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Tier 2: Argus (Arka's team), Fox Mandal (Arindam's team)
Tier 3: SAM, Aquilaw, Big 4s
Tier 4: Sandersons, S Jalan, Victor Moses
I do sympathise with people who lack contacts, or who are from lower-tier colleges, and can't manage the internships above. But even then, try as hard as you can, because you may be completely wasting your holidays and CV by interning in a lower-tier firm.
And do they have structured teams?
Also, one piece of advice: the people you will learn from at internships are associates and perhaps senior associates, not partners. So look out for firms with well-qualified, associates and senior associates: NLU grads, grads from decent universities who have done LLMs abroad etc. These people are also likely to be well-networked and with college batchmates in good firms across India, so they may also be able to recommend you to other firms across India. I factored this in while compiling the list.
Tier 1: KCO, Argus, SAM
Tier 1.5: Aquilaw (yes yes, I know the firm is controversial because of the TMC connection and looked down upon, but they get ALL the state government work and you will get to work on headline-grabbing cases — so don’t be swayed by critics!)
Tier 2: Fox Mandal (all the incarnations, LOL)
Tier 3: Sandersons Morgans, perhaps Victor Moses, maybe niche firms like Vipul Kundalia (NLSIU alum), S Majumdar (IP)
Tier 3.5: More niche firms: Maybe DP Ahuja and Davar for IP, a few tax firms
Tier 4: It gets pretty small and fragmented from here on, with most law firms having low reputations and limited CV value. Instead of interning with such firms, you might be better off interning with a solo advocate instead. If you don’t get a top-notch senior advocate, there are some good young lawyers practising. The other option is a company, like PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, ITC, Emami etc.