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The firm’s greater focus is on training you ‘how to write simply and jargon-free’ rather than training you on the law, and the legal, substantive and analytical skills that you should imbibe as a lawyer. Especially if you are in the policy team, you loose the essence of being a lawyer – you’re either drafting updates, organizing events, or making talking points for panel discussions/roundtables.
2. Artificial timelines: Most seniors have a habit of subjecting you to artificial timelines. Your learnings and lessons are often lost in the battle of trying to just meet the (artificial) timelines. Meeting these timelines and getting work done is the primary focus for many seniors, often at the expense of the employees’ deeper understanding on a particular subject and professional growth. The stress of unrealistic expectations has lead to decreased morale and productivity amongst most people in the associate pool.
3. Resource Crunch: This is an all-time all round-the-year issue at the firm – across teams. No team is ever equipped with enough resources to manage the work load. Most teams are run by/dependent on 1-2 junior-level resources at max. This puts an exorbitant amount of pressure on existing resources and not to mention burn them out. The disturbing part is that despite projecting itself as a new-age, unique, and well-cultured law firm, Ikigai Law is just absolutely unable to retain resources at the junior level. This is evident from the fact that no junior resource has stayed at the firm for more than 1.5-2 years (approx.) and all their teams entirely (and I stress on the term ‘entirely’) revamp after 1.5 years – you can check Linkedin to cross-verify this. The attrition rate of the firm is astonishing.
4. Writing Standards: The firm is far too consumed in maintaining and upholding its writing standards, that it often fails to appreciate a junior’s substantive knowledge, calibre and potential. Yes, we all like to read simple and unsophisticated writing. But the firm does not understand that it takes TIME to unlearn the rigorous legalese and writing style that we’ve all learned in law school for 5/3 long years and adopt a de-jargonized writing style. This cannot come to everyone naturally. A lot of times, employees are unable to deliver well on the substantive parts of a mandate because they are intimidated and panic-stricken about whether they have drafted a particular document simply enough. Having your entire draft struck off just because you couldn’t write in a particular style is demotivating on another level – especially when you took worldly efforts in getting the substantive part of the draft right.
5. Firing Policy: They have ‘fired’ people for not meeting the firm’s work standards. But what they fail to understand is that the reason why an employee may have not been able to perform as per expectations is because he/she was never taught the right skills by the firm in the first place!! A new person who joins the team cannot magically be expected to meet the firm's work standards without proper training and guidance. Expecting employees to perform at a high level without adequate training/support is an unreasonable expectation. Firing employees for not meeting standards without addressing the root cause — lack of training — reflects a fundamental flaw in the firm’s work culture.
6. It’s very, very, common for seniors to throw juniors under the bus and blame them for something they never did just to maintain and uphold their position/reputation in front of partners/seniors. As ridiculous as it sounds.
7. Once a senior has formed a particular opinion about you, it is unlikely to change – even if you have improved and worked on your shortcomings. They will treat you like you are incapable and don’t have to the potential to improve.
8. Work Culture: Improper management, unstructured work allocation, and chaotic work environment. You don’t have the time to have your meals in peace, let alone some good sleep or a work-life balance. Yes, we should all learn to multi-task, but that does not imply existing resources are dumped with an unreasonable amount of work that, in a normal sane workplace, would get distributed in a team of at least 5-6 resources. The management does not get that no employee is trying to escape work or work lesser when they say that the deliverables on their plate are unmanageable – instead they just want to be able to deliver good quality work and manage existing work efficiently. The firm has lost (as I’ve heard)/is losing exceptionally good resources due to lack of proper management. There is absolutely no line drawn between professional and personal. The firm endorses working beyond reasonably expected work hours.
9. For all new joiners, I suggest you particularly take from the firm in writing (over email) about the team you are interviewed for and want to eventually join. The firm often interviews you for one team and then puts you in another after you join. When you request them to switch your team/practice area, these requests are either not tended to, or, the response is that we first want to assure that you can demonstrate sufficient calibre in this practice area.
10. Compensation: Much much below industry standards and other firms that are similarly placed. The firm has band 1,2,3 rankings, FYI. Compared to the work load and the form’s expectations of you, the compensation is not worth it. The compensation Their probation, promotions, and bonus policy is also QUITE opaque. The reasons given for a person not clearing his/her probation are something to laugh at.
