heard from a friend who interned at the Chandigarh LKS office that WLB was terrible - associates had to stay at the office quite late - apparently, the atmosphere was horrible and no one talked to each other because they were all swamped with work.
Bro the bangalore office is definitely not it. As someone who has interned there more than once, let me tell you, the HR will try their best to make your life hell. Especially this brajesh chap, he was extremely rude and non accomodating. The partners are quite sweet though, they just want their work done on time which is very fair. If only HR wasn't so hostile.
Can anyone let me know if it's a Monday-Friday working or Monday to Saturday? Starting internship there soon, and there are conflicting reports on the Internet.
Honestly, I can't disagree more. The work environment, for which LKS is touted so much, is a ▮▮▮. It's just as much work as everywhere else, especially since they are always understaffed. And the pay is pretty bad by market standards.
And my god, are they miserly. They won't put air purifiers and heaters in their offices, even with all the pollution. They won't even have biscuits in the pantry, because it costs them money. Oh, and don't even mention work life balance by mistake here. You'll be targeted for the rest of your tenure.
Honestly, at least the Tier 1 firms pay ▮▮▮. LKS doesn't. So, if you have any better options, run and never look back.
I've been working here for a while now, and it's been a truly horrible experience. Getting placed under terrible bosses, one after the other, and the firm completely obliterates your confidence by never believing you about the way you are being ill treated.
It's happened to multiple people in the firm now and close to no action is ever taken against the abusive bosses.
Oh, and if you ever mention your mental health, you're a goner.
For a firm that takes pride in its "work environment", LKS really doesn't value its people at all. Whether by way of compensation or any other form of appreciation.
Definitely, yes. Litigation practice upto the tribunal is hijacked by chartered accountants. Lawyers have struggled to match up. It fraught with accounting details and you time take to settle down. Nily wily, it is a specialised practice and demands extreme hard attention to detail in comparison.
It's quite peaceful at LKS. You'll have a good work life balance. Promotions are fairly routine. You get some bill share from the billings of your team if you exceed collection targets on a monthly basis.
The exchange is that it is a little dry to work there, the money's not great but its certainly going to give you a fair life just forget about buying a top line MG on that salary, and it's easy to get comfortable with the work life there. Lastly -- you're not doing marquee matters there unless you're on the tax team.
The general skills for high-stakes commercial litigation (Tax Lit is after all commercial lit - you work for companies/businesses rather than individual-centred Lit like Family/Criminal/Succession) are the same and can be a base for getting into different sub-sets of commercial lit (Tax, IPR, Arbitration, Debt Recovery, Real Estate). Although it is arguably difficult to get into technical sub-sets like Tax Lit/IPR from a generalized sub-set like Arbitration/disputes.
I wish if that was so simple to switch from IDT to any other practice area, after you have spent a good 3+ years in this field. Your options become very restricted after a certain point of time because you are branded as being a tax lawyer.
IDT IS A TRAP!!!! see if you enter this space(which I recommend you don’t ) be ready to stick at LKS only. You will be better stay put with the firm as growth prospects outside the firm are quite bleak. There is virtually no rotation of resources in T1 firms, hence job opportunities are not good with this practice area.
Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune offices should be better in terms of work pressure and working hours as far as my interaction with few of the concerned people suggests. However, I'm not totally sure and also don't have much idea about pay package and work culture in Delhi/Mumbai.
LKS has a better work culture in the sense that (Mumbai office) I never heard a voice raised in anger in the office premises. Also office gets empty by 8 PM and the partners (with a few exceptions) are not workaholics. However I wonder what the growth prospects are given that the firm is dominated by Indirect Tax Litigation practice and only the Delhi office have decent General Corp and IP/Disputes practices.
What's the work culture like in LKS? Is it better than tier law firms majority of which treat humans as corporate slaves? Moreover, is there any particular office which is better than the other ones?
And my god, are they miserly. They won't put air purifiers and heaters in their offices, even with all the pollution. They won't even have biscuits in the pantry, because it costs them money.
Oh, and don't even mention work life balance by mistake here. You'll be targeted for the rest of your tenure.
Honestly, at least the Tier 1 firms pay ▮▮▮. LKS doesn't. So, if you have any better options, run and never look back.
It's happened to multiple people in the firm now and close to no action is ever taken against the abusive bosses.
Oh, and if you ever mention your mental health, you're a goner.
For a firm that takes pride in its "work environment", LKS really doesn't value its people at all. Whether by way of compensation or any other form of appreciation.
And it's high time people get to know about this.
The exchange is that it is a little dry to work there, the money's not great but its certainly going to give you a fair life just forget about buying a top line MG on that salary, and it's easy to get comfortable with the work life there. Lastly -- you're not doing marquee matters there unless you're on the tax team.
1. Is the indirect tax work segregated by sector or law or transactional / litigation?
2. Is the work life balance for indirect tax team good as well?
Pay is less, but so is the work in comparison.
see if you enter this space(which I recommend you don’t ) be ready to stick at LKS only. You will be better stay put with the firm as growth prospects outside the firm are quite bleak. There is virtually no rotation of resources in T1 firms, hence job opportunities are not good with this practice area.