Hello Seniors,

I’m currently interning at a firm where I’ve noticed a concerning behavior. Whenever I ask associates for work, some of them laugh it off. Recently, one associate sent me a 237-page document very late, leaving me just 9 hours to review it. I couldn’t complete it within that unreasonable timeframe, and the next day, he called me out and laughed about it in front of others.

Am I truly at fault here, or was the timeline simply unrealistic? I’d really appreciate your honest guidance.

COO CHRO CFO CMO etc in Indian law firms are overrated - add little value because they don't understand the firm dynamic or business environment. Their experience in big 4 or call centers translates badly in an Indian law firm setting - a collection of individual books with some cross sell. Indian firms are not brands with institutional clients and most of the COO CHRO CFO CMO etc fail to understand that.

A good engineer earns much more than a good lawyer, straight out of college. You have better chance of earning in 8 figures being an engineer than a lawyer.

A decent engineer earns as much as a good lawyer, or even more. A decade down the line, if engineers keep upskilling, they're likely to earn much more than law firm partners.

A mediocre engineer has more prospects of growth than a mediocre lawyer.

I have told this, now you can decide.

I have heard him tell someone that he will quit the profession in a few years. I think he is definitely up there because he holds his own against Sibal, Rohatgi, Singhvi, etc., but he doesn't have the interest to cultivate a social media profile or to travel to other cities and tribunals. Maybe that way his profile may not be as high as others.

Pretty bad college in terms of faculty and placements. Especially for the fees they're charging. A lot of scandal surrounding the new director and his fake phd. He's blatantly lied about it on LinkedIn as well, claiming it's from a uni that it's not from. And pretty much anyone who addresses his PhD is removed from the job (note recent exits of 90% of the faculty). Bo '25 saw a stellar amount of people receiving campus placements (7 in a batch of 250)

Anyone that makes it to a top firm from that college is usually through merit and hard work.

Almost all of the top NLUs do have multiple good faculty with publications and project records. NFSU doesn't have any. Even more importantly, despite having so much funds, it is not even being able to attract good faculty with credible profiles. The only people who seem like a broken record are the trolls who keep singing NFSU law department's praise without there being anything tangible to show for it.

Yes, a growing number of people doing this. I would say take a loan, go abroad and settle there — any developed country will do. It’s worth it and you’ll recover the amount. It’s pointless being a lawyer in India unless you are a nepo kid. Also, India is going to be unliveable within the next decade: scorching heat, overpopulation, and horrible governance by our politicians, who are busy appeasing votebanks and using your taxes to give freebies. Even if you can survive with populism and overpopulation, your body will not be able to tolerate 50 degrees heat. According to this report by CNN, some parts of India are ALREADY approaching the threshold for human survivability. So imagine what will happen by 2035-40!

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/06/india/extreme-heat-india-climate-ac-intl-hnk

Can anyone substantiate the claim "spice route has a generally positive and professional work environment"? This post seems to be more of a PR by SRL to try to wash off their terrible market image by using the 'accounts team' as an ancillary and meaningless crticism to give its earlier praise more legitimacy.

A. Training Contract (TC) route, right out of university:

1. Do good internships in India until fourth year.

2. In fifth year, apply for vac schemes in London/Singapore offices of global law firms - especially MC. For this:

(a) Use LinkedIn like crazy to find all kinds of people who are working at such firms in their offices in London/Singapore: Indian-educated law graduates who did vac schemes and TCs there (your uni seniors, people from other unis (particularly NLS/NALSAR/NUJS), etc), UK-educated Indians who have achieved MC jobs, other UK-educated people who have done that, Singaporeans who may be doing a London + Singapore TC (one year in London, one in SG) at the offices of let us say, Linklaters. Ask as many people as you can from all these categories for feedback on your written applications, tips for tackling SJTs like the Watson Glazer, how to tackle interviews/assessment centres and how to perform well enough in a vac scheme to convert it into a TC offer. With the written applications, draft, redraft again, redraft again, then redraft again, till everything is perfect. Make sure that each written application questionnaire answer or cover letter is honed towards that firm. Nothing significant from one answer to the next or one cover letter to the next should be replaceable between firms, e.g., "top firms" are applicable for Links, CC and A&O Shearman. But what is special about A&O Shearman that makes it unique, the lovliest firm in the world, a heaven on earth for you? That's what you'll need to be saying. With the SJTs, just get hold online of whatever free resources you can, take up any resources that your friends/connections have and practice till your brain feels like it will explode out of your head. A lot of things re the SJT are questions about the kinds of situations you encounter in law firm teamwork life - managing deadlines, difficult clients, etc. You'll need to have great detailed knowledge of your chosen firm's ethos to answer these well.

