After three years of continuing losses in the form of faculty departures, there is finally some light at the end of the tunnel. Prof. Anup Surendranath has answered the call for help at his alma mater and is expected to join in March 2025. Prof. Sitharamam Kakarala (who had earlier taught at NLSIU and APU) has also joined NALSAR in October 2024. We request the present Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Srikrishna Deva Rao, to give these two esteemed Professors the space and voice to rebuild the academic culture of the institution. Their presence could also help in attracting good younger candidates, especially alumni from NALSAR, NLU Delhi and APU LLM to join at the Assistant Professor level in the next few years. It may still be difficult to compete with the systematic faculty hiring being done by NLSIU, JGLS and BITS Law, but I sincerely hope that this will help in reversing the tide of attrition which has badly affected our law school over the last 2-3 years.

Bar Council of India Suspends Delhi Bar Council Vice Chairman for Suspected Fake Law Degree, Refers Case to CBI

Read more: https://lawtrend.in/bar-council-of-india-suspends-delhi-bar-council-vice-chairman-for-suspected-fake-law-degree-refers-case-to-cbi/

As a partner in a law firm, I often hear about the importance of partners being empathetic leaders—listening, understanding, and supporting our teams. And I agree, that’s critical. But empathy at work isn’t a one-way street. It flows both ways. Unfortunately, not all team members think that.

Here’s something we don’t often talk about: the challenges partners face.

Balancing Client Expectations and Team Well-Being

Partners are often caught in the middle, trying to meet demanding client deadlines while ensuring the workload doesn’t overwhelm the team. It’s a constant balancing act—and not always an easy one.

Carrying the Business on Their Shoulders

Beyond legal work, partners are responsible for driving revenue, managing costs, and ensuring the firm remains competitive. Every decision is scrutinized, and there’s no margin for error. Any error directly impacts our compensation, reputation and perceptions.

Managing Unpredictable Workflows

Deals often take unexpected turns, requiring late nights or weekends, and partners are on call 24/7 to steer the ship. This unpredictability leaves little room for personal plans or downtime. Keep in mind that given the age, partners are most likely married, have kids and in some cases taking care of their parents. There is far lesser time that they have as compared to folks who stay alone / unmarried.

Mentoring and Coaching While Delivering Results

Partners are expected to mentor associates and junior lawyers while still delivering high-quality work. Balancing the roles of teacher, leader, and doer is a challenge that often goes unacknowledged.

Emotional Labor and Decision-Making Under Pressure

Partners handle not only their own stresses but also absorb the frustrations, doubts, and concerns of their teams. Tough calls—whether about feedback, promotions, or assignments—can weigh heavily on us.

1. Buck stops with us
2. Buck stops with us. At the end of the day, when something goes wrong, it’s the partner who gets the call from the client. The buck stops with us—whether it’s an error in a document or a missed deadline. While the team works together, the ultimate responsibility (and repercussions) land squarely on our shoulders.

Yet, there are times when associates or junior colleagues form quick judgments or hold us to impossibly high standards without giving us the same benefit of the doubt they expect from us.

For instance, if a deadline means a late night or a piece of feedback is delivered under pressure, it’s easy to assume that we’re being unfair or unkind. But sometimes, just like everyone else, partners are navigating their own tough days, making mistakes, and learning as they go.

Sometimes, though, we notice that empathy doesn’t always flow back.

Quick judgments are made, assumptions about motives or actions are formed, and the benefit of the doubt isn’t extended to us in the same way it’s expected from us.

This post isn’t about shifting responsibility—it’s about fostering mutual understanding. A workplace thrives when empathy flows both ways.

So, the next time a partner seems stressed, delivers feedback under pressure, or makes a tough call, I’d encourage you to take a moment to consider the challenges they might be facing.

Might be just a misinterpretation on my end, but how is it that almost all of the popular national level governmental (state or central) institutions (those that have had a recent change in administration) having issues with them? There has been a common thread amongst them of hiking fees (or reducing fee concessions/scholarships), interfering with student body (or committees or student led organisations operational in said institution itself) by cutting off their fundings or privileges, lack of concern towards students (be it harassment they have been facing or other problems such as transportation, network, food, etc.), the newly appointed head prorogating a more regressive culture (not just students should respect elders rather cover yourself in a blanket because you are enticing others and 6 feet distance between genders - an exaggeration yes but get the essence please) and a hostile and ignorant administration.
Is it students being "woke", standing up for themselves and creating a feather pile or is it actually a trend

All T1 law firms are currently hiring for B0 2026, so if you dont get one, it's either due to lack of vacancies in the team or feedback. Some pointers for you -

1. Make sure you work for a partner who generally hires A0s, and not laterals.

2. Your mentor should be in the loop along with the partner on a weekly basis, as soon as your internship ends, they're gonna ghost you.

