In the US, a Kellogg/Wharton/HBS grad working for a top consulting firm would usually earn more than a Harvard/Yale/Stanford/NYU JD working in a tier 1 law firm. The same goes for an Oxford/Cambridge/LBS grad versus an Oxford/Cambridge/LSE/KCL/UCL grad in the UK. But the difference is not that huge: maybe 15-20% higher at most. But in India the difference is really huge. If we look at IIM A/B/C salaries, the toppers earn 2-3 times that of tier 1 NLU toppers. The last rankers of the batch would be earning what the top rankers of tier 1 NLUs would, and after a few years of work ex the salaries for the IIM-ites will skyrocket.

Why is this so? Unlike STEM grads, who could be inventing valuable things that generate billions through patents, the intellectual skill required from B-school grads is pretty simple, much like law school grads. The intellectual abilities of both B-school and law school grads are also the same.

After 5 to 7 years most IIM grads at best would be stuck in the middle management or start their own firm/startup (which is risk of its own ) at this level your IIM degree is just a nice thing to have but your work matters a lot more , So its dumb assuming they will become executives and what not . An IIM degree just shows that you are a smart person / above avg intellect it doesn't mean you will be handed a c suite position just after 5 to 7 years .

Yes they earn more in top positions because they are seen as creating greater value. In any deal, when do lawyers come in? At the very end to seal the paperwork but corporates actually ideate and do the deals. Plus they manage valuable economic entities that create economic value.

But its also true that a top lawyer (rainmakers) earn as much if not more.

I mean to undermine a work of a lawyer and to show management grads having greater decision in deal making process, I am not sure. Lawyers job is to take care of the legal aspects of the deal. To each his own, I would rather do this then wonder and think how to market a product and get stupid ad campaigns.

I view this in a different manner: In the US and the UK, the brightest students choose to pursue law and therefore the services they offer are automatically 'perceived' to be of greater value by clients. Sort of like the demonstration effect involved in perceiving the work done by top MBAs here in India, seen ironically on this website as well.

Further, both these countries have better adherence to rule of law as well. The importance of staying on the right side of the law (or at least be seen to do that) is therefore imbibed in individuals from a young age. Therefore, clients would naturally be more willing to spend money on legal services, even transactional ones, because it has been repeatedly reinforced to all in their daily lives that it is better to dot all I(s) and cross and all T(s) than it is to find yourself being involved in the courtroom or the office of a regulator (whose work is far more closely tracked in the aforementioned jurisdictions even by common persons than it is in India).

"Seein ironically on this website"..true because most people here are not from T1 NLUs. Mostly traditional law school people with the pathetic mindset who think everyone takes law because they couldn't do anything else (because they themselves couldn't do anything in their field of choice..IIT/NIT may be?). Anyways that is the reason that you will find comments like IIT is better than Law, NIT is better than law, MBA is better than law, UPSC is better than law etc. These people are not lawyers or law student by choice. They are accidentally here. And I guess such people should rather go to and post their shit on MBA websites or UPSC websites or wherever else they want. Legally india is for hardcore law and serious lawyers and law students. Law has made me what I am today. The respect I have given to it has been given back to me. My house, my car, my everything has been paid for by this profession. And quite handsomely. I really do not like people shitting on law on a site made for it. Sure let's do a healthy critique and we all can improve on a number of things. But the critique should come from my peers and not from trolls.

What do you mean by over paid clerks. Love day, 12 ghanta everyday baith ke etna flamboyant languages mey likha hua bekar ka law padhta hoon, 12 ghanta every single day. We sacrifice our health, family everything. Asan nhe hain l lag jatey hain, etna mundane, boring chizo ko padhna, samjhna, simplify karna, galti nikalna and summarise karney mey. It takes lots and lots of effort. Yeh naya trend agiya hain to mock lawyers. The amount of pressure we have to take and the amount of work we have to put in is unprecedented and this starts in law school only. Agar tujhe hum glorified clerk lagte hai toh chorde law, bekar ka faltu bate mat kar. Also, kaunsa naya aviskar kar liya MBA karke? BC, din bar excell sheet banake bohot tees mar khan bangaye ho kya?
Stop belittling lawyers, it takes lot of work to sustain this lifestyle. Love day

This notion that IIM grads in India are earning more then "top tier NLUs grads working at top tier institutions (law firms/in house)" has totally been debunked in an earlier legally india thread. While it is true that on an average the IIM bloke is better of career wise, but if you restrict to top tier NLUs only then the story is different.

Top tier NLS/NASLAR/other good NLUs grad are at par or even higher than an average IIM grad in terms of money. CTC, tax slab, domestic versus foreign placement, Purchasing power parity, mindlessly converting dollars into rupees, esops that don't mature in five years, and the entire myth around the DREAM 1 crore package right after graduation has been totally destroyed in several comments here: https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/218311-iim-calcutta-releases-placement-data-100-placed-average-salary-34-lakhs-pa-median-salary-31-lakhs-pa

Comments 1.3.1 and especially 7 for reference.

Well it's been asked many times on this forum that why do iit and iim grad get paid more than nlu grads it is my question too. A very common answer given is that managers and engineers generate value while lawyers don't but are lawyers not generating value by saving the company from being fined and allowing the company to function?

Sadly there is a difference between wealth generation and risk mitigation. I’d still pick being a lawyer any day tbh. I’m also much better at it. Kinda sick of how everyone around here just belittles the profession and themselves in the process. The only reason why you think MBAs are some great shakes is probably because your skill set is different from theirs and in all probability you won’t be very good at what they do. Exactly like how they’d probably not be great at drafting, understanding how various provisions in an agreement interplay, and how law is interwoven with the agreements we negotiate.

Typical troll question. IIM A Indian placement details are publicly available on their site. Check only the median placement figures for India in INR. Then be mindful that these figures contain stock options also that will vest may be like 3 or 5 years from joining. They are typically included to falsely inflate CTC. Further, then also account for 30% taxation as compared to a MUCH MUCH lower presumptive taxation for a lawyer. So if you compare Tier 1 IIM Tier 1 Company placement to Tier 1 NLU Tier 1 Law Firm placement, the T1 lawyer will get a higher pure, hard, in-hand cash per month (no stock option bullshit) than an average IIM grad.