Although Devansh had already graduated from NLIU, his alma mater still held a condolence meeting immediately and circulated the link to all alumni groups and declared the day as holiday. This is what you call ‘home’!

On the other hand, his own firm (with an apparent glorious culture) continued working. He passed away WHILE WORKING FOR THIS FIRM!!

It is insensitive to discuss why a young graduate can die of cardiac arrest, but it is not insensitive to dump more work than what these young lawyers can manage on their laps. Remember kids, work till you die and make sure others don't discuss why you dropped dead, because doing so is an inefficient use of time. Bill! Bill! Bill! [...] And then, bill some more

Please take care of yourself guys because firm will not.

At the cost of sounding ultra dramatic, those seniors who sent him those messages doing the rounds [...]. If Khaitan knew about the heart condition, what did they choose to do with this information? Was it just the HR that knew about it or did they bother to communicate it to his team members as well who he apparently worked with day in and day out?

Quote:

Sinhji added that any rumours doing the rounds on WhatsApp about the cause of his death were at this time “pure and insensitive speculation”.

The HR has termed the rumours as 'speculation'. A good lawyer knows the difference between speculation and falsehood. Speculation might be true even though it may be 'true' (what does true speculation even mean?!) and 'insensitive'.

If the relevant firm is really bothered (hahahaha), let them initiate an independent external inquiry based on facts available on record and present the findings along with evidence (don't give me s*** about confidentiality and privilege - redact whatever is confidential or privileged). Of course that will not happen. A prayer meeting will be all.

Shocking news. Take care of your health fellow lawyers. Your self-worth should not depend on what seniors say. Life is far too precious to be lost over a job.

May his soul rest in peace. However please don’t politicise a congenital heart defect. Everyone is working on WFH except us Cammies whose lives don’t matter from 15 April. Full office at least 3 days a week the earlier WFH hot air balloon sailed away. That my friends is large scale negligence. Bordering on mass exposure and deliberate endangering of lives.

Sad to see a young lad working hard through law school to realize his dreams of working in a ‘top firm’ in Mumbai. Coming from a small-city like Gorakhpur; one can only imagine, how great a deal it would’ve been for him.

Time and again, we witness the horrors of the work culture that exists in each of these firms. Some firms, at least acknowledge this by hosting lame ‘mental health seminars’ - the premise of which involves extending some form of release or break from tireless and never-ending hours of work.

Law schools should make it a point to have realistic career guidance sessions, wherein it’s clearly emphasised what it takes to ‘survive’ in a top law firm and that it’s okay to not yearn to work in such an environment and focus on firms which lean more on the learning and growing,
than billing.

Remember, the bottom-line is asking yourself a very simple question (& not the reason): Are you happy? If the answer is in the negative, leave while still you’re young.

If the emphasis on WFH and heart disease in the HR statement sounds sus and feels like a flimsy smokescreen, it's probably because - It is a truth universally acknowledged that a HR department worth their salt will always prioritise the firm's interest above everything else.
Remember people, the HR is not your friend. Never will be. Don't be naive.

This is terrible news, but not surprising at all. I know of umpteen lawyers at law firms, whose mental and physical health has declined during the pandemic, whereas it's "business as usual" when it comes to a firms topline or bottom line.

While law firms might preach that they are working towards making the workplace more flexible to give associates comfort, the truth is that the entire culture is toxic and if strong structural changes aren't implemented across the board (i.e one law firm can't make a difference), we're looking ahead at an entire generation of lawyers who will be depressed, anxious and miserable.

The only way I see "work culture" changing is through regulation. Eg. (Literally from the top of my head) a mandatory law firm "body" which has all stakeholders on it, that sets out specific rules for work hours, leaves etc which have to be implemented across the board.

One law firm changing xyz won't bring others in line, and in turn the primary mover firm will also fall back into the old regime because it won't be able to keep up when it comes number et al. A CHANGE IS NEEDED ACROSS THE BOARD.