11. Too focussed on firm’s external branding instead of focussing on bringing about the much needed changes inside the firm.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/hr-policies-trends/employees-at-indias-top-law-firms-likely-to-bag-handsome-payouts-this-year/articleshow/109041988.cms
Alternatively, you could increase your chances by working for just one year, because most T1 & T2 firms hire freshers through internships & campus placements but hire A1 onwards through lateral vacancies that are often limited to exclusive alumni groups etc. I've seen too many SAs/PAs/Partners post about vacancies in my T1 NLU alumni group directly, so that's definitely a help.
Another thing you could do is work part-time with some litigator who'd be willing to offer a proper certificate saying that you've been his junior for that period — this is an unethical step and unlikely to materialise unless you have a great reputation with said litigator or have influential connections.
Lastly, you could even try reaching out to your firm and asking then if they'd be open to deferring your joining by a year because of some insane family emergencies etc — Tier 1s will be unlikely to do this, but smaller & well-paying Tier 2s will be open to such.
Ya pajama...
Could you please advise what steps were taken to ensure the discontinuation of these practices?
Earlier, their used to be an institutionalised form of ragging too and the 2025 batch made sure that these things do not continue.
then you will crave SAM/CAM
2. LLM's - maybe a little more (especially if you are looking at options abroad). Two or three years' worth of PQE isn't enough to make up for less than fantastic grades (at least for UK unis). You'll need at least five years' PQE, but even that is no golden ticket, because you will need references (recommendation letters) from people who know your work, and LLM admission committees tend to prefer references from academic referees (law school professors), as opposed to professional ones (supervisors at work, law firm partners etc.). Depending on your circumstances, they may allow one or perhaps two professional referees (depending how many years' PQE you have), but they would prefer two academic references over two professional ones. Obviously, you are unlikely to be given a reference by any credible legal academic (even at an average law school) unless you have good grades, because giving references to potentially shaky candidates could further undermine an already shaky reputation of an average institution.
BA subjects: Everything currently taught. IMO we need to replace BA subjects with BBA subjects throughout NLUs.
Shocking if true!!! The middle class voted out the Congress and got the BJP in thinking it will benefit them. Nothing has happened and Modi had just taken us for granted.
Anyway, fingers crossed. We need proper tax relief, not just exemptions worth a few thousand rupees.
Competition is less than other states (around 4000 seats) so are seats. This year its around 7 seats usually it's around 20 to 30. But hiring is not consistent.
Local coaching is available in Trivandrum. Same is available online where they teach you local laws necessary for mains exam.
I am not preparing for Kerala Judiciary because the additional efforts (Local Laws, Malayalam language) is not worth these seats..
I am currently preparing for some northern states.
Most TMT Teams in the country are M&A Gen Corp teams who do TMT Advisory than hard-core TMT. It's also incredibly difficult to get hired in a tmt team because hardly any openings, low attrition and lot of interested students.
Now Data Protection is the new trend. People are telling lakhs of data protection officers, lawyers etc will be needed.
My doubt is
Will data protection create a lot of jobs or is it sham like TMT hiring?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/indias-much-abused-taxpayers-you-dont-get-much-benefit-back-salaried-classes-get-the-short-end-of-the-stick/
They are far more better
I would marry the girl who will try to support me & help me in completing my dream and Vice - Versa . I want to run a successful business & want to be a businessman & travel this world . So any girl who is interested in business, traveling and exploring new things .
She should be loyal plus caring plus outgoing plus extrovert because I am introvert thats why .
Ek aisi Wife meih bhi deserve karta hu .
Kyu Bhai log ??
😅😕😔Waiting & looking forward for my future wife yaaar.
No you want a housemaid cum nanny who will also make money from a job.
Shouldn't be cash grab then since the education fees are very low/non-existent for international students.
Tier 1 : top 5 NLUs + Jindal Tier 2 next 5 NLUs +DU+GLC +Jamia+IIT+hazra ect.
Tier 3 and beyond: everything else.
Also please stop treating Law schools as castes, it is as stupid as franchise sports fans. There is a lot of variation of people within colleges and between college, a lot of stupid people (in my opinion) in tier 1s and alot of very smart in tier 2s & 3s.
25 PPOs
AZB mumbai and trilegal gave the highest offers (5 each)
Thoughts?
