Out of curiosity, does anyone know where did all NLSIU toppers (first rankers) land up in life? What did they do straight out of law school and where they are now? There must be some 30 odd people who make this list. Did they all end up going for an LLM? Are they in high places, doing well, or do such high grades not matter at all? It would be interesting to know how their lives shaped up after all this hard work to get into law school and then in law school. Thank you!

The part of the hypothesis re foreign unis is correct. There is really a very strong representation of good NLS students in that.

However, the "corporate paper pushers" part, at least from the list provided in another comment, not so much. Yes, some of them have obtained TCs in London firms, but not all that many, which is all to the good, I would have thought.

In the list in the previous comment, the names of three people who are barristers (or pupil barristers) working in England have been provided, so going with the a priori assumption that that list is a representative sample, the part of your hypothesis about courtroom advocacy being not so popular a career choice also falls out the window, especially as there are probably more like that. If you think about it, becoming a barrister in England is a process which gives lots more appreciation and scope to people with strong intellectual ability (like NLSIU toppers) - this ('intellectual ability') is in fact a criteria that pupillage committees in chambers in England and Wales often insert into pupillage adverts. Going into litigation in India has historically been seen in India as the easy softball choice for people finding placement hard. As Sudhir Krishnaswamy, the current NLSIU VC, points out correctly, the difference between the Indian legal profession's structure and let us say that of England is that ours has a reasonably wide entry gateway and sorting your career out after entry is more of a problem than gaining entry, while their gateway for entry is very tight, and your career is likely to be more stable once entry has been achieved because the tightness of the gateway itself is seen as a way of earning your stripes to a certain extent. Therefore, what do you think people would have found historically attractive when it came to making a choice between those setups? I think there is hope for positive change (for India) on this score, considering the western direction of travel in terms of tightening immigration restrictions etc (I suppose many might find the combination of a tight entry pathway into a foreign legal profession + a hostile immigration system a bit too daunting for their tastes).

As for "serving the country", what about Sudhir? Hasn't he served his country by coming back? Khaitan by being on the editorial board of the Indian Law Review and setting up the Junior Faculty Forum for Indian Law Teachers (JFF-ILT)? All these guys who went overseas, by showing abroad that NLSIU is, should be and deserves to be the sort of law school whose name, when heard or seen, is one that causes people to sit up and take notice?

Are you for real? Our country is in dire need of good law professors as the level of legal education is all time low. Yet those people when they got the chance run away and teach whatever odd courses they can instead of teaching here at Indian unis. And you're celebrating that, lmao. Do you alos take pride in indian ceos serving us companies? Lol. Also take a good look at that list most of the toppers are either teaching in foreign unis or working in corporate, not a single one of them became a decent advocate here.

Also do you even know why NLSIU was founded? It wasn't founded so that people will get educated here and go to uk to become a barrister or teach at foreign unis. It was founded so that our society will get great advocates, law professors and other people who'll serve the society. Going by the list, NLSIU has failed terribly. None of those toppers served the Indian society, although all of them were able to fill their pockets though.

Sudhir after implementing unconstitutional 25% domicile quota shouldn't be seen as some legal lengend. He's another stooge afterall. Surely it seems you're not practising advocate either, must be paper pusher at some lala firm.

Read up about him: www.linkedin.com/in/shiva-santosh-yelamanchili-09779028/?originalSubdomain=in

www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/topper-to-work-among-grassroots-back-home/article7597966.ece

There are multiple others. You wanted a single example so here it is.

I have. Not for arguing cases mind you, for getting into alterations and being a bully. And the VC at the time was his uncle, and a lot of the people who shared the campus with him allege brazen favouritism. I don't understand if these articles are trying to highlight his glowing University career or underline a promising litigation practice. But quite frankly, other than these clearly self-written promotional pieces, I'm yet to see evidence of either.

I know of some people that did quite well at NLSIU, and were definitely near the top of their batch, if not the top:

1. Tarunab Khaitan: Superb guy, have spoken to him just recently. Went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Completed BCL, MPhil and DPhil (PhD at other unis) at Oxford, after which taught at NYU, Melbourne etc., before returning to Oxford again for a number of years as the Professor of Public Law and Legal Theory. Now the Chair in Public Law at LSE (previous holders of this post have included Carol Harlow, Martin Loughlin and Thomas Poole).

2. Harish Narasappa (founder of Samvad Partners): He was a few years before T. Khaitan's time. Completed BCL in Oxford, after which he worked as a solicitor in England for a few years at HSF, before returning to India and setting up Samvad.

3. Sudhir Krishnaswamy: The goat. Also a Rhodes alum, did BCL and DPhil in Oxford. Taught, among other places, at Buckingham, Oxford itself, Columbia, Nujs and APU, before returning to NLSIU as VC to rescue it from decline because of mismanagement.