(b) Build commercial awareness: Simple - read, read and read more. Among the newspapers, read financial/economics specialist newspapers, particularly the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Make note of developments in your practice areas of interest and practice talking about them and writing about them, so you can use this knowledge, both in the interviews, and in the written applications. Read a book called Everything You Need to know about the City, by C. Stokes. Basically, read, write and speak about markets, economics, economic developments and the law firm's place in the market and in the world, as a business, until your eyes pop.

(c) Literally swallow the firm's website. Drink in the contents as though they are the contents of a glass of the best red port you'll ever find in the world. Talk to trainees, future trainees/vac scheme students etc about their experiences at the firm. That'll help you with the SJT questions on how to apply the firm's values/ethos to everyday situations.

(d) Brace yourself: This stuff's brutal. Rejection is part of the process. Stock your uni halls room, your childhood bedroom, your mum's basement - wherever you work and feel comfortable - with plenty of boxes of tissues, because there'll be a lot of crying and distress considering the rejections. For every ten firms you apply to, be ready for eight rejections, two interviews and one more rejection (and that's if you are very good). You'll see some people with two, three vac schemes on their LinkedIns. Those people were put through the grinder for that, just remember. Nobody - not even students at the Russell Group universities doing their LLB degrees there - has got magic keys for this stuff.

(e) Reflect on your internships and make sure this is what you want: The life in a large commercial law firm is brutal. Long hours, very heavy workload, little sleep.

3. When you've got that vac scheme (or multiple schemes, if you are talented and lucky enough), smash it just as you would an assessment internship in India. Make sure they're impressed enough to convert it into a TC.

4. A condition of your TC offer will be to pass the SQE. Do your best to ensure that you fulfil this the first time round, and don't need a resit of the SQE, because firms have been known to withdraw TC offers in the past from those who failed on the first attempt.

5. Do your TC, and basically remember that that is a two-year-long, more high stakes version of a vac scheme. Smash it and impress not only the M&A team when you are allocated that "seat", but the other teams, too, that you work with. Then "qualify into" M&A (talking purely based on London patterns here) as an NQ and continue.

B. Lateral route:

1. Go through the typical process for Indian law firms.

2. Get a couple of years of experience in India.

3. Develop good contacts with people in foreign law firms then.

4. Apply for lateral positions. This can also be done without an LLM - people have done it before.

I can understand your comment about soft skills, but what don’t mean by “appearance”? Are you referring to physiological parameters like fair skin, sharp features, weight etc? Or simply dress? Because the latter is a function of wealth but the former is a function of genes, region and also caste, which makes it very problematic.

20s is an important phase in life. Having life outside of work is essential I believe at this stage. So, I think it's better to take up in house role. Learn passionately also in the role. But, eventually especially after mid 30s, work becomes life for everyone. So, I think law firm is a better choice then onwards until you can sustain. Thats my perspective, looking for outlook on this from others also.

Do every law firm associate eventually move to an in-house role? Except for the few who make it to partnership?

More importantly, why don’t more lawyers consider building an independent practice? Law, by its very nature, is meant to be a profession of independent practice, I believe. So why does it feel like we’ve reduced it to just employment, either in firms or companies?

Is it fear of instability? Lack of early guidance? Or just comfort in structure and salary?

I'm from a lessor known law college in delhi. I have done 2 decent moots so far - won both and recevied best speaker in one. Now wondering if I perform well in any of the bigger moots NLSTIAM or NLU-D Arun Jaitley IBC, would they open doors to firm internships (disputes team or top arbitration boutiques). Also this Jindal Arbitration Moot seems to be promising, last year Drew and Napier sponsored it and winners from RGNLU got internships there. The second edition is about to happen and this is Trilegal is sponsoring it. If I ha dto choose between the Jindal IIAC ARbitration Moot and NLUD Arun Jaitley IBC Moot, which one to choose?

Lot of people would share fees with juniors. In most of these cases, it will happen if the junior has worked like a tout/broker ; basically, junior bringing the case [soliciting] and then taking an amount called remuneration / fees which is nothing but commission paid to touts. In fact, a large number of Advocates / law firms hire law graduates/ non law graduates for grooming them as polished touts only. I recently talked to an AOR [a so-called mining lawyer] who posted about hiring a junior ; he said that if he will hire, then my earlier independent cases has to be handed over to him and he would pay me for that [which is basically paying commission to a prospective tout by converting associate as a tout].

