was going to be a TECHNICAL ROUND. also salary question came up but i dodged coz i know i was gonna quote higher anyway. also plz guide what kind of average pay is for a tier 2 firm in delhi. im a law graduate from private college and have recently completed my Company Secretary course

I believe the reason could be that you are not in the top 10 of your batch and you may not come from a top-tier college. If I’m mistaken, please correct me. I’ll be entering my 4th year next year, and since I don’t come from a prestigious college nor have strong academic grades, I don’t have much hope of getting into CAM.

Could you please shed some light on which firms don’t hire candidates who don’t have a background from reputed colleges or strong academic records? Also, what paths do such candidates take to overcome these challenges and succeed?

so, I have just completed my 2nd yr of law school and looking around myself I feel very average, I haven't published any paper, won any moots, I have done merely 3 competitions did not won any of them I'm not even in top 10% of my batch although my grades are above average, I'm part of few of my college societies, haven't done any t1 corporate internship. Can you guys suggest things to do like a checklist so as to improve my CV

She has been allowed by the court to go to Nepal from 17/24 September - not sure she is going though

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/court-allows-lawyer-accused-in-2015-drunk-driving-case-in-mumbai-to-travel-to-nepal/articleshow/123701189.cms

I guess you couldn't have a better exposure to litigation especially the Supreme Court filing and practice given its one of the top most AOR firms in the country and handling cases of corporate giants like Ambani's, Adani's etc etc on a everyday basis is just next level considering the exposure to court strategizes you'll get and also regular briefing with Salve, Rohatgi and Singhvi's of the world.

But culture wise I feel, I haven't personally interacted with anyone there but I can say that being one of the busiest AOR firms might add another level of stress considering stakes in the matters that the firm does adding to toxicity and politics at the managing partner/partner level probably.

Unlike Delhi, face value makes a hell of a difference for Bombay HC. Here, seniors are often obliged more than in DHC. There are maybe 5-6 very senior lawyers who practise solely criminal law like Ashok Mundargi, Girish Kulkarni, Rizwan Merchant, Aabad Ponda, Satish Maneshinde, Amit Desai and Anil Anturkar.

I have 2 years of in-house experience, along with prior paralegal exposure, and I am now based in Bangalore. I don’t yet have my license transferred to the Karnataka State Bar Council- would it still be possible for me to move to a law firm role at this stage, and how should I best position my profile for such a transition?

▮▮▮'28. genuinely surprised at how toxic some of my peers have gotten. one ▮▮▮ asked a question on the batch gc, and immediately one of the candidates started getting personal and rude with him. i disagreed with him but why treat someone like this? so much bitching, gossip, hatred, spreading rumours. are all law schools like this? just feels so unnecessary and petty for something that is ultimately not that consequential. :/

I've been a corporate lawyer for 4 years now (TMT). And that's a mix of tier 1 (debatable) and in-house. Are y'all actually happy? My work is just mindless doc reivew and negotiations everyday. Don't even get me started about tier 1; 10-12 hours of mindless doc review, ON A GOOD DAY?!

I mean I like the work, I like the pay and I like that I work on interesting matters. But I don't really love it. Do people actually love this? I mean, wake up in the morning and have a passion for doc review? Does that actually exist? I've been talking to other corporate lawyers about this and the general gist I get is, people are used to it. Like a routine and they are used to the lifestyle, of money.

Guess what is else is a corporate lawyer thing: (1) a general hatred for life; (2) an unintentional (debatable) but very obvious contempt for rest of the general population; and (3) dark f_cking circles and bags under the eyes.

Isnt' it quite Kafkaesque to let such dry work keep you occupied for the major part of a day, for the rest of your life (till your heart attack at 33)? So my question is thus, do we truly choose this life, or art we but too weary to imagine anything else?

Moved to a tier 1 B&F team recently, and three years of pqe, having mixed experience of in-house and law firms. LI community, at what point does the job finally start feeling comfortable? Rn feels like every piece of information is bouncing off of my head and the workload is manic to put in extra effort to attain mastery.

For anyone still interested, the last hearing took place on 7 August --- 18th hearing in 7 years. Order:

1. Hon’ble Judge is on leave today.

2. List on 03.12.2025.

In contrast with the NUJS case, the legal question is not one of time bar, but whether AUD can exercise SH administrative powers for acts taking place outside the campus. Huge precedent whichever way the court rules.

