Many people have been posting on LI that NLUs are like IIMs. Some have even claimed that NLSIU is comparable to IIMA and better than IIMC. But these figures suggest that IIMC is better than NLSIU when it compares to placements. So on what basis are people saying all that? I guess we should instead ask how NLU salaries (including NLSIU) can raised to the level of IIMs. Will it be possible only if the liberalisation of the legal sector happens and foreign law firms open up offices in India?

https://indianexpress.com/article/jobs/iim-calcutta-registers-100-placement-average-salary-hits-record-rs-34-lakh-7799460/

Untill and unless the legal sector is liberalised this can never happen. Firms exploit their workforce a bit too much and in return give peanuts but I don't think people in power will ever let foreign firms join the industry and hence, I guess we'll not see A0s make 30,40 LPA anytime soon.

Maybe IIMC salaries are higher but I think prestige of NLSIU is more. If not more than IIMC then at least more than IIM Lucknow/Kozhikode/Indore and MUCH more than IIM Shillong/Rohtak/Vishakapatnam and other new IIMs. Even NALSAR and NLUD will have more prestige than these new IIMs, which very few people even know about. This is personal my personal view and I think it is correct.

Lol only clowns who are cocooned in their law bubbles think any NLU is comparable to the top 20 bschools.

Any of these top 20 MBA degrees give you incredible employability, much much over NLS/NLUD.

The money is 2X at start (average) and 4X in 10 years (on average).

Recognition and contribution to the economy/society as of whole is also not comparable.

The randos on this page aren't really the best that civilization has to offer. Forming a conclusion on their opinions would be borderline delusional. My guess is that most people here are 1st years/ school kids who weren't good enough for a career in science/ mathematics and ended up in law, now in pursuit of validation from the world to make themselves feel better.

LI/ R why do you allow such comments to be posted that are clearly demeaning the bench, the bar and the law students by insulting legal studies. What gives this dumb person the right to say that people who could not make it in science/mathematics end up doing law?? May be true for really low tier law schools or for that matter why just law school any lower tier college...like anyone who can not make it too IITs can join any lower tier engineering college...there is no need for that person to pick law. And anyways like who the hell told you that science/maths is the only field of success?? How can you assume that arts/economics/commerce/law/literature is any less??? People graduating from NLS-NALSAR-NUJS-Tier 1s earn much more than IIT grads. The scope might be smaller, but then so is the batch size and number of Tier 1 law schools. But within that small number of Tier 1 law schools, small batches and small number of firms...we are as paid or better paid than IIT engineers. So i purposefully did not pick up science stream, not because I couldn't do it but because I didn't want to do it. Any Tier one grad, who worked hard for CLAT since class 11th or even dropped after school for CLAT would simply laugh at comment number 6.

Guys chill down a bit. I have read all the comments above and most of them are way off the mark wrt reality. For instance one comment insinuates that any of the top 20 MBAs are better than tier one law schools...there is no way in hell that IIM Sirmaur will have better placements than NLS/NALSAR/Tier1s when the lowest packages of IIM A go to 8 to 9 lakhs pa (Just imagine what the state of IIM Sirmaur would be.) At the same time it is also true that it is only Tier1 NLUs that can may be ''somewhat'' compared with top tier IIMs, and as a general rule obviously MBA is more employable if you are looking at corp placements.

Secondly and very importantly, I am yet to see the official statistics on IIM C website that has been quoted by OP. The only source of this package seems to be newspapers, which will also tell you how every year an IIT guy gets 2 crore per annum package, without telling you the reality of that 2crores..that it is dollars converted into Rupees, that they have totally ignored the concept of purchasing power in foreign lands versus India, that they have completely ignored the stock options that will actually only vest after 3-5 years of employment and that it is just the CTC and not even the actual salary. So this 34 lakhs of IIM has been quoted as average Salary and I really do not buy that..does it include fix component??? does it include bonus?? how much is the variation in bonus?? is it foreign?? Is it Indian?? Have they just combined the two and given an average??? And even if some how their actual placement report ends up claiming 34 lakhs as average ''FIXED'' component for domestic packages I call bullshit on this, when till last year this used to be close to 24 lakhs even at IIM-A.

