There are no surprises on which law schools outperform the others where campus recruitments are concerned. The older national law universities (NLUs) – which also lead in the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) law school preference rankings – have the upper hand when it comes to attracting the best recruiters, the earliest.
They are the first-movers in getting students placed with the biggest Indian law firms, while students are still in the fourth year of LLBs.
The largest number of the most competitive jobs (and also usually the highest paying) are offered by firms that visit select NLUs in April of each year (Day Zero), to recruit from the law schools’ fourth-year LLB classes.
With these jobs gone, the other NLUs are left to scramble for the remaining legal positions and the non-NLUs - usually the last ones to get a piece of the pie - have to innovate and create newer opportunities than traditional legal jobs.
Editor’s note
Whatever you do, don’t blindly follow Outlook or India Today or other such nonsense (read some of our previous law school rankings coverage here; also read: The final word on law school rankings and how they should matter).
To shed some light on this area, this is the first in what is intended as a series on Legally India’s view of law schools over the past seven years, to help CLAT aspirants with their choices.
For the very quick overview picture of recruitments in 2014, you could do worse than go by Legally India’s recruitment power ranking, which gives an indication of how easy it is to get high-paying corporate jobs at a college for any individual student. (check out the main rankings here, and rankings including JGLS Sonepat here).
Second, before delving in, note that this is not a complete picture.
We are, sadly, not omniscient and our information on law school recruitments is mostly limited to law schools being transparent with this data and providing it (which is why GNLU has performed so badly in the power rankings since it only discloses the best jobs of a tiny number of students of its huge batch).
For many of the younger colleges, we do not have complete information of all years’ recruitments, but the data we do have should be able to give an idea of what’s what (there’s also an appendix at the end, with all of the source data, should you wish to deep-dive).
Finally, if you are part of an RCC, please do share the year-end 2016 recruitment figures with us, please do at so that we can update the figures for this year and prepare a recruitment power ranking. Generally, the more complete the figures (including a full account of LLMs, litigation jobs, etc), the stronger the ranking will be.
Foreign law firms
NLSIU Bangalore and Nalsar Hyderabad have consistently attracted the highest number of UK law firm training contracts for its LLB graduates on campus, since 2010 which is when Legally India first covered law school campus recruitments.
NUJS Kolkata and NLU Delhi come a close second in terms of foreign law firm jobs on campus.
NLU Jodhpur gained one foreign law firm job offer in all these years – at Ashurst - whereas all the other NLUs are more or less out of this game completely.
However, it’s not unheard of for enterprising individuals from any law school to get foreign law firm jobs, though these are very rarely directly off the back of campus interviews and require more creative approaches.
The ‘Big Seven’ law firms
NLSIU and Nalsar LLB graduates nearly always make it to India’s top seven law firms (AZB, JSA, Khaitan, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), Luthra & Luthra and Trilegal) in droves of approximately 20 to 30 graduates each year.
NUJS Kolkata and NLU Delhi again score second place in this section, with NUJS procuring some more offers than NLU Delhi, which is a much younger law school but has been punching above its weight here.
Note: It has been pointed out that NLU Jodhpur, by several metrics, could also be equivalent to (or stronger than) NLU Delhi in terms of ‘big seven’ firm placements (particularly in recent years in which NLU Jodhpur seems to have again picked up a bit, while NLU Delhi is still young and therefore doesn’t have very long recruitment records available). There’s something to that argument – please read the comment for more information. However, NLU Delhi is starting to look like an increasingly safe bet for jobs, and likely will be even stronger in five years time.
GNLU Gandhinagar and NLU Jodhpur have also shown promise in attracting Big 7 jobs, with GNLU even having outdone NLSIU and Nalsar on occasion because the erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas firm picked up a massive number from that law school. Amarchand Mangaldas, however, only exists as its split halves (CAM and SAM) now so how many they will pick up in future is uncertain, and GNLU also has the disadvantage of having 180 students to place each year, which is far more than any other national law school.
The recruitment performance of NLIU Bhopal had dipped during the mid-years of our coverage but it has recently again managed to catch up with Big Law jobs comparable in number to NLU Jodhpur and GNLU.
