Hi guys, I have an assessment internship interview coming up for a litigation office. I haven't interned at this office before, so I am a bit unsure of what to really prepare apart from my CV and basic info about their practice areas and matters available online. Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

Hi, I am a '27 student currently in his 5th year in a private well known uni, i am looking for some guidance on how to secure a job after. I have a fairly decent CV but i have no mooting or ADR experience, i know firms value this but i realised too late how important it was. I have an average CGPA but i do have extensive knowledge and almost all my internships have gone well. I have a callback in SAM, where i got the original though a very distant contact. What i want to know is regardless of how well i do can they be able to look past my other deficiencies? In general what can i do to improve my CV at this point. I am interested in Transactions, what do firms looks for if you don't have moot/ADR/ amazing grades? I already know the time is too late, it is obviously also affecting my mental health looking at my fellow batch mates securing PPO's and other achievements. I am already aware, please i am just looking for genuine advice on how to improve in the one year i have left.

Also please let me know other firms that have a good transactions practice or are up and coming, I would love to apply.

Are non-compete clauses even enforceable against employees? Aren’t they hit by the restraint of trade provisions of ICA? My understanding is that they are only enforceable against vendors who sell goodwill.

Secondly, I thought even employment bonds are not enforceable unless there is a clawback clause.

Could someone please enlighten?

This is more the fault of the system than it is Rohatgi's fault. We have a massively overburdened system where huge high stakes decisions get made disproportionately at the admission/mentioning/interim injunction stage, in minutes, and often seconds. This artificially increases the value of fast-talkers with known faces who can get favourable orders quickly and Rohatgi is just filling that niche (there has also been a massive centralisation of power in the Supreme Court vs the High Courts, compared to the 1950s and 1960s etc which also encouraged this trend).

The man gets results for his clients - you can't blame him for that. If we had a system with fewer cases being decided at the SC and the SC actually having the time to reward proper preparation and knowledge instead of instant decisions - people like Rohatgi would either vanish or have to actually start preparing.

And that DOES happen - I've personally seen Sibal being completely destroyed in a final hearing in a regional High Court by an unknown local senior. Everyone was in awe when Sibal actually came down from Delhi and graced our local court. But in a final hearing, once it went past the initial 5 minutes it was obvious he hadn't prepared and didn't know what he was talking about and the other senior had read everything and knew everything about the case, and he won pretty easily. (Some of these top guys are also embarassed in international arbitrations for similar reasons, but those are not argued in public, thankfully for them).

There's no specific timeline. For me it took 30 days after the 2nd round of interview for the offer to be rolled out. Keep following up with the HR and you could get hints from the way they talk. If they ask you to hold on, then there are chances you might get the offer. If they show a dismissive attitude, then you got your answer. Anyways, don't wait for more than 60 days

Hi! I just wanted to say that your post really resonated with me.

I'm on the autism spectrum and have moderate to high ADHD. I graduated from a Tier 2 private law school a few years ago, and honestly, law school was tough. Academics were never my strong suit, but dropping out wasn't an option, so I just kept going.
I figured that I should focus on internships because I knew practical experience would matter more for me than grades.

Things did work out in the end. I don't work at a law firm, but I have a job I genuinely like, with kind people and a healthy work environment. Looking back, I spent so much time worrying that my grades would decide my future, but they didn't.

So if I can offer one bit of reassurance, it's this: your son's neurodivergence doesn't mean he can't have a successful legal career. The path might look a little different, and he may need to find what works for him, but it's absolutely possible. I know because I had the same doubts about myself.

Wishing him all the very best. Having supportive parents already gives him a great start.
And I am open to your questions if you have any.

Update: Sanjay Basu has now written an article slamming the TMC and accusing it of following a "pisi-bhaipo model of leadership". He has also called Suvendu Adhikary a "capable leader" who was sidelined by the TMC.

Just take a deep breath and digest that.

https://newseisamay.com/opinion/the-party-that-mistook-power-for-ideology

Don't we all know about this client and how no associate wants to do the work because it is a waste of time and completely mind numbing work. How associates who were hired to do this client's work have left saying they rather work in a tier 2 firm than do such degrading work. How 'massive' is a big overstatement as the revenue from this client would not make even 10% of a SP's target.

Partners are booking cabs from firm with double the amount to be picked up from the houses and be dropped to the court and then dropped back home!

Associates are picking up bags from office and paying for cabs and going to the office and buying water bottles for the partners to drink and then paying office boys 5000 to do the filing!

