Mr. Damodaran is a nice man, or so it seems. His team is definitely understaffed as his associates stay back quite late almost everyday. Culture wise the team is quite cut off from rest of their colleagues around and honestly the associates look rather tensed/cranky whenever I get to see them.

It's a good team to join if you are somebody who is fine with working in a relatively small team, with colleagues who are mostly reserved and keeps to themselves.

Caveat: I interned with one of the teams which sit in proximity to WD's team a couple of months back. Thought I'd share what I observed.

Hi, I graduated recently and spent around six months working in a T2/T3 M&A and PE/VC team. Unfortunately, the work environment was pretty toxic, and I experienced bullying with no scope of professional growth, which ultimately led me to leave the role.

During my time there, I was rarely assigned meaningful work, so I’m concerned about how my experience comes across on my CV and my chances of being shortlisted. I'm applying for A1 roles but my applications are being ghosted, even for roles wherein I know interviews are being handed out to my peers.

I would really appreciate any guidance on how to position my experience and approach my job search from here. Any leads on specific teams or firms that are currently hiring would be extremely helpful too!!

Senior lawyers charge meeting fees/ legal opinion fees/ call fees/ break fees so this is wrong, theres lots of ancilliary revenue, Surgeons cant be bilionaires too solely from profession, no service person can, You have to partake in large long term M&A/ cash out from an IPO for that.

I'm not giving the name because I don't want to promote it. But you guys know it. They are positioning the app as a run club and meet-up club for Gen Z lawyers, but on the Insta page they have preview pics of the app and dating is given as one of the options. One pic shows the profile of an attractive girl, along with her age and location. Classic clickbait. Also, the run club pics have like 95% guys lmao.

Maybe it's best to explore dating and companionship outside of such apps? Private clubs? AMEX card holder meet-ups?

I do not get why mods remove comments. I have been working there - it's amazing for internships, it's amazing to look at from outside if you're looking at an associate position but once you are in it is ▮▮▮ ▮▮▮ - there is one particular set of associates who are bullies here ▮▮▮. I can confirm this on dm/emails with more tangible proof.

C'mon Mods. You know better than this. It's a derogatory, and explicitly racially charged word and you would never countenance a similar word being used about someone who isn't white. It's like calling foreigners gwailoh in China or gaijin in Japan. I bet you wouldn't call Kian a "gora" to his face, if he ever came back to LI.

TOI report:

"The Delhi high court said on Monday the country cannot be permitted to be maligned internationally as it listed for hearing on Aug 27 a petition by UK-based journalist Amrit Wilson challenging the cancellation of her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card.Opposing any relief, the Central govt tendered a report in a sealed cover before Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav and said there were inputs from intelligence agencies against Wilson, which had a bearing on the sovereignty of the nation.HC examined the report and said there were allegations the octogenarian petitioner had participated in anti-India activities. "We should not be such a tolerant state that we allow our own country to be criticised, maligned on an international platform. There are some IB reports against you. There are not only tweets. There are allegations that you participated in anti-India activities," the judge said.However, the counsel appearing for Wilson questioned the Centre's claim that the petitioner participated in anti-India activities and contended that the show-cause notice given to her was devoid of any details."

Birkbeck page of Dr Kalpana Wilson:

"My research has explored the previously under-researched question of racism and racialisation in international development. I have examined the relationships between race, capital, embodiment and resistance in transnational historical and contemporary contexts. I put forward an approach which underlines the materiality of race in development as well as its discursive aspects, combining elements of postcolonial, critical race and feminist theory with political economy. I explore themes including global population policies, reproductive justice, (anti-)fascism and racialised diasporas in development.

Secondly, building upon long-term research on rural labour movements in India, I have looked at contesting understandings of women’s agency, in the contexts of neoliberal development interventions, and social movements and collective organising. I have also examined emerging representations of women and adolescent girls in the Global South as hyper-industrious potential entrepreneurs and how this ‘new’ set of gendered and racialised representations is linked to an intensification and extension of women’s labour under neoliberal globalisation."

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/cant-let-india-be-maligned-delhi-hc-tells-journo-in-oci-card-case/articleshow/128438042.cms

https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/delhi-high-court/amrit-wilson-oci-card-cancellation-centre-stand-cant-malign-india-abroad-523297

https://lawbeat.in/amp/top-stories/cji-surya-kants-uk-lecture-sparks-controversy-as-birkbeck-professor-questions-hostility-to-dissent-within-india-1599402

https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/8009423/kalpana-wilson

Average JGLS student: Rich. IB school product. Chauffer-driven Merc. Girlfriend looks like a model. Holidays in Switzerland. Uncle/family friend is a tier 1 law firm partner who told him a job in the firm is waiting for him after graduation.

