JGLS Sonepat’s final year students of its three-year and five-year LLB programmes graduating this year have secured a total of 83 jobs, including 29 jobs with Big 7 law firms, though its batch sizes have continued increasing.

A total of 54 students joined Indian law firms (including all Big 7 firms except Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas), while 23 joined litigation chambers, and 6 will be working in-house.

Out of 395 graduates of the 5- and 3-year LLB programmes, 88 students participated in the formal campus placement activities, according to figures supplied to us by JGLS. This breaks down as:

• 5-year LLBs: 71 out of 317 students participated, and
• 3-year LLB: 17 out of 78 students participated.

Assistant dean of careers and assistant professor Professor Anuranjan Sethi explained that the rest of the batch would be embarking on a variety of careers, including in law and outside the law, although no detailed metrics were available.

Membership of the campus recruitment committee was open to anyone who applied, provided they had no “back papers” and at least a 50% CGPA, he said, a requirement that mirrored common minimums asked for by law firms.

Law firms: All BigLaw except SAM, mix of other top and smaller firms

Corporate law firms were the largest recruiters, hiring a total of 54 JGLS 2019 grads (and making a total of 57 offers), according to data provided by JGLS.

Of those, Trilegal was the biggest single recruiter, with 10 students accepting offers, closely followed by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, which made 9 accepted offers.

AZB & Partners took 4, Khaitan & Co 3, and L&L Partners (formerly Luthra & Luthra) hired 2.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) hired 1.

Other firms making two accepted offers each were Argus Partners, Economic Laws Practice (ELP), Tempus Law and Bharucha Singh Mundkur.

One job each was accepted with high-paying P&A Law Associates, Agarwal Law Associates (busiest of Supreme Court advocate-on-record firms), IP giant Anand & Anand, as well as DSK Legal, IndusLaw, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Nishith Desai Associates and BMR Legal.

Corporate in-house / LPO: Insurance, finance FTW

A total of 6 students opted to go in-house, led by 2 jobs each by Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company and RBL Bank.

One each will join insurer Kotak Life Insurance and legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm Morae Global.

Litigation

Litigation chambers attracted a total of 23 JGLS graduates, with senior advocate Arvind Verma hiring two.

The remaining 21 budding litigators joined a variety of counsel practices (set out in full in the table below).

Historical perspective

JGLS seems to have managed to build up a fairly consistent campus recruitment effort, building on previous tallies (at least in terms of jobs from the big law firms), though its batch sizes have ballooned since its first batch of 83 five-year LLB students had graduated in 2014, making 100% placements of entire batches a near-impossibility.

2017 was the previous time that JGLS had disclosed final recruitments,-though only for the 5-year degree of 235 students: around 40% fewer students than this year.

Out of those, 48 students had been hired by 29 law firms (including one student joining international firm Herbert Smith Freehills offering one training contract).

Out of the big firms, CAM had hired 12 back then, Khaitan and ELP 3 each, with 2 each going to SAM, Nishith Desai, Trilegal and Wadia Ghandy.

In 2017, 13 had joined corporates, with 27 having joined litigation.

In 2014, its very first batch of only 83 students had scored 12 Big Six (as it then was) law firm jobs, out of a total of 57 jobs (with 22 students each going law firms and litigation).

2019 recruitments

• Nalsar Hyderabad’s 2019 batch of 77 students, with 52 participating in campus recruitments: 52 total jobs (36 law firm jobs, 1 international training countract, and 15 in-house roles)
• JGLS 2019 batch of 395 grads, with 88 participating: 83 total jobs (54 Indian law firms, 23 litigation, 6 in-house).

Full JGLS 2019 recruitments