As the novel coronavirus is gearing up for a second wave and wreaking renewed havoc in much of the world and economies continue teetering on brinks barely held back by government stimulus packages, a number of law firms have recently eased restrictions on their fee-earners.
Albeit slightly later than usual, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) and JurisCorp have paid out bonuses and announced the normally routine annual fixed pay increments in line with post-qualification experience (PQE) levels.
At LKS, bonus payments and increments are normally announced around June, with increments paid in arrears from April.
This year both were announced in November, we understand from authoritative sources.
JurisCorp too has announced the normally-routine pay increments as well as having now paid out annual bonuses for the 2019-20 financial year.
The firm said in a statement that “in the wake of a global pandemic outbreak, Juris Corp managed to weather the blow ensuring full payments to all the lawyers and staff all through the year”, adding:
Adapting to the “New Now”, the firm’s members have shown remarkable resolve and resilience by attuning to robust technology, ensuring seamless delivery of work. This in turn has resulted in client requirements being met with efficiently. The Firm appreciates all its members for quickly adapting to the changed environment and demonstrating great teamwork, where working from home throws up its fair share of challenges and pressure.
Juris Corp co-founder Talat Shah commented in a press statement: “Our people have put in a lot of efforts inspite of the current challenging times. In light of the same, Juris Corp is committed to act in the best interest of our people.”
Juris Corp partner Pratish Kumar added: “These are uncertain times. Our workforce has been a critical part of our success. We like to reward our people for their stellar performance and support to the firm even during these difficult times.”
L&L: One bonus tranche but no increments
Yesterday, L&L Partners too has issued a press release stating that it had paid out bonuses across offices:
L&L Partners, formerly Luthra & Luthra Law Offices, has made bonus payouts across its offices pan-India today - all corporate counsels received pre-agreed bonuses, despite the impact of COVID19. All support staff also received their full annual payouts on time, before Diwali.
But we understand from several sources that annual fixed pay has been frozen and has not been incremented, though a spokesperson said today: “I believe the increments are still being considered. I also understand some increments are being announced today.”
Regarding the bonuses, the story is a bit more complicated.
We had reported in March 2020 that L&L had paid its year-end bonuses slightly early due to the pandemic.
And we understand according to an internal announcement, that (potentially former) senior partner Mohit Saraf had announced another bonus tranche that was paid around 9 September 2020.
However, this latest announced November bonus payment only applies to partners and managing associates.
According to multiple internal sources, the L&L bonus structure entails amounts disbursed several times per year up to a maximum bonus cap based on the PQE level of a fee earner.
The system is not entirely straightforward.
Associates and senior associates usually get paid up to 50% of their yearly maximum bonus cap in March, with the remainder paid in another tranche between July and September after appraisals.
Managing associates and partners get their bonuses paid in four tranches per year, however.
In any case, the current bonus payment would have been previously announced and not discretionary, as having been committed by the firm to be paid to fee-earners after the appraisals from July to September.
We understand that some of the ratios have also been tweaked downwards slightly this year.
L&L had recently also announced that fresher joining dates, which had been pushed to 2021 due to the crisis, would be joining this month.
AZB: Welcomes 50 freshers virtually, pays bonuses but no increments
AZB & Partners had recently also paid out bonuses, though increments and base salaries have also been frozen this year amidst the continuing uncertainty.
But good news for AZB freshers. “We welcome the batch of 2020 to AZB & Partners,” the firm had announced on Linked-in around two weeks ago with a lovely and popular graphic of all young joiners (see below). “We have on boarded 39 Associates in Mumbai, 2 in Bangalore and 9 in Delhi.”
While only having just formally joined, training had started as early as July, however.
“Even though the joining date was delayed due to the pandemic, we wanted to ensure that the freshers don’t feel excluded from the firm,” said AZB knowledge management partner Bhavi Sanghvi. “So from July onwards, we organised bespoke learning sessions (like FEMA, structuring, legal writing, etc) for the freshers which received an overwhelmingly positive response from them.”
Much like at other firms - such as Khaitan & Co and J Sagar Associates (JSA) - that have managed to induct freshers (albeit late), AZB has relied heavily on technology to make it happen.
“We used technology effectively to seamlessly integrate the freshers with the firm, be it remotely setting up their workspaces, online knowledge sessions, formal teams sessions or social catch ups,” AZB chief operating officer (COO) Eshan Sharma explained about how freshers were brought on board virtually.
He added: “We used a mix of remote desktop application, Zoom & [Microsoft] Teams for an efficient virtual onboarding. Other than meeting other lawyers in person, the joining has been as smooth and effective as the pre-pandemic times.”
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Interestingly, if this is true, then clients pay a higher rate of billing for the same counsel who is now promoted but that very counsel gets paid the same as she was in the past year and has the limited benefit of only new shiny title/designation.