Average JGLS hater: Middle class. KV or regular CBSE school product. Travels by auto and bus. No gf. Holidays in Manali and feels guilty because his peers are already preparing for next semester's exams. Struggles to get good internships because grades/contacts not sufficient.

What's not to hate? 😅

We have seen how the US Embassy is monitoring social media posts by visa applicants. Do HR people at law firms do the same?

For example, if one posts against politicians like Modi or Netanyahu? Or opposes projects by Adani and Ambani? Or professes support for Ambedkarite policies like private sector reservation? What if I criticise the judiciary and support the CJP?

Do HR people do such background checks? Is it advisable to lock one's social media account during placement season?

Bhai ye wohi law firm hai jinhone Trafiksol ka SME IPO kia. That is an undeniable, publicly known fact. DRHP Khol ke dekh lo.

Asha Agarwal only gets 1-2 mainboards a year (that too part scope, not the full book) from smart horizon because Asha is close to Parth Shah, the owner of the merchant bank and genuinely would have no legal clients otherwise.

You won’t see them on league tables anymore. ▮▮▮

I firmly disagree. Legacy has delivered strong Mainboard mandates recently (EMS Ltd, Vibhor Steels, Xtranet, Mann Fleet) and is also active in the QIP space. Yes, T&S Law has delivered Glottis, Manika, and a few others - but it’s critical to look at the pipeline of mandates and the names that the firms are working with.

Where are the T&S Law cake cutting LinkedIn posts now? “14 mandates”, apparently. Now ▮▮▮ .

All the others have the mainboards. Wait for June 30 and you’ll see them knocked off their high perches lol.

Does anyone suggest a decent path for a B&F Associate (5-7 years PQE) to move abroad?

Would an LLM help and if yes which universities?

- Do they need a lot of publications even for experienced candidates?

- what kind of jobs can one get after that?

Or is there a way to get a job directly? If yes, then which countries?

Saw a reel by Arfa Khanum Sherwani of the Wire, where she is reporting that 20 million people support the CJP on Instagram, but only 1000 to 2000 turned up at Jantar Mantar. Also, several posts by girls are saying that there were a lot of chhapri guys in the crowd, who were just coming for timepass and staring at girls. 😞

I feel our Gen Z youth need better leadership. Why don’t NLU grads and students form a new political party? All the burning issues in our country right now are legal and constitutional in nature: caste, human rights of minorities, delimitation, free speech etc. In fact, the very origin of the CJP traces itself to a remark by the CJI. As the foremost legal minds, with an overwhelmingly secular and liberal bent, the NLU community is best placed to lead the party and explain these issues better on social media. The CJP is not doing this properly, sorry to say. This Abhijit Dipke guy seems kinda lame and cringe. He just picked up on one oral remark by the CJI, instead of trying to articulate a broad critic about the present situation of fundamental rights and social justice in India.

T1 NLU, starting my fourth year now. got extremely depressed back in my first year itself, Law school was a very bleak time for me- i dont remember a significant chunk of my law school career just tweaking between psychs and meds- and now that I have a medication routine which works, I am realising I have 10 backs which I need to clear. Now I am the anxiousest fuck out of all anxious fucks to have ever anxious fucked.

@Juniors: Genuinely rough it the fuck out no one gives a SHIT about health in this economy, and honestly why should they when there is always someone better and healthier and more knowledgeable to give work/money/referrals/help to

@Seniors: Can someone please advise me on what to do to recoup this- I have done some decent internships, a commercial law chamber, senior advocates doing crim law work, labour law (and in general theek thaak human rights work kiya hai)

but slowly realising all this doesnt matter if the batch rank is in the bloody 3 digits.

There is, in india, central university or Central jobs will always have more advantages especially when it comes to politics, power and leverage. We dream of Harvard, a private university, but cringe at actual good private universities in India. That's the mentality. Government is better than private for Indians. Even if the private is better for opportunities and reach

They wouldn't go into BHU since they won't get selected. That's the reality. Many of my seniors, batchmates and juniors have tried. It's pure politics to retain only central university. And who cares about syllabus or practices when you're being paid the 7th commission equivalent, a permanent job and immense power in the state through the judiciary and other competitive exams.

None are working in IITKgp. Also majority NLUs who are working in IIMs and IITs have a ug from NLU not a PG or PhD. Their PG or PhD is either from central Universities like IIT and IIM itself or from foreign universities. None have done their last degree, which is usually a PhD from an NLU.

