NLUD is nearly 10 years younger than NALSAR, NUJS, NLUJ and NLIU, yet it has been ranked ahead of these colleges in NIRF rankings for 3 years in a row. Being in Delhi, NLUD has a natural advantage. When MNLU was set up it was thought that it can replicate the success of NLUD due to location. Some CLAT coaches felt that NLSIU, NLUD and MNLU would be the future Top 3 in NIRF. In CLAT preference rankings MNLU did well overnight because of advice from some CLAT coaches. MNLU has also been given a huge amount of land.

However, we do not see much media coverage of MNLU achievements in placements, moots, LLM scholarships etc. Even GLC and Symbi Pune seem to be doing better. Why is this so?

Absolutely Not. In fact, I think it is to a great degree underrated at the moment.

If student achievements are a yardstick, on the eve of its 5th Foundation Day, MNLU Mumbai has achieved so much, both at the national and international stage. Several times overs our students have shown that they have what it takes to come out on top in the most competitive competitions in India and at the International stage. Our college has won the NLS Trilegal International Moot 2019, won the NLS Mediation Competition in 2018 and then qualified to the ICC Paris Mediation Competition, won the NLS Negotiation Competition in 2018 and qualified to the International Negotiation Competition Cardiff, been a semi-finalist at the NLS Client Counselling Competition 2019, won Best Speaker (Special Mention) at the Manfred Lachs Asia Pacific Moot Court Competition, come 2nd in the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition 2018 and qualified to the South Asian rounds in Iran and then the Asia Pacific rounds in Hong Kong, been one of the 6 teams to qualify to the international rounds of the Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot 2018-19 and was ranked 5th best in the world, been shortlisted as one of the 11 mediators from across the world for the CDRC Vienna Mediation Competition 2018 and then was a semi-finalist at the world rounds, been one of the 22 teams to be shortlisted for the CDRC Vienna Negotiation Competition 2019, won Best Negotiation Team at the HSF - NLU Delhi Negotiation Competition 2018, won the VIPS Dispute Resolution and Client Counselling Competitions 2018.

Besides moot and ADR competitions, our students have won Best Speaker and won/reached the finals and semi-finals of various prestigious debating competitions.

Other than that, we have very high standards for academics (which we owe to the accomplished profs.), the peer group is as good as any other top NLU, arguably the best location any NLU could be in (other than NLUD); and while a lot has to be achieved, the bar is only getting raised. We will get there, I'm very optimistic about it. It will take time, but for us, time is all it will take :)

I suggest you read this article for a better perspective: https://www.legallyindia.com/views/entry/the-new-kid-on-the-block-introducing-mnlu-mumbai

That is an impressive list of achievements for such a new law school. But what about the placements scenario at MNLU? Did MNLU have a Day Zero in 2019? Considering that 2020 was the pandemic year, what is the status on the first batch's placements so far?

Not to mention that MNLU Mumbai does have a huge Maharashtra domicile quota as well. That will impact perception but how has that impacted the quality of students and their graduate outcomes? I am very curious to know how an insider sees it.

Just to clarify, MNLU Mumbai does not have a Maharashtra Domicile Quota since the batch of 2020. It's just that the reserved seats are meant for reserved categories of Maharashtra. One thing Maharashtra Domiciled candidates do get some leeway in is the amount of fees paid, but it isn't that much.
Since the batch of 2019, the number of seats has been doubled to somewhere around 120, and that leaves around 40-45 seats for All India general category students. Student quality is at par with the other top notch NLUs, with graduating batches securing postgraduate admissions in top law schools including Oxford. The real outcomes will be seen in the next 4-5 years, when the batches following the batch of 2018 graduate.

What you said is also a form of domicile quota only, albeit for the reserved categories. As for the rest, I'd have thought that a new institute would actually highlight student achievements as much as they can. So far, haven't seen that from MNLU. I think they need a decent, proactive VC at this stage.