3. Feel free to irritate HR.

4. Callbacks are not a hiring guarantee at all. Most teams want cheap labour. Just make sure they're actually assessing you.

5. There's no timing. It's on the whims of the partner (equity partner) only. Can be today, tomorrow, in May/ June. Unlike placements,,there is no HR role in this.

I think the discussion needs nuance rather than black and white.

1. The meaning of liberals differ between US and India.

2. Not everyone wanted a change. Many Indian leftists were actually support Russia, both in Ukraine and in Syria. Interestingly, they will also call people not supporting Russia as woke.

3. When Jasmine revolution happened, it coincided with Anna Hazare's Lokpal movement. Many on the left and many dissatisfied with the gormint saw a parallel between the two protests. A decade and a half later, Jasmine revolution is a total failure and Lokpal is nowhere to be seen, raiding offices as anticipated by Anna.

I fail to understand how you can equate being woke with being against Assad, unless you remove all the nuance from the discussion.

This is clearly based on personal perspectives. If you have a better offer in terms of pay from any other firm please, please take it. The people here would severely damage your confidence and would not contribute to your professional growth. The amount of money they pay you as a starting associate for the type of work they demand is disappointing. If it comes to it, spend a year and then switch. No WLB, you are in the office till 11pm on an average 6 days a week.

On the brighter side, if you can endure it, it is an amazing place to build your network and learn how to handle difficult people. It does work with some very good clients (mostly international) therefore you would gain unparalleled exposure. But the pay is not commensurate.

P.S. - did'nt happen to me but a lot of people claimed that they give bad referrals to the subsequent firms you join, when asked. Keep that in mind.

I'm a dropper and got my results, I know the basic documents required (Marksheets, Medical Certificates) but when it comes to things like a Character Certificate, which obviously the school won't issue now, how do I proceed? Do I get one that is notarised/from a district judge and how recent does it have to be (If I get it made in December will it be valid till the time of admission, which is tentatively early July ig) ?

Thanks in advance.

Your type of mentality is the only reason by Indian corporate culture can't achieve work life balance.

1st thing - if the work is over, what is the harm in leaving early?

2nd thing - seniors have more deliverables than juniors, if they stay late it's their choice...

Everyone needs to understand this we do job to earn and live our lives as per our choice not because we have to sacrifice our whole life sitting in the office till late night. Then what is the point of earning money?

With this mentality, we seriously cannot achieve the corporate culture we want, it only looks nicely in the induction or speeches where managing directors or partners talk about work culture.

Please guys.. Understand..

The firm is dying, very few partners have good quality work and Nishant is one of them. Like someone mentioned here, he does both debt and equity work.

Has a massive team behind him and the team bonding is pretty good, mostly because he is almost never in the office. His team, however is very bitchy towards interns/freshers. Idk what's the deal with starting the "real work" after 6-7 and staying in the office till late because his team was the only one staying till midnight almost every other day.

Nishant as a partner is extremely knowledgeable and makes for a great mentor. A few of the associates are also good, the rest have the the usual holier than thou attitude.

No the tragedy is you think it’s fine for humanities phds to be held to a lower standard. They need not be. I can think of any number of topics in English lit that could use better exploration. But if you’re at the point where we’re taking about smell in relatively recent novels - that’s obviously overproduction.

Yes except there’s no real reason to think keeping the library open all night is actually necessary to improve how people learn. More of everything is not necessarily growth. Sometimes it can be waste.

If students were asking for subscriptions to journals or software that does qualitative or quantitative analysis or anything like that most people would support it. This isn’t like that.

Anup Logic : let’s shift India’s foremost death penalty and criminal justice advocacy platform from the national capital with the SC to a jungle in the middle of nowhere in Telengana for a college that practically has more non-law courses than law courses, consistently has been degrading in quality and has to admit students through the current CLAT🤡. I understand that he may have gotten bored given the fact he is already tenured and spent most of his academic career in Delhi so is a bit disillusioned and perhaps that is the main motivator of this decision. Regardless one would not expect an individual like Anup to take a decision in completely haste and without thinking it through and he would have opted to teaching an exchange semester elsewhere if he were bored. I’d urge current NLU-D students not to worry too much and treat this like it’s the end of the world because it really is not.

Partners at firms, what does your life look like when you want to relax?

i) Can you afford 'fuck it' international vacations? Maybe even twice-thrice a year?

ii) Can you have a cheeky Nandos dinner every day if you wanted to without checking the numbers go by?

iii) Can you afford to spend time with family/loved ones? Maybe watch a movie sometimes?

We all have an image of firm partners in our head - grinding and soul-sucked by the corporate world. I'd just like to know - how far is it true?