Make no mistakes that educational institutes are quite capable of inflating their figures especially when they have to defeat a more recognized brand name. Law schools have done it in NIRF. Even if audited.

Thirdly the only latest placement brochures available as on date of typing this comment are 2021 for both IIM A and IIM-C. One look at the reports and you can tell that IIM A one is more detailed and authentic and IIM-C has not even clearly called out various salary heads and seems more hellbent on proving that they are the best. (viz a viz IIM A)

So as per 2021 reports the placements stood at 22.25 lakhs median for IIMA and IIMC at 27 lakhs (fixed?? variable??? they haven't bothered to disclosed so I am assuming it is more like 20 lakhs fixed). And mind you these are median packages, the lowest packages go to to 9 lakhs. Imagine being an IIMA grad and earning 9lakhs pa!

If you consider lowest and highest range, the numbers alone will tell you that the packages are not that too different from what Big 6 law firm offers (I will explain more on that)

Mind you, what most of you have missed here is that MBA is a post graduation course and BA.LLB is just graduation. So as a pure B.A. LLB out of NLS I was earning much more than my IIT friends and almost as much as my cousin who graduated from IIM -A (his package was less than the median IIM A range of his time). So NLS-NALSAR are definitely comparable to IITs when it comes to sheer placement and hell even comparable to IIMs even though IIM is a post grad course. My take home salary was more than my IIM A cousin because his tax rate was higher. Somethings that you kids have totally ignored is that up to 50 lakhs per annum of salary we lawyers of Big 6 can get kickass tax savings if you got a decent CA. That alone is a win.

While IIM A is great, and there is no denying that it is a big brand name, for me personally and as I recall even with my friends we never saw them as ''way superior'' than NLS. Personally speaking I will choose NLS over IIM because I am happy with my life choices.

Another very major truth bomb while doing these salary comparisons is that all those 25 lakhs per year packages that you see from IIM-A, mostly (not always) go to people who already have worked two, three or even four or more years before starting their MBA. Companies like hiring people who have some experience behind them. So by the time they have done their MBA they can be at 4 years PQE which means at 6 years post graduation stage. At 6 years post graduation stage I was lined up for Principal Associate and I can tell you my salary at that time was considerably higher than the so called ''median'' of these IIMs. Like CONSIDERABLY. Even at 4 years PQE.

If you compare foreign placements that my batchmates at Kirkland and other places were getting, they easily outsmarted the IIM foreign packages by quite a margin (at 6 years of PQE post their law degree). But for the sake of this comment I am just restricting to domestic Indian packages only.

So please do not compare NLU to IIMs in the way you guys have been doing. Apples and oranges.

Anyways most of my IIT friends started preparing for MBA after 3 years of PQE but at that time I was already earning so much I did not ever felt a need to do MBA. If you want to do an MBA then even as a lawyer you can do, so instead of putting baseless comments here comparing NLUs and IIMs go ahead and prepare for one if you are really so passionate about it. I know of a few lawyers who ended up in consultancy firms after doing MBA from IIM A. So go ahead it is equally open to you to do that. But don't compare a grad course with a post grad course so blindly. At least have a few ground rules when you do such comparisons.

Lastly I will just say, that at least the Tier 1 NLUs are as great a career option as MBA from Tier 1 IIMs. It is just that in our IIT obsessed nation people just happen to know about IIM more than they know about NLUs because IIMs have a natural marriage with IITs. But this IIT/IIM craze is something we well knew before taking up law. So why fret now? What people think doesn't matter. What matters is that as a raw grad from NLS I was earning a ton load of money that my IIT friends were not. So I am happy. I also know that it is a privilege (and of course hard work) that one is able to go down the Tier 1 NLU and Tier 1 law firm route and that it is not as easily available to other law students. The sheer probability of success in the IIT/IIM route is many times more. The work life balance is also a bit better. But to each their own.

