Not really. You may have interacted with some lower rung lawyers. The senior lawyers here charge quite high. I charge 22k per appearance with clerkage. - 13+ PQE and 12+ in practice. The junior counsel with the biggest practice is a GST practitioner with a practice of about 2.5 Cr+

1st job - 55k net / month + 1.5L net annual bonus

2nd job - 2.6L net / month + 9L net annual bonus

3rd job - 6.9L net / month + 11L net annual bonus

4th job - 5.5L net / month + no bonus

5th job - 8L net / month + no bonus

6th job - 11L net / month + 92L net annual stock compensation

In a span of 10 years including one masters degree.

Forget about wasting time. If you're earning 5 lacks per month in litigation, then you're swamped with work, dude. I know lawyers who earn similar or even lesser and they work 24*7 and take no leaves. So someone earning this much surely won't waste his time here out of all the places. Surely seem like some guy who has never set foot in the court or some junior who's massively exaggerating his income. All for internet likes.

I would say learning curve is the same, just volume of work is lower so you get think and learn in peace. For example, while drafting an agreement, there's some time to read up on relevant laws and figure out why something is the way it should be, as opposed to rushing to replace names in a template quickly due to paucity of time. YMMV

Still on my first salary, but might be helpful for law students — the first person to offer to hire me back when I was interning with them (in my IIIrd-Year) offered me 40k/m and I'd seriously and proudly considered it, being a first gen coming from a lower income household in a Tier 3 city. Even though I was in a decent college at that time, the economy was going to shit and my rank had already gone to shit (I was in the bottom 25%). Most people (apart from my best friends) told me that getting a T1 job would be practically next to impossible for me at that stage.

I humbly rejected the offer, and went on to have a frank conversation with the person, explaining them my financial necessities and need to build a reputation before I could join a smaller firm. They understood and wished me well, in addition to suggesting me places I could intern with, in my fourth year. I went on to give my all in various subsequent internships, and built on the same for references and offers.

I ended up with 5 job offers, including a bunch of T1s, without even sitting for Day Zero. I chose a team & partner that prioritise providing extensive mentorship at a higher paying T1 firm, and am in general much more satisfied with my work life than my topper friends who blindly went to the T1 firms on Day Zero and got saddled up to partners they don't like.

So, if you're in law school and its too late to do something about your grades — that's okay; you can still get good jobs! Remember, all someone's looking for while offering a job is a person who can be of practical help to their work profile. Good academics are used as a proxy to assume your discipline & bare minimal knowledge necessary to meet the targets your boss will want you to meet. If you can demonstrate that you'll be of effective & practical help regardless, then the potential employers won't care about such proxies.

Litigation: Metro City - South - Figures per month

1 YOE - 12,000

3 YOE - 15,000

4 YOE - 20,000

5 YOE - 30,000

6 YOE - 10,000 (Corona)

Started Independent practice

7 YOE- 3,00,000/-

8 YOE - 5,00,000/-

The risks and the struggles are all worth it. Extraordinary work life balance. No drama. Absolute confidence.

Law humbles everyone at some point. Let this thread be an archive of inspirational stories of individuals starting from humble beginnings (in terms of pay) to where you are right now. New age lawyers need to know the good results you can yield from this profession.

* It can also include progression by choosing mental health over fancy pay.