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I also have a loan, and I really gotta make this choice real quick. I'm very sorry that all of you have to go through the same stuff again but please clarify my doubt...
One seriously can't maintain work-life balance at all? Give me a clear number like 9-9/9-11 something which is really practical.
Thank you for your time.
If you want work life balance, you don’t deserve 10-16 lakhs per annum. Pls go to judiciary. All the best.
Kids these days want to have their cake and eat it too.
I'd love to work hard but my luck hasn't favoured me in that condition. Well, thank you for your response.
What is the point of making a lakh a month if you don't get to live (let alone have a life).
Good luck with whatever you choose and hope you get well soon.
Very normal and not at all entitled behaviour
You're most definitely not an HR, I have so many of my friends who have completed their MBA's and engineering degrees and are making huge bucks compared to what a law firm associate makes, please get out of this bubble that makes you think that law firm associates are the only ones who get paid so much.
It's actually pennies compared to the hours and the amount of work y'all put in. So STFU maybe
And they have better work life balance and working environment, they aren't treated as animals.
The answer to your question depends on multiple things, T1/T2 firm or in-house, practice area, team members etc. But one thing is constant in law firms:
Uncertainty of number of hours. While some days can be 16 hours, others can be 8 hours only. But you dont know that beforehand. So you have got be ready to go to war everyday.
If health issues and work-life balance is a big concern for you, go for judicial services. With respect to loan, you'll make 1 lac per month even as a civil judge on probation - which is almost the same as what you'll make as an A0-A1. Of course, the rise in law firm will be much steeper after that but 12 lacs per annum (with mostly savings as you'd hardly have any ancillary living and travel expenses working in the government) is enough to pay off your loan. I'm assuming it's a study loan which would be max 10-12 lacs (unless you went to JGLS or the likes). You can pay it off more easily in your first 2 years as a judge than as an A0/A1 living in Mumbai/Delhi.
Now 12 lacs per annum, which will increase to 36 lacs per annum over your career (dearness allowance will take care of the inflation), is enough to live a decently comfortable life. If you're smart and since you'll have more time, you can also start a side business for passive income (in your wife/parents name). That business, if successful, may compensate for the salary difference (which will be like 1-1.5 crore, 15 years down the lane). A good business should be able to earn you 1 crore per annum.
Given that you'll be a judge, you can also enter into businesses which other young people don't dare to because of regulatory hurdles and are actually easy money making - things like a cement factory or construction or real estate. You'd have enough contacts as a judge to get the approvals! ;) So you'd enjoy the power/prestige of a judge and also make more money than a law firm partner, completely legally! (come on, no one's gonna file corruption charges against you unless you directly start taking bribes from people).
As for the place you work at, yes, you won't have the city life. But law firm associates hardly get to enjoy the city life anyway. You on the other hand will have enough vacations, holidays and money to fly off to any place you want to.
Getting approvals isn't the gating issue with most businesses. It's about having the acumen and the willingness to take the risk and then being able to grind it out over the long term.
I think you must be quite young and are definately naive if you think this is a probable scenario.
Health and lifestyle balance are something we don't know in law offices sadly. Don't see it changing too.
Even judiciary will have working for hours.
I started my career working at an ngo. Sure I got home every day at about 7 pm- but I had to continue working from home till about 1 am/ 2 am because we were short staffed and didn’t have the money to hire more. And when we fucked up there were actual consequences- like oh this many kids went without food at school today or oh this person didn’t get bail.
I’ve also taught at an NLU. You should know that for every hour of classroom teaching a good professor will put in ten hours of reading/ research. And that’s not even counting the days and days spent evaluating answer scripts and projects and doing organising work at the university. And on top of all this you have to publish or see your career die. Sure you get to go home at 5 pm, but you have work enough to keep you up all night.
Less money doesn’t mean we don’t have as much work. It means we’ve chosen to do this job because we think it’s important even when it is less money.
Why are law firm people so self centred? You’d think they’re carrying the weight of the whole country on their shoulders the way they go on and on . The rest of us have demanding jobs too. Get over yourself.
Having said the above, I could assure you that there will also be absolutely mad days, wherein you will need to pull all-nighters. Mad days and mad clients (read: absurd timelines) are a constant in law firm life.
If you look at Pay per hour, T1 associates are one of the least paid in my opinion.
I'll sacrifice 5-6l per year right now for this comfort. And do a decade period analysis. An above average in House counsel will be earning more or less similar to a salaried partner (depends on how many jumps the in House counsel has taken and in which industry he/she specialises).