1. Dynamic WFH Policy announced and implemented with 5 options (HBD to us)
2. Reversal of Fixed Pay of April to October 2020 (HBD to you & Return Gift)
3. Announced FY 2020-21 revised compensation effective October 1, 2020 (HBD to me)
Thanks
it is the only firm in the world i think where your take home per month actually reduces on promotion due to factor system.
#1. NALSAR (10 recruits): Akhila Baddepudi, Abhay Bundela, Abhiraj Thakur, Anirudh Agarwal, Aradhika Ratan, Kevin Shaji, Puru Bansal, Saad Khan, Shivang Agarwal, Upasana Soni
#2. NUJS (9 recruits): Shaurya Mittal, Arnab Ray, Samarth Shandilya, Ishani Moulik, Agreema Sanghai, Himani Shah, Mohammad Zaid, Varun Khandelwal, Anirudh Goyal,
#3. JGLS (7 recruits): Siddhant Bhasin, Varsha S Banta, Vedant Kapur, Aarti Reddy Krishna, Prerna Saroha, Priyasha Goyal, Shivani Maheshwari
#4. Symbiosis Pune (4 recruits): Rhea Purohit, Shivani Shenoy, Tanvi Durve, Yashaswi Rohra
Joint #5. Tie between NLSIU, NLUD, NLUJ, HNLU and GLC (3 recruits each):
NLSIU: Devanshi Patel, Neha Lodha, Srishti Agarwal
NLUD: Rajkanwar Singh Kumar, Pundrikaksh Sharma, Neeraj Nainani
NLUJ: Dhruv Chadha, Kartik Yadav, Vartika Sharma
HNLU: Bhanu Prakash Joshi, Rhiti Chattopadhyay, Rupaly Middha
GLC: Ashana Shah, Raina Kanungo, Tanya Chib
Joint #10. Tie between NLIU, GNLU, ILS Pune, NMIMS (Narsee Monji), Christ (1 recruit each)
NLIU: Mudit Nigam
GNLU: Yashi Saraswat
ILS Pune: Vaibhav Chitlangia
NMIMS (Narsee Monji): Praneeta Ragji
Christ: Mithel Reddy
Analysis:
1. NALSAR is the topper, followed closely by NUJS. The batch size is smaller than NUJS, so the performance may be more creditable, but we also need to see how many sat for the recruitment process.
2. Feedback from many law firms is that elective credit courses are very important. This may explain the good performance by NALSAR, NUJS and JGLS..
3. 17 out of 50 hires (34%) are from non-NLUs, led by JGLS. This means either NLUs are slipping or new colleges are working hard and coming up. This may also be a result of demographic change: more small town students entering NLUs, firms prefer big city students fluent in English. There may also be about a perception of bad faculty and indisciplined students in certain younger NLUs. Whatever the reason, some NLUs have to do soul searching, especially younger ones.
4. For law aspirants, it means there is life beyond CLAT.
5. The big surprise is the weak performance from NLIU and GNLU. For NLSIU it could be that students are less interested in working for Indian law firms.
1. There are persons who find employment due to factors other than their merit.
2. While offers accepted is a relevant metric, the more important one would be offers recieved. In one the "Joint 5" category colleges, one student received a PPO while, on campus, only 2 of 5 offers made were accepted.
3. "NLS students are less interested in working in Indian law firms" - really? While NLS has undoubtedly had a good track record in placing students in Magic Circle and Silver Circle firms (barring some aberrations in the past years) relative to other NLUs, considering their batch size, droves of NLS students end up in Indian law firms including in some of the more boring practice areas such as projects, etc.
4. As someone who has graduated from a very well placed NLU, even as per this fallacious list, I call absolute BULLSH*T on the demographic point. While firms do prefer their associates to be fluent in English, any student worth their salt who wants a BigLaw placement polishes their skills, if required at all, by the time placement season comes around. I've seen people from Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh be placed well before the supposedly "suave" English speaking, "fancy" folk like me and many of my other batchmates with similar profiles.
To any aspirant reading this - don't fall for this prima facie sensible talk which is so hollow when examined on the basis of ground realities.
- 10% get Rhodes, Chevening etc, some to to Harvard
- 10% go to other foreign universities
- 10% join Magic Circle firms
- 10% prepare for UPSC, Delhi Judicial Service, IIM CAT and GMAT, other exams.
- 10% join chambers of Supreme Court advocates
- 10% join consulting firms like McKinsey, EY etc, or large MNCs like Microsoft, Tata etc.
- 10% join NGOs and think tanks
- 10% start their own business or NGO, or pursue non-law careers.
- 10% join Indian law firms in the non-corporate segment, e.g. IP, tech, trade.
- 10% join Indian law firms in the mainstream corporate segment
Thus, in a batch of 80 students only around 8 aspire to work for a CAM or AZB.
Insecure much?
lol.. "Law School" .. cute
As per you, for 2019:
8 scholarships, 8 foreign univs, 8 consultancy, 8 civils, 8 non-legal careers, 8 litigation, 8 foreign firms?
(i.e. 56+ out of 80 don't even consider placements?)
Only 8 "aspire" to work in a law firm??
LIES!
