Until the law firms develop a broad mentality and start giving oppurtunity to students beside NLUs, they will remain where they are. Its argued that we have lot of talent in other law colleges also. If law firms keep on following their close door policy and cartelization, then those from NLU and non NLU will have conflicting interests rather than working together amicably.

The cartel thing is also mentioned in Wikipedia page of NLSIU bangalore in last paragraph. So its quite evident. Recently, IITs are also in fray to start law schools. Once they take off, then it will be very tedious task for NLU to protect these cartels as IITians are known entrepreneurs. They will give NLU a run for their money for sure..

I know for sure that various law firms including AMSS and Luthra, offer students from colleges apart from NLUs, such as ILS and Symbiosis; opportunities to do internships at their offices and a few, if not all, convert these internships to job offers. From the perspective of law firms- I guess adding a filter (of institute) and focussing on students from few institutes saves them the trouble of having to screen hundreds of applications, if nothing else. Besides, focussing on few institutes for recruitment is a strategy adopted by organisations across sectors- McKinsey, BCG (consulting), HUL, P&G, ITC (FMCG) - all such recruiters consider students from only a few institutes - I am taking into account management and engineering, apart from law. I am not saying this is THE BEST policy to follow but taking into account pros and cons of following the same, concentrating on few institutes (as a matter of rule) and giving opportunities to few exceptional students from other institutes seems to be a good option.

The only IIT that has established an institute of law is IIT Kharagpur and that too specifically for IPR. Besides, one needs to keep in mind the fact that networking and 'client- firm (partner) relationship' determine (to a great extent) the success of a law firm. For these two reasons, IIT law graduates giving NLU graduates a 'run for their money' is not likely to happen.

Hi All,

I have followed this site and all the comments to each of the articles/ posts, since its inception and have been a silent spectator taking in all the various view points. One issue that has got caught in the cross hairs of many posts is the NLUs vs non NLU colleges. To me this is a tad disturbing. Let’s get one thing straight, there is no checklist that one can tick off to say that “x” person is a great lawyer. It takes different skill sets to make a good lawyer and a synthesis of skill sets to grow a team.

For all the NLU graduates thinking that they are the cat’s whiskers and that by simply getting into an NLU by passing a test they have the sole right to brag that they are better than the rest – answer me this, did any of the senior partners of the big firms (im not taking names) graduate from an NLU??? These are the people that assess your skills and pay your salaries!

And for those from the non-NLU colleges, get a life and stop complaining. End of the day everyone has to work their ass off and deliver results.

While I have seen that a fresh NLU graduate is easier to deploy (if I may use the term:-)) on the field, seldom do all of them make good team leaders. The difficulty is in making a person unlearn a certain line of thought and re-learn a different method. On the other hand, I have found that non-NLU students to be more receptive to ideas. One needs to learn to adapt .Also to grow as a team, you have to learn to combine various skill sets, which may necessarily require that ppl from various universities to put their heads together and get the desired result.

My views on the above are based on my experience of managing a mid-sized all practice law firm. For those interested, I may have graduated from NLSIU or from any other college.

Best regards