Oh give it a rest, sour grapes. NLS had over 20 years of a monopoly with no real competition as well as being able to grow at a time when the economy was expanding and liberalising.The second oldest NLU-NALSAR-doesn’t have the same kind of alumni base either for such reasons. Regardless of what the fools here debate and mods try to curtail, as things stand today, you’d be plain delusional to pretend that NUJS is better than NLUD. Even if placements are 0, NLUD is the better institute.

One off of it seems. I saw two the same day.

I can name the firms but it would get censored. One was a Mumbai T1 team fand other was Bangalore T1 team. Both cases the work was cross sold. Different POC and partner signing.

Entire briefing turned into a T1 bitching session from the clients side and chamber was the one left defending lawyers. Once they left my boss made enquiries as to who did the work on these.

Incredibly poor advisory work are being handed out. Its clearly coming out from kids and just signed by a partner without thought.The advise was almost ChatGPT-ish.

Wish I could post it here. Not for amusemenr but for some introspection. If I were T1 partners I would be damn careful cross-selling. Reputations are getting ruined in the market.

PS: Spent most of my career in a T1. The standards are dropping fast. The T2 and boutiques are giving much better work product even according to clients.

Only reason NLUD doing this is to make money. 20k students paying 4K each, making cool 8 Cr. 5-6 cr in profits at the cost of inconvenience to 20k young kids and their families wasting 20k days of the families for another entrance exam.

Till someone goes to the court NLUD wont listen. All NLUs part of CLAT, no reason why NLUD won’t join? Very bad precedent. If every NLU does this there will be 26 entrance exams like it was in pre-CLAT era.

High time NLUD joins CLAT consortium or let some court decides what they are doing is right?

I have already complained to SILF with the proof and the head of the firm with all the timelines of events and pointing out the behavior issues and the torture sequences of what is being done to the juniors aswell, where everything is always hanging by the thread. Need to sometimes cut the wings and break the confidence.

if you read the Varun Bhagat v. Union of India it clearly states that all NLUs should consider joining a common entrance exam

all did except for NLUD, it was due to the intransigence of their then VC, each year during the CLAT meeting this is discussed, however, as NLUD is making a 3 crore profit each year they dont care

a new PIL is required, remember that SC had struck down the attempt by NLS during covid years to have its own entrance exam, so a PIL arguing for NLUD to join consortium or admit students through CLAT is likely to be looked upon kindly by the SC

2026 batch with experience across Tier 1.5/2 and niche firms, good feedback, interested in commercial disputes. Started interning seriously only in my final year, so I missed the PPO pipeline. college placement support is practically non-existent. I'm confident in my skills, but being from a non-NLU and the current market situation, I don't have any offers right now.

For seniors who were in a similar position:

how did you navigate it?

what options should I be exploring right now?

My main concern is whether taking up just any role is worth it, or if it's better to wait for a good team/firm given how much your first job can shape your career. I'm already mass applying. Never really stressed about placements before, but watching everyone around me secure jobs has me questioning where I stand.

Recently, I came across a post by Nikhil at Trilegal for a unique role with his team which he described as "Tech Associate". First, do they actually review these forms as one can expect thousands of people filling them. Secondly, there was another such form released back in December which was also released for a fresher hire, so do they actually consider and review all these forms???

There appears to be a drought of PPOs even across Tier 1 law schools, despite firms apparently shifting towards a PPO-centric hiring model. The numbers so far are the lowest of any post-pandemic batch and, frankly, are cause for concern.

Macroeconomic factors such as the Iran conflict, a depreciating rupee, and the outflow of foreign capital from Indian markets may have some bearing on hiring decisions. However, they do not seem sufficient to explain the abysmally low number of offers being extended. Nor does the AI explanation carry much weight; at least for now, no AI system is capable of meaningfully replacing an A0.

Which raises an obvious question: what the hell is happening?

You have shown exactly why it is the best reason. Your use of the 'g word'. We should apply the same standards to ourselves as white folks are expected to apply to themselves about Asian and black people, or as we are expected to apply to ourselves regarding black people. Thus, the 'g word' is the equivalent in this context of the 'n-word'.

Moderator, how you allowed this to slip through your processes is anybody's guess. Nevertheless, you should be doing something about it now. At the very least, marking trollish. Why hasn't this already been done?