Moving forward does not mean that other people will bear the brunt of your lack of discipline or your whims. Which library remains open throughout the night in the entire country? There is no adverse effect on studying if you do that in your room at night and at the library during the day. All your databases are remotely accessible. This is just entitlement speaking. You want to have a private library open 24/7, build your own.

My partner at a tier 1 firm (NLU alum) used to be a hardcore communist in college and a member of the SFI (CPI(M) student wing). I can't say whether he still votes for that party but you wouldn't think he is a communist from his lifestyle: designer brands, trips to Dubai on extended weekends etc.

This one middle aged (maybe even older) advocate sends his female interns to talk to other much younger female advocates in the SC, pretend to be their fans and get their contact info. He then uses that info his interns got to send them super creepy and sleazy texts/ emails etc. What to do?

Some on Social Media See Suspect in C.E.O. Killing as a Folk Hero
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/nyregion/unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-suspect.html

Taylor Lorenz defends jokes about UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder: ‘It’s natural’
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https://nypost.com/2024/12/06/media/taylor-lorenz-defends-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-jokes/

If your argument is that the health insurance industry profits from people's misery, I could say the same for many other industries. Why are Gen Z and their favoured journalists like Taylor Lorenz celebrating the murder?

People also used to study fine before mobile phones were invented. Should we ban them in campus now since they werent required in the 90s? If tomorrow Sudhir cuts off wifi will that be your justification?
We exist to move forward, to enhance our facilities, not hold on to your own "golden ages". Im pretty sure your ancestors used to study by the lamp. Why bother taking an electric connection. Did you invent studying? How about you take out the good ol' kerosene lantern and burn the midnight oil.

A2 here, currently stay in Sewri and pay 43k for a room in a 3BHK. I know its exceptionally high but I am okay with it. I was of the view earlier that I don’t need a fancy place since most of my day (and night lol) will go in office. So was initially practically living in garage converted into a 1rk with a friend where I paid 20k. There was no sunlight in the room, woke up in the morning in complete darkness, lots of fungus in the room because no sunlight, and rats scurried around. That changed my outlook. Shifted to this new place then, works well for me since i have no family responsibilities. But i think any decent single room will cost anywhere between 35-45k now in Mumbai, unless you share it with some person or choose to stay in a MHADA / SRA building. Living expense is a major major issue in Mumbai.

Not Gen Z myself, and spent some years doing all the indentured labour required by law firms (my skin crawls to think of it) - all I can say is, more power to Gen Z. The Gen Z kids I’ve worked with have been bright and no-nonsense. If they refuse work beyond working hours, one major reason we may resent them is because we didn’t have the guts or overall environment within which to do that ourselves.

Objectively, I’m happy to learn from them and learn to work with them, in ways that make sense for both older and younger professionals. They do lack maturity in various situations which if they keep an open mind they can pick up easily from the rest of us.

Unfair comment. The team seems generally really nice and caring - great atmosphere in that sense and they really care about their secretary as well. You can’t just state two unrelated facts together and make it seem like there’s some causality.

They may not have too much work, but then that’s an entirely separate issue having nothing to do with their secretary or the work culture in the team.

Because, just like in Bangladesh, you demonised a leader you didn’t like without forgetting they the leader is secular and the alternative will be an ISIS-style regime that slaughters minorities!!!

The woke deep state elite are totally responsible for both Syria and Bangladesh IMO. Even with Ukraine, it was promised to Russia that NATO would not expand but ya’ll broke that promise and provoked Russia.

May god help the Yazidis now. The Christians at least have the US and Europe to stand up for them, but not the Yazidis.

Some of the issues voiced, if true, are indeed a matter of concern, such as eviction from the hostel without due process, committees functioning without student representatives, removal of mental health support etc. I have supported Sudhir in general for the good work that he's been doing at NLSIU, but surely these are not matters with which the VC should concern himself? He's got so many good people at NLSIU now, why not delegate these internal matters to some of their very capable hands and use his time to keep doing the constructive things that he's been doing like drawing good collaboration, funding, faculty, research and rankings? I mean, surely he's got his hands full doing all of that, so why try to micro manage everything? No one person was meant to solve all of these issues. Rather, frame rules and practices and delegate to deans, registrars and faculty. He's got the only NLU alumnus registrar in the entire country, can't he let Nigam decide hostel and disciplinary issues?

Willing to learn

Sincere

Intelligent

Collaborative

Hungry to grow

Meticulous and diligent

Available and reliable

Courteous and respectful to peers and others

Articulate - speaking and writing

Analytical and not cut paste variety

Problem solver

Physically and mentally healthy

My senior was the lawyer for Gopal kanda the harayanvi politician who was accused of abatement of suicide of Geetika sharma. His bail was rejected by trial court and for high court justice Sikri granted him bail in lieu of 5 crore rupees. Sikri's son was the setter, and here people held him in high regards.