First start by ensuring that your marks are always fantastic. Lots of people in India, and on this hellscape of a platform, in particular, will tell you that you can get into a master's if you have money. Horseshit. You need brains, and all being well, you'll have money as well. But brains is such an important part that you can't discount it. Therefore, keep your marks as high as you possibly can.

India may be on the cusp of overtaking Japan and Germany to become the world’s third-largest economy, but that milestone rings hollow without global innovation leadership, argues former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

In a column for The Times of India, the University of Chicago professor laid bare the country’s glaring failure to create global product icons, despite massive domestic scale and state support.

https://www.businesstoday.in/amp/latest/economy/story/where-is-indian-tiktok-chatgpt-raghuram-rajan-warns-country-cant-grow-rich-imitating-484411-2025-07-13

Haha thanks <3

Another thing to add is to know the difference between lease vs leave and license agreements, agreement for sale vs sale deed. I have heard that they do ask freshers these basic things.

And a basic understanding about RERA as someone already added.

Also know all the basic steps to carry out a land due diligence exercise, Sub-Registrar searches, CERSAI and ROC Searches to check there are no encumbrances.

Hi all. I know, most of the community members are into corporate. Still, Can anyone suggest me how's the role of a Public Prosecutor Job. Is it prestigious, like judiciary or not?

I'm from a T2 NLU, my batch mates working in firms, negate my idea for preparing for PPs exams, rather they suggest me to apply for judicial services, given the fact that I'm having the relevant experience.

So I've read that cap marks work is very standardized and monotonous but if it is actually like that, then why is there no work life balance in such standardized work? I mean how much time do you need to do that repetitive and mundane work? Genuinely curious!

Also, is securities litigation practice better?

Congrats for getting into such a nice college! And I agree with you for even I've read countless stories of several engineering students who regret every single day they spend in their colleges, especially the one which my parents want me to join. And even I like finance and sociology as subjects and love to spend time with them as a hobby.

I believe I will be able to do really good in both CLAT and law college but it's my parents who don't want me to get into this field and I understand the reason they don't want me to. And this whole law v/s engineering thing has been gnawing up my mind like crazy since past few days. After applying all the factors, I don't know what to decide and the decision isn't easy for my whole career depends on it.

Yeah kinda funny when I think about it, maybe that's because since last 12-13 days, I've spent a lot of my time exploring this field along with looking for engineering colleges. And speaking of it, the more I'm delving in, the more I'm realizing how much giant of a rock I was living under all this time. I mean, only today I was looking at the syllabus of NALSAR Hyderabad and all those subjects they teach you there, they all were looking so tempting to my eyes.

But the thing is that my parents don't want me to take this entrance test this year. Even there problem I can understand, but yeah.

Hi!

I am in need of major help yalll :(

In final year of my 3 year llb at GLC

have done one corporate internship in a boutique firm for a month

my gpa is 6.8

have some debating experience and lil mooting too

and I realise I have nothing to show for rn in my CV

had been going through a lot of personal things soo have been slacking real bad

I realise now that I don't have a lot of time left. corporate is what interests me but rn I am even open to working in house for few years and then maybe going for a masters probably mba later Idek if that's a good idea tbh. what advise do y'all have? how do I utilise these next 12 months best. where do I intern? how do I make my CV better?

Haha. True. I know people who are unable to land jobs, despite the NLIU and NUJS tag behind them. There is upheaval in the market. Even those who have landed jobs, many are not essentially dealing with any kind of extraordinary work at the law firms. It's just paper-pushing. LinkedIn is such a place to be for young lawyers [0-3 Yrs PQE], that they are spending all their spare time (when not doing menial data-entry work at legal shops) scrolling the feed and stalking the work profiles of the acquaintances. That too on Sundays. Insecure, aimless, shitty souls we have become, including me :( .

What else will they look forward to? It's not their company, they are not the promoters or majority shareholders, they are there because of salary and they look forward to it. Not everyone needs to be institutionalized with some misplaced sense of loyalty or morality and grind themselves to death to make money for the promoters' family

I was exactly in the same situation, except that I found out about CLAT at the beginning of class 12th. By the end of class 11th, I was clear that Science is not for me. I hated it, instead, I had an interest in politics, finance, public policy etc. Thats when I started exploring other career options. I found out about CLAT through Google and attempted the previous year's paper. I remember that I scored 47.25/150. I thought with adequate prep I could crack the exam. I started preparing from YouTube. I worked hard for 9-10months alongside my board syllabus and cracked NLS. It's been 4 years now and I have not regretted my decision for a day. My advice would be to follow something that you love. A lot of my batchmates here don't really enjoy law and life is miserable for them. I am sure that a lot of students in Engineering colleges face the same as well.