August is almost over, and so is the Day 0 season at t-1 NLUs. If there's one thing that we've all very clearly learnt from this, it's that the increased batch sizes at NLS have not only been a disaster for themselves, but have also had an equally cascading effect on others too.

At the start of this decade, NLS would have a double digit batch size, and along with NALSAR, NUJS and NLUD, the graduating batch would be ~400. Now, the incoming batches at BA LLB in NLS themselves have 400 students+ 60 at LLB. 135 at NALSAR. 130+60 at NUJS. And some 80 at NLUD. You would have close to 900 students only from the top 4 law schools lol.

It's terrifying to think what would happen to the batches of 28 and 29 in the near future. The law firm job market gets worse each year, and does not show absolutely any sign of recovery any time soon, at least not in this decade. I don't want to get into specific numbers, but NLS has 2/3 of its batch unplaced. NALSAR and NUJS around half. A significant part of this includes really deserving candidates, with good profiles, who have nothing to blame on themselves. You spend lakhs and lakhs behind an elite degree after clearing a competitive exam, go through 5 years of law school only to graduate unemployed. I don't think rankers have to ever had struggle so much.

Law is not a basic graduation degree like a bachelor's in humanities. When you treat it as one, mindlessly expand your intake without any regard for the potential future of your students, you eventually do face the brunt. Competition keeps getting fiercer, and opportunities keep getting scarcer. So congratulations NLS, you've managed to keep a huge bunch of yourselves, as well as others, unemployed.

Dont talk crap. When the State increased it because of domicile reservation, it was challenged by two alumni - Nikhil Singhvi and Satyajit Sarna. Karnataka High Court struck down the law and quashed the domicile saying its a national institution and you cant have state reservation. So State filed an SLP in SC. While it was on, Genius Messiah moved the change himself internally in NLS and used the Executive Council to bring in the same reservation. Nobody challenged this and it continues.

Separately, Genius Messiah also introduced multiple undergrad courses, overstretched the faculty and resources and diluted the brand.

So, No. Its not because of reservation. And certainly not because of the Govt. Its because GM wanted to get into the local good books to sponsor his grand expansion plans.

NLSIU used to have 80 sets, with 57 in the merit list, 3 in SAARC/foreign national quota and 20 in SC/ST quota. Then the Manmohan Singh govt introduced OBC reservation in educational institutes, Modi introduced EWS reservation, and the BJP-Cong in Karnataka both introduced domicile reservation.

Welfarism and populism always means more seats.

Where are you getting the information that there are 400 BA LLB students in NLSIU? It's 310 as per the last increase.

Nevertheless, it seems futile to blame batch size increase in lack of employment opportunities. The students who got into NLS would otherwise would have been in NALSAR/NUJS/etc. They are still the same bright students. The larger problem is concentration of Indian corporate legal market in the hands of a few large firms. If the legal market is to grow, more and more partners would have to break away and start their own botique firms (there are already some who pay around 1LPM which is good enough launching platform to grow). This will ensure that even lower ranked students from good law school get placed.

The second problem is people wagering all their bets in corporate placements, that too in tier 1 law firms. There is more to law than M&A at one of the LALA firms. I am not asking you to give up everything and start doing legal aid work, but if you know your batch rank is not good enough for a t1 law firm - diversify to a smaller firm which may pay 80k-1LPM to freshers, but atleast you will have a job. I wont name any places, but a person motivated enough can hustle through and easily find them.

The point is that any student who scores well enough in CLAT and manages to fund their education at NLSIU has a legitimate expectation that if they work hard over the next five years, then they can have access to every opportunity in terms of their career. That is a picture that has been painted before them by the entire ecosystem including by NLSIU as an institution. However, the truth remains that NLSIU could not have expanded its capacity to provide such opportunities along with the expansion of its student intake. This has been predicted well in advance even on this forum the moment Sudhir decided to increase the batch size. Multiple batches of students have chosen to ignore that reality and are finding themselves facing the hard truth now to their dismay. It does not matter whether the top CLAT 300 students choose NLSIU, it still cannot provide placement to to even 1/3 of that number since it never could in terms of such high absolute numbers. The boast that it will 'steal' away jobs from NALSAR, NUJS etc. because of the high CLAT rankers choosing NLSIU has been inevitably proven to be an empty one.

The issue is also the weird trimester system at NLS. We all know that firms are moving towards PPO route of hiring. This means less people from NLS have chances of conversion simply because it's hard for one to build rapport with the team in 1 month and NLS students sometimes get somewhere around 3 weeks of time to intern if the end terms are shifted to first week of the month of internship.

The point about the markets being saturated is true, and I think that's discussed all the time on this platform. But something like the mushrooming law schools and growing headcount of freshers without any checks diminishes the overall quality of the profession, and catalyses unemployment. Access should be limited based on merit.