Wanted to get your opinion on whether leading law firms have nepotism while hiring or is it completely merit based, given that most of the law firms are family owned and managed.

Happy to hear from others without naming people. Not looking for specific instances, but all law firms as a whole.

There's always a little bit of nepotism going on at all levels of recruitment, but at the fresher level, the vast majority of hires tend to be merit based, even if an occasional client's relative slips in. Nepotism hires also crack very quickly and leave after their first or second diligence. Your father can get you through the door, but not through the diligence.

Minimum in securing internship, some of them taking subjective decision and further limiting their fair chances in narrowing ppo.Yet to see their open mindness and deep research in picking talents .It is happening, one is toiling hard for securing good rank in the class for 05 years ,( how difficult it is ? ,can be good indicators ,but someone lower in the Marit getting job before the former ,through the contact, what a rubbish.

Yes, there are definitely nepo kids here and there and everywhere, either their dad is big bureaucrat or they are connected to somebody who is connected to somebody in the firm. In my experience, these nepo kids, since they have had it easy and (mostly)have a private school upbringing, are the worst to work with. They feel entitled and don't care a hoot about the money as they already have enough of it.

It does exist just like in any other field but as pointed out above if they are not good, they will be shown door.

Considering majority of the law firms are family owned and operated, including Tier-1 law firms, not a surprise that nepotism does exists.

Overall at the junior level and freshers, majority of the cases are on merit but you will find 1-2 cases where someone related to a client or other big-wig is hired. That is understandable but Tier-1 law firms have balanced out and majorly hire on merit.

Its so funny that people who come and bark and say that corporate law firms are better than litigation because there's merit in law firms and litigation stenches of nepotism fail to realise that most of the law firms are family run. They have nepotism there as well. These delusional people fail to realise that law firms fail to offer any growth opportunity - any thing real. Yet they want to go and work there.

In many ways. I shall address the nepotism part a little later.
1. Nature of work and Scope of Career Growth: Litigation, depending on any practice area, allows you to explore the nuances of the law in detail, argue the case for someone, or defend someone in say a losing case, and help contribute to the law and its growth. It is the reason why law is called a noble profession. Law firms, instead focus on work which are restricted to a set domain where you don't have any such serious application of mind and creativity, and mostly is monotonous in nature. On career, anyone successful in litigation has various doors which gets opened to him/her - empanelment, Judgeship, and the constitutional posts of AG/Adv General/etc. Of course, you also have senior designation coming their way. In law firms, you do nothing other than becoming a Partner.
2. Money - Yes, law firms usually pay much more, but that's true only for the first few years. Take any two similarly successful lawyers in a law firm and litigation - you will see the former outearning the latter by a huge margin in the initial years. However, 10-15 years down the line, that reverses. The counsels start outearning the partners. By a huge margin.
3. Nepotism - Law itself is a profession known for nepotism. Is nepotism now not there in other fields? Yes they are. Do they complain? Maybe, may be not. Irrelevant. However, you see the law firms are equally into nepotism since they are family run firms mainly and secondly, they would have someone coming from their family or have to please a client and hence bring in someone there. Litigation is a leveler - yes, nepotism gives a headstart - but they only help inthe initial years - you may get a chamber, may have money, may get clients/briefs - but, after a few years, if you, despite having all of these - still cannot work hard, you'll not succeed. So, despite the notion that nepo babies are lucky - which they are - they make their own careers. And it is not that every nepo baby has succeeded. There are multiple failures too. Obviously, names cannot be taken here, but you go to any court and ask around - you'll get answers.