NLSIU's expansion plan, announced on 1 July, is going to have major consequences for NLUs. There will be a lot more competition during placements and Sudhir will aggressively lobby with alumni to hire them instead of from other NLUs. The 3-year LLB programme may also prove to be tough competition if NLSIU manages to attract people from the cream of Delhi colleges + IIT, which have their own brand recall and alumni networks. Most importantly, NLSIU's fee income will make it a lot richer than other NLUs and the Karnataka government is also likely to give generous funding once quotas are implemented. The other thing that Sudhir will do (like Jindal) is market the fact that NLSIU now has many alumni faculty and that too with foreign degrees.

In this situation, other NLUs could find themselves in a soup. What should they do? Basically, there are 5 options:

A. Copy Sudhir and expand as well

B. Unite and demand Institution of National Importance status from the central government

C. Merge into the IIT/IIM of the city (e.g NLUD becomes IIT Delhi School of Law, NUJS becomes IIM Calcutta School of Law)

D. Do nothing

E. None of the above

How about we worry less about what other law schools will do to emulate NLS/or whatever one announces something new, and instead focus on more institutional issues that face legal education in India generally?

Let universities develop how they wish to. They don't have to emulate someone or counter someone in hopes that the toxic competition makes you cum.

I believe this post is slightly misdirected. The first and biggest problem other NLUs will face is not competition with fees and PR, it is recruitment.

Total number of jobs offered by the tier 1 law firms (top 6 + 5 others in the same salary range) is around 500-600. If NLS hogs up 300, then beyond the top 3-4 colleges, recruitment just won't happen for other NLUs. The whole BA.LLB being a better investment than a BTech story will collapse.

Kian, there should always be a platform for differing opinions, but I don't think you should permit straight up casteism and homophobia on LI. Calling the LGBTQIA community [...] in a completely unrelated matter just shows this person's insecurity, but it is harmful and shouldn't be allowed to fester unmoderated.

Actually, Jindal, Amity and Symbi will suffer the most. What will happen is this:

- those who would have got into to NALSAR/NLUD/NUJS/NLUJ/NLIU/GNLU will head to NLSIU
- those who have got into RMLNLU/RGNUL/NLUO/HNLU/MNLU will head to NALSAR/NLUD/NUJS/NLUJ/NLIU/GNLU
- those who would have got into NLU Patna/Ranchi/Shimla etc will head to RMLNLU/RGNUL/NLUO/HNLU/MNLU
- everyone else will head to Jindal, Amity and Symbi

This means Jindal, Amity and Symbi will be left with students at the bottom fo the barrel. In the case of Jindal, many may not wish to pay the high fees.

Quote:

Do nothing.

NLSIU is on a suicide mission. Let it be crushed under it's weight. Let them even increase it's size to 10'000.

Your complacency is dangerous. NLSIU is a massive brand on par with IIT/IIM with alumni in very powerful positions. The other NLUs are not even halfway there as of now. NLSIU can take away all the jobs that other NLUs get. This was the reasoning behind the decision.

Other NLUs must realise that their future is in serious peril.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Not every person at NLSIU who sits for Day Zero (assuming these are the only ones interested in a top law firm job) actually ends up with one. Several end up in other firms too, because tier one firms also prefer recruiting from other universities. Same thing will continue regardless of how many students NLSIU admits.

Sure. Let’s say that firm x currently hires anyone from the top 10% of a law school batch. Right now that comes out to what- 8 people? After which point they figure they might as well try and hire toppers at nalsar and NUJS.

What do you think happens when the top 10% at nls is 30 students? And there’s virtually no way to distinguish between them?

If you really think they’re only gonna continue hiring 8 people and go strictly by class rank as opposed to where you place in class - you’re just wrong.

Which quarter of the class you place in also affects where you get in for llms, scholarships, everything. And nls will just have more sheer number of students in the top two quarters of every batch.

You do realise toppers at the newer NLUs have trouble finding jobs right? Why do you think that is?

Reputational capital is not this ever static thing. It can change- especially when people are taking such radical steps to distinguish themselves.

Exactly. With more people at nls. They’d likely see a lot more talent. And once they’re done meeting their hiring targets- there’s little need to go elsewhere.

Let’s be honest- how to firms decide who to pick? Who is talented? They try and get people who’ve interned with them sure, but they also will jump at anyone in the top 10-20% of the batch at the top three NLUs now. That’s just gonna change when nls expands so aggressively.

Day zero is also such a messed up metric. No NLU has 100% placement on one day. It takes time for people to find the right fit- firms have varying schedules for hiring. And if you’re going into litigation, research, in house or academia because you want to - you could be looking if people a job well after officially graduating. It’s so silly to think that’s the metric that matters - or that that behaviour will remain constant in the future.