In 2014, private law school JGLS Sonepat placed more LLB graduates with Big Law than NLIU and NLU Jodhpur. However, an LLB education at JGLS comes at almost four times the cost of the NLUs.
Other jobs and opportunities
The lower ranked NLUs and non-NLUs generally capitalise on the rest of the job market: Big and mid-sized domestic corporate law firms, start-up law firms, litigation firms, chambers of practising advocates, in-house legal departments, legal process outsourcing companies (LPOs), government research jobs such as in the state legislative departments, and judicial clerkships under Supreme Court and high court judges.
Or their graduates often opt to pursue an LLM or other post graduate courses, or apply for various research fellowships (sometimes hoping that this additional qualification will fetch them a higher-paying job later – financially, a risky calculation without a scholarship).
NLSIU Bangalore, Nalsar, NUJS, NLU Delhi, NLU Jodhpur, GNLU and NLIU are the leaders in all these opportunities as well, with NLSIU and Nalsar usually placing almost their entire graduating class, and the others also substantially placing all of the graduates who opted for campus recruitment.
HNLU Raipur, which was established in 2003, had struggled with recruitments for a long time due to its remote campus. But the law school does better than the remaining lower-ranked NLUs, though this performance has often hinged on students’ independent initiative.
AIL Mohali did better in 2014 than some of the younger NLUs such as RMLNLU Lucknow, RGNUL Patiala, NLU Orissa in Cuttack and CNLU Patna.
Jobs at RGNUL and RMLNLU have tended heavily towards the litigation side of the profession.
Litigation is not a bad thing or a lesser career option than corporate law, but anecdotally if a majority of a class goes into litigation, it can often be a sign that not enough attractive corporate jobs were available.
CNLU Patna began its recruitment record with a hunger strike because of the total absence of recruiters in 2011, but by 2015 it has improved the situation marginally, mostly on the back of legal process outsourcing (LPO) jobs.
Out of GLC Mumbai, Amity Delhi and ILS Pune – all of which have been reported on by Legally India just once each – and Christ College Bangalore (whose recruitments were covered twice by Legally India), GLC Mumbai is the safest bet from the point of view of recruitments (although a lot at GLC seems to come down to individual students’ initiatives in procuring internships while studying, etc).
Law-school wise index of all Legally India campus recruitment stories
Receruitment stories appendix
This is a chronological index of all campus recruitment stories on Legally India, and the stories are grouped under the law schools about which they report (in no particular order).
General
- Day Zeros demand from amarchands divided offsets drop in 2017 recruitments from others via mint
- Law schools recruitment power rankings 2013 14
- Supreme court judicial clerkship stipends hiked to rs 25k attractive enough
- Eight more campus hires for luthra NLS next
- ILS Pune launch qcorporate cellq to bolster job prospects
NLSIU Bangalore
- NLSIU 2017 day zero success 33 places as shroff brothers pick up 17 plus 1 big money a o training contract
- NLSIU bags 29 big six jobs 4 foreign jobs 100 campus success for class of 2015
- NLSIU sews up 32 day zero jobs ppos 4 foreign internships
- 42 jobs for 77 NLSIU 2014 grads
- Day zero 33 NLSIU fourth years bag early jobs amarchand khaitan heaviest
- Traditional recruiters tug lighter at NLS Bangalore 2012 grads luthra goes strong desk jobs number less
- NLS day zero
- earlybird record luthra khaitan on top as 7 firms hire 29 NLS 2012 grads
- students under the gun amarchand v trilegal in early NLS campus swoop 48 hour offers
- easy money for NLS Bangalore 100 jobs strong domestic intl firm interest
- indian UK recruiters scoop 48 NLS Bangalore 5th years
NALSAR Hyderabad
- NALSAR 2015 final campus recruitments
- NALSAR Hyderabad 2016 batch wins 35 39 jobs after successful day zero
- NALSAR recruitment 2014
- NALSAR 2015 day zero new academic model reaps 29 jobs including two rs 100 lakh foreign jobs
- NALSAR RCC maintains score with jobs for all 43 2012 participants bar aspirants lead non participants
