Major bump!! Someone please expand on the early switch to a different location preferably from a T1 to another T1. Mainly due to being near the family for personal obligations. How early is too early to switch? 4 months, 6 months?! Are freshers asked to take an experience discount in this scenario?

Also, please tell about point 7 and the hiring cycle. Thanks

Because it has an impact when your future alumni are no longer as influential as they used to be. When you can’t make phone calls to powerful nepo kids for favours. It made a huge difference to NLSIU that the son of one of the most influential bureaucrats in Indian history went there. That the daughter of Vajpayee’s economic advisor (today its star alum) went there when Vajpayee was in power. That the nephew of one of the top lawyers (another star alum) went there. Numerous other examples. This is no longer happening now. Earlier it was just the children of Kapil Sibal and Zia Mody headed abroad for their LLB and JD. Now far more common. Forget the wealthy, even upper middle class families are sending their children abroad for their undergrad, following an IB school education. And now the kids of every single NLSIU alum are headed abroad for their undergrad. This applies equally to NALSAR, NLUD etc.

This is because of a combination of factors: rising incomes and aspirations, but also the realisation that India just doesn’t offer the same quality of education and job opportunities (stagnant growth and an economy with zero innovation). Plus, India is simply too overpopulated and chaotic, and kids don’t want to live here. Certainly not after an IB school education, and when all your batchmates are headed abroad.

So what is going to happen down the line is that the privileged kids will all be law alumni of Columbia, NYU, Chicago, Duke, Oxbridge, LSE, KCL, UCL etc. Even those who come back to India and become Senior Advocates, or take over their father’s law firms. And if and when foreign law firms enter India, their entire workforce could also be a big club of nepo kids from IB schools who did their undergrad abroad.

Should NLUs foresee problem and make bridge courses more attractive? Or offer dual degrees?

All Indian law firms deserve to die in their current avataar.

When English firms could not face American competition and capital, these tiny Indian firms will wilt in one week of foreign firms being allowed. They are relishing anti-competitive landscape. But how long will they hold out? But problem is bigger. Most new firms coming up are by former folks at these Indian firms. They create replicas of Indian firms. While everyone wants Dollar fee but nobody wants American professionalism, egalitarianism, and individualism.

ELP’s current situation and SAN’s behaviour remind me of a fable. Once two woman went to a wise king carrying a baby. Each women claimed the baby belonged to her. The king said, let me cut the baby into two and give one half to each of you. One woman said, fine, ‘do it’. The other said, ‘no, please don’t. Don’t kill my baby. Let her have my child. ‘

I don’t see the three partners moving to Dhruva sticking together for long. Their style of working is very different. RJ and NS are diametrically opposite. RJ is a thinker and knows his stuff. NS is good at networking, but survived for this long since he was cultivated by SAN as a counter to RJ.

This comment demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the law and how it actually operates.

Please go ahead and file it. If you can't, then your comment had no substance to begin with.

Shouting A.K. Balaji doesn't make anyone a Fali Nariman or Indu Malhotra

This BS needs to stop – this is flat-out bullying. Nothing else. This is doxxing someone. From what I understand, it was posted with identifiable details but censored by LI. So a man enters a team and a bunch of women get together to make insinuations. If you have a problem, please walk up to your HR and file a POSH complaint in your organisation. Sadly, for the man's sake, I hope he finds a happier place, knowing he will be undermined and accused here start to finish.

> The newly made/new book partners also drop rates to build a book and clients tout those rates to T2/Boutiques saying oh Tier 1 has given me this rate - can you match.

This sounds just like street shopping tactics. Bhaiyya woh dukandaar ne toh 100 rupay me bech raha tha aap iskeliye 200 bol rahe he. Barabar daam bata dijiye. Varna me vaha he khareed loongi

Majorly, this happens because as soon as you gain some experience, the next step is naturally to ask for an appraisal, and they are allergic to it. They don’t like disbursing money; rather, they prefer keeping the money concentrated with the head and partners. So, in many cases, they deliberately make the situation worse so that you either leave or are eventually asked to leave. Har ek do saal mai hiring karo, same level par pesa do, similar output lelo aur bhaga do.

There can also be situations where the WLB is good and the team is great, but they still do this. Even if a junior wants to stay, they may not necessarily have a problem with it, but they will give such a low appraisal that you eventually look at yourself, compare your salary with your peers at other law firms, and realise how much you are financially falling behind. At that point, you may want to leave anyway.

What is the latest on their move to SAM. From everything I am hearing, Cyril still expects them to remain in place for sometime which is quite a shift from the earlier narrative of a calm and well‑managed transition. I had genuinely thought Ravindra had negotiated a straightforward and amicable exit for them, but the reality seems far messier. What makes this even more curious is the team itself. Their move to SAM has raised eyebrows within SAM as well, especially because they aren’t a profit making unit. Their track record has been patchy, their internal cohesion as is obvious from this thread is questionable, and their commercial contribution is modest at best. For a team with such limited profitability, the enthusiasm with which they have tried to position their exit as some sort of strategic coup feels rather overstated.

That said it is understandable why Cyril might dig his heels in. Even a non‑profitable team can create reputational noise when it leaves, especially if the departure is framed in a way that suggests instability or internal dissatisfaction. He may also be signalling that partner‑level exits regardless of financial contribution must follow proper process and cannot be handled casually. In that sense, his stance is less about the team’s economic value and more about maintaining institutional discipline and preventing a precedent that encourages opportunistic or poorly‑managed departures.

hi, your profile is very good, please be confident enough!

