Lean In from the outside

Lean In refers to a prominent feminist philosophy and a global movement centered on the 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg.

The core idea encourages women to assert themselves in their professional lives to achieve leadership roles, rather than unintentionally holding themselves back due to internal barriers or societal expectations.

Lean In from the inside

Wynn-Williams, who worked at Meta from 2011 to 2017, shares several incidents that she claims expose a disconnect between Sandberg's public persona and her private behavior:

"Come to Bed" Incident: Wynn-Williams alleges that during a 2016 flight on a private jet, Sandberg invited her to share the only bed on the plane, an offer Wynn-Williams found highly inappropriate and refused.

Hostile Work Culture: The author claims staffers were intentionally given excessive workloads to ensure no one had "spare time". She recounts responding to work emails while in labour and being harassed for updates during a recovery from a life-threatening childbirth complication.

Critique of "Lean In": Wynn-Williams argues the philosophy was used to push women toward "soul-depleting workaholism" rather than true empowerment. She describes Sandberg's brand as a "shtick" designed to demand obedience from subordinates.

Telling women to not continue with their job cause some entitled men can’t understand basics is not the solution.

I think let’s force these men to understand that if your wife is doing it for you by putting your job and dreams on priority doesn’t mean you will belittle someone’s choice to work during pregnancy and not respect basic decency and boundaries.

The pregnant woman is not refusing work during office hours, all they are saying is after office hours, my body needs the rest it needs after a hard days work.

The faculty board apparently is using unfettered and unrestricted authority in matters they’re not specialised in. They have no mooting experience. And only caring about their own work. PS i’ve heard that they don’t like it when teams qualify cause it increases their work and it reduces budget to organise moots.

For a firm, if the affair is down a reporting line and unreported it is an offence.

The grade depends on how much it has affected the firm. Consenting is all irrelevant. Who is teaching you this lot this crap?

I cant believe the mods basically censored what is reported on bar and bench. The people who will care are the team members reporting to him.

As a woman its disgusting the level to which indian law firms have accepted such poor conduct and judgement from its leaders whether women or men.

Which tier 1 firm will give leave for a mere FIR? and leave for how long? Dealing with an FIR can take ages! I'm sure they must've been aware. They just abandoned him when it got hot for them. A new low to "standing by your employees/partners in their time of need". It's a law firm; it would know that an allegation is just that, an allegation. How does a top firm abandon its partners at such a time is beyond me.

Hi, even if the partner is coming out to put a statement, anyone else disclosing any information that can lead to the identification of the child, such as linking the post here, would be held liable under POCSO. Might be best to remove this thread altogether since every new comment is just trying to provide identifying information and no other discussion is taking place @mods

LinkedIn Post Analysis

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What Is Actually Being Communicated

Reading between the lines of this post reveals several key facts:

• He is facing serious charges — serious enough that his professional network is reaching out with support, indicating the matter became public, likely through media coverage.

• The framing — "deeply painful divorce," financial settlement, child custody — strongly suggests this stems from a matrimonial dispute that escalated into criminal complaints, possibly under IPC 498A, domestic violence provisions, or financial fraud allegations by an estranged spouse.

• The reference to "misusing media connects" is a pointed accusation that his ex-spouse (or her side) leaked the story to journalists to gain leverage in the financial settlement.

Communication Quality — What He Did Well

• Unequivocal denial with no hedging or ambiguity.

• Contextualised the charges as divorce fallout rather than standalone professional misconduct.

• Maintained professional dignity — did not name anyone or descend into emotional rhetoric.

• The gratitude framing softens what is essentially a crisis statement, humanising him to his network.

What Is Strategically Risky or Weak

• Wrong platform. LinkedIn is a professional networking site. Publishing a personal legal crisis here permanently associates his professional profile with the controversy, regardless of eventual outcome.

• "Read between the lines" signals to the legal fraternity that there is more to the story — which invites speculation rather than closing it down.

• Legally inadvisable media allegation. While understandable, the allegation about "misusing media connects" could be construed as an attempt to discredit a potential witness or complainant — a significant misstep.

