There are exits through the year at Trilegal in numerous teams.No matter how many vacancies,its never a good time to join Trilegal but now is a particularly bad time to join.They have bought in so many new partners and everything is chaotically,too many partners and not enough Associates for partners to vent their frustrations on.
Their partnership and management model ensures that one one is powerful enough to ensure growth and accountability. Terrible management. Although great when it comes paying but yeh kab tak chalega
Trilegal is a fatichar pesky firm.They don't have good market value nor do they have any great legal achievement to boast or.Their entire disputes team is a joke.The cap markets team is incompetent.And its desperation to stay afloat and hide its attrition of many old hands is evident from the partner hiring spree they have gone on.Their Associate attrition is not as high as a CAM,AZB because they are least bothered about results.They pretend to have a meritocratic culture but its toxic workplace as bad as any Lala shop
Just checked linkedin, one amongst the eight of you rejoined Trilegal after working briefly for another firm. What prompted him to continue with the toxicity at the same firm?
The comment stands validated even more, recently. 12 partners is insane for a competition law team. For comparison, CAM & Khaitan - 5 each, AZB - 4, Trilegal, ELP & Chandhiok - 3. Luthra had 5, left with only 1 now with 3 going to DSK. JSA & Saraf - 1. That's basically the entire market.
They always seems to be hiring retainers too but not because of attrition. It seems like they'll sometimes hire good retainers just so that others can't have them. In a practice area like competition which is super specialized at the high quality level, the market pool of well trained PQE 2.5-6 being very small can be inconvenient when SAM will gobble up anyone good. Know of 2 people who apparently got offered a job without an interview just because the SAM partners also on the matter had noticed the quality of these 2.
SAM Competition has adopted the approach of just expanding and the work comes. They're taking the concept of dominance quite seriously. 3 of 5 family members running the team does make it a special child. Don't expect the partner promotions in SAM Competition to stop coming for the smart ones who also show loyalty.
BTW, none of us was retrenched and we left on our own. When we resigned en masse, we were forced to write a thank you email to the partner (marking the HR) for her offer of a long a sabbatical or option to join back after a year.
To provide more context, one of the associates has also quit recently on the ground of ill health.
Nisha is one of the top competition partners in India and her awards speak for themselves.
The trouble is that this star power doesn’t trickle down to the grassroots. Nisha is too busy to train anyone like most senior partners. The middle bench which should pick up this strain is always in flux due to constant hires and exits. The politics and infighting don’t help.
The backbone of any team is the middle and SA bench and Trilegal needs to fix that problem.
A response to your genuine question - working with teams like NKU's is highly a personal preference. I know people in the team who literally broke their back due to overwork and read LITERALLY, and yet continue to work with the team. Others just do not want to take this sort of work environment and live under constant fear, extreme stress, and 16-18 hours of work daily just because the team does headline matters.
It is this simple, one needs to choose their poison. I left the team at the right time and I am really happy about that as I have seen a better work environment, more encouraging seniors, and equally (if not more) good matters with great learning opportunities. So don't fall into the fad that you can only learn and grow professionally in such an extreme work environment. [...]
Best is subjective but she's probably got the highest number of associates for a single partner practice and if everything else in this thread about the marquee clients and matters is true, you aint gonna be trained by her but by some junior associate [...]
1. & 2. are entirely correct. She is very hard working and has built up her brand entirely on her own.
3 is partially correct. She has insane attention to detail. Whether on not a missed comma or full stop will result in a dressing down depends on [...] who has made that mistake (chalk up one point for favouritism. The author of the comment above was probably one of her favourites (no harm in that to be fair)). There are junior associates who live in perpetual fear. If the author of the comment above did not face that fear, they he or she was part of the ‘chosen ones’.
4 is partially correct. It’s true everyone goes to external counsel. The difference is that in other firms it’s merely CYA [...].
Am not sure what to say about 5 since it’s a personal comment. There are indeed some people who are treated nicely (not always based on merit or quality as a lawyer). There are also people who are ripped apart regularly (again, not always based on merit or quality as a lawyer). It’s a game of chance [...] and shifting good fortunes. Other practices in the industry are more stable.
6 is entirely correct.
Won’t comment on what has been said about KCO, CAM and SAM. Only thing about SAM, they are perceived to be too heavy at the top but people don’t realise that that won’t stop SAM. The competition practice is run personally by the Shroffs so it’s an elite team with way more leeway than other teams.
This is not intended as a troll. I genuinely want to understand how people answer this question in their head: what's the point of being the best and highest earning partner/associate if you die before you get to live a day?