Similarly, going to the office does not add any value to corporate lawyers whereas going to court is a major part of litigating lawyers.
political science
history
economics
NLUJ and it's Ragging. (For the future NLUJ students)
I wrote CLAT and got into NLU Jodhpur. This is an informative post about the ragging scene in NLUJ, All of you have heard of the college and many have it on the top 5 of their preference lists. Let me be clear here, the college is great, the teachers(mostly) are concerned about the students and keep their classes lively, they actively try to keep the class smooth and forward. The Campus is beautiful, hostels have single rooms ensuring privacy(the toilets were a problem but now they are getting renovated) and the sports scene is probably the best in all of the NLUs. But this is not why I'm making this post.
Ragging in NLUJ is called positive interaction or PI for short. It's kind of a ritual/s, PI is not physical in nature, you can say it is degrading though. You WILL have PI in the first few days no matter what and that may continue for many months or even years, that is if you "consent" to it. There is a way to get out of it and that is by telling the seniors that "you're uncomfortable". But this, this is just a false positive.
The moment you say you're uncomfortable you are left alone, not just there but you are left completely. The seniors kind of mark you and spread it to the other seniors, from that day on, almost no senior will ever help you with anything and believe me you will need that help one day or the other. They may even hold a grudge against you but they will never show it outwardly.
PI is just a way for the seniors to boost their own ego and self worth by humiliating the juniors a bit or a lot(often as revenge by being subjected to the same when they were juniors), the level of humiliation ranges from senior to senior. Some seniors take the PI lightly, often they become your good friends and help you out with anything, but other seniors take it a bit too serious. Let's go through the common way PI is taken.
You are always supposed to address your seniors by saying "sir" or "Ma'am", every line must begin and end with sir or Ma'am (atleast loosely), if not you are asked to repeat yourself. You must greet every senior every time you see them with a good morning/evening/afternoon sir/madam, if new to the seniors, you must go through an introduction process. First greet the seniors, state your name, state your background, your course, and then tell an interesting story about yourself(it should be funny, some seniors may laugh others will insult you for it not being interesting enough), you are also not allowed to smile at the seniors as it is deemed disrespect. The seniors are always right, and you must not question them. 1st years are not allowed to wear printed clothes or shorts except for class(except shorts), some seniors are okay with it if you are in the campus roads but most are not. If found wearing a printed shirt you are questioned and asked to wear it inside out. It is deemed as disrespect, why? Just because.
Often seniors call you to their hostel rooms, and take your PI privately(about 5-6 seniors will be in the room, may differ), you may go with your friends but sometimes the seniors don't allow it. In these private sessions the seniors may ask you to enact plays, do demeaning stuff for laughs, or quiz you about the most random stuff(like asking where you think each of them are from in India and calling you racist for it), nothing physical. These may end up funny for you too but may not sometimes. These sessions may go on for hours and it's a general rule not to go in the night cuz it'll screw you sleep schedule.
Ultimately you could call them bonding sessions, the seniors(atleast the cool ones) bond with you and may even send you for errands(like buying snacks and cigarettes), most times they even add in a little bit of something for you too. Regarding cigarettes, if you don't smoke or vape and they do, you can say you're uncomfortable with it and you will be either dismissed, or told to stand outside the room for sometime until they finish or they'll put the cigarettes out. In this case they're understanding with your uncomfort and won't take it seriously. This is universal as in, with every senior it's like this.
What's not is the humiliation. Some stuck up seniors take it too far and take advantage of the fact that you basically don't have a choice and fault you for the smallest things and make fun of you like hell. These are 100% assholes and they won't stop until they bust your balls enough, they are arrogant as hell and want to screw with your own sense of self worth.
Some juniors like PI and they go out of their way to do it, maybe because they want to build contacts or maybe because they like the humiliation(mostly the former). If you ask me, I think PI is good, but only if it was a light and fun thing which it is with some seniors. It makes everyone including you laugh and break the ice. But some rules suck and many demeaning acts screw with your self esteem. The assholes who do this often go scot free because ultimately you have no choice.
So that's about the "positive interaction" in NLU jodhpur. Keep in mind that there are seniors who don't give a shit and mind their own business(mostly the seniors with above 7.5 CGPA) but about 70% of the seniors do PI.
If any of you guys have questions, feel free to DM me. This is obviously a burner account because the minority of assholes I talked about may try to find me. Also realise, that ragging will probably happen in many NLUS or even all, there are NLUs where the ragging is much more brutal. This is merely an account of the Ragging in NLUJ