What's the scene with the CA Big 4s. Is it easy to get in the legal team? How is the work culture there typically and what's the pay like? Do they match tier 1 law firms?
They do recruit freshers, though not from campus usually. Pay is less than tier one firms, and growth is relatively slower. Freshers can expect around 9-10 lpa to start. Work hours are not too bad, seldom more than 10 hours a day and rare working weekends.
This is usually for the EY GDS Legal Managed Services (when EY bought over Pangea-Thomson Reuters). I have a few seniors from SLCU who work there and most [some are MBAs and CAs] of the employees are lawyers. Pay is 8.5L in the first year and may go up to 11L by third year. For EY LLP (IDT/DT and Business Consultancy) and EY Parthenon (Strategy and Operations) the starting pay for CAs are at 10.5L and 13L respectively. The lawyers in those teams might get something similar.
A couple of years back there was a circular from BCI objecting to the Big 4 hiring lawyers, having legal arms and even providing any legal services. What happened to that circular?
That circular was to prevent them from providing legal advisory as a service and NOT to stop them from having an in-house legal team. They can have an in-house legal team much the same as any other commercial entity of India. They can't use this team for external legal advisory.
No self respecting lawyer should work with such type of chamber or offices that underpay their employee and do not respect irrespective of paying them peanuts . In short no one should join toxic places !
Hi, I was in the recruiting committee of a college last year. One of these firms offered to pay around 7 LPA. While they quote a lower figure, you/RPC can negotiate and get it up to the 7-8 band I think.
How is the Indirect and Direct Tax Practice at the Big 4 Accountancy Firms? Are the lawyers allowed to litigate on behalf of the firm's clients before tribunals and courts?
The tax practices are good. The lawyers aren't allowed to litigate in courts ( you'll be employees and not retainers). Tribunal may be permissible, not sure. Largely the work is Advisory. Litigations would largely involve drafting and briefing the seniors who would appear. However, you may appear before Lower level officers. There would also be a compliance element but more or less all firms have set up shared service centers for large compliance accounts.
Not really. In big4, it's merit which decides who's where and not educational qualification. Not saying about personal biases, which would be everywhere. So a good lawyer may be above a decent CA and vice versa.
Coming to litigation, yes, there's a lot of pre-litigation work, like stratagising etc , which determine the course of litigations. The inputs of external counsel are taken when the amounts are big and / or the issue is so complex that it's bound to end up before courts. But big 4s handle the disputes in departments and generally clients insist for lawyers for tribunal and above, though tribunal can be handled by big 4. Even in courts, it's not uncommon to see basic drafts made by the big 4s, which are then settled by the advocate who's going to argue the matter.
Bump. How to apply to these places often see openings however I don't think applications through thier websites or third party job website is the most efficient way.
You could try reaching out to the compliance practice. It has gained a lot of prominence these days and is interesting as well. Can't compare actually with a law firm, but honestly someone in tier 1 law firm i know knows a lot lot less than someone with 3-4 years of experience in the compliance domain of a B4. Salary is not comparable, but so is WLB. One is better, one is worse. You choose.
I was in the recruiting committee of a college last year. One of these firms offered to pay around 7 LPA. While they quote a lower figure, you/RPC can negotiate and get it up to the 7-8 band I think.
Lawyers are nicely represented in these teams, but far behind CAs.
Litigation will never be part of the profile.
Coming to litigation, yes, there's a lot of pre-litigation work, like stratagising etc , which determine the course of litigations. The inputs of external counsel are taken when the amounts are big and / or the issue is so complex that it's bound to end up before courts. But big 4s handle the disputes in departments and generally clients insist for lawyers for tribunal and above, though tribunal can be handled by big 4. Even in courts, it's not uncommon to see basic drafts made by the big 4s, which are then settled by the advocate who's going to argue the matter.
Hope this clarifies.