If you are in an NLU - saraf does give out PPOs, you can even convert in a month. a friend got a PPO in one month (in the B&F team though.)

If not from an NLU - in CAM, GP seems to be the disputes hiring spearhead, her team does hire. Apart from her, Animesh gives PPOs too. Though CAM does have the ATP policy, but these 2 partners can be your best bet. DSK does hire excessively in disputes, but if you are trying to get in through a one-intern-convert-PPO thing, DSK does not do that. They would want you to intern for a fair bit of time and only hire if you are in your final year. They do give call backs though if you perform well, and give you an advantage in their Day-Z process. AZB lit is known for being highly concentrated and non-hiring. A girl from NLUJ did not convert her assessment so you know how bad it is. Tri is very specific. Please try and intern asap and get a call back. You 80% might convert. also pls dont go to B&P, very toxic. can try wadia if nothing works out, their hiring goes on well after graduation also afaik

(this is all a mumbai specific reply - im sorry I do not really have a fair idea of delhi scene, though ive heard from friends the firms in delhi are a bit lenient on the 4th/5th year hirings and not as strict as mumbai, where tier 1 firms mostly stop giving out PPOs after 8th sem. im a non-lit person so this is something ive heard from my disputes friends. hope this helps man and atb your profile is really nice :) never doubt and keep pushing!!! your sanity SHOULD not depend on these measly firms. a job is a job, not your life. )

Read your CV well. Go through every publication listed, even if it is a blog post. Expect some very general and broad questions about your areas of interest, but if you have applied for a specialised post, like say AP of Corporate Law, then expect at least one panel member to directly ask you questions about that, even if they are not an expert. Do not be goaded into a confrontation, if someone pushes you, just shrug it off and provide some courteous basic reply that you shall keep that in mind in the days to come or something. You may be asked about some general questions about legal education like use of AI etc. If you have any idea of raising money for the university through research projects or outreach, wait for an opportunity to present that, but do mention that you hope to do so under the tutelage of the present leadership and learn from them in the process. Best of luck!

While the UGC has started allowing people without a master's to do a PhD now, it's still advisable to do it.

ILI could be a good place for PhD. NLS has improved quite a bit now when compared to 4-5 years ago, with its fellowship and other things. Process is very streamlined, you have a proper scholarship and doctoral committee is much more responsive. Even NUJS has done away with its earlier structure and things are much more smooth there.

Then you also have good central Universities- JNU, BHU, AMU and some others. JNU is still very well regarded in academia, BHU also is very good but I'm not aware of its PhD program.

Other universities I don't really have an idea

Senior Counsel Rohan Shah started ELP sometime in 1998-99 as a sole proprietorship and later converted it into a law firm in 2001. Three partners joined him, namely his friend Vikram Nankani and two younger lawyers (SAN and Sword) whose fathers were also lawyers (one a very wealthy rent control lawyer and the other a Senior Partner at Crawford Bayley). SAN and Sword bought their way into the partnership, since they hadn’t established themselves in their fields and the funds they brought in allowed ELP to grow and expand. Vikram Nankani was the first to leave, after he became a Senior Counsel. Then Rohan Shah left, for reasons that are disputed. SAN and Sword controlled a big majority of the equity and they managed ELP reasonably well for many years, though their individual billings were never very high and neither made a big mark in their specialisms. Indirect Tax has been the mainstay for ELP and they carry the rest of the firm.

Now that the Tax and Trade teams are leaving ELP to join Dhruva Advisors, what are the lessons for family-run firms, where currently the founding partners have full control and also have a good reputation and billings, but the succeeding generation might not have the same reputation and billings? For example, around 12 years ago, India’s then biggest and most prominent law firm split into two, and the two law firms formed as a result of that break-up are still Tier 1 firms. The Mumbai HQ firm is still very much under the control of one individual (who has a Persian first name and so let’s call him Cyrus). Cyrus has a son (Son) and a daughter (Daughter) and both are good lawyers, but unlikely to become leading legal luminaries in India’s crowded legal market. Cyrus is in his late sixties and after he retires, will other partners in the firm allow Son and Daughter to take home a big chunk of the bacon, even if they aren’t billing in proportion? Won’t the other partners just walk away, even if Clever Cyrus is likely to have embedded a number of poison pills in the firm’s partnership deed to prevent or at least discourage exactly that scenario? What do you all think?

For those who have experience applying to law firms, what is the better approach when applying for an internship?

If a firm has a designated internship/HR email or application portal, should one first apply through the official channel and then cold-email relevant partners, or is it better to cold-email the partner first and apply through the official channel only if they ask you to?

I’m particularly confused because I’ve seen very different advice. Some people say partners will simply redirect you to HR if the firm has a formal process, while others say that cold-emailing partners can work if the email is personalised and relevant to their practice.

So, practically speaking:

1. Should the official application be submitted first?
2. If yes, how long should one wait before emailing a partner?
3. If cold-emailing a partner, should one mention that an application has already been submitted through the official channel?
4. Does this strategy differ for Tier 1 firms vs smaller firms?

Would especially appreciate answers from people who have actually secured internships through either approach.

In hindsight, Sudhir deserves belt treatment for behaving so arrogantly and dismissively with the IIT Delhi Director. Just because he got a Rhodes scholarship and went to Oxford doesn’t make him a God. Even the Jindal VC was in the same Rhodes batch as him. For all his faults, the Jindal VC would never speak so arrogantly with an IIT Director. On the contrary, he maintains excellent PR with everyone.