• 83 reactions is relatively low for a professional with a senior legal network, suggesting either limited reach or that peers are hesitant to publicly associate with the post.

Overall Assessment

This reads as a well-meaning but strategically imperfect crisis response — written by someone in genuine distress who wanted to reclaim the narrative, but without the benefit of crisis PR counsel.

The content is dignified; the platform choice and the media allegation are missteps. A better approach would have been a private communication to close colleagues and, if necessary, a terse single-line public statement — nothing more.

Verdict: 7/10 for intent and tone. 4/10 for strategic execution.

Did he inform the firm that an FIR was filed against him? And why did he not take leave of absence till this was sorted !

I think the firm perhaps knew it all and when it blew up with news reports etc in various media outlets like Mumbai Mirror etc, the firm decided to act by sacking him, and doing damage control !

The Bar Bulletin has confirmed it is a tier 1 firm. Other sites didn't even want to say that.

https://thebarbulletin.com/law-firm-partner-terminated-pocso-case/

Trilegal Capital Markets practice Mumbai office? Incoming associate just wanted to know a little more about the practice at this firm, what’s the work life balance like? Do partners also bear the brunt and work all the time as associates or do they have more of a work life balance? Additionally, what is the transaction tickets like? Do they have substantial work or is RC the only one working? I barely see other CM partners names on the deal corner.

NEVER FORGET: X, a certain young faculty member of NUJS used to parrot TMC propaganda and instigate students against the BJP. X cheered on the cancellation of Jagdeep Dhankar’s invite while simultaneously laying the red carpet for Derek O’Brien. What eventually happened? X used NUJS to the hilt and went abroad. After that, X joined a university run by a BJP guy, which has become the unofficial headquarters of the BJP in recent years.

This is the real face of TMC supporters. Rank opportunists who will jump ship and go saffron if it suits them. Already, their influencers online are shifting loyalties. Just wait and see: all their supporters at NUJS will do the same and hang on to their seats in the governing bodies.

I am no TMC fan and in fact hate every political party in India. But this specific and repeated Hitler reference pattern is deeply problematic. It must be called out because it trivialises that specific phenomenon. It's perfectly fine to say that there was gradual authoritarianism, as that was in fact the case, but this Hitler comparison is not at all appropriate. I know it's not important in the modern world for leftists because of how it's fashionable among liberal elites to bash Israel and the rest of the world's Jews like once it was to buy fancy watches, but that thing of comparing to Hitler and therefore minimising the horrors of Nazism just happens to be antisemmitic also.

What does Sumantra have to say about his family's extensive and long time links with MB and TMC? All this talk was not even mewed when some folks demanded that "Subhash" be asked to come and explain why "hafta" wasn't being paid. The Bose family is free to hate BJP politics and politicians, even jump ships due to their internal family politics but to flap jaws now, is a bit rich.

Then again Bose family is overrated and playing victim has been their hallmark. Bahut hua samman

No way VB leaves Delhi to become AG in Cal! Phiroze a stronger bet. Also, NO WAY Jishnu Chowdhury, after representing so many people in the TMC ecosystem. The BJP is not so stupid as to disregard supporters and what people on the other side, who have overnight switched affiliation.

The power conferred by clause (1) to issue directions, orders or writs to any Government, authority or person may also be exercised by any High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to the territories within which the cause of action, wholly or in part, arises for the exercise of such power, notwithstanding that the seat of such Government or authority or the residence of such person is not within those territories.

It is quite absurd that an unfortunate incident continues to be made a petty joke out of, despite everyone from the incident seemingly having moved on in one way or another. Clearly the distinguished legal professionals on this platforms have nothing meaningful to contribute except throwing the word maharathi around every now and then?

I recently joined a law firm and the start has been slower than I expected. It has only been a few days since I joined, so I wanted to understand whether firms generally ease new associates in gradually to help them get comfortable with the workplace and workflow, or whether I am simply overthinking the situation.

It's Friday. Weekend is almost here. If you have a life (debatable, given your practice area), maybe you're winding down. If you're in disputes, you're probably still at your desk drafting something.