IIM A report=https://web.iima.ac.in/iprs/gallery/2021/PGP%20IPRS%20Audit%20Report%20FINALS%202021.pdf
IIM C ==https://www.iimcal.ac.in/sites/all/files/pgp_placement_report_batch_56_2019-21-2.pdf

^This is the kind of content I come on LI to read, and makes it seem like actual lawyers answer questions instead of a first year student throwing 'prestige' and NIRF rankings at your face and calling it a day.

So, thank you ma'am/sir, for taking the time to write a well-researched and thoughtful answer. I appreciate it.

I think he/she meant the top 20 IIMs that are in existence. Basically just the IIM brand name or MBA will not help if you have done it from Sirmaur same applies to lower ranked NLUs. For the rest you should read the entire answer as TLDR will not be helpful as it is a really gem of an analysis.

>"Lastly I will just say, that at least the Tier 1 NLUs are as great a career option as MBA from Tier 1 IIMs. It is just that in our IIT obsessed nation people just happen to know about IIM more than they know about NLUs because IIMs have a natural marriage with IITs. But this IIT/IIM craze is something we well knew before taking up law. So why fret now? What people think doesn't matter. What matters is that as a raw grad from NLS I was earning a ton load of money that my IIT friends were not. So I am happy. I also know that it is a privilege (and of course hard work) that one is able to go down the Tier 1 NLU and Tier 1 law firm route and that it is not as easily available to other law students. The sheer probability of success in the IIT/IIM route is many times more. The work life balance is also a bit better. But to each their own."

I must admit that I didn't read your entire post, but this portion at least seems to be factually incorrect in my opinion. Sure, tier 1 law schools get you pay packages largely comparable to decent MBA programs in the mid to long term. But that's hardly the same thing as being "as great a career option as MBA from Tier 1 IIMs" (to clarify - I am from a "tier 1" nlu myself and have progressed in the "tier 1" firm hierarchy as per normal promotions, bonuses, etc.)

Imagine an MBA degree which allows you to do high profile work and make great money, but ONLY in the big 5-6 business consulting firms (bain, BCG, etc.), with very very limited options to transition out - or work in smaller relatively unknown business consulting firms for average to below average pay. Now that would be an incredibly shitty MBA degree. That precisely is what a law degree is, in my opinion. MBAs are so much more diverse, and many people I know who could've gotten these lucrative consulting jobs chose to pursue something else that they felt was better suited for their needs, while still not having to take a pay cut or work for peanuts like a litigating junior would do.

To 7.3, He/She has literally posted in your quoted part "the sheer probability of success in the IIT/IIM route is many times more." I think you should be more responsible with your comments as you are taking just one part of the entire answer and taking it out of context, while you are yourself admitting that you have not read the entire answer. Your point has already been covered in the answer.

Hi my dudes.

To all the "top 6 Law firm retainers" - you are the very extreme of what a top 20 law grad in India makes. The very extreme (and most of the times the middle) of what an IIT guy can make (this is apples to apples since almost the same number of work ex - which is zero) overshadows us by a huge margin. So that cousin of yours who doesn't earn as much as you did (even post tax) at the same PQE - well he is not comparable because then is won't be considered the extreme or even middle of what an IIT (top 10) guy can make.

You are right to say that comparing IIMs with BALLB is wrong (the work ex numbers get skewed), but i think comparing IIMs with LLMs and LLBs should be allowed right? do that analysis and you'll fine the numbers to be laughable, in favour of IIMs. Please be mindful that if you give me a "oh but i working at KCO make more than what a new IIM (random city) bro makes" - then i'll respond by saying that you are the very extreme of starting law career salary. if we were to compare you to the extremes of what an IIM grad is capable off....well....i think its safe to say that you do know since you've been doing diligence of companies started by kids the same age as you !