- 2013 recruitment Day Zero at NALSAR GNLU NLIU amarchand trilegal hire 30
- NALSARs super early recruitment day zero bags 29 law firm jobs for 4th years
- NALSAR 2011 59 desk jobs 8 llms with in house filling up 100 rcc quota
- Nearly half of NALSAR finalists find law firm homes amarchand tops campus recruitment
- NALSAR Hyderabad recruitment at 95 as hiring into in house roles doubles litigation two sided
NUJS Kolkata
- NUJS 2017 jobs at least 40 but college hopes to keep exact number secret
- 2015 NUJS batch of 106 secures overwhelming 78 jobs through rcc
- NUJS Kolkata 2014 final recruitment tally
- NUJS 2015 day zero 27 accepted jobs 5 foreign firm opportunities
- NUJS 2012 placements
- NUJS day zero 41 jobs for 2012 grads from foreign domestic recruiters
- result for all 75 NUJS grads into desk jobs plus 3 foreign firms 5 llms 2 start ups
- NUJS finds early law firm homes for 30 finalists
- return to form 94 per cent NUJS finalists to secure jobs
- amarchand finishes 2010 recruitment run at NUJS
NLU Delhi
- NLU Delhi places 21 students after day zero cyril and probably shardul top recruiters khaitan luthra trilegal take 6
- NLU Delhi dished out 44 jobs for 2015 grads 15 with big six in house preference grows
- NLU Delhi day zero flying start
- NLU Delhi places 45 out of 73 2014 grads
- NLU Delhi 12 day zero offers 10 jobs in bag 3 foreign vac schemes for 2015 batch
- day zeros NLU Delhi rcc confirms 12 jobs 3 vac schemes jindal on 8 and 2 white case
- NLU Delhi first batch scores five law firm jobs after day zero ditched
NLIU Bhopal
- NLIU Bhopal places 48 out of 89 in class of 2015
- NLIU s top secret day zero yields 23 jobs from biglaw jsa icici for 50 of eligible students
- NLIU Bhopal places 38 out of 81 2014 grads
- recruitment forecast bleak at NLIU Bhopal as amarchand and lpo flag off day zero
- NLIU 2012 batch 31 jobs across amarchand icici lpos as judiciary proves popular
- NLIU Bhopal recruitment nearly measures up to last year with 33 desk jobs
- khaitan a co on top as NLIU Bhopal first recruitment round places 18 students across six recruiters
- NLIU Bhopal recruitment committee hits 96 offers law firms soak up half the talent
NLUO Cuttack
CNLU Patna
- CNLU Patna 2015 recruitments
- CNLU Patna 2014 grads get 17 jobs
- CNLU Patna
- CNLU improves placement record with lpos air law firms as faculty fumbles figures
- CNLU calls off hunger strike after three recruiters visit campus
HNLU Raipur
- HNLU 2015 batch wins jobs for 58 students out of 146 3 cyril amarchand trilegal wadia g 2 khaitan
- HNLU placement 2014
- HNLU 2013 final recruitments
- 12 jobs 0 law firms turn up at HNLUs abhanpur campus
- HNLU Raipur batch innovates via ppos to negate location for 75 desk jobs
- HNLU recruitment edges up to 61 azb other top firms swear by school
GNLU Gandhinagar
- GNLU bags 24 top tier biglaw jobs after its day zero yesterday as amarchand hires 12 to overtake khaitan as biggest day zero hirer
- GNLU keeps placement statistics secret
- GNLU ' s secret day zero
- more desk jobs amarchand offers for GNLUs mammoth batch than NLS NALSAR
JGLS Sonepat
- JGLS recruitment 2014
- jindal global law school scores 91 per cent jobs for miniature first batch of 23
NLU Jodhpur
- NLU Jodhpur 48 jobs for class of 87
- 12 day zero offers for NLU Jodhpur
- NLU Jodhpur 45 final years get jobs as 4th years place 14 on day zero
- all NLU Jodhpur finalists find jobs law firms lpos take half ashurst one
AIL MOHALI
RGNUL Patiala
- RGNUL places 6 out of 70 in 2014 graduate class
- one fifth of RGNUL Patiala final year with jobs
- RGNUL Patiala 2nd batch 53 jobs most in court 20 in law firms
- first jobs for current RGNUL Patiala grads after new vc tackles admin delays
NUALS Kochi
- Nuals Kochi 26 out of 65 find jobs
- Nuals Kochis national maiden batch 24 non lit 7 foreign llm 4 senior lit
RMLNLU Lucknow
- RMLNLU Lucknow 45 out of 150 placed
- RMLNLU brings down class size ups placements NUJS NLIU
- 32 lohiyan 2012 graduates find jobs as RMLNLU batch doubles to 154
- RMLNLU debut batch opts for bench amarchand icici recruit most
ILS PUNE
CHRIST Bangalore
- ppos save placement record as Christ laws 2nd graduating batch hosts fewer law firms
- Christ college bootstraps first batch placements attracts mix of recruiters
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Kudos Kian. Keep up the good work.