However, the pessimistic me thinks that Devansh's passing and the circumstances around it will be discussed for a month or two and then all will be forgotten - it'll be "business as usual" again. Public memory is short lived.

I truly hope I'm wrong.

RIP Devansh.

It's no coincidence that this release stresses on WFH and existing heart conditions (which - are you even ethically supposed to circulate medical information?). The HR is already washing its hands of any culpability at the death of a kid working for it.

Dear All: Just look at law firm partners - either they are too thin or obese. Neither have the time nor the inclination to take care of their health. Clearly they say when you join there is no work life balance.

I myself was in a Tier 1 firm where I put on oodles of weight - took a call better to leave. Took a few months off, took a pay cut. Now there is a little time to take care of my health.

I have been posting from time to time that it is better to hear the music before the song finishes. There will be instances of this extremely sad case (my condolences to his parents - I too am a parent) in our fraternity.

This is an underlying epidemic - professional culture in India. There will be issues. Just wait and watch for a few years now. Those who worked during early 2000s, they will be trapped in health problems. The government must sit up and take notice.

There are folks who still will sit in office late hours to earn brownie points and frown upon those who leave on time - the tier 1 partner clearly told me - you leave when I leave. It was best I left him.

The posh people of KCO HR pretend to be so supportive and nice. All that is pretense, they really don't care and have no empathy at all.

My comment at #6 in the below thread sounds prophetic now.

www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/160427-Tips-for-Incoming-Associates-If-you-could-start-again-what-would-you-focus-on-#comments

Its really a sad state of affairs guys. We all (who have been long enough in the grind) know that no law or regulation can tame the zealot firms.

What is needed is strong law firm lawyers' union. Nothing or no-one, but us (law firm lawyers) can change this culture. We need to form a union and put our collective foot down.

I wonder the kind of messages the PA/Partner would have sent him after he stopped responding to emails and till they discovered what had actually happened. Same story across firms. Doesn't matter which one.

Truly tragic for anyone to pass away so young. He is said to have had a congenital heart problem but we hope Khaitan & Co does the responsible thing & conducts some form of independent inquiry to see if working conditions & pressures contributed to his worsening health. One does not need to be a medical guru to know that constant stress & lack of sleep can significantly worsen underlying health problems. Was his team aware of his health? Was he allowed to take leave on medical grounds? Was there a culture of leave not being granted or leave requests being treated negatively? Was he being overworked in the run up to his tragic demise?

We should not judge by whatsapp rumours but we can at least expect some official inquiry on the part of the employer to understand what happened, and build an environment where this never happens again. Remember a child has died today.

It’s not that every single person at a law firm is evil, but it’s those few people / moments that cross the line (occasionally or repeatedly) and WFH has aggravated the problem. In office you (tend to) have at least a basic support system (even if it’s just one person you can rant to over a coffee break) and some (bare minimum) checks and balances - if a PA / SA is repeatedly pushing / abusing / harassing you, at least someone will notice and hopefully might intervene but over MS Teams you have little recourse. Some basic regulation is required - this culture is ‘virtually’ taking away the (whatever little) human element that there was in the profession.

This entire ecosystem of law firm is very depressing.Continous harassment of young associates by senior partners causes serious mental agony to them .For someone with a heart condition , making him work at 3AM in Night on Sunday is depressing in itself .I know working late doesn't cause a heart attack but when a person has a heart condition and is made to work under extreme pressure such an outcome is no surprise.
Even If Khaitan didn't want to declare a holiday ,at least they could have observed silence for few minutes or should have done something to show a bit of remorse .Such insensitive attitude is very shameful.
Leaving all this aside I Feel extremely sorry for Devansh.The boy came from a middle class family form a small town of Gorakhpur and managed though the law school ,got a job and finally when the time actually came to reap the benefits of his hardwork he had to leave the world .RIP Devansh .Left too soon

Rest in peace Devansh. As someone who knew him, I can vouch that he was a really hardworking fellow who had been working late hours due to increased workload these past couple of months.

