The work is a lot more fun than working in a law firm. I personally find PE work - and thus I work in a PE fund - more interesting than VC work in terms of portfolio companies and legal documentation and challenges, but I think many will find VC start-ups to be more interesting and engaging.

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I've secured a rank in CLAT that will land me into NLSIU and also from the marks and expected cutoffs of AILET, I think I will be able to get NLUD as well. This is quite a difficult choice to make, which one should I prefer? I'm from north India but I don't think the geographical element would influence my choice. I'd be glad if I get insights about both the colleges.

Hey, when you're interning, as long as you work properly and people like you, NO ONE will care about your CV.

You only need one good internship to get a job. Just make sure you reach office on time, look like you're happy (no1 likes to work with a sad/tired person all the time), ask for work and feedback, follow up regularly and leave only on time or after (NOT before).As long as people like you and you're able to impress a SA, PA or Partner, you're good to go. Don't worry you have a year too. Intern as much as possible and work as hard as possible

Let's talk about EPs.

Rajiv Luthra- Screwed his own firm after equity dispute.

Mohit Saraf- Delayed bonus and increament by 9 months. Accused of filing his own pocket.

Shroff brothers- Family feud led to divison of firm, brother blamed each other in Mahua Gates. One of the brothers is constantly accused of being toxic and lobbying against foreign firms for own benefit.

Zia Mody- won't comment coz LI community knows her very well.

Give more names, will give you more details.

In toto, EPs are not as good as you believe them, the only thing they are good at is making money for themselves, which current NLU VCs are.

this is what happens when youre so cocooned in the educational bubble that is a "top NLU" that you have no idea how anyone else lives. Ask anyone in any private law university in this country- they will tell you they would rather be at an NLU. Why do you think that is? say brand value- but explain how that brand value is built.
The truth is private higher education in India is a den of corruption and mismanagement and there is no room at all for academic integrity or honesty. It is a bad bargain to accept that in exchange for a couple of more electives on corp law and not having to study sociology.
Government universities at least in NLUs- provide little room for petty corruption ( cash for grades) and are usually so well regulated that any higher level corruption is usually exposed and censured. your professors dont have to worry about having to do the VCs laundry to get promoted- once they are hired on a permanent basis there are clear regulations for promotion that you can litigate in court should there be a violation. They don't have to kowtow to whims of administrators or engage in corrupt academic and financial practices as much as those in private universities. This means that they can actually induce some semblance of academic rigor and standards- thats what builds brand value. You will lose the brand value by taking NLUs and throwing them into the hands of the private sector. Equity partners at top firms are idiots in the education space. Worse than idiots. And not everyone who enters law school pursues corporate jobs. Fewer people stay in corporate roles even 5-10 years after graduation.

Ha, ha......state NLUs are state entities. The state governments have abdicated their responsibility of funding these universities. The overall administrative and academic leadership at these NLUs needs a lot of improvement. Till then no one will touch them even with a 10 feet bargepole.

Yeah, as far as I heard the Registrar of the University was forced to resign from the University and that too after serious allegations of casteism were raised against the Vice-Chancellor by the students. I think the VC is also using his position to pressurise other faculty members to support him.

Even I have heard a lot of different things. Can anyone from the student fraternity or alumni or even faculty provide a clear under Of the entire situation. There are other threads about allegations against the VC. i was thinking of choosing MNLU over other NLUs, is it a wise decision at this point?

Subsequently, the email IDs of the students were blocked from receiving email outside the institution. And the decision about such changes in email settings wasn't even communicated to students of the university. The students immediately protested to get this decision reversed. The condition is very sad in MNLU right now.

I have a heard a lot of things happening within MNLU Mumbai, allegations against top position holders and change in key position. I am still not sure about the details but from what I have heard its like a state of emergency and decisions are taken in the most arbitrary fashion. Should we consider NLU Mumbai in our top 10 choices for the CLAT 2024?

All top NLUs are heavily mismanaged by anti-corporate VCs and faculty. I have got a radical proposition- let tier-one law firms run 'tier-one' law schools. Equity partners from top firms can comprise the board of directors of these universities and accordingly decide policy and curriculum. It would also be in interest of the majority, as most students from these law schools seek corporate placements. Those who still wish to attend government-run universities can opt for local colleges, but in my opinion, the biggest blockade for top NLU's to reach their full potential is government mismanagement.

I constantly feel guilty of making my parents have to dish out a large sum of money on my undergraduate study so far- and probably more if I opt to go for a master's. I have not been able to compensate it with a decent salary or a side hustle etc and am still dependent on them to some extent. Though I have not spent magnanimously much on my ba llb so fa as compared to others around 7-10 laksh including Hostels and travel, I feel I have maxed out and don't wish to as them for more. I don't come from a marginalized background but am not filthy rich either. How do I deal with this dilemma that I am squandering my parents money?

IMO this can be a solution to the reservation problem, which appeases SC/ST/OBC vote banks and also protects the general category EWS class:

- 0% reservation in universities

- 0% reservation in private sector

- 80% caste reservation and 20% EWS reservation in all public sector jobs, from Group A to Group D. Allow those with merely school-level qualifications to appear for exams.

- Abolish the above reservation in 2100.

I am sure 99% of SC/OBC people would prefer a guaranteed government job over a guaranteed university seat.