Any argument that compares LLM to MBA is dumb as fuck. Since you have not mentioned if it is domestic LLM or foreign, I am assuming domestic, because IIT, NLU and IIMs are all in India and as you will see from the larger thread below we are only talking about domestic Indian packages.

Everyone knows there is no value of LLM in the legal industry. So none of the smart LLB kids go for an Indian LLM. While all smart Btech kids want to do an IIM MBA (a better comparison would be LLB plus MBA, a lot of lawyers are doing MBA, it is a graduation neutral masters). The only comparison that can be somewhat called apples to apples is "median" and" "domestic Tier 1 IIT graduate" packages to "median" and "domestic tier 1 NLU packages". Assuming the IIT fresher is placed at some big fortune company and the NLU fresher is placed in a Big 6 law firm, Yes the NLU guy gets paid a lot more. Also refer to comment no 7. The only logical comment here.

Source: Median IIM Ahmedabad packages (which means IIT grad plus 2-3 years of work experience plus 2 years of MBA) that is in total 5 years post qualification is somewhat at 22 lakhs fixed. A Big 6 layer at 5 years PQE is also at this mark or even above this mark and that too without a master's degree. Without spending 25 lakhs at IIM.

Needless to say a median domestic fresher IIT package will OBVIOUSLY be lower than the IIM A package. In nutshell NLSIU will always win in this comparison.

Disclaimer: Sheer proabability of success and degree useability and sector variation wise a Btech and a MBA degree is >>>>>>> better than LLB from NLSIU. Everyone knows that there are a handful of Tier1 NLU seats and a handful of Tier 1 jobs at big 6. So obviously just sheer probability of success in the future is more in IIT route. But within the limited scope of apples to apples comparison and just restricting that comparison to the pay package aspect (and the fact that we have tremendous tax savings upto 50 lakhs per annum), I as an NLS graduate very easily outearn "most" of the IIT grads. (not talking about foreign packages of IIT).

Any usual 1st year consultant at MBB have spent 8 years outside school (4 years IIT + 2 years work ex + 2 years MBA). This is comparable to an A3. Lets compare salaries and also where each of them will be in the next 5 years.

We lawyers must understand one thing, insecurity is natural but claiming superiority over every living being is psychotic. Let's not pretend that we earn more than any other profession. There are other profession that pay better cause honestly, those profession add more value to creation of wealth, we sadly are and will be a supporting profession. (Please don't say society won't exist without lawyers, society won't exist even without janitors).
Let's be real and humble, more people like people with humility than those with on your face attitude.

bhaijaan, understand that NLU lawyers transact their time (wrt billable hours) - which automatically is limited. Contrast that with IIM alumni, who are more probable to transact in capital.
In time vs. capital, wealth creators have always used capital. You can be a rich lawyer, but you will always be below even a bankrupt industrialist, because the industrialist has built wealth.
High flying nlu grads/corp lawyers are called slaves in corporate parlance because they are exactly that, they deal only in time like the medieval slaves. Real wealth is built with an understanding of the economy, finance, and government.
Best of luck to lowlife lawyers - who never understood the importance of building capital. Congrats for the 2 BHK.

At the outset, I must say that it is rather dangerous for law students to comment on posts about a system (law firms) they are not yet a part of. I can say from my own experience from just a few years back that LI threads colour perceptions of people who come here to access first hand unfiltered information maybe because they don’t have people in their own network to talk to about certain things. So just to set the record straight. Some of the most coveted jobs at IIMs are MBB (consulting). These firms mostly hire people with 1- 2 years of work experience. As has been correctly pointed out above, comparing their salaries to A0s would not be a fair comparison. MBB hires such candidates straight from IIM’s as Junior Associates at 27 lakhs/pa. The best must be compared with the best. A3/A4 at top T1s make exactly the same inclusive of bonus.