While the comment section deliberates on whether or not the HR is to blame, if you are working in a law firm, please pause to note that his young life has been cut short abruptly while stretching himself thin to meet with the demands of work. Be sensitive to the people around you. If that email can wait till tomorrow, don't hype urgency / all work is deliverable yesterday attitude. Your job is your job and livelihood, not a matter of life and death for the planet. People's health, wellbeing matters. Belittling your team will not motivate them or improve their work product.

India's toxic law firm culture needs to be thoroughly examined, and reassessed. Such culture is utter depravity and is also a form of harassment.

Irrespective of whether this young individual had a prior heart condition or not - ask yourselves, why are associates and other lawyers working 16 hour days, and through the nights? Are the firm's billables that critical that you're willing to completely sacrifice your mental and physical well being? Don't underestimate the toll that such a skewed work-life balance will have on your professional and personal lives.

Please look after your yourselves. Like someone had said, the firm won't. Cliched as it may sound, you only have one life. Make the most of it.

While you'll obviously want to earn money to look after your needs, don't let it come at such a big price. Over the past few years, young partners in their 40s and 50s have passed due to health issues, and in some instances around the world, have also passed by suicide. Corporate lawyers really need to recalibrate and understand how broken their current systems are.

Young lawyers may or may not have this perspective because they're in the throes of a rat race where they feel the need to compete with their peers and colleagues. Senior managements at firms must really put in some conscious effort to try and help maintain a better work-life balance.

DAY ZERO SPEECH BY HR PARTNER AFTER INGESTING VERITASERUM

Welcome all. We are calling this the Expectation Setting session because our HR team spent their evening yesterday coming up with that name.

This session will tell you all you need to know about becoming a corporate lawyer in India. And some more.

Let’s start with the three key skills. Attention to detail. Proactivity. And, most importantly, availability.

If you consistently deliver in all three departments, then you will eventually realise that most cherished dream of becoming a corporate partner in a tier 1 law firm. The big bucks. The fancy suit. The business class ticket (sorry, that’s pre-coronavirus).

Other legal skills? No, those are not relevant for this job. Sure, you can tell people that you are a “lawyer”, but within a few years, you will be found out. No relative is going to call you if they decide to sue their builder. No non-lawyer friend will be interested in your thoughts on the terms of their ESOPs or their new lease agreement. And let’s not even talk about criminal matters, as you will spend most of your life being scared to even talk to cops.

Drafting? Sure, that obviously requires a lot of skill. But corporate lawyer drafting is a lot like building Lego blocks that come with an instruction manual. An excellent storyline for a sadistic short-film can involve a client asking a corporate partner to draft a new agreement for him and then taking away his precedents and PLC subscription!

Negotiation? Nope. The best M&A lawyers in India would gladly let their mothers negotiate their most important deals. Please remember that real negotiation is done by real business people (your clients, that is) and sometimes investment bankers will chip in with some nugget they remember from B-school. At best, you will be asked to “advise” on the market practice for something like capped versus uncapped indemnities.

Now that we have covered the “skills” aspect, let’s discuss some of the other things that will matter.

Pick a fake accent. South Bombay is obviously the safest choice. And if you are lucky to work with someone who’s had a stint abroad, you will also have the options of New York and London (RP not Cockney).

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and not IMDB. Follow tennis but aspire to follow golf. Learn to play golf.

Mask your love for your regional cuisine and talk loudly about how you can never have enough truffle (actually you can, because that stuff is expensive).

Get a slick, tailored suit. It will be useless in a meeting with a startup client, where you will be the only douche wearing one or in a meeting with a publicly listed client, where it will be the cheapest one, but for all other clients, you can pretend you are Harvey Specter. Also, as far as TV references go, your best shot is to become someone like Gerri from Succession, so please erase all your Mike Ross and Alan Shore fantasies.