This normalization of "too much pressure" is ridiculous and downright dangerous. It's untrue that all tier 1 jobs have too much pressure, and if there is too much pressure at a particular tier 1 job, that's a function of bad leadership and indifferent management. Please call out toxic work culture for being just that, instead of downplaying it by saying "this happens everywhere" or "its just pressure"
Having worked with NKU, there are few things that anyone who is working for needs to understand:
1. She is a first gen lawyer and has built a VERY big name for herself. She is not a Shroff, Khaitan or a modi. It's a difficult market out there. So she has put in that hard work. 2. She works 15+ hours everyday, day after day. She isn't like other EPs who just get in work and throw it on juniors. If the team is burning midnight oil, she is up- working on something else. I can confirm that. She survives on no food and no sleep. 3. Her attention to detail is insane! She will catch that one full stop that you haven't put in the doc. But overall she is a big picture person. So she won't start yelling at you if you have missed out on comma/full stop. 4. Yes. They do speak to senior counsels on strategy. And BTW that's market. 5. She is a nice person. She is. I wasnt a star by any strech of imagination- but she treated me well.. 6. She is one of the highest billing partners at Trilegal. If not the highest.
Where else do you want to go and work? SAM is super top heavy. You won't make partner for sure. CAM doesn't have the same level of work. Even though I really like AVK.
Khaitan - haven't seen them doing anything big. Though the culture is good. But I can confirm no headline matters.
JSA- no equity partner. They are doing some matters here and there. They get merger control matters from other equity partners.
This time is one of the best, they do the best cutting edge work....I have worked there before, the pressure may be too much at times, but that happens when you are a Tier 1 firm.
I second Bhaiyya Ji and Bhaiyya Ji2 on their observations on Trilegal's associates. There is lack of basic understanding of the structure of the Act, regulations and case laws.
Luthra have had a few decent enforcement matters. Don't know the present scenario. They do have a few small ticket clients.
I don't think they do more than 2-3 merger filings a year.
The top boss has also made several high profile moves no? She was at Amarchand Delhi and very close to Pallavi, then Amarchand Mumbai and close to Cyril, then CAM, then AZB and close to Zia and then Trilegal, all in the course of 7 years?
Hi, you seem like someone with experience, can you tell me about Luthra's competition team? Also, can you please elaborate on the basic competition jurisprudence part of your comment? What exactly does that entail?
This I can confirm from personal experience. Trilegal junior / middie associates are generally interviewed with a (decent sized) grain of salt. They are usually hard working but severely lack concepts due to an absence of training. There are too many instances (known in the industry) for this to be the fault of the associate in question; points to a larger systemic team issue.
If you join Trilegal as a fresher, it will be extremely difficult to crack interviews in other firms as you will lack training in basic competition jurisprudence. I have been on the panel of a couple of interviews at my firm - candidates from Trilegal are too underconfident.
The 'stellar work' is being done by external counsel, not by the team. The team is generally clueless on complex issues. They are often ridiculed by external counsels during briegings for their lack of knowledge on elementary stuff. Moreover, the team will prefer giving an incorrect advice to the client if they can mint more money. This all is from my personal experience.
As someone who has previously worked with the person / team , I can vouch for everything that is being said. The leadership style is very dictatorial and anyone who stays in that team long enough realises that. It is one of those odd teams which would be a 20 member team but with 10 freshers, just out of college. Survival beyond a year is rare, but if done is rewarded with faster promotions and higher bonuses.
The only silver lining in this practice is the stellar quality of work. And if you stay long enough, money. However, being a fresher, you would be handicapped by the lack of your own skillset and would not be able to reap benefits of the great work handed over to you. While the work may seem distributed across all members, most of the heavy lifting in the team is inevitably done by 5-6 people (all really smart and insanely hard working) out of the 20 odd.
There it is - the not so good parts and the good parts. If work is all you like, if you have a really thick skin and have no better alternative, this is the team to join. Otherwise, steer clear. I hope this somewhat answers your question.
This is not regular yearly attrition. One of their two senior competition partners has left as of June. That doesn't happen every year. Many associates at all levels up to counsel have CVs out on the market, including a few who resigned without even having a second job. Not naming names as some still work there.