Will you be including this judgement while teaching limitations, POSH Act etc in NUJS. Seriously, it should be included for classroom teaching and possibly feature as a question in upcoming end sem exams.

When the PIB eviction took place NLS Admin Law paper actually had the entire incident mentioned as part of a question in the exam.

By the way the entire distance education matter was also decided by the Calcutta HC in a similar manner. Nothing to do with black letter law. But that's another story.

...and similar jokers in the private sector too (looking at you, HR).

Ranting after a harrowing experience of being bounced around from room to room, person to person. 😢

@Junior litigators: How common are heart and blood pressure problems among y'all?

So basically, these certain types of recruiters, they collect your information and keep it to understand the market. Basically, you are their data to make an interpretation of the current legal market. The only difference from a survey is that you are made to believe you are applying to a law firm.

Another group of recruiters would not budge for even initial screening. They are very random in choosing I guess. Because they never respond to your follow-ups. Be aware of such recruiters. You would never know if your profile ever made it to the HR's desk, and one day you get a response (while applying through another recruiter) that your profile is coming as duplicate.

Hi all, I'm a first year in tier 1.5 NLU and ever since I stepped foot in the campus, I have worried about how the next 5 years of my life are going to look like. All the committees I want to get into are rejecting me because of which this anxiety is now making me stray away from my academics as well. People who are mean, petty, show-offs and overall not really good human beings are getting every single opportunity in the uni which makes me feel even worse and inferior. This anxiety and worry isn't leaving me and I stay in fear and panic almost every day. My health has also taken a toll due to the same reason. Any tips on how to combat this feeling of inferiority and anxiety?

The law in India for normal cases is Innocent until proven guilty. However, the same for Sexual Harassment complaints/offenses is Guilty until proven Innocent. This is universally followed through POSH proceedings, rape laws, or POCSO Act. The SC just put it in words, this is anyway enforced socially for POSH complaints. A complaint can destroy the career of the accused. Luckily in this case, this guy is retiring.

Vacation scheme is essentially an assessment internship which you should be doing sometime in June/July next year. If you get a Training Contract, it will start sometime in March 2028 while your PPO from Indian law firm will start in July/August 2027. This timeline is for the batch of 2027. So, you can safely accept the PPO, do the job for around 6months then go abroad for your training contract.

I think in three years you can learn enough court craft that you wouldn't actively harm your client. But that question is slightly different from when you should begin independent practice. If you're a first-generation lawyer and you need a stable income to run your affairs, I would say it makes sense to go independent when your client base is enough to sustain you. It takes different people different amounts of time to get to that point. It also depends on your practice area because some areas are not as lucrative as others. So if you're starting out, my advice would be to keep a track of your expenses and income, and then once you think you aren't being able to give enough time to your own work because you're assisting your senior, then make the plunge. Best of luck.

Hello lovely people of Legallyindia, I need your help in identifying a good partner to laterally shift in a banking and finance team. I'm in initial years of my career.

My priorities are work life balance. By this I mean to leave office by 8 pm, 10 pm once in a while and have Saturdays and Sundays fully to me, except occassionally when deliverables are due.

I also aim for a dynamic team - team that is not too niche in B&F and also do some corporate advisory, so that I'm not stuck to the niche.

I have experience in DCM and don't want to limit myself to it. Following are the few partners that I have identified to be fitting to above criteria, please share your insights on them as well as any other partner -

1. Karan Mitroo

2. Simone Reis

3. Satsdru Goswami

4. Arun Kumar

5. Aditya Khadria

Please consider contributing here as I belive you to be best people to give real and unfiltered advice.

Thank you

Highly doubt OP is a NLSIU grad. I am an NLS alum from about 7-10 years back and not a single person I know from NLS talks about NLS other than the good times we spent in the college. IDK who these NLS alums you all keep meting that keep bragging about the college they went to a few years back.

In FY 2024-25 I received about ₹3 lakh as a guest-faculty honorarium from an IIM, and the institute deducted TDS under section 194J (professional/technical fees).
My main income is regular salary from a university, but that’s not relevant here.

I’d like clarification on these points:

1. Eligibility for 44ADA
Does independent teaching or guest lecturing at an educational institution qualify as a “specified profession” under section 44AA(1) read with section 44ADA for presumptive taxation (50 % deemed profit)?
Are there any recent CBDT notifications or case laws that explicitly include or exclude teaching?
2. Alternative Treatment
If 44ADA doesn’t apply, should the honorarium be reported as professional income with actual expenses, or as income from other sources?
3. ITR Form & Compliance
If 44ADA is allowed, is ITR-3 the correct form (salary + presumptive professional income)?
4. Documentation
What supporting documents should be retained to substantiate whichever treatment is correct (e.g., engagement letter, TDS certificate)?

