Dear corporate lawyers, which city is better to work and get settled in as a corporate lawyer? I know the quality of work is higher in Mumbai due to the huge amount of deals but if we factor in other criteria such as quality of life, living costs, expenses, career growth, work culture, social life - which city seems the best?

A0 here, I have lived in delhi mumbai pune, each for a fairly considerable amount of time. I love pune the most. Unfortunately the law firm market in pune sucks, had it been any better then without any second thoughts I'd have settled in pune infact I'm still thinking that maybe I'll stick around with these law firms for these initial 5 years and then I'll shift to in-house and settle down in pune especially since pune has a lot of companies so I'm hoping to bag decent opportunities for in-house.

Delhi is the hub for litigation and corporate. Bombay is a distant no 2 and this is evident by the extent of Bombay talent that has migrated to and is migrating to Delhi. Sure there is capital markets, private equity and mna work of significant consequence there, but doesn't outstrip Delhi - in terms of breadth of quality work. The litigation bar is going seriously Marathi Manus even in terms of attitude/ work ethic - worrying. The Parsi work culture is next to dead at the Bombay bar. Blr is not even in the reckoning. No work of significance happens in any T1 office there, except maybe Trilegal or JSA 5 years ago. Hyderabad and Chennai offer vessels to many T1 firms through various local up-and-coming counsels, who use the T1 branding to their advantage, only to eventually move on. No T1 firm has any form of demonstrated staying power in either of these two cities. Only land-due diligences happening at T1 Hyd offices, with some amount of related litigation.

Pune has no work of significance. Only AZB has an outpost there, which for all practical purposes is a support office for AZB Mumbai. Only grunt due diligence support work. I believe that's even the case with its Blr office. No pay parity for sure.

Ahmedabad is something to look out for. Some law firms are trying their luck out there at GIFT City, but it will need a harder push to attract talent from across India (if that's even a goal there).

Unliveable cities all of them.

Delhi: Toxic air, aggressive people, horrible traffic.

Mumbai: Worst traffic of all. Very very expensive.

Bengaluru: Bad traffic and pollution as well, increase in Kannada regionalism fuelled by all political parties.

All the three cities: Tough to get children admitted to the best schools, impossible to join good clubs if you want to play tennis or go swimming, only option is to go to resorts based faraway in the outskirts or live in a very expensive gated community.

Mumbai Hands down.

It is expensive , but you will find alternatives for that. Traffic is annoying but again, trains/metro.

Delhi is good but have never felt safe. The pollution. Quality of life sucks.

Pune..slow life, travel is difficult, less opportunities.

Bangalore, less opportunities compared to mumbai and delhi

Work culture sucks everywhere.. Social life is better in mumbai and pune , banglore..

Long term, definitely Delhi. Minus the pollution (which is equally bad, if not worse, in Mumbai, as indicated by several surveys) and the extreme weather (Mumbai fares slightly better on this front and Bangalore has the best weather of the three), Delhi has everything in its favour. Good corporate work, polite and non-judgemental people, reasonable cost of living (as against both Bangalore and Mumbai) are just some of the reasons why one should pick Delhi. Mumbai may be good on the professional front, but there is a lot of regionalism and Marathi chauvinism, and one is discriminated against if they do not speak Marathi. Plus, people in Mumbai are usually rude, angry and on an edge at all times. They take out their frustrations on totally unrelated people, especially in the local trains and the taxi queues, and are quite liberal in their usage of bad words. Just like how Mumbaikars take pride in generalising and saying that everyone in Delhi uses MC BC liberally, Mumbai has its equal share of those using Zhavadya etc. Bangalore does score on the weather front, has a decent work culture, but again, the exposure one gets as a lawyer in Delhi and Mumbai (a distant second) is difficult to obtain elsewhere in India.

Difficult question really.

Mumbai, tier 1 in a good team, the quality of work and learning curve will be high. But your work life balance is non existent and you will only be handling work work balance - on how to manage multiple deliverables while still managing bare minimum sleep. But the professional growth could outweigh the outrageously priced rents, the traffic, everything being expensive etc. If you are looking at it as a short gap 3 year stint nothing like Bombay work culture (in a good team), and there are overpriced but multiple fun weekend options in case you do get some time for a social life, but it’s not a city where you want to stay long term as a corporate lawyer can buy property or even raise kids cause schools are over priced and a good school is ridiculous to get into. I am talking about kids etc. assuming you will get some time to meet someone and that someone is okay with your ridiculous work timings.

But this is worth it only in a good team. An average team (work quality) or a toxic team in Mumbai would not be worth it. You might as well go to a good work team in another city because they may be doing better work.

Fairly cosmopolitan as well.

Delhi - I know this is limited to corp law so not mentioning the litigation and competition law advantage Delhi teams have which blows other cities out of the water.

What Delhi has going for it is that it’s much much cheaper. It may even be slightly cheaper than Bangalore etc. and it has a really well connected metro - infrastructure and roads wise can’t beat the city. That way it’s great. And there are some corp teams in Delhi that do some exceptional work, so your target should be them. However the number of these teams in Delhi that do really good work is lower than Mumbai - so chances are you may just be stuck with an average or below average team.

What delhi does not have going for it? Weather - like I mean what are those summers really? And the terrible pollution. And also office culture. Many still prefer a Sir Ma’am approach and strict hierarchy. It can be more toxic that way.

Also if you are: (I) a woman, worst city to live in of the three by miles; and (II) a non- Hindi speaker, it’s difficult to get by.

Bangalore - This is interesting because as a city to live in Bangalore is far better than Delhi and Mumbai (if you live close to where you work). The weather is for the most part pleasant all year round, the people are generally nicer (in law firms and in the city in general) and the city can provide for an excellent social life (the options for pubs and breweries is endless) and is generally a safe city for women. It’s your perfect settle down here city.

However, for corp you may mostly get a team that does small scale VC work including in most tier ones, except a very small sect of partners who have exceptional work where you won’t feel like you have missed out on a Bombay learning experience. The hours are also way better than Mumbai and more palatable than Delhi hours.

However, if you do land in a team that is not the super small sub sect identified above, or if you are not at Trilegal, your pay is lower than your Mumbai and Delhi peers (which is fine vis-a-vis Mumbai because what they get extra is off set by crazy cost of living, but not so much compared to Delhi). It’s then a trade off for better hours in Bangalore versus better pay and better work in Delhi.

It’s also pretty cosmopolitan like Mumbai, maybe even more so - you can get by with English and any one of Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam.

Quality of life, living costs, expenses, career growth, work culture and social life - all factors, Delhi NCR thrashes Mumbai by a massive margin. The rentals, bigger houses at reasonable rents, general expenses, work culture and plenty of options for socializing makes Delhi a definite winner. As far as growth goes, Delhites by and large are happy to see others grow and are willing to help. Mumbaikars, on the other hand, are often jealous and do not like to see others grow, and try to curtail others who seek to grow. In addition, the general rudeness, good lord, Mumbai has got to be the most rude city on this planet. The rude curt way of talking to others, plus a dangerous willingness to readily indulge in violence to convey one's point (not just MNS, even normal Mumbaikars in the local trains or taxi queues), and the know it all condescending attitude, makes Mumbai a nightmare to live in.

PS: Expecting Mumbaikars to come all guns blazing with their usual volley of abuses, insults and remarks like "if you don't like this city which has been kind to people and helped them grow, then leave this city. Shitting upon the place which accepts everyone is pathetic". Go on Mumbaikars, you guys truly show where you come from.