If you're looking to join TL, it could be a great time because you'll have a LOT of work, but also could be a bad time because you will get NO training. There is no good mid-level associate left to train you, and the partners won't have time. Also from what I hear from those leaving the problems seem to be cultural and endemic so you will also face them so may be better to avoid - toxic behaviour, shouting screaming and all, no learning at the junior levels and animosity within the team
My advice (and I don't do recruitment for freshers so no conflict of interest) - join either SAM or AZB or CAM if you want to do competition law - that's where the better senior people seem to be moving and review of quality of work and culture are slightly better.
The majority of comments appear to have been ad hominem so far, which doesn't contain facts or useful information. How many recent exits have there actually been in the team, which has nearly 20 fee-earners, right? Please do share figures / names (we might redact the latter, but can confirm whether those are indeed accurate).
Believe that you know the answer and are seeking confirmation from the LI conversation hivemind. A team heammoraging associates (and 1/3 partners?) is probably not where you want to be starting at. Any idea why all these associates left?
Opinion Poll - should LI disclose its conflict of interest while moderating comments?
If LI is receiving or dependent on consideration (in cash or kind) from firm or a partner (whether as advertisement fee, kickback to protect them from honest comments on these threads, or otherwise), should LI disclose such conflict of interest while exercising its moderator role?
Industry wide phenomenon, not firm/team specific. Covid is making people re-evaluate their priorities and when that happens, anything that takes up 15-16 hours daily would be set by the wayside.
Why is LI moderating out all the comments that are against Trilegal's CCI team?
LI - is it not important that the readers get a true and accurate picture of the CCI team of Trilegal?
Potential hires (at the very least) deserve to know the sorry state of affairs? They should not be misled to believing every thing is rosy because LI overplayed the censorship card.
Such rampant censorship defeats the very purpose of LI's comments section. May as well close it down.
Exits are not just happening at Trilegal, btw. KCO saw an exodus last month. JSA will see one when their bonus hits in September. Everyone in the industry is getting head hunter calls from the Amarchand duo. Nobody quit in 2020 because of the job market and pandemic uncertainty, and with poor working conditions and stagnant pay, there's no real reason to stay on. Startup inhouse teams now pay as much as 15lpa to people with 1-2 PQE, with much better hours, incredible exposure, paid leaves and whatnot. Law firms in India are rotting away slowly.
I heard that recently there were quite a bit of exits in the Trilegal competition team. I have my PPO interview for the same team in a couple of weeks and I am concerned about whether I should be joining them. The people who left, in fact, include associates who I had worked with during my internship. Does anyone know what happened to the team?
They always seems to be hiring retainers too but not because of attrition. It seems like they'll sometimes hire good retainers just so that others can't have them. In a practice area like competition which is super specialized at the high quality level, the market pool of well trained PQE 2.5-6 being very small can be inconvenient when SAM will gobble up anyone good. Know of 2 people who apparently got offered a job without an interview just because the SAM partners also on the matter had noticed the quality of these 2.
SAM Competition has adopted the approach of just expanding and the work comes. They're taking the concept of dominance quite seriously. 3 of 5 family members running the team does make it a special child. Don't expect the partner promotions in SAM Competition to stop coming for the smart ones who also show loyalty.
To provide more context, one of the associates has also quit recently on the ground of ill health.
The trouble is that this star power doesn’t trickle down to the grassroots. Nisha is too busy to train anyone like most senior partners. The middle bench which should pick up this strain is always in flux due to constant hires and exits. The politics and infighting don’t help.
The backbone of any team is the middle and SA bench and Trilegal needs to fix that problem.
LI - you need to be more consistent in the editorial control department.
It is this simple, one needs to choose their poison. I left the team at the right time and I am really happy about that as I have seen a better work environment, more encouraging seniors, and equally (if not more) good matters with great learning opportunities. So don't fall into the fad that you can only learn and grow professionally in such an extreme work environment. [...]
Good luck.
1. & 2. are entirely correct. She is very hard working and has built up her brand entirely on her own.
3 is partially correct. She has insane attention to detail. Whether on not a missed comma or full stop will result in a dressing down depends on [...] who has made that mistake (chalk up one point for favouritism. The author of the comment above was probably one of her favourites (no harm in that to be fair)). There are junior associates who live in perpetual fear. If the author of the comment above did not face that fear, they he or she was part of the ‘chosen ones’.
4 is partially correct. It’s true everyone goes to external counsel. The difference is that in other firms it’s merely CYA [...].
Am not sure what to say about 5 since it’s a personal comment. There are indeed some people who are treated nicely (not always based on merit or quality as a lawyer). There are also people who are ripped apart regularly (again, not always based on merit or quality as a lawyer). It’s a game of chance [...] and shifting good fortunes. Other practices in the industry are more stable.