In 2019
.. 58 students "aspired" for placements..
.. 22 opted out, not 56+
2019: "The 22 students in the NLSIU batch of 80 who are not participating in the of RCC activities 22 are likely to go for a mix of LLMs, the bar, judiciary and civil services exams, said a campus source.."
Your estimates ARE WAY OFF
2019: "... NLS students were just unlucky this year in their overseas applications, though last year at the same time only one NLS student had secured a vacation scheme out of 46 jobs but was considering dropping this for a domestic job offer (the year before that, NLS had 3 vacation schemes by Day Zero)."
NALSAR and NUJS have better placements in most years
This fake narrative from NLS is an illusion to save face
Your comment stinks of insecurity
NALSAR (score of 22)
NLSIU (score of 16)
NUJS and NLUD joint (both score of 15)
JGLS (score of 13)
Thus, NLSIU was overtaken in 2014 itself and almost tied with NUJS and NLUD. But then Legally India mysteriously stopped doing the ranking. There are many rumours as to why this happened, but better not to say.
www.legallyindia.com/201412175443/Law-schools/jgls-recruitment-2014
It's a totally wrong ranking.
www.legallyindia.com/201410315253/Law-schools/law-schools-recruitment-power-rankings-2013-14
NLS has almost 80 students per batch (apart from 2025). let's say all 80 get some job.
Even then it is possible that Jiggles has overtaken them, not only for this year but others years as well.
Jiggles has 900 students I think (3+5 year, both sit for placement together) even 100 get a job then Jiggles overtakes NLS or any other NLU. That's separate matter ki 50% of these jigglers may have got jobs in Pangea or something
The point I am making is that Law School has a different vision, NALSAR/NUJS has a different vision. I am not criticising, just making an observation. It is fine if being a partner at AZB or CAM is your ultimate ambition.
www.legallyindia.com/lawfirms/first-nls-grad-takes-silk-white-case-partner-jessup-legend-dipen-sabharwal-becomes-elite-senior-queen-s-counsel-in-uk-20190111-9829
I heard law school students are not doing well these days though because they're missing their daily breakfast of ambition and lunch of vision at the Nagarbhavi Mess. Apparently the Dinner is only air though, but maybe that's essential for these f**kall comments too.
It's an aberration. It is NOT yet a norm for NLS alumni to be elevated regularly.
It'd be at par for NUJS/ NALSAR to produce a HC judge by 2031.
Not 2025.
Several HC judges are from Delhi University, BHU, Madras Univ, etc
As per you, those colleges are better than NLS.
NLS commenters failing miserably at logic.
80,000 students write CLAT. Do everyone a favour by continuing to take the cream of the crammers.
Other than J. Shekar B Saraf, J. Justice C Saravanan (1994 Batch - Madras HC), J. Sunil Yadav (1996 Batch - K'tka HC), J. Suraj Govindaraj (1995 Batch - K'tka HC) have also been appointed as HC judges.
NLS has 12 extra senior batches
NLS is projected as if every law firm or practice should be led by someone from NLS
All rubbish
I refer to the first comment as trash. Period.
Also, since you are the one who seems very keen on comparing, please do us a favour and explain how you arrived at last 10 years as a time frame to make comparisons.
$3m PEP firm Willkie Farr promotes NUJS ‘08
An NUJS grad is a Partner at a well respected & highly profitable foreign firm.
www.legallyindia.com/lawfirms/3m-pep-firm-willkie-farr-promotes-nujs-08-rahul-saha-to-partnership-20200122-11165
Your statements are misleading.
1. You're comparing alumni achievements which are a factor of time.
NUJS's first batch graduated in 2005 while NLSIU's first batch graduated 12 years earlier in 1993. Since then, NUJS & NALSAR have not only matched NLS but frequently overtaken NLS in placements, moots / competitions, scholarships, foreign university admissions, etc.
2. It's not just about the 12 years in between.
NUJS & NALSAR forged their nascent identities despite unfavorable economic conditions (their initial batches graduated in a vastly different economy (remember 2008?) vs the booming 90s.
3. There's A LOT of competition now.
As late as 2000-01, only 1,200 to 1,400 lawyers graduated every year. Compare that with the 60,000 lawyers who signed up for AIBE 2017. Career paths are different too.
4. NLS's student intake has changed.
Fact is, the exact kind of students who once waltzed into NLS are easily spread out amongst the top few law schools.
No, you're not the "Harvard of the East". You're the NLSIU of Nagarbhavi.
NLS students try to differentiate themselves based on a make-believe legacy.
Perhaps, in the 90s you were an only "law school" in an ocean of "law colleges".
Your lack of imagination to have since evolved (ignorant of others around you) is.. entertaining!
Think about this. Imagine if you asked your young cousin which school she attended & she said -
"I go to the school"
Your bemused expression and the ridicule that may follow sum up how many of us view NLS.
"we organised bespoke learning sessions (like FEMA, structuring, legal writing, etc) for the freshers which received an overwhelmingly positive response from them.”
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