You are heated up about this for one reason, and one reason only: you don't read the amazing blog of the legendary realist philosopher of law at Chicago, Brian Leiter. Or if you do, you certainly aren't reading it carefully enough. If you did, you would remember the absolutely impossible-to-forget piece where Leiter severely rebukes those who level the "just-old-white-men-boring-to-teach" critique against jurisprudence curriculums that have a lot of Hart, Dworkin, Fuller and Raz in them. In that piece, because one of the ones Leiter is gunning for is specifically from Birkbeck, he allows himself to have some fun and describes it as "one of the UK's flakier law faculties" or something to that effect (don't have his piece to hand, so quoting from memory). As someone from one of the other London unis, call me biased if you like, but from my knowledge of UK higher ed, can confirm that Leiter's diagnosis is correct. Therefore, you can safely ignore these persons and move on. Hope this is helpful. All the best.

Hi, I am just a random guy. i just wanted to point out 1 very simple thing
This is an old post, and I can see you replied 3 years ago and talked about 17 years of career.
1st thing.
https://www.sebi.gov.in/monthlypay-allowance.html
link to pay and allowance and this overall doesnt even have complete gross salary and is without housing
I went to the SEBI directory, available on their website. and searched LAD first name pop-ups.
D.V. SEKHAR, CGM, currently 21 years in SEBI—gross pay, which is not the full pay, is close to 5.9 lakhs a month
Since you talked about 17 years, found another one.
AYAN MUKHERJEE Joined in 2009, currently 17 years old - Gross pay is 3.62 lakhs a month.

And this gross pay are not even the exact actual pay

another person who joined 4 years ago

DEEPAK SAROJ joined in Aug 2022 with 1.48 gross per month. Again, this is without housing and other things, so it's nowhere close to whatever 10 lakh you are quoting and whatever 17 years of career you are saying.

At least do proper research.
Peace.

This is the issue with liberal law students. Not everything needs to be an issue. It’s a freaking motto, did anyone apart from NLS fanatics even know this motto existed before this article? In what universe is a motto responsible for the actions of some abuser? Thousands have graduated from this university, do all of them commit atrocious acts because of this motto? It’s a no debate, but some random liberal enthusiasts are making it into one. Ffs get a life.

Hey! I don't know if this is a legit post, but if it is I want to ask seriously: I am recent law grad from a T-1 university. I have been trying to break into M&A and gen corp for a pretty long time and call it my luck or what, I would come very close to converting opportunities and then not get it. For example: I gave an interview after a call back, received good feedback post the interview and then didn't make it. I am seriously considering pivoting to a different field so I want to ask- In light of your post about AI and tools like claude doing these things I want to ask if I should completely quit my dreams of doing transactions and focus and redirect my energies to learning more tech, doing more tech aligned work??? Please let me know if this is a legit post-you can change a youngling's life sir/ma'am!

The hate towards JGLS is genuine and well rooted because
- of the ground level arbitrary policies, being implemented by dictator admin.
- fancy LLM faculties with no experience working there just to pay off their LLM education loan and teaching via shit PPTs, and doing arbitrary evaluation and intentionally shitting on grades of students just to maintain their profile and "standards" of being a strict professor.
- overcrowded batches i.e. JGLS has as of more than just 1200+ law graduates coming with bare minimum jobs at hands, not every internship via contact gets converted into PPO. even Jindal people do 20-30 k jobs in tier 1 cities.
- genuine middle class but "general" category helpless but meritorious (who fail to clear CLAT despite drop year, and looted by clat coaching) being exploited by manipulating them with #1 ranking which has nothing to do with employment students get just research and publications, which is beneficial for faculty and not student. Not everyone comes from rich background stop idiotically and blindly following this stereotype, if you can then go and check the ground reality over there, more than 50% are from working class middle class family.
- untouched (touched only in policies) over drug, smoking, alcohol, hook ups culture which force already stressed people into life threatening addiction. But admin is only concerned with counting cash and making infrastructure to fool parents of next batch.

Law firm opinions are tailored to 'Client's requirements', which is usually 'optimised' to prevent heads from showing up on the chopping block should the shareholders/lenders make a fuss, so the language and the law is drafted and interpreted 'accordingly'.

It's a circle jerk of accountability.

Don't know who Goutham is and didn't understand your comment. You mean to say that SC students at NLSIU opposed the change in motto? Doesn't make sense???

I know that Sumit is an SC himself but he has never engaged in identity politics and has written about not using any SC certificate and entering NLSIU on pure merit. He also used a caste-neutral surname named after the Buddha. So his is not an identitiarian critique but an objective juridical critique.

Is that the issue then? That only identitarian critiques count?? If you can explain who this Goutham is and what exactly he said, we will understand better.

I got my first job almost a year after graduating. During placements, I barely got shortlisted because I had no law firm experience. After graduation, I kept applying everywhere, but most places never replied, and many preferred candidates with prior experience. Since I did not have law firm experience, it felt even harder to break in.

It was a very disheartening phase. I stayed at home, felt lost, and even considered litigation as a last resort, though I knew it was not what I truly wanted. Still, I kept trying. I spent my time researching, writing papers, getting them published if I got lucky, and turning them into writing samples while continuing to apply for opportunities.

Eventually, I shifted my focus to internships, hoping they would lead to something full-time. After two internships, I still did not immediately get a job, but the connections I built during that time helped. Someone I had worked with referred me for an opportunity because they trusted my work, and that is how I landed my first job.

So my advise is don’t lose hope. Three months is still early. Keep applying, keep learning, and keep putting yourself out there. Things can take time, but opportunities do come. All the best!

Most top law firms make enough money to be able to offer basic facilities to their lawyers which could make working these punishing hours a little more bearable? Things like a rec room with a few day beds, exercise equipment- because lord knows going to the gym with this job is a constant struggle, pantry with healthy/clean food options (make it chargeable, if needed), crèche facility to make life of new mothers easier!!!! Shouldn’t this be made the standard across all top firms at least? Is it really too much to ask for?

Hearing chatter on the current CCI chair. One member has already resigned. One is retiring. Back to no quorum soon. Deliberations are completely in her control. No dissenting opinions are being written. All reports go to her, though all members are supposed to have responsibilities. She is being compared to SEBI chair Buch, whose [...]. Both women with iron fists are resented internally by senior colleagues, damaging the institution and lowering morale overall.

An M&A lawyer with 10 years experience here. Have been recently doing a lot of work using Claude, Legora, etc . Aside from the sheer heavylifting / data processing capabilities of these LLMs which is useful for diligence, what surprised me was their ability to come up with structuring options/ instruments and real market practices. In this context, what are your thoughts on the future of the profession ? What can be done to stay relevant ? Is litigation safer compared to corp; thinking of a pivot maybe to corp lit/ etc

This is fine from an FOE angle, but to to me the whole CJP thing seems fake and suss.

First of all, I cannot see a coherent intellectual or policy-based critique and vision being offered. Just memes and trolling. Surya Kant is a soft target as he is not suave and Harvard-educated like DYC. Why did DYC get off the hook?

Second, it’s very problematic to try and emulate the Gen Z protests in Bangladesh and Nepal. It’s blatantly obvious now that Mohammed Yunus was a US plant. Opaque contracts and tenders were awarded to US companies under his rule, while a lot of atrocities were carried out against Hindus. In Nepal, this Balendra Shah guy seems similarly shady.

Third, the CJP is dominated by the Hindi-speaking ecosystem and we know that the founder is a former AAP activist. Where are the activists from the South, Bengal, North East etc? Also, their press conference at the Constitution club is booked by an RJD MP. And they thanked Mahua Moitra for supporting them. Is the alternative to the BJP, the RJD and the TMC? Are these guys aware of what’s happening in Bengal right now? Why not forming independent party, instead of piggybacking on the AAP, RJD and TMC?

https://www.livelaw.in/amp/top-stories/india-high-commission-in-london-condemns-indecorous-audience-behaviour-during-event-attended-by-cji-surya-kant-536983

https://x.com/thepagetody/status/2062849236832854168

I am astounded by the negativity here. Anonymity does seem to strip away empathy and human decency.

I'm an ex-NDA'ite and a beneficiary of Nishithbhai's mentorship. You do realise that he has every prerogative to keep his practice a sole proprietary concern. Those of us who wished to have our own equity have chosen other paths. That is just individual autonomy.

The one thing you cannot take away from NMD is the fact that he has made entrepreneurs out of so many of us. He may not share equity, but he shared the core skills and allowed us to hone them. That is not "exploitation". That is true guru-shishya parampara aka mentorship.

XOXO

From The Telegraph:

Multiple high-level sources within Trinamool said at least nine Lok Sabha and three Rajya Sabha members had already expressed their “extreme eagerness” for negotiations. This newspaper has learned that in addition to “disgruntled” MPs who appeared to be bound for the BJP, at least two Trinamool Lok Sabha members are said to be trying to gain entry to the Congress, having initiated back-channel conversations with Rahul Gandhi’s “emissaries”.

😂😂😂

https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/trinamool-mp-foretells-collapse-in-parliament-undeniable-unstoppable-too-perhaps-prnt/cid/2164021