However, I think the corp-job trend is moving away from NLS. As seen from the past couple of years (if not more), some of the brightest ones in the batch don't sit for Day Zero or participate in the recruitment process at all.
Litigation and civil services are picking up, among other diverse choices. Many of the students bagging corp jobs only plan to work at it for a year or two, firms are aware of this trend and appear to be apprehensive about it.
While at least 40-50% of the batch wishes to at least start out in a law firm, other opportunities are also becoming popular, which we think is great - adds to the diversity.
I cannot speak for other law schools. Most have a culture where there is a dominant hierarchy of career prospects, which is contextualized in their law school. This may be rigid if students think corp jobs are the aim, or more fluid in law schools where other choices are picking up. People interested in the pattern of placements and such would do well to try to gauge the atmosphere (perhaps through variety of activities, participation and performance) before coming to a conclusion that NLU-X is more likely to get them Linklaters/CAM/SAM/etc than NLU-Y. Ultimately, students' individual performance matters. Law school merely provides the environment which will facilitate working towards it.
But Kian I must say that faculty is one area you have neglected badly.
www.change.org/p/chief-justice-of-india-to-seek-urgent-intervention-against
Just one question. How in the world is NLU-D better than NLU Jodhpur in terms of Big-7 (tier-1) placements? I'm only going to refer to your own reporting (despite the fact that you have failed to report accurate figures on many occasions), just so it becomes clear how little effort LI puts into its analytical pieces like the present one.
Sample this please:
2010
Delhi - Didn't have students to place
Jodhpur- 18 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/20100526880/Law-schools/all-nlu-jodhpur-finalists-find-jobs-law-firms-lpos-take-half-ashurst-one)
2011
Delhi - Didn't have students to place
Jodhpur- 29 tier-1 jobs
(Recall an email dated Jun 8, 2011 from the university to LI in response to LI's Mr. Jay Satya's email dated May 31, 2011. For reasons best known to LI, the figures were never published)
2012
Delhi - Didn't have students to place
Jodhpur- 19 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/201205102806/Law-schools/nlu-jodhpur-45-final-years-get-jobs-as-4th-years-place-14-on-day-zero)
2013
Delhi- 3 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/201210113179/Law-schools/nlu-delhi-first-batch-scores-five-law-firm-jobs-after-day-zero-ditched)
Jodhpur - Over 15 tier-1 jobs
Never reported on LI, unfortunately (barandbench.com/nlu-jodhpur-releases-final-tally-placements-total-58-students-placed-batch-2013-official/)
2014
Delhi - 16 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/201409025014/Law-schools/nlu-delhi-places-45-out-of-73-2014-grads)
Jodhpur - 12 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/201409175060/Law-schools/nlu-jodhpur-48-jobs-for-class-of-87)
2015
Delhi - 15 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/Law-schools/nlu-delhi-dished-out-44-jobs-for-2015-grads-15-with-big-six-in-house-preference-grows)
Jodhpur - 12 tier-1 jobs on day zero + 2 jobs with AZB Delhi (Nabil Shadab and Prakhar Bharadwaj) + 2 more jobs with Luthra Delhi (Alimpan Banerjee and Ankur Prasad)= 16 tier-1 jobs (Had LI cared to follow up with NLU Jodhpur, as it did with NLU Delhi, this final figure would have easily come out. Instead, LI did not report anything further from day zero in relation to NLU Jodhpur)