A joke?

Hi Folks, wanted a quick opinion from you all on a career choice I'm about to make. Two offers in place, one in an Fintech Inhouse(Associate) & another in a Law firm(Disputes Practice) as an assessment Intern. Considering the two options, as my long term vision is to get back to a law firm in a TMT, Fintech and gen corp practice, should I go ahead with the In-house role? As the disputes stream gives me a fear of switching towards corporate advisory would be difficult 2 years from now.

What would you choose considering BO'26 hiring is completed and I have only limited opportunities and good Fintech exposure, any updates about law firm hiring also will be much appreciated.

If you are ever around mishraji and VC at the same time, you will understand. Mishraji is like that protocol officer who is clearing up the way for IAS sahab. Like you know when a politician comes, every chunu munu is surrounding them and creating a god like figure out of them- that’s exactly how it is for Raj. That’s what I meant.

I worked under the partner referred to in the post. Based on my own experience, the conduct described in the post is consistent with behaviour that I personally witnessed.

On one occasion, I heard the partner refer to one of the firm’s practice area heads as “▮▮▮ ▮▮▮.” This remark was made in a professional setting and struck me as disrespectful and inappropriate.

On another occasion, the partner instructed a legal trainee to remove and discard my nameplate from my desk out of frustration. I subsequently became aware of this instruction and found it to be unprofessional.

I also witnessed the partner make remarks concerning a client’s gender or sexuality, stating that he did not know whether the individual was “he or she.” In my view, the comment was inappropriate and inconsistent with the standards of professionalism expected in the workplace.

These incidents are based on my personal observations. You may make an anonymous complaint, but based on my experience, I would not expect much to come out of it unless multiple people come forward.

Im curious about the life at firms like tuli, Solaris etc which deal with insurance practice especially in the disputes/litigation teams. What is the day to day like, what kind of matters are they dealing with, what are the pay scales like for A1 roles?

Coming from an in-house role I'm more exposed to MACT, Consumer, Ombudsman etc. How to go around this in the interviews?

I was literally you, a few years ago, interning at all the places, mailing 100 tier 1 partners a day. Please understand you are too young (or thats what they think you are), to intern at these places right now. It would be beneficial you wait until the fourth year to intern at corporate law firm/ litigation places, depending on your interest, Focus only on your academics and try being in the top 5 ranks always, that ALWAYS is the final criteria for hiring everywhere

Hi, if you have worked on international transaction have 3-5 years of pqe under your belt, you can strongly consider Singapore/ Japan. lot of international firms have their indian desks in SG, who look for indian cap max lawyers who have experience in international transactions. i am sure you would find lots n lots of cap max lawyers who are now working for international firms globally on linkedin.

No they don't. It's a different court structure and a different business model.

It's like owning a coffee shop where you have to sell 500 cups of coffee a day to make a profit on the volume, versus a fancy restaurant where you can serve 50 meals at higher prices and make a profit. Almost all lawyers in India (law firms, seniors, etc) run a volume business, even though the fees for individual hearings by seniors can be very high.

Top UK lawyers (The USA has a totally different model, let's not get into that) don't run a volume business - it's closer to the fancy restaurant.

It's not better or worse - just different, and depends on what you want to achieve. Also about 10% of UK barristers are KCs (seniors), whereas less than 1% of Indian advocates are (it's not a perfect comparison because Indian advocates includes lawyers who do the solicitors jobs as well, but the point there are are fewer senior advocates compared to UK KCs is valid).

Also UK courts handle far fewer cases, and there is no high-stakes admissions matters at high volume but low time requirement, so the need for that skill is non existent.

Basically if you want someone who can go in depth and know the law and your case very well and argue it, you'd wwant a UK lawyer. If you want someone with vast advocacy experience who is very quick on his feet and good at persuading judges in short hearings (especially Indian judges) and doesn't need to know the details well, you probably want an Indian senior.

Haha. I think it’s DLS himself or his Hr team who’s writing this. You need to be exposed for sure for the way you behave with people.