6 is entirely correct.
Won’t comment on what has been said about KCO, CAM and SAM. Only thing about SAM, they are perceived to be too heavy at the top but people don’t realise that that won’t stop SAM. The competition practice is run personally by the Shroffs so it’s an elite team with way more leeway than other teams.
1. [...]
2. [...]
3. [...]
4. [...] and
5. [...]
Which one are you?
1. She is a first gen lawyer and has built a VERY big name for herself. She is not a Shroff, Khaitan or a modi. It's a difficult market out there. So she has put in that hard work.
2. She works 15+ hours everyday, day after day. She isn't like other EPs who just get in work and throw it on juniors. If the team is burning midnight oil, she is up- working on something else. I can confirm that. She survives on no food and no sleep.
3. Her attention to detail is insane! She will catch that one full stop that you haven't put in the doc. But overall she is a big picture person. So she won't start yelling at you if you have missed out on comma/full stop.
4. Yes. They do speak to senior counsels on strategy. And BTW that's market.
5. She is a nice person. She is. I wasnt a star by any strech of imagination- but she treated me well..
6. She is one of the highest billing partners at Trilegal. If not the highest.
Where else do you want to go and work? SAM is super top heavy. You won't make partner for sure. CAM doesn't have the same level of work. Even though I really like AVK.
Khaitan - haven't seen them doing anything big. Though the culture is good. But I can confirm no headline matters.
JSA- no equity partner. They are doing some matters here and there. They get merger control matters from other equity partners.
But the team works insane hours.
They have the biggest matters in the country. Anyone who says otherwise- then of course it's personal.
I left because of my lifestyle preference. I cannot put in those hours. That doesn't mean it was a bad place.
Luthra have had a few decent enforcement matters. Don't know the present scenario. They do have a few small ticket clients.
I don't think they do more than 2-3 merger filings a year.
She was at Amarchand Delhi and very close to Pallavi, then Amarchand Mumbai and close to Cyril, then CAM, then AZB and close to Zia and then Trilegal, all in the course of 7 years?
Thank you so much!
- a former A0 who quit within a year
Moreover, the team will prefer giving an incorrect advice to the client if they can mint more money. This all is from my personal experience.
The only silver lining in this practice is the stellar quality of work. And if you stay long enough, money. However, being a fresher, you would be handicapped by the lack of your own skillset and would not be able to reap benefits of the great work handed over to you. While the work may seem distributed across all members, most of the heavy lifting in the team is inevitably done by 5-6 people (all really smart and insanely hard working) out of the 20 odd.
There it is - the not so good parts and the good parts. If work is all you like, if you have a really thick skin and have no better alternative, this is the team to join. Otherwise, steer clear. I hope this somewhat answers your question.
That's literally bigger than the Saraf breakaway from Luthra percentage-wise, Kian. This is also the third thread on the topic. Maybe worth a story?
This is some senior people as well (Soumya is a partner, Satyan is a senior SA, I think Rishabh may be an SA, Tanveer is an SA)
1. Rahul Satyan
2. Rishabh Juneja
3. Sasnjeev Sriram
4. Tanveer Verma
5. Ankita Dhawan
6. Gajendra Bhansali
7. Shloka Sah
8. Soumya Hariharan
Redact these names.
And disclose your relationship with Trilegal.
If you're looking to join TL, it could be a great time because you'll have a LOT of work, but also could be a bad time because you will get NO training. There is no good mid-level associate left to train you, and the partners won't have time. Also from what I hear from those leaving the problems seem to be cultural and endemic so you will also face them so may be better to avoid - toxic behaviour, shouting screaming and all, no learning at the junior levels and animosity within the team
My advice (and I don't do recruitment for freshers so no conflict of interest) - join either SAM or AZB or CAM if you want to do competition law - that's where the better senior people seem to be moving and review of quality of work and culture are slightly better.
If LI is receiving or dependent on consideration (in cash or kind) from firm or a partner (whether as advertisement fee, kickback to protect them from honest comments on these threads, or otherwise), should LI disclose such conflict of interest while exercising its moderator role?
Down with crony capitalism.
Neither of them believe in free speech.
Modi-Shah needed Pegasus before they started censoring.
LI - is it not important that the readers get a true and accurate picture of the CCI team of Trilegal?
Potential hires (at the very least) deserve to know the sorry state of affairs? They should not be misled to believing every thing is rosy because LI overplayed the censorship card.
Such rampant censorship defeats the very purpose of LI's comments section. May as well close it down.
Hearing that too many positions were open