I really think you have no idea about the internal dynamics and how trilegal not a family owned firm/promoter driven form makes difference? Do you really want your merit to shine or be at the mercy of some privileged kids who went on to have easy access to heading key positions in these firms and simultaneously decision making powers?

Hi sir, all of your description of JSA and age makes me think I know you (Are you AN, kindly confirm if you wish to lol).

Also yes, JSA has really bad management comparable to Lala firms like CAM. Also, 1 crore a year is not really a lot considering how comparatively less the many many A0s, A1s and A2s are billing and the pay of course. Also really 1 crore isn't much for a billing when firms like even S&R are billing much more at junior levels.

I really think students should strongly consider S&R and IndusLaw, these seem like really Tier 1 gold standard firms in terms of everything. Maybe the Tier 1 narrative and the corrupt accolades are not letting them achieve name tho.

I've worked at law firms for long enough to remember my first gray hair in office, so maybe let me shed some light.

Only two law firms in India don't follow a founder-keeps-all approach: JSA and Trilegal. Which is why their revenue distribution models are very unique even while being different from each other. JSA does a billing share system, where you are guaranteed 8% of your billing. It's excellent. Current issues there are because of some corrupt EPs taking up high positions of decision making in the exec com. and hoarding money without revising pay bands. They have signed their own death warrant by voting the current committee into power.

Trilegal has terrible work culture issues, but the managing committee at present knows the only way to counter attrition is to hoard less wealth for distribution. The lockstep equity model incentivises sharing money to some extent as well. Even when the dollar wasn't so strong, A3s were billing upwards of a crore each merely doing routine law firm work. Maybe you don't realise just how much money these firms mint. These salaries are not only easily sustainable, but also reflect the value of the work put in. Firms that pay less than this are simply sitting on all the money.

I don't understand this tactic by the management at all. It seems quite shady to be honest.

1. Trilegal has already lost quality partners, and is sub par tier 2 in mostly ALL practice areas. There are too many partners who are not "rainmakers", rather hardly any.

2. Firms like S&R/TTA and ICUL are able to A0 that because of highly selective intake without attendance in Day 0s and highly profitable practice area (30% of all funds related work) respectively.

3. The current mild bearish market also doesn't help. Firms and companies around the world, including those like Kirkland Ellis and Milbank, have not hiked NQ (newly qualified) pay as they traditionally would YoY (which is usually massive). Foreign firms have not really entered the Indian market due to the market standstill everywhere. Layoffs are the flavour of the season. M&A, IPOs, funds have truly reached a temporary standstill. The one practice area Trilegal is known for, is all but working.

4. Trilegal is already too oversized with mostly deadweight partners. A firm like SAM and CAM, however toxic and "Lala" do regularly bring in tremendous profits across practice areas, as most practice areas consist of such Partners. Such firms can afford to have such large teams and intakes, which they aren't able to really, and ideally these could ordinarily make such hikes to attract people to the "amarchand" brand. I could include IndusLaw and even AZB in this. Trilegal, really? It did start as a new "startup" firm, but is it really a law firm equivalent of BYJUs (Before 2022) etc.

How does the firm intend to pay that much really? Lets see how this plays out-

1. They stop taking too many interns and lower the stipend- Trilegal for several years has taken interns on merit and offered a uniform stipend of Rs. 16,000 regardless of college (but not for those who got in with references, so this can be written off from costs. They take many (100 I guess) interns.

But lately, as per my friends/ seniors, lately most internship applications are being rejected. Trilegal is totally taking interns via placement cells, which could be a few. This firm is already known to not offer a lot of PPOs anyway. They overhired in 2023 anyway.

Result- Trilegal will solely hire from Day 0s, and will be more selective and take a fewer batch. This would offset the increased A0 pay, considering there is actually a downward trend in revenue.

Thoughts and criticisms will be appreciated. Yes, I don't have friends to enjoy on a weekend, so writing this dumb research.

Regards,

The Cat

The guaranteed bonus is no wordplay. you need to understand the Trilegal model to appreciate its policy. Out of the variable pay, 80% is attitude driven, which any right-minded person would have or expected to have. 20% is based on number of hours that you put in at work. This is carefully designed bcoz at A0 level how much work you can do and whether you pick billable or non-billable is not at your discretion.