Looking for guidance or authoritative references from practicing CAs or anyone who has handled similar guest-faculty/lecture income.

Actually whatever you wrote, applies to CA also (or for that matter, many other professions), except some statutory provisions like 132 of BSA. Even a CA faces off with person who are far more senior and experienced then them. The ocean in which CA swim is also vast. Politics ans connections is universal. Even CAs do LLB as to enhance law, as one more area (not only tax). The best area of comparison would be to allow CAs to do what lawyers do and allow lawyers to do what CAs do. Let's see what happens in a decade or two. No disrespect to lawyers here but why we always have to compare two professions?

Decent rank, have a good profile. Have done moots too. Stop saying crap about people when you don't know how the market is. If you can't help, better not say anything at all. I don't need to justify myself to trolls, but have still responded to you lest people think it's always an issue of rank. No buddy, it isn't. The market is saturated and there are only so much graduates firms can absorb.

"Why do their VCs not hire tons of NLU alumni faculty like Sudhir? Dirty politics the reason?"

You nearly hit the nail on the head but just missed, provoking in me, as an audience member of this discussion so far, the sense of mixed frustration and embarrassment the audience feels when the star performer (e.g., a marksman) almost gets it but then misses.

You need not to just "hire alumni faculty like Sudhir", you need to hire folks with Sudhir-type (or even better) backgrounds as VCs themselves. Then this conversation can continue.

I mean, not to degrade accountants, but it is much harder to be an advocate and practice in court in front of legal luminaries and much more experienced seniors.
You have to be extremely careful with the language, precision & clarity wise.
Hold a persuasive silver tongue to compel a judge who knows more than you in most of the cases.
Know the legal framework and be upto-date every SINGLE DAY for a new judgment that can make or break your case.
Bar politics also require high intellect and street-smarts to grow in the field.
Know the right people(common in every profession, but most relevant in law); something which lawyers specialize in.

Some people who are CA can decide to enter law to maximize their tax practice.
But for us lawyers, accountancy is just another domain for taxation skill enhancement.

S. 132 BSA also provides advocates with a special protection which no other profession can have.
In fact, an advocate has the right to practice in every tribunal, court, forum, the same however cannot be said for CA.

I was rejected by CAM after the interview. I gave my best, and answered every HR question with confidence and truly believed I had it until the call from HR came.

The rejection hit me like a wave. I was shocked, because throughout my internships, and even during and after my presentation, the feedback I received was always positive. And yet, for reasons I still don’t understand, I was turned away.

How could they reject me after listening to my answer to their HR questions when I received the PPO recommendation for my work after 3 months of internship and two 55-60 minutes each presentation? What did they see in me in those 11 minutes that the partners who recommended me, for my work, didn't see in 3 months? What?

PS Please don’t tell me I “dodged a bullet.” That doesn’t ease the pain, betrayal and disappointment that I'm feeling currently. I wanted this. I envisioned myself being part of it. Instead, I’m left with nothing but restless questions.

"What went wrong? Where did I falter? What could I have done differently?"

Right now, I just feel heartbroken, disappointed, dejected, and searching for answers that may never come. If you could answer my questions, it would be nice.

I don’t understand this. If the claim is time barred, and cannot be investigated, then no findings against the VC can be made at all, and his alleged ill behaviour cannot just be assumed to be true. Why, then, should the judgement state the allegations be mentioned in his CV - that leaves a stain and treats him as if he were guilty (whereas he should, as we all should, be treated as innocent until proven guilty).

If this direction were applied universally, it would simply mean the ability to allege wrongdoing - or certain kinds of wrongdoing - would itself become an extremely powerful weapon, capable of enormous misuse.

Isn’t this a populist outcome, and not one supported by basic tenets of our legal system?

Also, I understood that the policy behind time-barring claims is the implicit assumption made by the law that the elapse of time adversely affects the ability to gather all relevant evidence. Thus, time barring would not be a case of the law “forgiving” an individual wrongdoer - that is not the job of the law - it would be based on natural justice, inasmuch as it becomes difficult to defend a claim if evidence is long lost or forgotten.