We want LI to be one of the friendliest places on the internet, where lawyers and law students help each other with their career related queries and occasionally discuss other stuff that might affect their lives too. In other words:
1. Be kind, respectful and helpful to each other.
2. Be bona fide, truthful, genuine and curious.
3. Assume the best intention of others.
Therefore, in using the site, you must agree to do your best to uphold these community guidelines.
Note that what you find here is written and moderated by anonymous people on the internet.
Therefore everything you read here is very likely unverified, rumour, speculation and/or downright false.
In continuing to read anything here, you must therefore agree not to take anything you read here as factual and that you will exercise due caution, diligence and common sense before acting on any information you may come across here.
You also agree to report any inaccurate or malicious comments with the buttons. Moderators take action within 24 hours, as required and appropriate under law.
Our full terms and conditions apply too.
Do you solemnly agree to all of the above?
I’m 27 and currently working as a Law Officer in a central government (posted in a PSU). I plan to leave this job soon and move to enter litigation and later prepare for the higher judiciary exams. I understand there are practice-period requirements for judicial elevation and that I’ll likely need several years of practice (around 7 years of meaningful litigation experience to be competitive for higher judiciary).
Questions I’d like real-life answers to:
1. Will resigning a central government post (to take up litigation) be viewed negatively when I later apply for the higher judiciary? Will it be held against me by selection committees or peers?
2. Are there examples of civil judges or High Court judges who started their careers as government servants (central/state/PSU) and later moved into litigation and were eventually elevated? If yes, please share names/timelines/links if possible.
3. Practical issues: did you face problems with seniority, credibility, client acquisition, or perceptions in court after switching from a government legal post to private practice? Any tips to smooth the transition?
4. Any advice on building a litigation profile while in a PSU role so the eventual transition and judiciary application won’t look weak?
I want actual people, at least those who closely observed it or know about such switch. Please mention state/High Court (if comfortable).
Thanks, I’ll read every genuine reply. If you want to roast my plan, be constructive about it.
In Litigation there's no guarantee of becoming a top tier senior and earning crores especially if you're a 1st gen lawyer or wait for decades to be financially successful. In a government job atleast you regularly get a salary and healthy working hours in comparison to 24/7 availability requirement in litigation and law firms.
You can be successful in litigation if luck and your hard work are combined together but be prepared for initial brutal struggle.
I don't think there is any credibility issues if you have left a PSU job or any job and then joined litigation. There are many who have left their jobs, litigated and got selected as ADJ. Your merit, i.e., getting very good marks in the written exam and performing well in the interview will matter the most.