I agree. The current VC is a pretty decent guy though. Is very open to student suggestions. Actively invites a lot of Lawyers/Partners/Judges and other luminaries for talks and student interactions. Isn't very personally involved with the students, but this also ensures that he doesn't be a pain in the neck unlike some of the other VCs out there (or so we have heard). The HOD academics is the one who does most of the work, and she's one of the best profs we've ever had. The funding from the state government is more than enough, and more often than not, uninterrupted.

Non-merit seat? Your education and legal education in particular have been a waste of your parents' resources. Thank you for clarifying that with this atrocious comment. Whichever law school you are or have been a part of, I really hope that it produces better and more educated students for its own sake.

Comparing MNLU to NUSRL and DSNLU sounds very trollish. How about we look at student prefrences, CLAT rankings, achievements, academics and opportunities? I agree that is is nowhere compared to NLS, NALSAR and NLUD. Realistically, MNLUM is somewhere in the league of GNLU, NLUJ and NLIU (as of 2021) with a huge potential for improvement.

What rubbish! In the same league using which parameters? CLAT preferences aren't parameters, those are not really based on anything else for lower NLUs other than coaching centre-fed lies. Get some placements, scholarships, good performance in civil services, entrepreneurs, etc. out and then start making claims. Potential for improvement, sure. In terms of results, nothing yet. Release your first batch's full placement and career choice parameters if you are so confident, and let the public decide. Nobody gets to join any 'league' based on their own say-so.

This has aged horribly since MNLU Mumbai is overloaded with admin and logistical issues. You will barely feel the location advantage. The batches live in hostels which are like roughly half an hour away from each other, the student culture has worsened because of this. The professors keep changing like every semester or sometimes during the semester. So I would suggest you to opt people to give a chance to other NLUs.

No law school, be it MNLU or JGLS, would ever replicate the early success of NLSIU, Nalsar, NUJS or even NLUD, for no fault of their own. The relatively early movers did well (especially NLS and Nalsar) because of: a galloping Indian economy and lack of competition. During the first decades post liberalization the Indian economy was clocking nearly double digit growths and Indians were coming to know of terms such as stock markets, private equity and M& E for the first time. Such developments created a need for transaction lawyers and the law school grads fit the bill, mostly owing to lack of competition. Times are different now. Such level of economic growth wouldn't be seen again; and there are 100s of more or less equally skilled law grads being churned out every year from about 25 different law schools. I personally know that JGLS final years are being provided opportunities of "assessment internship" by their recruitment committee at random tier 5 firms (after spending nearly 40 lakhs on getting a graduation degree). There are just not enough opportunities for lawyers (as it's mostly an ancillary profession). If I were a 12th standard kid now, I wouldn't be looking at law as a career option. The ship has sailed.

All of those are intended to help the students learn better and not factors for their own sake. Like it or not, placements and higher education choices remain the only objective metrics of how well the students are doing, which in turn would indicate whether the other factors have been successful or not.

The good performance at moots, ADRs aren't really a good yardstick to measure MNLU's performance. It's the 5-7 students in every batch who participate in these 'prestigious' competitions and do well. And almost always, these students are from ultra-rich families from Mumbai or Delhi who have the best resources at their disposal even without the University's support. For one of these international competitions a few years ago, a partner at AZB was the coach of the MNLU team. I don't know exactly how pervasive this still is, but if does still happen, all those achievements at competitions suddenly don't look that dazzling.

I am not going into whether this is a good thing or a bad, but I just feel that from the perspective of an average Joe/Jane from a small town who has slogged hard to get a decent CLAT score and now finds his/her name on MNLU's admissions list, it is going to be a really rough ride for the five years, perhaps rougher than most other NLUs that at least have decent systems in place. MNLUs Vice Chancellor too was changed a year or two ago, and the new one is a government babu it seems, who doesn't care much about corp placements. The earlier VC was much better.

I agree with you. I've personally seen the resource disparity that plays a role in prestigious moots. Some students write to their college librarian asking him to purchase a commentary the copy of which is not available on bookzz, others drop many thousands on purchasing them outright without second thought.

Quality of mnlu is getting bad. Lot of good professors have left. No help from university to help students get internship. Disappointing placement cell.
As the above note mentioned, we came here with high hopes and considering mumbai location advantage. I hope they put up their sleeves and amend things on priority.