Either way — this one's for the students lurking here who have romanticised the idea of a Tier 1 disputes team. We see the LinkedIn posts about the big wins, the Supreme Court appearances, the landmark judgments. But no one talks about what Tuesday at 11pm actually looks like.

So — disputes lawyers at T1 (CAM, SAM, AZB, Trilegal, KCO, NDA, whoever) — please indulge us this weekend. Genuinely curious:

On any given day:

- How many matters are you actively juggling? Is it 3 or is it 13?

- What does the task list actually look like — research notes, written submissions, plaints, replies, vakalatnamas, cause list tracking, client calls, all of it at once?

- Is drafting a whole plaint or a writ petition a one-person, one-day job? Or does it go through 5 people over 3 weeks?

- Who does what — what does an A0/A1 handle vs what actually goes to the SA or partner?

- Is court attendance a regular thing or mostly for seniors?

- How many "urgent" tasks land on your plate after 7pm?

Also — is disputes at T1 actually what students imagine it to be? Or is it mostly document review, research memos, and chasing advocates on record?

Drop your honest take. No names needed — that's what this forum is for. You'd genuinely be doing a service to every law student who's building their entire career plan around "I want to do disputes at a T1."

Hear that the bonuses were very bad this year. 4-5 people I know have put in papers after the bonus payout. They also seems to have fucked over a lot of partner bonuses this year i hear from grapevine. In any case why would anyone smart and in their below PA era stay in a place like CAM honestly which is so tox and partner heavy is beyond me

Hi all, I’m about to begin a three-month long capital markets internship and I genuinely want to make the most of it and convert it into a full-time opportunity. While I do have fairly strong theoretical knowledge of the transaction lifecycle end-to-end, I want to understand how to actually deliver exceptional work in practice.

I’d especially appreciate insights on how to approach and stand out while handling assignments such as lender consent DDs, approvals DDs, property DDs, standard certificates and similar transactional workstreams. I’m less concerned about the black-letter law aspect and more interested in understanding the practical side, how to structure work product well, spot issues effectively, communicate findings commercially, and become someone seniors can genuinely rely on during a live transaction.

Would really value any advice, habits, checklists, or practical tips from people who’ve worked in capital markets or transactional teams

Maybe it is time to dig deeper into how, who et al of Rs 1 cr donation given by GamesKraft to NUJS. As the saying goes, follow the addict and you get the dealer; but follow the money and you will be surprised where it ends up.

There is a danger that an inquiry, if at all, will get saffron/Pinkwashed.

In the outgoing batch of 2026 at NUJS only, so many people had really bad ranks but landed PPOs quite early because of their internship performances. Why aren't you reaching out to your seniors who can tell you exactly what they did instead of posting on an anonymous platform where you'll get vague, short statements at most.

A lot of the people I'm talking about above got placed in the same areas you're interested in too.

The mail seemed like a joke because of the two people who were involved. It was hard to digest as he has quite visibly had her back over the past few years, if it was involving any other person it would have been much more believable. From what I have heard from my friends who are also his friends, the mail that was sent was vetted by the person affected before it was sent out. Not sure how true though.

This is getting laughable at this point. People who say they know him are saying he made a mistake and he is sorry for it but he is not a bad person. People who probably don't know him are saying what he did is unforgivable. Some people have gone on an entirely different tangent about the suicide and administration. All this while the woman who was actually affected has complained and got the recourse what she wanted to.

What even is the point of this discussion now? Every action has consequences and he has faced it. Whether he is a bad person or not is immaterial now. If he is actually sorry about what he did as people who claim to know him are saying, then hopefully he does better in the future.

Peace ✌️

All very true. And the saddest of all - a bright and curious person turns into someone exhausted, grey and lost within a couple of years. There isn’t much use for your brightness and curiosity here. Reams of mind-numbing diligence (maybe it’s gotten speedier if firms are deploying AI to assist), the same few standard contractual templates on every deal, with everyone above you so exhausted and grey that mentoring or helping you understand the ropes is an unknown phenomenon.