(www.legallyindia.com/201404164607/Law-schools/12-day-zero-offers-for-nlu-jodhpur)
2016
Delhi - 18 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/law-schools/nlu-delhi-places-21-students-after-day-zero-cyril-and-probably-shardul-top-recruiters-khaitan-luthra-trilegal-take-6)
Jodhpur - 31 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/Law-firms/nlu-jodhpur-s-day-zero-set-to-may-double-last-year-s-record-with-massive-ppo-haul-for-2016-batch)
2017
Delhi - 13 tier-1 jobs
(www.legallyindia.com/law-schools/nlu-delhi-places-21-students-after-day-zero-cyril-and-probably-shardul-top-recruiters-khaitan-luthra-trilegal-take-6)
Jodhpur - 25 on day zero + 2 = 27 tier-1 jobs (Trilegal made 2 more offers two days after day zero to Saara Ahmed and Amulya Chinmayee)
(www.legallyindia.com/law-schools/day-zeros-demand-from-amarchands-divided-offsets-drop-in-2017-recruitments-from-others-via-mint)
Over the past two years, i.e. for the batches of 2016 and 2017, NLU Jodhpur had 27 more tier-1 jobs than NLU Delhi. Yes, 27.
I'm not even bothering to comparing placements at non tier-1 firms where the margins become much bigger. Please, do not prevent aspiring law students from making an educated choice. If you cannot do your job of guiding these students, at least do not misguide them. That's all I ask of you.
In 2014 and 2015 it seemed the published NLU Delhi final figures were marginally stronger (unless our NLU Jodhpur figures are incomplete, as you suggest, which could be. If I remember correctly, because the NLU J RCC is not as student run as most of the others, the NLU Jodhpur faculty RCC coordinators had not been very open in sharing final or other recruitments with us, so we may have given up in chasing these, I'm not sure...)
Anyway, perhaps our analysis may have given NLU Delhi a slightly too-high ranking, since they are still quite young. Will take another look and clarify if required.
I agree that NLUD's figures were slightly better than NLUJ in 2014 and almost at par with NLUJ in 2015, however, that cannot possibly be enough to counter NLUJ's significantly better figures in 2013, 2016 and 2017.
Placements:
NLSIU
NALSAR
NUJS
NLUD
NLUJ
Faculty (excluding JGLS):
NLUD
NALSAR
NLSIU
NUJS
NLUJ
Infra:
NALSAR
GNLU
NLUD
NLUJ
NLSIU
As for overall ranking, it depends on what you wish to give max weightage to. If placements then NLSIU. If faculty then NLUD.
Placements:
NLSIU
NALSAR
NUJS
GNLU
NLUJ
Faculty (excluding JGLS):
NLUD
NALSAR
NLSIU
NUJS
NLUJ
Infra:
NALSAR
GNLU
NLUD
NLUJ
NLSIU
As for overall ranking, it depends on what you wish to give max weightage to. If placements then NLSIU. If faculty then NLUD.
@All who keep asking Kian to report faculty situation at NLUs: It is a notoriously difficult thing to do to begin with, as simply educational qualifications and even research publications do not always reveal how good a teacher is in any case, although you can probably identify the really bad ones by way of their so-called publications (if you read them). Also, Kian and Prachi are still trying with their survey, but as I understand, it has not met with much success in terms of participants. He cannot get the data by way of divination, folks, no matter how good a 'Kiang' he may be!
As such, any individual student joining Nalsar or NLS, has slightly higher odds of getting a 'tier 1' job than an NUJS student, statistically?
But I agree, at the end of the day, there's not much to choose between them recruitment wise and anyone picking NUJS over Nalsar wouldn't probably notice any practical difference.
