Hey OTT
I have absolutely no experience in corporate law and i will be graduating this year in may.
I have a litigation heavy CV, my concern for not not doing litigation is the pay.
The pay is extremely low and it demands like 5 years of your life to yield any financial gains.
how can i shift to corporate.
also are there any IP related corporate jobs that pay well as well.

Hi this is @TheGuyAbove . There is no formula or reference to get into these Boutique law firms, city like Mumbai and Delhi or T1 metro cities are flooded with such firms which have volumes of cases and wide area of practices.....easily le lngey agar tumhari personality click kar gayi.... The process to get entry is objective but situation of candidates like me or as OTT says he is too are different and in case you are too similarly situated candidates with a bit late entrant it becomes really different.If you are as fresh as 2020 and post garduate situation can be different which I could not relate too but if you are like us and shifiting fairly established base from T2/3 city to a metro in firm set-up. Then try all possible ways LinkedIn, seniors, applying directly via firm's website, trying references, walk-ins (did not preferred) face rejections, try again repeat form days and months. Experiment in Mumbai is financially cumbersome figure your battle. Look I beileve I should not say the metholody are exhaustive but only illustrative and purely circumstantial and subjective.

Keep your head down for a while and keep working, this initial learning will go a long way. If you perform well, the firm will surely pay you better and if the firm does not pay you well, then there are always bigger firms who will take you in happily. I started with 20k and within 2 years, my compensation is around 12-14ctc. There were jumps, there were good interviews and a blend of luck as well. But if you feel that your senior is very supportive and helps you a lot, then please don't bother about less pay for a few years. Honestly, good and honest guidance can change the course of your life as it did with mine. I hope this decision will change your life for good, all the best buddy. Keep this thread alive with your constant updates regarding your journey for others to take inspiration. And lastly, there will be your colleague/juniors/interns/seniors who will directly taunt you that you are being underpaid so that you feel under confident and betrayed and ultimately leave the firm. These are office politics, steer away from all such persons, no talk instead of less talk is way better with such people. Mere sath ho chuka hai aisa, experience se bta raha hu. There will always be one or two person who will be getting more salary but still crib about it. Sara environment khrab kar dete hai aise log. All the best.

Hi @OTT so things did work out and i have got through a botique law firm in Mumbai which have sizeable volume of cases. Howver, there is one thing I just unable to make peace is the pay, their initial offerings our not generous but have considered that revision of compensation can be expected subject to performance. What should I do in a practical sense and whall things I should be careful about so that I am not taken for a ride being underpaid.

If only it was THAT easy. Let me explain:-

1) At this point of time in India, many lower ranked NLU students are not getting even internships in these big firms. Internship applications are not being responded to for months.

A0/A1 is a VERY uphill climb for you (or me even).

Think about it this way -

You are a partner/HR and you receive 2 emails asking for internship (or say, A0) position. One is from NLU student, who has also interned with another law firm in past and other one is you (or me) with no experience in General Corporate matters and has only litigation experience.

Who amongst the two will be more useful to corporate law firm? Hope you got your answer.

2) Why would any HR (or firm) make unnecessary efforts to shortlist candidates when they are getting best NLU candidates easily ? I mean you or me may be equally competent but do you think HRs (or Partner) should spend time and take the RISK and give an opportunity of damaging the firm's name (and work) ?

3) At this point of time, there are atleast 20 good universities (NLUs + GLC/ JGLS/ Symbi/ ILS/ NM/ Nirma - yes I am including all!) which means that every year there are atleast 20 X 50 = 1000 Job Seekers. But there are only like 50 Law firms (Big and Small) , therefore 50 X 10 vancancies = 500 ONLY. So, even many students from lower ranked NLUs can be seen struggling in Litigation or other fields

Yeah, much better and settled as compared to litigation. Look, no doubt you feel powerful as a lawyer when you go to court and argue. It is a feeling of instant gratification but at the same time you have to go through a dry period of atleast 5 years and then also you may feel at sea. And while working in corp you get engaged in qualitative aspect of law where you understand how to deliver the deliverable with perfection and within time. Also, it opens alot many doors when you have corporate experience. This goes without saying, that pay is always better as compared to lit. Other than this, let me explain you the psychological aspect as well, when you tell any layman that you work in a company as a lawyer they think very highly of you as well. For eg: I used to work in Reliance and that obvious change of respect you see in people face when you tell them about it. Apna2 hisab hai, mere kuch DU k batch mate aj bhi lit mein struggle kar rahe hai but they are clear in their mind ki vahi karna hai. So each to its own. I tried lit, law firms and companies and finally realised that it's the work setup of companies which suits my personality.

Try joining boutique law firm and from there try to scale up the ladder. T-1/2 for that matter won't be taking you in. I made a similar switch and in the interview they asked me "Why" of the switch. Please prepare this question, since there will be many related to this "Why". For eg. I answered that this is not a practise switch in strict terms, rather a exploration of contractual and commercial aspect of law and since I am pretty young in the practise, I am still figuring out my core area of practise and contractual law/ general corporate law is something which excites me during law college but due to uncontrolled turn of event I could not pursue this side of the law.

Aise hi bnana tum bhi, boutique k pas hota hai kaam easily le lngey agar tumhari personality click kar gayi. Agar T-1/2 k reference toh vyare nyare hai tumhare.

Do post your journey. All the best.