Why do this job then? For the money, baba! Are you telling me there is no difference between a regular plumber with fixed working hours and a premium plumber in a posh, gated complex who can be asked to come and fix the leaking tap at 3 am?? Are you really telling me that??

And for the initial years of your career, you will out-earn your school topper who went the traditional IIT-IIM route. Sure, eventually she will have a bigger house and her kids will go to a better school, but so what? At least you will be able to look back at your Insta post from Dubrovnik when she was taking selfies in Matheran and it will all seem worth it then.

So, welcome aboard everyone! The ship analogy is not meant to be taken seriously; one stinker from a client and your captain will personally toss you off the boat…..

And please don’t forget to fill out the medical disclosure forms. We have started accepting these early. Some of you may notice that the template is the same as those signed when going bungee jumping, but there was nothing on PLC and I had saved this when I went to New Zealand last year.

KCO has such terrible work culture, it is indistinguishable from the other top firms. But they make such a hullaballoo about "friendly work culture" that it just hurts more. Just seeing another HR mass email from KCO is infuriating. At least, AZB and CAM/SAM are less hypocritical. Dunno about Trilegal much tbh, but even they seem better.

Law firms often have terrible, toxic work culture where all sorts of incredibly insensitive and downright vicious behaviour is given a free pass in the name of client demands/ the nature of the job / what everyone has to go through and similar nonsense.

It is a crime if someone/ the systems on which the law firm operates led to the death of this poor boy. It's not "unfortunate" or a "tragedy".

It is also a crime to discriminate against a person because of their medical condition.

Stop justifying criminal behaviour as the price you pay for the money you earn.

May his souls rest in peace and God give his parents strength 🙏🏽

So discussing about his death is what is 'insensitive', as opposed to making your associates work till 'the early hours of Monday' i.e. on a Sunday night.

There is some information circulating to show that the Boy was facing worsening health but instead of being taken seriously, he was told by seniors in the firm that taking medical leave will 'form an impression that he will find hard to shake off'.

Surely Khaitan need to provide some answers ( first step being to verify this information)?

Even the gang on this thread from the "You get paid money so suck it up" school of thought will agree I am hoping?

It's time that employee norms be universalized across the country. No-one working either in government sector or private sector should be made to work more than 8 hours a day 6 days a week or more tahn1 2 hours a day 4 days in week. Employees are meant to be humans & not machines. It's very important to balance personal and work life.

We must petition the government to launch an inquiry into the working conditions of law firms and stress levels. Even the topmost partners should be answerable to the inquiry committee.

Message from a close friend:

he was a close friend, from my school, we gave Clat together and I possibly wouldn't have known about the exam/written it, if not for him

he definitely was under a lot of stress due to the work culture, hours and the general treatment meted out regularly

I don't think if it would be fair to blame it on work culture at the firm, since he had a congenital heart disease which her mother had also succumbed to years ago and there were other factors too

but I met him a number of times the last fortnight, and the only thing he would be stressed about throughout was the work, the attitude of superiors, and being made to feel inadequate consistently..even the last conversation we had was on the same lines

wherever anyone is working guys, please prioritize yourself, your wellbeing, and please definitely don't put your self worth at the assessment of your employers/anyone else. With all this said, he was in really bad shape days before, but still would think a hundred times before applying for a leave on medical grounds just cause he needed to buckle up because "the team is forming a perception about you which is hard to change".."for future references, there is only one turnaround time for this team, ASAP".."for fuck's sake will you send the fucking file I asked for an hour ago".

Hope kian and team have the balls to publish this. And Khaitan has the brains to investigate this.

Even if you read up a little bit about Congenital Heart Disease (complex form or otherwise), you will see that people with CHD live up to 75 years or more, even on the lesser side its 35 or more. So anyone saying that the work stress he was going through was not a part of it (or he "chose/knew" what he was getting into) are only defending the wrong people. Don't let them tell you that it was ONLY because of his CHD.