Hi. I am in my 4th year of law school (not t1 NLU). This past year has been horrible for me - I have certain auto-immune disorders which deteriorated and I needed prolonged hospitalization for a while, and my mental health was at rock bottom, with my anxiety getting worse everyday. However, I understand these are not valid excuses for anything, so I am extremely freaked out now. I have a very average CV - decent CGPA, decent international/national moot acheivements, average internships, few publications - nothing great. The law school I come from does not have good placements. I have a few internships lined up in tier-2 firms tho. Seeing as I have a very average CV, and only limited internship experience since the whole of 2023 I wasn't able to intern properly, is there still a chance of me being employed by the end of law school?

I am so sorry if I sound whiny but I am genuinely freaking out and would like a realistic answer, no sugarcoating. :/

I'm currently 32, will turn 33 in May. The next UGC NET is in June. So I'll be 33 and one month older when the exam is scheduled. However the forms are filled a month or so before. So whilst filling the form, I'll still be 32 and 10/11 or so months. Am I eligible for the JRF ?

The JRF age limit is 30. But for Law/LL.M. it's 3 years more i.e. 33 years. So am I still eligible or not ?

My take is - Trilegal know precisely what they are doing. They seem to be getting the right people and augmenting their practice very well. If a homegrown product cannot pull his own weight, why should he get any special preference? We are not running a soup kitchen here. As an equity partner myself (not in Trilegal obviously), I can confidently say the firm is on the right track and is doing very well. The negative comments here are no doubt made by rank juniors who are ignorant, bitter, frustrated failures.

It does happen during ragging, but the intention to humiliate rather than discuss politics. At a top 10 NLU, you are asked which party you support and are taunted on the basis of it. If you say BJP, your senior will ask you if you are gay and why all RSS people are bachelors. If you say Congress, your senior will ask you if you have a gay crush on Rahul Gandhi. A lot of the questions are homophobic.

My interview was with another team at NDA so can’t help you with what they’ll ask exactly but there’s 3 rounds of interviews. First one had a member and a senior member, the other two had the partner and a senior member.

I was also asked to send a written submission after the first interview and questions related to that came up in the interviews that followed.

They did ask a lot of technical questions in every round so you should be prepared accordingly.

Just ro put into perspective, I don't think your story resonates with others since it clearly lacks substance .Hear me out

- U must be what 30 when u started litigation after giving competative exams . A normal person can't think of delaying their career that far due to factors such as family responsibilities, ageing parents, societal pressure and if not least of all personal growth perspective.

- Also it's impractical to think that someone who practically takes a u turn on his career would make it without any contacts or support .It would mean sheer tomfoolery .

Still if you could tell more details about your journey,it would be much insightful.

not everyone wants to go to Trilegal though. As someone who works at Induslaw, Mumbai in its ECM team, it feels dicey to see how a firm like Trilegal is simply making offers without many mandates to justify such bands. They are setting themselves for suicide across practices. You really think Richa pulls in more work than Manan? Maybe CAM & KCO have solid teams which are worth considering at this point, but definitely not Trilegal as far as ECM is concerned.

it is political

if you are vocal about it or cant stand a person w a diff ideology you will soon find your tribe

and the rest will get cut off on their own

altho for co curricular stuffs ppl do interact and participate together

but the moment you debate on political stuff begins differences get created and for whole five years ppl dont look even you in the eye

i personally preferred not to speak about any of it at all on campus - yet ppl know my affiliations from a lot of different things and even try to provoke me and invite me into debates but i have managed to just safely and stubbornly ignore and avoid

if you are silent busy ambitious diplomatic peace-loving types just want to have a lot of network (yes peer network matters too) and get everyone's favours (it matters a lot in this field) and dont like drama i'll suggest you just be silent and keep yourself busy with your own work

otherwise go for it

KCO Chennai: interned with them for 2 months a couple of years ago, nicest team - starting from the partners to the associates + good work.

Not sure about the team structure now but would defo work there

AZB chennai may has prospects since they just opened up but only time will tell

There seem to be a lot of discussions/info available on offices in Delhi and Mumbai but less so about the ones in Bangalore and Chennai. I get that a comparable job/pay to a Delhi or Mumbai-based office isn't likely but if one is restricted to these locations, which firms/offices should one seriously consider? Are the T-1 offices (applies to Bangalore mostly) at all similar to their counterparts? What about smaller offices with a presence in these cities and good culture/learning opportunities, even if the pay is on the lower end.

I can’t comment on the freeze but as far as PPO goes, there isn’t a very strict timeline but usually you’ll hear by a three month period. If you don’t then follow up with your mentor, but odds slim after three months so you should hedge your bets in the meanwhile instead of waiting around too much.

Now let me give you an even better metric. Budget per capita faculty. NFSU is way higher even on that metric. That's fair, right? Happy? Feel free to slice and dice the data the way you like, you will end up embarrassing yourself. The bottom line is that a state NLU can never compete with a national university.

ofc they do undercut since the same BRLMs are routinely represented by us, S&R, SAM, CAM and JSA. You think Induslaw actually does something different? Its the same mindless drafting, getting SEBI approvals & diligencing the same dataroom. Maybe ML know the heads of Sidley or Links here and there but there lies not of a huge difference in the scope of work undertaken thereof. Its a very low margin practice and I cannot more stress upon how clueless sometimes the company which wants to go for IPOs are with respect to choosing the law firm with its IPO mandate. This leads to more business to firms like Rajani and Crawford Bayley which quote less than half of an "Induslaw fee" and score a bulk of small caps and mid caps work in the Mumbai market.

ECM can only grow if more foreign biglaw trust Indian law firms with work and set up partnerships for dealmaking, subsequently leading to higher profits/bonuses and better margins.