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This article, like many others, was first published exclusively for long-term supporters, 1 hour before everyone else got to read it.

Nalsar Day Zero 2020: Record 47 jobs (incl 8 foreigns) sewn up, AZB surprises by recruiting the most, Luthra next

The haul also includes 3 UK training contracts, guaranteeing Rs 42 lakh salary jobs
Nalsar 2020 RCC: Strong early placements
Nalsar 2020 RCC: Strong early placements

Nalsar Hyderabad’s 2020 graduating batch has kicked of its first day of recruitments (also popularly known as Day Zero), on 6 April, with students having already sewn up 23 pre-placement offers (PPOs) and a total of 8 prestigious vacation schemes and/or training contracts with foreign law firms.

Out of the 34 candidates taking part in Day Zero activities, 16 accepted job offers from top Indian firms.

This result manages to top last year’s total of 34 jobs by Day Zero (though the batch size since then has also increased from 77 students to 113 this year), and is historically the largest number of all times at a Nalsar Day Zero.

Just over half the Nalsar 2020 batch - 69 students - are participating in the Recruitment Coordination Committee (RCC) activities, out of whom 47 are now accounted for.

The number of highly-paid vacation schemes and training contracts is huge at such an early stage, perhaps reflecting foreign firms keen to pip Indian law firms to Day Zero.

UK magic circle firm Linklaters doled out 2 training contracts and one vacation scheme (VC) internship (vac schemes often have a good chance of converting into full training contract job offers after completion). Training contracts at Linklaters initially pay £47,000 (around Rs 42 lakh per year), increasing to £52,500 after one year and £83,000 (Rs 75 lakh) after two years of working on qualification (however, training contracts are preceded by at least one year of the obligatory conversion course, which large UK firms normally cover tuition fees and pay some stipends).

Fellow magic circle firm Allen & Overy (A&O) also offered one training contract job. Rounding off the foreign firms, Herbert Smith Freehills offered two VCs and US firm Skadden Arps offered one VC, and Pinsent Masons Hong Kong has offered a winter vacation scheme.

AZB, L&L, CAM, SAM dominated Day 0 hauls

Day Zero itself saw 16 students accept offers from law firms led by AZB & Partners, which picked up 7, in addition to 2 students it had offered PPOs to. Clearly AZB is liking Nalsar, having hired 7 on Day Zero last year plus 3 PPOs.

The next-biggest recruiter was L&L Partners (formerly known as Luthra), which hired 3 students on Day Zero in addition to 5 PPOs made to students after internships with the firm (last year, Luthra had hired 5 via PPO, but 0 via Day Zero).

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas hired a total of 6 (with 2 via Day Zero, similar to last year’s total of 7), closely followed by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas with 4 (half of which came on Day Zero - last year SAM hired 3 from Nalsar).

Khaitan & Co and Trilegal hired a total of 3 students.

Talwar Thakore & Associates also attended Day Zero and hired one student.

Finally, four others - Fox Mandal & Associates, ICICI Bank, Majmudar & Co and S&R Associates - hired a total of 5 students via PPOs.

The Nalsar Recruitment Coordination Committee (RCC) 2020 members, pictured above are: (front row l-r) Deep Shah, Shaktibhushan Shukla, Somya Jena, Karan Sangani; (second row) Aditya Sarkar, N Sivaraman, Srija Kumar, Anirudh Singh, Arun V Nair.

NLSIU Bangalore, NUJS Kolkata and NLU Delhi have also had their Day Zero already and we’ll be publishing their figures soon.

Full Nalsar Day Zero 2020 recruitments

Name of Recruiter PPOs Day Zero Acceptances Vac Schemes / Tcs Total
Allen & Overy LLP - - 1 1
Herbert Smith Freehills - - 2 2
Linklaters LLP - - 3 3
Skadden - - 1 1
Pinsent Masons - - 1 1
AZB & Partners 2 7 - 9
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas 4 2 - 6
L & L Partners Law Offices 5 3 - 8
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas 2 2 - 4
Khaitan & Co 2 1 - 3
Trilegal 3 - - 3
Talwar Thakore & Associates - 1 - 1
Fox Mandal & Associates 1 - - 1
ICICI Bank 1 - - 1
Majmudar & Co 2 - - 2
S & R Associates 1 - - 1
TOTALS 23 16 8 47
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