4. Dev Gangjee: Again, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Prof. of Intellectual Property there now. Taught at LSE as well.

5. Shyamkrishna Balganesh: Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (again!) after graduating from NLSIU, completed BCL and MPhil there. Went to the U.S. after that and did an American Qualifying Law Degree (the J.D.) at Yale (completion of his J.D. in 2007 establishes proof, if proof were needed, of NLSIU being the trend creator of some rare excellent NLU students doing J.D. degrees in the U.S. as well), before teaching at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School; he left there some time back, and is now Sol Goldman Professor of Law at Columbia.

6. Lavanya Rajamani: LLM at Yale, BCL and DPhil from oxford (where she teaches now as well!). Formally taught at Cambridge also.

7. Sandeep Gopalan: Currently at University of Maryland Eastern Shore (think he was Rhodes as well). BCL and DPhil from Oxford. Has taught at Deakin and Newcastle (Australia) and National University of Ireland Maynooth.

8. There is a guy called Krishnaprasad (forgot his last name). He is a barrister in England at One Essex Court. He got pupillage (a difficult thing to do even for the best graduates from top UK law schools) after completing BCL, MPhil and DPhil at Oxford, and teaching at Oxford during his DPhil.

9. Ayushi Agarwal: Read for the BCL in Oxford as a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholar, seems to have almost completed DPhil there as well funded by Oxford Law Faculty and JN Tata scholarships. Recently was called to the bar of England and Wales by Inner Temple and will be starting her pupillage at 8 New Square Chambers.

10. Aradhya Sethia: LLM from Yale, MPhil from Oxford, PhD from Cambridge. Currently pupil barrister (barrister-in-training, undertaking pupillage, basically) at 7 King's Bench Walk.

These are what I can remember from the top of my head. Some academically excellent students got training contracts at prestigious law firms, e.g., Linklaters. Hope this is helpful.

Relax buddy they are mere professors in foreign universities. They got the chance and went as far away from the country. Real service to society would have been if they would have remained here and practised and served the society or they would have taught in Indian universities. Something for which NLSIU was formed.

You people are just so disgusting. A law school has students who achieve such star-like things in their lives and all you do is downvote in an anonymous forum someone's response to a genuine question which outlines their history. You are everything that is wrong with this country.

Teaching in a foreign university is a star-like thing? I didn't know the bar was so low for NLS graduates. I thought maybe like practicing at the court and defending the rights of the downtrodden and serving society. Or maybe fighting oppressive regimes by challenging their draconian laws. Yeah, that's a star-like thing, and something that real advocates do, unlike these NLS graduates.

Anyway, teaching at some foreign university is not a "star-like thing." It's called brain drain. It shows these people have no sense of devotion towards their own country. Also, not everyone wants to become a coolie at some lala firm. A lot of us are men enough to practice and serve society in the process. Something you would never be able to do, law firm coolie.

While I do agree that we should not belittle those who are at foreign universities, I think your stereotype is even worse: what you imply that those in the brain drain category have brains and then there are, as you say, 'those who don't [have brains]' who are those in India. This logic does not follow. Everyone teaching abroad needs to have brilliance, but not everyone with brilliance will teach abroad: those fighting for social justice here may be just as brilliant or even more - it is just that we romanticise those abroad more, which is a pity.

You made your own assumptions about my statement. Never said those who stay back in India lack brains. I myself have made that choice, giving up other options abroad. However, who perceive the people who have gone abroad as 'traitors, losers, people who never contributed to the country' etc., certainly lack brains and are jealous of people who have such brains. Nor does everyone who choose to remain in India remain dedicated to the cause of social justice.

Did these people also come from a place of privilege? Not discounting their achievements, these are all fantastic, but it seems that in addition to being meritorious one also needs money to fund stay in foreign universities. Ofcourse, scholarships help but one also needs additional money to fund a living abroad. The OP should rehash his original query to ask what NLSIU toppers who came from humble, lower middle class and working class background are doing now? Is there a correlation between coming from a privileged background and doing well academically?

From around when I was at NLS, Rahul Singh, Namita Wahi, and Aparna Chandra, are in academia in India. Rahul wasn't the topper but was in the top 5 for sure. The other two were 1st rankers. He and Namita went to Harvard, and Aparna went to Yale. Rahul and Aparna teach at NLS, and Namita works at CPR in Delhi.

To satisfy your curiosity there is so much info posted below. I can only tell you with my experience of over 20 years in the profession that almost every graduate of NLS Bangalore is successful whichever batch you take. A class topper or those in rank 1-10 or the last rank or those in rank 70-80 have same career trajectories. Rarely an NLS graduate is mediocre or not able to attain her full potential. Take any batch and you will be find equally successful and chilled out individuals.