If you use this criterion, then this becomes the ranking:
1. NLS = 4 people (Sarasu Esther Thomas, Kunal Ambasta, Rahul Singh and Manjeri Subin, a NUALS alum)
NLUD = 4 people (Mrinal Satish, Aparna Chandra, Anup Surendranath, Chinmayi Arun)
2. NALSAR= 2 people (Sid Chauhan and Ajey Sangai -- note that Manav Kapur has left)
So contrary to what we hear from NLUD and NALSAR fanboys, they are not WAAAAAY ahead of NLS in terms of faculty. Yes, NLS should have better faculty and attract more alumni, but it's not that other NLUs are way ahead!
Anyway, what Kian should NOT do is look at useless things like PhD from India/ UGC NET qualification/seniority etc. Bar & Bench used this to do a faculty ranking and ranked CNLU Patna faculty as the best, LOL.
There are plenty good teachers across India in law schools. However, the mindless growth in the numbers of schools has spread them across too thin. Make 3/4 law schools instead of the 18 odd we have now and fund them well, many of the problems facing us (as not wrongly pointed out in these forums) will be worked out.
I doubt that you've interacted with anyone at Jindal personally (barring exceptions, of course, which exist at NLSIU-level as well).
indiatoday.intoday.in/story/hrd-ministry-plans-to-rank-law-medical-colleges-from-next-yr/1/674416.html
www.hindustantimes.com/education/clat-2016-results-declared-a-day-earlier-bengaluru-s-viraj-ananth-tops/story-DY8dCKzG1av4CbwzOHOONL.html
www.livelaw.in/dr-yogesh-pratap-singh-appointed-deputy-registrar-research-supreme-court-india/
Doesn't it render the same useless with respect to such colleges?
Your statement about NLUJ having only one foreign recruit is incorrect. There have been at least 10 students selected by Herbert Smith in the early (2007-2009) batches. Two students have received a training contract from Clifford Chance and one from Norton Rose from the 2009 batch. One student from the 2011 batch received a TC from A&O. In the past, students have been selected for vacation schemes by HSF, A&O and Linklaters.
The batch of 2013 had one TC each from A&O and HSF. Batch of 2014 had one Linklaters TC. While there were no TCs for batches of 2015 and 2016, the batch of 2017 has two vac schemes lined up, one with HSF and the other one with Linklaters.
Again, baffling how you made an extremely categorical assertion "NLU Jodhpur gained one foreign law firm job offer in all these years" without doing any research at all. Even a simple linkedin search would have thrown up a dozen names of NLUJ alumni who have obtained and completed TCs with Magic Circle and Silver Circle firms.
While I greatly appreciate that LI has corrected the error with respect to the tier-1 Indian law firms recruitment figures, another correction is certainly warranted here.
I wasn't expecting such a snarky response from you. You had graciously accepted the earlier error I had pointed out, I don't see why you have taken this comment to heart. My comment seems to have upset you. Let me just tell you that I have enjoyed LI's work for many years now, appreciated many brilliant articles, and am only trying to do my part to improve this piece. That's the sole motive here, no intention to bring your credentials or the general quality of LI's work into question.
Having cleared that up, I agree that the 2014-16 batches did not do well in relation to foreign jobs. However, things are picking up again, as shown by the performance of the 2017 batch. Sure, there was a decline in this regard, but the the trend is turning and since this article is aimed at CLAT takers to help them pick the right law school, the most current trend should be brought to their attention, wouldn't you agree?
Further, I took issue with the manner in which the sentence "NLU Jodhpur gained one foreign law firm job offer in all these years" seems to imply that NLU Jodhpur has only received one foreign job offer in all of its years. This implication, to me, wrongly dismisses the consistently good performance of the batches of 2006-2013 in terms of foreign jobs as well as the most recent crop of 2017, which is making sure that the recent decline in foreign jobs is reversed.
Do you know why it's gone downhill a little bit? Apathetic administration? Or just a lot of competition from younger law schools in the market?
Chill already!!
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