I was an intern in his office. First of all, there were 5-6 assessment interns hired by the firm and all of the people including me were graduates. They were not paying anyone at all and on top of that, ▮▮▮

So GC does the best. Then EWS (who are mostly GC) and OBC are almost tied. Then comes SC/ST. One thing that isn't clear is the split between private sector and PSU jobs. In the latter case, there could be job reservation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CATpreparation/comments/1unvvki/uncensored_placement_by_category_at_iim_l/

Look, I don't think it's appropriate workplace behaviour to ridicule people. But at the end of the day, unless he is doing anything to you personally, for the sake your own job and career progression, it might be advisable for you to just focus on your work and let the persons who are directly being demeaned take up the matter via the appropriate channel. Because otherwise you will end up ruining your equation with a Partner and in law firms everything hinges on that.

Might be an unpopular opinion but worth considering.

She is just a BCom pass. No law degree, no postgrad degree. One-term MP from a regional party that is nearing extinction. Known more for social media and TV presence than any significant political role.

Did she get this appointment because she will add value, or simply because she is Naveen Jindal’s friend? Aren’t there ex-MPs with better academic credentials and better experience?

https://www.bweducation.com/article/priyanka-chaturvedi-joins-jindal-global-law-school-613285

All juniors are bound to eventually leave the nest. Having said that, either one of two scenarios can be correct right now. Your junior either gets so many briefs that he is unable to do the work associated with your personal matters or else your junior is really just playing truant without having any substantial personal work to look after.

If the former is true, then great. Your junior is in a position to start his own independent practice. This is unfortunate for you but still something to be celebrated given how difficult it is to make a living as a litigator. You should just congratulate him and tell him that you will stop paying him the stipend now.

If the latter is true, then you should sit down with him and try to understand the reasons behind his neglect of chamber work. It could very well be that he has some personal issues that he is sorting out due to which he is unable to do the work which you assign him. Depending on the reasons he provides and your own financial condition (which I would assume is quite good), you can take a decision on whether to continue paying him the stipend/continue having him as your junior.

Your hesitation in immediately firing him makes me think that you are at least somewhat compassionate as a chamber senior. Please don't change. God knows this profession needs more people like you!

I know the money is great, but I have always felt that it does more good to your family that to you. What I wanted to know, particularly from people who have been in here for 10+ years, does the money looses its charm later on? Do you ever wish to venture out or maybe cut back for a more simpler life? Also, do the pressure and work hours lessen gradually as you get used to the nuances of your work? On a similar note, would you wish for your kids to take up a similar career route to law firms?

He can argue 15 cases a day because he reads no papers and depends entirely on briefing lawyers and client instructions. There is always someone standing behind him to tell what to say. He has the face value and gets favourable judgments.

Whereas lawyers like Siddharth Dave work hard on their briefs and can therefore only do limited no. of cases in a day.

Rohatgi has just been lucky to have a judge as father and friends like Arun Jaitley and Rian Karanjawala. So, instead of mocking others he should just be thankful to God.

Sorry for not answering the exact question.

My interview was fucked too and I had a BAD batch rank, but it worked out. They account for nervousness and don't expect you to be perfect. Your feedback matters a lot, and so does your CV. I had a few assessment internships lined up, so that really worked in my favour. Don't worry, i'm sure you'll make it. All the best!

1. Ignore majority of the population that celebrates discrimination, condones sexual harassment and resorts to victim blaming.

2. Ignore over 30,000 rapes that happen every year or just say “meh rape bad” without any critical engagement on measures to improve safety.

3. Ignore the well documented and pervasive social evils of dowry and rampant domestic violence.

4. Get rage baited by random engagement farmers or cling to the odd cases (albeit very unfortunate) where the victim is a man to paint an extremely skewed and honestly retarded picture of society and cry about how men are the real victims.

Talk about real problems man. A women perpetrator getting support from stupid content farmers is not news. The millions of women victims who are ignored in popular narratives is news.

I got into one of the NLUs in the second year of my college. I couldn’t join because I was unable to dropout. I am almost in my 5th year, I dont think it would be that feasible to dropout now atp. The reality of studying in a NLU is not as comforting as it is considered to be.

Hi everyone,

Looking for some practical advice from people who have actually made the move (or regularly recruit in the UAE legal market).

I'm currently a corporate lawyer with around 4 years PQE at a Tier 1 Indian law firm, working primarily on M&A, Private Equity and Venture Capital transactions.For personal reasons, I'm seriously considering relocating to Dubai/UAE over the next 12–24 months. My objective is to continue in transactional work rather than pivot into compliance or disputes.

I've searched LinkedIn and spoken to a few recruiters, but I'd really appreciate insights from people who've actually done this. Is the switch easy ?

A practical plan of action and chance of making it it would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance.