Negotiate with your new firm to extend your joining date. If they don't agree - tell them you can't join them. If they can't appreciate your commitments at your current firm - they won't after you join them as well. Any decent firm won't hold you ransom to this for sure. This could be your red flag.

I) After small due diligence, I got number of one equity partner of tier 2 law firm.
II) He holds a decent brand value to his name in corporate dispute resolution (Energy law), which aligns with my interest area.
III) I want to hear whether it would be naive idea to directly text him for internship.
IV) or do sometimes partner gives head to such texts & offer internship?
V) Also anyone in the same position (partner/ equity partner) who wants to share some good tips with respect to manner in which you want be addressed by a student on WhatsApp.
VI) What could be a most feasible & safe code of conduct to bag an internship through these non-anonymised channels (WhatsApp/Telegram).
VI) Anyone who have experimented with this sort of unconventional method ever before, wants to share their experience, please proceed to elaborate it. It would definitely help me craft my further steps.

Currently working at a Tier 1 in Mumbai. PQE is 3 years. I'm up for promotion this year. But I don't have the energy left to survive the coming year as the hectic work life for the last 3 years have taken a toll on my mental and physical health. I'm thinking about switching to an in house role for some time with a hope of coming back to law firm circle after a year or so.

Don't know if this is a good decision at this point but I just cannot survive law firm work life right now. Can you guys please advice based on your experience.

I am a reasonably senior IP lawyer. Earning pretty well and advising good clients in both lit and prosecution. Some advice I can share with students are:

- You need patience in this space. Starting salaries are low but will go up with time. Don’t be depressed early on if you get low pay. I myself am an example. Thought I don’t earn as much as a CAM corporate partner, it’s still very good pay. I started by earning peanuts.

- The top lawyers and law firms in this field survive entirely on foreign clients. Indian clients are 🤮 both in terms of work and billing. If you happen to be in a firm which advises mainly Indian clients, that’s not a good firm! Many small boutique firms have very good foreign clients. Join them.

- The future if this field is tech. Tech. Tech. Tech. You must keep yourself up to date with the latest developments in this space and get to know about the tech itself.

- Finally, just like in corporate law, there are some law firm owners who unfortunately are oligarchs in this practice area: keeping salaries low, promoting nepo kids and making no investment in continuing education and training. If foreign law firms come in they will hopefully fade away.

There was this Co-intern (X), came in through contacts. X came late, wanted to leave by 5 lol and sometimes even around 3pm itself. Did not anything about law. Had the audacity to make pretty rude comments about everyone and discussed personal stuff. Also, X publicly flaunted his/her ignorance, lack of self control etc and thought it was cool.

I graduated from a Tier-III NLU in 2022 and have a brief litigation experience. I always wanted to go for academia but low salary/ incentives and significant gestation period (do LLM then PhD) compelled me to not pursue it initially after graduation. But now I am thinking of changing trajectory and go for Masters. But I can't go abroad and can only go for NLU. I have shot for Tier-I NLU for Masters in coming academic year. But not sure whether Indian system encourages merit, as I see most of the professors getting appointed for posts through Jugaad.

Whether I should still go for it and try my luck?

Not at all! Your job is to shoot your shot, just do that. I landed my current job through cold emailing, and even of the people who were not looking to hire, many were kind enough to reply. What's the worst that'll happen? Someone won't reply. But if they do, you stand to gain a lot!

Were you not an intern at one time? I understand interns being erratic and other things you mentioned might make interesting stories but "bugging you for work"? How else is someone supposed to get work if they don't ask? If the intern sits free, that's a problem. If they ask for work, it's bugging.

This is correct. CJI Gogoi also got Z+ security after the Ayodhya verdict. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/ex-cji-gogoi-gets-z-vip-security-cover-7158025/

I think the other judges on that bench - of whom DYC is the only one still serving - got a lower level (Z or Y+).

Samsung tabs have surpassed iPad in terms of VFM and also the pen experience is far more superior. The only downside for using it in legal fraternity is that liquid text files can't be opened in android tabs. So as long as you gonna use it strictly for office use, you would be much at ease with the iPad.

I understand there is a dearth of information about niche practice areas such as TMT, IP etc., and I hope this response provides a bit more clarity to readers -

1) The IP practice in India is dominated by boutique IP firms who operate primarily in cities that have a branch of the IP office or a High Court that regularly takes up IP matters (typically Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata). These boutique law firms are involved in the bulk of prosecution work, which is the bread and butter of any IP lawyer.

2) A pure IP practice can be classified into three major areas - prosecution, litigation and transactions. Prosecution pretty much relates to all IP filing work (including responding to office actions, opposition proceedings) and corresponding advisory work. This accounts for a bulk of income for IP firms. Litigation, naturally, relates to IP disputes. Most firms work straightforward cases related to trademark, copyright or patent infringement. Since IP is still growing in India, complex cases involving various questions of law usually go to a few boutique firms who have a history of doing good IP litigation work (such as Anand, Remfry, Singh, Saikrishna etc.). These offices are primarily based in Delhi due to the IP Division having judges such as Pratibha Singh, who were former IP lawyers and have a deeper understanding of IP law. Transactional work is available with very few firms, but typically involves drafting and negotiation of agreements (licenses, assignments, co-existence agreements, JV agreements etc., that are IP centric). Such work is also very sector specific, with firms such as ANM Global, Khimani etc. dominating the M&E industry and regularly making production, artist agreements.

3) A few full-service law firms (T1 and T2) such as Khaitan, AZB, SAM and now CAM have fully functional IP teams. However, these firms (barring Khaitan) do not do a lot of prosecution work due to the clerical nature of work, and abundance of competitors who are willing to do such work for much lesser fees. These firms typically work on IP transactions (assisting M&A teams with IP portion of transactions), negotiating IP agreements and allied agreements for larger clients. They also tend to do a lot more advisory work across IP and allied fields. The IP team in AZB, for example, also handles a lot of pharmaceutical regulatory work whereas Khaitan seems to be doing a lot of technology related and advertising regulatory work. Can't comment on SAM, and CAM has recently started an IP team so not too sure about the kind of work they do.

4) Breaking into a boutique firm is SIGNIFICANTLY easier than joining a full-service firm with an IP team.

5) Ideally, one should always be very clear with IP prosecution before venturing into other areas of IP (including litigation or transactions).

6) The industry is slowly (but surely) becoming more sensitive towards IP as a practice area. This is also evident with the increased involvement of IP and Tech teams on commercial deals (go check any deal reporting by major law firms and see IP partners who have assisted such deals). However, understand that as a practice area, IP is very very concentrated and there is an over-availability of lawyers. If you wish to succeed and make it to the top (which is where the money is, unfortunately), you need to have a very deep industry / sector understanding, along with experience in allied fields such as TMT, Data Protection and Privacy etc.

7) Hours are not, as others claim, "chill". This is completely dependent on the firm you work for, and the quantum of work they have. This is especially true if you're working for a fullservice firm's IP / TMT team. Due to the smaller team sizes, the quantum of work often gets overwhelming.

8) Money, especially in early phases, is significantly lower than Corp Teams unless you manage to break into a Tier-1 firm. (Do your research about differential pay here too).

9) If you're interested in pure IP work, join a boutique firm. No better place to learn and do only IP work. Personally, felt that such work was very mundane and wanted to have a taste of all work under IP and related fields, thus chose to join a T1 full-service firm. Work is fun, regularly get to work across sectors including M&E, Pharma, Tech. This means work isn't purely IP, but also a lot of compliance, advisory and regulatory work.

10) DO YOUR RESEARCH about the kind of work the firm does. Boutiques may also place you in over-specialsed and demarcated groups such as 'prosecution' team, where you may be stuck doing purely IP prosecution. While you gain immense expertise in the prosecution field, I feel like you shouldn't limit yourself to only one area, especially as a fresher.

I am a 2nd Year law student at one of the tier 1s, and will be in third year in less than two months. Less has changed since I joined. I feel minimal improvement in my knowledge and understanding of the law than what it was on day one, my reading capabilities feel somewhat better, but no such change in my writing skills.

On the other hand, I can witnessed people around me get noticeably better. I saw people get published at increasingly better places, winning increasingly better competition. It's not like I have not tried, I have. I don't know what to blame it on, so I have decided to put it on inherent lack of capability/intelligence in me. It makes sense too. I can from reservation, where my general batchmates ha to get an under 100 rank, mine was around 700. That too after multiple attempts. Logically, that makes me 7 times worse at everything law school than them. 7 times worse English skills, 7 time worse comprehension, 7 times worse retention capacity, 7 times worse writing ability, 7 times worse conversation and speaking skills, and so on. I have tried very hard and things don't seem to get better. My GPA keeps tanking every semester no matter what i do, and I'm never satisfied with the amount of work I put in. It's cyclic in a way i believe, where capable people upon getting more positive feedback from their endeavours get further motivated to do something even better, whereas i, on consistent failure, find it impossible to even gather enough courage to start, try a new thing. I don't know what to do, and if things continue the way they are, I'm afraid i won't be employed. I have loans to pay and a family to feed (papa retires in 2 years), so not sure how that'll turn out. Rant over.

yaar. this is so stupid. think like a lawyer. even if this was true- are tax laws retrospective? there was at least three months after IG died and Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in. it would have taken him longer to pass a tax law. Think. Could it be possible to benefit from the legal change?

Its just not how the law works.

And an estate duty/ tax is not the equivalent of taking everything away from everyone and ending inheritance. It would depend on how much wealth is being passed down and in what way- but it likely wouldnt affect most people.

sounds like nano chip in currency note or kasab asking for biryani.. btw RSS as well as JetLie & Jayant Sinha too were advocating estate duty

Sheth is the guy who made Indian airforce work for a private dance party & opposed GST & Aadhaar only to make a U Turn

No one can create a society where every person’s ‘basic’ needs are met. To use the food analogy, suppose we create a society whose sole aim is to ensure that everyone is well-fed. Suppose we have millions of inspectors who go around force-feeding anyone who is hungry. However, a determined criminal could still evade the inspectors and steal food.

Let's also not forget that BJP leaders themselves had advocated for inheritance tax when the UPA government had been in power.

https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/did-bjp-amit-malviya-jayant-sinha-once-favoured-inheritance-tax-idea-congress-shares-tweet-sam-pitroda-lok-sabha-2024-11713967797818.html

Litigation lawyer here. For about 4 years, I had been using an Android tab and did just fine. Last six months or so, I've been on an iPad with LiquidText. It's a useful app - definitely not "an unnecessary scam to look elite". How would one look elite anyway, using an app that you can get for around 900 bucks (student pricing - and almost everyone in Del HC has got it on student pricing)?

I don't see it being useful for students though. It's useful when referring to multiple documents within a case during arguments.

What estate did Indira Gandhi have? She was residing in an official bungalow which was converted to a public museum after her death. Even Nehru willed his familys private property in Allahabad to be used as a public museum. And let's not forget the Nehru Memorial Library in Delhi. The man was a pioneer of dedicating his wealth for public use instead of passing it on to his children.

Inheritance tax will at best affect the top 1% of people so it really won't be an electoral issue.

Anyway, as per the standard definition of "merit", you don't deserve anything you did not work for. The same logic should apply to your parent's property.

Inheritance tax does not prevent people from liquidating their properties or doing anything with it during their life time.

US has never bombed Iran. It was Iraq they bombed in 2004/5 and there were large scale public protests across the US public spaces then, not just in universities.

Afghanistan was too close to 9/11 and everyone was still recovering from that to have a detached view of the situation. Plus there was no moral ambiguity about the Taliban since they had overthrown an elected government.

This isn’t new. I went to law school like fifteen years ago now - I remember being very depressed after the first month when I realised most of my teachers were incompetent. It’s not the Harvard of the east at all.

But look - you’re there now- the place opens up opportunities. Try and make the most of it.

You need not notify every single person. HR would have done it. These processes exist for a reason.

Your Associate (if she still remembers you) would know the circumstances and if she is a nice person, would ask you how you are doing health wise.

I don't think you need to worry about this really.

Both of these links are talking about money when they talk about giving or gifts. Not labour. It’s rich that a well endowed uni like Harvard even pushes so much for gift giving.

Nlus are state funded. They typically don’t approach alumni for money because they are able to sustain themselves on what the government gives them +fees.

Besides- if you wanted to get money targeting some of these early career academics would be a dumb dumb way of doing it. Most of them are living on scholarships / stipends. You should be targeting folks who are partners in law firms or folks who went to work at foreign law firms. That’s a better way to get money.

No one is obligated to give you a gift

Ever. And being entitled about it and trying to make out the case that others are morally failing by not giving you a gift- makes you seem like a three year old having a tantrum.

This is a dumb take. You think they are so poor they need the paltry money that goes to folks teaching credit courses ? They do it because they want to give back.

Research collaboration with who ? There have to be good faculty to collaborate with na ? You know the state most NLUs are in ? Not counting nls - most of them don’t have good researchers on staff. Maybe one or two exceptions but other than that - there’s just not enough people to collaborate with.

Joint degrees ? That’s not up to an individual - it’s A department/ university level decision. And a lot of these schools are just not interested in pursuing something like that. Ivies and Oxbridge get enough money. They don’t need to do joint degrees with Indian universities.

Helped with research proposal ? Huh ? Helped whom? Most academics will review and comment on things for free. But if you’re asking anyone to draw up research proposals for grants for free - that’s just not gonna be possible. It’s too much free labour. And even if the grant gets awarded - who would do the work ? The alumna who is in another school ? Or some faculty at the nlu ? Grant agencies might not want to give out the money if the faculty cannot even write the proposal. And if it’s the alumna in the school abroad- it wouldn’t count as anything for the NLU.

You’re asking for free labour- and it is quite time and effort consuming to apply for grants. And there’s no real way to have it be so that free labour goes to benefit the nlu.

You don’t even seem to know what you’re talking about.

I have not yet downvoted this comment, but the thing is when there is so much concerted effort to show NFSU in a negative light through made-up stories (a few days back some clown came up with a "friend's daughter" story and now this one, shows how much fear and jealousy about NFSU exists on this platform. NFSU has an annual operating budget of 550 crores already and will top 1000 crores in the next 3 - 4 years. Therefore, the jealousy and hatred on this platform are only natural. Keep trying - an elephant does not stop its walk because some dogs bark on the sidelines.

I have applied for a course anchor position at lawsikho

I have an interview tomorrow. Any suggestions on how should I prepare? I have done litigation so far, want to switch to a desk job that I can do from home. Seems like a good opportunity.

Suggestions on interview prep will be appreciated

You should go see the uncle if you want to or are close to him. Work and money don’t matter when there is life and death. A lot of senior people have a tendency to say that they never took leave for such things but that’s to them and you need not follow that. I will again urge you to go and let your senior be. Career are not only built on going for a hearing when your loved one is fighting death, there are many other things.

It is a convenient trade off for NKC and his request for an extension which is beyond the age limit of 70 allowed by the NUJS Act. The state will allow it and turn a blind eye to corruption in the education sector in Bengal as revealed by the recent school teacher scam. The real problem is that no one is bothered about quality. There is no problem with opening good law universities in Bengal.

The problem is with dilution of the NUJS brand name. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh also have more than one NLU. But these are separate universities with separate rankings and placements!! Let there be Asansol National Law University or Siliguri NLU for North Bengal. But not another branch or campus of NUJS which already has expanded to BSc and MSc Forensic Science courses. Further expansion under the same name will simply reduce quality and affect NUJS placements!! Strategically, the administration is silent on this.

My first t1 internship was in 4th year, but before getting placed in 5th year, I had the opportunity to intern at 3 t1s in total. You'll never know what life has for you, keep applying.

Practice area would come from what interests you? You would have interned somewhere? That would have made you realise if not where what are the areas you don't wanna work in? Try out several while you still have time.

I'd say corp is easier for placement. It's not easier but it has more transferable skills, where only based on the fact that you dwell well within the team and want to learn, you'd be hired.

Dispute resolution, requires showcasing a lot more to have a chance. Not that it's improbable, but corp has more vacancies and easier to get in.

Wow.

1) How do you know that the commenter is a “lowly” associate?

2) “We need to save / protect xyz at all costs” is a genz phrase. Commenter doesn’t literally want to save anyone. Idk why you took this so personally lol.

I cannot fathom the frustration of sad old people on this forum sometimes! :)

You could make money or you could lose money. When you buy shares in a company, you essentially become a partial owner (very minority, partial owner unless you're Warren Buffett, or someone else investing hundreds of millions of dollars at a time). As a result, you win or lose based on the company's fortunes. There's no way to predict that in advance. However, if you buy a big basket of stocks that mimics a stock index, such as the Vanguard Total Market Index, you can figure that you'll do about the same as the market. Over a long period of time -- more than 10 years -- that's usually quite good. Over a short period of time, like 2 years, it's anybody's guess.

I am in my final year and will be graduating in a month.

Non NLU decent internships and a consistent 8 point CGPA. (Not the best but above avg atleast)

I want to start my career in Delhi and my areas of Interest are either Disputes or Commercial Lit or Civil Lit first then Criminal Lit.

If ya’ll could help me with listing firms or Chambers that have vacancies for either an assessment post graduation or a direct job interview, I shall be grateful.

(Delhi Chamber’s or Firms)

My low ranked College doesn’t have a rich Alumni Network to tap into so I have to depend on LI.

Please help me.

Mumbai is the easiest

There are always opportunities.

I am a T1 SA2, with no big internships. I would suggest that you stick to a gradually upscaling career path from whatever you can get hands on.

Look for jobs where you get to work with high integrity high work ethic and quality individuals - it can be with someone just starting out

Hey

Assume you caught cancer and need a day off. Or maybe car accident. Or maybe unbearable pain in stomach. Or maybe you went blind.

Take a freaking few hours off and ensure you are mostly able to work remotely if you care so much about work (that you are looking for excuses to justify a call on your conscience)

Wishing you sanity.

The best place to study 3 year LLB is NLSIU Bangalore and Jindal Global Law School.

If you don't get a seat at NLSIU or can't afford the cost of Jindal, next best options are CLC Delhi University & GLC Mumbai. BHU, ILS Pune & PU Chandigarh are other decent options.

If you are a BTech graduate, will recommend 3 year LLB in IPR at IIT Kharagpur - RGSOIPL.

Good luck.

Long story cut short: My uncle is super sick and is in the ICU. The doctors say he is critical and they are monitoring. We don’t know if he’ll make it or not.

I have a final hearing matter listed for Tuesday, conferences for which are today and we are short staffed on it.

I’m getting drowned in guilt because my family has said twice now to show up because we never know while on other hand I have a boss who’d taunt the life out of me and general throw a stink that I abandoned the matter. I don’t think I need to give him any personal details about except that a relative is sick and I need to bounce even if this is last minute.

I hate that I’m still thinking how can I take these calls. To top it all, I need to drive out station to be able to see him

Storytime:

I interned at a Tier 1 firm for a week but at a weekend party broke my ankle.I did go to the office the next day as I assumed it was a sprain but couldn’t concentrate the entire day due to the excruciating pain. I was limping and miserable and couldn’t work.

Next day after office, I couldn’t stand on my own and my parents had to fly in to Bombay.

I had to abruptly leave and I had informed my Partner and my buddy.

Went back and an additional liver problem was diagnosed. Turns out I have typhoid and an broken ankle.

I was hospitalised and during the time my father just let my buddy know I ain’t in the condition to even take calls which was true tbh. Mentally atleast. He handled all the exit formalities.

That was the end of communication.

The associate who gave me the most work is now working in the T1 I will be joining and a different team but same practice area.

Back then I had only informed my Buddy, HR and the Partner. Kinda forgot about the team.

After I recovered a month later I was too embarrassed to message or email anyone of them.

As somebody with Social Anxiety, now that I have to meet this associate again it’s gnawing at my insides.

Irresponsible yes, but I do not know how to explain all of this without seeming too irresponsible or dumb.