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Also how's the work culture for them?
On a separate note, do some digging you'll find people shifting from KLA to BLC but not a single case of the opposite happening.
Doing M&A and PE plus strategic advice. It’s the other way around actually. Being in BLC is z stepping stone to get into KLA.
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Work :
There is debt and equity work. You’ll get to work on early stage VC deals, and do fundraising work, and also work with debt funds. Depending on the client, it can interesting or very demanding.
Otherwise, they have some legacy clients, for whom they sometimes tend to creat unnecessary urgency to please these clients. The firm also takes up lot of secretarial work for such clients instead of hiring a CS.
Work hours:
At times there can be immense work pressure, when you’re working till 2-3 am daily and also working on weekends. But there will be periods of less work pressure also when you leave at 7:30/8pm.
Work experience:
This firm has a semi hybrid structure - at associate, SA, PA level, you are working across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. Your SA can be in Mumbai while you’re in Delhi or vice versa. Technically, you may be working remotely, but you still have to come to office. Also, depending on who your senior is, you can have a very different experience. Mumbai team works hard, but they are more reasonable and easier to work with. Delhi team has some people who are difficult to work with and who micromanage a bit. Bangalore team is slightly relaxed.
Leaves - they say they are ok with people taking leaves, but often times seniors call up juniors who are on leave or make them feel guilty for taking leaves. While some seniors do make an effort not to disturb others on leave, some seniors don’t care as much.
Culture:
Lot of the seniors are home grown talent, and haven’t worked in other firms. Since they have been trained under the same person, they have a similar way of working. The firm has its own non legal training sessions for its lawyers, and the overall emphasis on certain things and way of functioning can give off cult vibes.
In the firm, the seniors do discuss about trying to create a balanced workplace, and of adopting innovative methods, but there is still lot of groundwork that needs to be done. As someone above mentioned, you can’t cram decades of innovation in 1 month.
Overall, the firm is trying to be better, but since most seniors have a similar way of working and thinking, it seems sometimes they are unable to recognise their own blind spots.
Left the firm a while back. If you don’t have other options, you can join the firm to learn basics and use this as a stepping stone.
My take on this place? It’s trying to cram a decade of innovation into a month, with little regard for coherence or sustainability. Sure, timelines are brutal across the board in any ambitious law firm, including Tier 1s, but what grates is the performative liberalism. The whole “progressive, balanced workplace” act falls apart when the reality is just another high-pressure grind dressed up in startup lingo.
I’ll give credit where it’s due; there are efforts to innovate. But here’s a thought: how about starting with competitive bonuses (basic litigation chambers are handing out more than a month's salary, by the way), investing in actual productivity tools like an in-house AI partner, and focusing less on fluff and more on deep, substantive legal work?
Join this place if you need a stepping stone. But if you're expecting a revolutionary, career-defining experience, you're not just optimistic; you're delusional.
As with most growing law firms, timelines are hard, work is harder, and burnouts happen more often than not. However, with the right partner, and the right team, this could be counteracted by just being open to wanting a break.
As to the cult culture, there are sessions that take place in KLA that feel like a seminar led by Jordan Peterson. However, take these with a grain of salt if you don’t agree, and live by the principles of you do. You usually get an all expenses paid trip out of it.
Pay, it differs. They look at previous experience, and your previous pay as opposed to a band system. I think I was paid pretty decently at an A2 level.
On culture, some SAs are more approachable while some aren’t. I’ve had an experience with a Delhi based SA, who I couldn’t stand (not naming anyone here). AC and AB are gems. Going out of their way to help you. You will have some instances where they come off as hard to deal with, but that generally stems out of a screw up.
All in all, I liked the place. Great place to learn, decent place to get paid, bad place if you’re looking for work-life balance.
So pick your priority if you plan on joining.
Hope this helped.
They tend to low ball you in salary negotiations. Not very nice and fair people that way.
People -
Associates - Competent people. Helpful. No toxicity amongst them. Approachable.
Partners - ▮. ▮▮▮ partners are crack in some or the other way here but irrespective I guess every human has flaws and they're not really the worst (I've seen worse so), it's liveable I guess. Most importantly, all SA's and partners (except kkp) are extremely knowledgeable, that's one solid plus point they have
Culture - A bit of a cult culture tbh. They can come off as hypocrites, they talk about integrity but clearly favouritism can be seen.
Work - Short timelines. High pressure. Long working hours. Corp team is majorly into debt transactions, that's their prime source of money. A lil bit of equity too but not really a very thriving practice on that side. They do have a class, it's not some chapri firm, they have some really good clients especially on debt side. I'd say matters wise it's definitely a T2, however pay wise it's a T3.
Policies -
They have started an initiative recently where every Friday they get on an all team call to discuss who all are having a 'working weekend' and they try to see if that can be avoided (if it's not a priority deliverable), and it really is working so that's something unique they're doing which no one else in the market is doing.
No work from home. On paper it's there but in actuality 99% times they'll reject your wfh request. They'll only allow it in extreme situation such as you've broken your leg or maybe a civil war breaks out.
Pay will always be on time.
Bonus (1 month salary that too is a variable component so no guarantee) will come in Diwali. They don't give bonus in March/April like all other firms. So if you quit after appraisal in April then you'll miss out on your bonus.
Mentorship - It's like they'll toss you into the water, if you somehow figure out how to swim then well and good, if you sink then well you sink. But they won't mentor you. Every day here feels like you're just barely managing survival somehow. Regardless it's a good learning experience, if you're not completely hopeless then you'll surely manage to learn some stuff atleast.
My overall review is that it's a fairly decent place nothing too good or much bad. If you work here even for an year or two, you'll have made a decent enough CV to get into good roles at better firms and companies.
Note of caution - They have a few dead matters wherein learning isn't much just that they pay well so KLA has them but otherwise the learning and growth for the lawyer isn't much. If you get them then you're screwed so be mindful of what they're making you do and if it's worth your time (which could have been spent on working on their other more interesting matters). Also, if you're not the bosses favourite, you'll suffer a bit.