If the variable is included in the retainer the purpose would be defeated. A guaranteed bonus only means getting it if you don't goof up. Unfortunately, your mind is conditioned to think any firm is doing this bcoz there would be something wrong but hold on and think again why partners in top tiers choose Trilegal if the culture was bad?

It's the only law firm that thinks ahead of the curve.

Are you planning for a 5 year career in corporate law? Then Trilegal is the right choice. But if you want a think for 15-20 years, then nothing beats equity partnership at CAM/SAM/AZB. All their rainmakers are in the 10+ CroresPA. On the other hand, save for one or two, Trilegal partners are nowhere near their peers at other T1s.

Yes,I agree.This like "guaranteed bonus" is just word play.Somethings very wrong here A couple of comments are talking about the bad culture,maybe its because the work environment is so taxing that a show of a huge hike is being made.I think there's a catch when words like "guaranteed bonus" come up.

Trilegal is so desperate to hire,even CAM is not in such a terrible state with its perpetually high attrition date that it will give a hike this high.And they will get every pennys worth out of you.If an A0 is given such a hike they must be having very high number of vacancies.

Amongst the whole bunch of law firms, there is no doubt that Trilegal does far well for its people. The pain of crazy work hours (which is a given no matter what law firm or level) is blunted somewhat if you know you are paid much better than the others. But there is one inadvertent problem brewing that the Trilegal Management must take note of as well. The high pay makes it difficult for people to move out of Trilegal and for particularly toxic teams, the suffering is silent and the growing sense of entrapment is a real thing. Once the roti, kapda, makaan problems are solved, humans seek respect, if the teams toxic culture is pervasive, it is likely to have mental health repercussions and if people are used to the really high pay and unable to move out for concerns of downgrading pay, you are brewing a mental health crisis within toxic teams. Again, this is inapplicable for teams with good culture, but only for toxic ones. Money can maybe delay the explosion but not indefinitely keep it at bay. It's only a matter of time that we see these entrapped souls explode. So Trilegal must balance the high pay with other qualitative metrics of happiness and overall well being. And they must walk the talk.

As someone who had offers from both Trilegal and KCO during my Day Z. I greatly regret choosing the latter. I am now looking for the first opportunity to switch to Trilegal that I get. I am so done with KCO.

They aren't just offering the best pay, but also perks like lunch and snacks in the office. 2 offsites per year and other goodies as per my friends there. These might seem like small things but for someone living in an new city, a lunch in the office is truly a great perk! Trilegal looking forward to vacancies there!

Why would anyone want to join any firm that differentiates between salaried partners and equity partners? And have the family partners hog most of profits and still have payscales from 2012. You all made an informed choice to join have fun or wait for

Trilegal to poach your partner xD

A2 This side. All lawyers’ bands have been revised. The hike for A0s has already been covered in the thread (though I doubt the 3 lakh bonus is guaranteed - it will be prorated for 9 months and in my opinion should also depend on partner rating).

In a novel step, each lawyer has been told in their retainer letter as to how much they stand to make at different performance levels (below expectation (“BE”), meets expectation (“ME”) and exceeds expectation (“EE”)), in addition to the fixed retainer (“FR”). I am mentioning numbers for A1, A2, and A3 levels below but please note that these numbers are lawyer specific and depend on their previous year’s rating as well. All figures in lakhs and pre-TDS.

A1 - 18 FR + [2.85 (BE) / 3.35 (ME) / 4 (EE)].

A2 - 21 FR + [3.57 (BE) / 4.2 (ME) / 5 (EE)].

A3 - 25.5 FR + [4.97 (BE) / 5.85 (ME) / 7 (EE)].

These increased bands are applicable with retrospective effect from 1 April 2023 so everyone who received arrears yesterday got a nice surprise.

PS - I am not aware of SA level pay and not in a position to source these either.

Trilegal just revised their A0 salary by giving a huge hike. Their starting salary package is now around 19.5L, with about 16.5L fixed (from a previous 14.4+2.2 structure). This probably puts trilegal at the top of the paymasters among tier 1s.

Is there any chance that CAM, SAM, KCO, and the like follow suit? Else it is a huge disappointment for all the A0s that opted for other firms during day 0.

Trilegal has made an announcement to increase its retainer pay and performance based pay in light of the firm’s exceptional performance past year. Although the exact figure has not been disclosed yet but the decision has been taken by the management committee.

Thoughts?