Hey - Just finished reading this book by some corporate lawyer at CAM - the book talks about how the protagonist just drives his associates hard and pulls a fast one on the other side in deals...
is this stuff real? do corporate lawyers really do all this manipulation etc?
I'm joining a top3 firm next year and am not sure about my decision...
As a corporate lawyer, I found the book quite enjoyable and thought that the solutions found in each story were quite brilliant. A partners job is to know the law but to also know the situation better so as to apply and bend it as required to meet the client's requirements. Overall a very good read I thought although one does need to keep a dictionary at hand!
Fully agree! I thought it was all hype until I read it over the last weekend and what a sensational work! What an absolute gem of a book. Hands down, one of the best voices in English fiction out of India. I sincerely hope Shishr writes more.
I had the privilege of reading this book. Absolutely magnificent! For both that are already in a corporate law firm and those that are thinking of joining it. His control over language is incredible and the way he has told these stories tells you a lot about the realities of business in India.
I agree. This was great fun to read. As someone who is ignorant about corporate lawyers and what they do, I found this glimpse into their inner workings quite illuminating, to say the least. The fact that it uses humour so effectively is what makes this book a winner!
Each story pivots around Edamarra Edwin and his detective-style approach to solving problems; but while each story is a separate episode, with its own thrills, together they all cumulatively reveal a lot about its enigmatic protagonist and the world he inhabits.
Finished reading this last weekend. Was a fun read indeed. What I enjoyed most was that it seemed closer to the reality of what happens in most tier 1 firms despite taking a lot of creative liberties. Hopefully folks in college will read this to form a picture of a big law firm rather than form their ideas off watching Suits!
I was a big fan of the first one - to me, that is how treatises should be written. And I am not disappointed by this one either. This is how legal fiction ought to be written.
Yes, it's so refreshing in how it moves away from the conventional courtroom dramas that one associates with legal fiction and instead mingles legal sleuthing with satire to inform and entertain in equal measure!
"The higher the lawyers rise in these corporate law firms, the less lawyering they do themselves and the more they earn from the hustle of others. Eventually, it comes about that only the young lawyers sell legal advice, and the older ones sell lawyers." - a line from the book - an apt summary of the world the OP is about to enter.
True Well said.And manipulations rather than legal knowledge is what gives lawyers,especially Disputes lawyers,a really bad name.Manipulations in corp deals are somewhat lesser than the level of manipulations and lies in Court mayers.
Just finished it! What a well written book. Absolute must read for lawyers. Obviously, the drama is not real but the legal point in every single story is accurate. So much to learn about lawyering as an art. Chef's kiss!
It’s a hilarious book and it’s beautifully written. It obviously takes liberties with the truth of what corporate lawyers really do but only to make it a compelling read.
Well, whether true or not, the book does have some delicious lines:
- Some large law firms are indistinguishable from multilevel marketing gigs. Like Amway’s homecare hucksters, each batch of a firm’s associates gives up a part of its earnings to pay for those before.
- 'We swim in different waters, so his incontinence doesn’t bother me,’ Edwin said to the brooding Rottweiler that was presiding over the firm’s Sexual Harassment Committee, struggling the whole time to remember whom she resembled.
- In her first year of law school, Anjali Mathur was fired with a bolshie disdain for the stifling, bourgeois mediocrity all around her. The exact pathways of young dissent were hazy to her now, but they had all led to a combination of ganja, men, and computer games.
Can't imagine that a corporate lawyer wrote this stuff - did he hire a ghost writer?
Hilarious! I am so tired of courtroom dramas so glad to see that different ‘legal’ fiction out there. Hope he writes more. So hard to get humour right.
His book is an absolute riot. I loved it. Trust Shishir to hit it out of the park each time he does something. I hope he writes more. He never updated his book on the takeover code and I just hope he doesn't lose interest in this like he did with that.
Ya. I agree whole-heartedly. There are all kinds of literature in the world because there are all kinds of readers in the world. Imagine telling Christopher Nolan that he should only make movies like David Dhawan because they are simpler. Belittling someone's achievement and hard work over because it doesn't come in "plain English" is a very petty.
How I WISH lawyers wrote like this. Just because you are struggling with it does not mean others will. I found the short story format so easy to read. Can not wait for the next one!
I just finished reading it and seriously, what an incredibly well-written book! I genuinely cannot imagine how someone without a formal training or background in literature can write such prose.
Take a bow Shishir. The trolls will find something to snipe at you with, but I hope you write on. So proud that a practicing lawyer wrote it.
Yeah. It's Kill the Lawyers by Shishir Vayttaden. I think he's a CAM partner. Halfway through the book and I love it. Haven't read anything this well-written by an Indian author.
is this stuff real? do corporate lawyers really do all this manipulation etc?
I'm joining a top3 firm next year and am not sure about my decision...
As a corporate lawyer, I found the book quite enjoyable and thought that the solutions found in each story were quite brilliant. A partners job is to know the law but to also know the situation better so as to apply and bend it as required to meet the client's requirements. Overall a very good read I thought although one does need to keep a dictionary at hand!
If you havent read it yet, must do!
Each story pivots around Edamarra Edwin and his detective-style approach to solving problems; but while each story is a separate episode, with its own thrills, together they all cumulatively reveal a lot about its enigmatic protagonist and the world he inhabits.
All in all this book is a good read. Will love to read it again!
On a more serious note, it's a page-turner of a book!
- Some large law firms are indistinguishable from multilevel marketing gigs. Like Amway’s homecare hucksters, each batch of a firm’s associates gives up a part of its earnings to pay for those before.
- 'We swim in different waters, so his incontinence doesn’t bother me,’ Edwin said to the brooding Rottweiler that was presiding over the firm’s Sexual Harassment Committee, struggling the whole time to remember whom she resembled.
- In her first year of law school, Anjali Mathur was fired with a bolshie disdain for the stifling, bourgeois mediocrity all around her. The exact pathways of young dissent were hazy to her now, but they had all led to a combination of ganja, men, and computer games.
Can't imagine that a corporate lawyer wrote this stuff - did he hire a ghost writer?
It looks interesting but suffers from Tharoorenza.
I don’t understand why can’t lawyers write in simple and plain English.
100% he wrote himself no ghost writer likes like this.
Will read when I have more patience but treat this as a warning for anyone else who finds how lawyers write annoying.
If this was written in English I could have recommended this to many non-law folks also.
Take a bow Shishir. The trolls will find something to snipe at you with, but I hope you write on. So proud that a practicing lawyer wrote it.
Way to go buddy.