As a female partner in a Tier-1, high stakes team with a toddler at home, the pressure is overwhelming. Many days, the working hours are such that I barely get 15 to 20 minutes with my child before he is already asleep by the time I step away from my laptop or return from work. One of the hardest parts is never really being able to switch off, especially when unwell. I actually worry about falling sick because there is no real space to recover. Weekends are far from rest. They are for proving to myself and to my family that I can still be a present parent, keep things running at home, make decisions at home, and catch up on everything that slipped during the week at work. It is so exhausting.

And yet the usual response is that you are paid for this, or that you chose this path. But sometimes I find myself wondering if I really chose all of it in the way it turned out....

As a salaried partner my experience is that the stress and pressure on a salaried partner is much less than the stress and pressure on associates, especially SAs and PAs.

Sure there's pressure to make targets and build your own book. In a Tier 1 firm like the one i work with there's generally enough work going around for you to make targets and the actual execution work is mostly done by the associates again.

If you have/build a good team (which is the real clincher honestly) and are generally competent, clients will keep coming back to you and the book gets built.

You have more flexibility with respect to work hours and the ability to take time off to be there for your kids and weekends are more free.

Honestly, law firms are pyramids and it's worst at the bottom. Salaried partner is like the second or third highest rung of the pyramid (depending on whether you're at a promoter run firm or not) and it's amongst the best places to be in a law firm, honestly.

2026 had a much worse placement scene, especially compared to 2025. 2025 was worse than 2024, which was worse than 2023, which was a great year but worse than 2022, which had the most firmwide placements because of the covid economic boom. Its a downward curve from here because in each successive year, retained (experienced) associates aren't moving as much, diminishing the need for new hires, because of a stagnant market.

We Indians hate to speak frankly about important things and trends because we prefer silence and connivance, but it is a known fact that the Indian corporate legal market is over saturated at the mid and high levels and renenue has stagnated too. More partners mean higher cost cutting with clients, and Claude AI is helping new gen partners match in quality without requiring juniors who would've handled the grunt work.

2027 onwards will be exponentially worse because its a vicious cycle as explained above. Firms like to say "Oh we will be shifting to the PPO model!" so they are able to employ free fresh monthly talent without promising in hired numbers. Its a classic strategy.

You wouldnt believe me when I say that in 2022, people were handed out PPOs based on single online internships, even compromising on quality because the markets were defiantly successful and required more labour, (tech/ infra/ lawyers etc). 5 years since, companies are making up excuses to layoff entire teams.

If you are in the 2027+ batches, you must learn to market yourself, as skills and legal knowledge dont suffice anymore. You must market yourself in providing faster product (using latest AI models), efficiently and most importantly better that the others.

(PS Please excuse the grammar, im high rn)

If you don't mind paying 4.5k extra annually, you can use Parallels Desktop and run Windows on your Mac (keyboard shortcuts might take some getting used to). The lack of ports on a Macbook is super annoying, but a lot of higher end Windows slim / lightweight laptops have the same problem. Just buy a USB hub for the thunderbolt port on a Mac.

Overall, a Macbook will likely last you longer than a Windows machine, so the need to upgrade frequently is substantially reduced.

I'm at a t3 boutique firm doing indirect tax. I'm starting at a new place in nearly 3 weeks. I lack fundamental understanding of the law and would love advice on how to quickly bring myself upto pace of an A0. I know it can seem unrealistic, but something is better than nothing!

What are you talking about. I used to work here and left because the partner [...] was extremely rude to me on a regular basis. [...]
Also the comment about people leaving is five months old, when so many associates left one after the other. No offence, but if you don't know about the work culture (▮▮▮ ) or the fact that so many people left last year, I have to doubt whether your comment is genuine or whether it's posted by one of the partners anonymously. Again, no offence.

Hey. I want to pursue a MSc course from abroad. After completion of the msc, I plan to again join litigation practice in India.

Whether my msc study period will be counted as a gap year in my practice and do I need to get my license suspended?

Note: I will be linking my prospective msc thesis with law.

Good decision by Justice Nagarathna on 24 April 2026 allowing a minor rape victim to abort.see https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/womans-choice-relevant-cant-force-her-to-continue-unwanted-pregnancy-saying-child-can-be-given-for-adoption-supreme-court-531585

Both SG Tushar Mehta and ASG Aishwarya Bhati have been regularly opposing abortions for minor rape victims and for minor unwanted pregnancies. They have been calling it murder. While abortion must be considered carefully, Tushar Mehta and Aishwarya Bhati's approach is incorrect and imposes their ideological views on minor rape victims who are forced to complete pregnancies, deliver babies, and hand them over for adoption. Justice Nagarathna in this case asked the right questions on 24 April 2026.
Update - So Justice Nagarathna allowed the abortion. That is the right decision in case of a minor rape victim.
I recall a case before Delhi High Court Chief Justice Upadhyaya and Justice Anish Dayal in July/ August 2025. A minor rape victim wanted to abort. The Court was initially inclined to allow and doctors initially agreed.
ASG Aishwarya Bhati intervened, and a revised medial report was filed by the doctors stating that abortion would involve two procedures, first to deliver child, and second to kill it. And the Court was encouraged to call this murder. The Chief Justice questioned the Petitioner's Counsel saying she was asking them to direct murder. The result was that the abortion was denied. And the minor was offered free medical support for 5 years including for her psychological welfare. While the case was being heard, the minor was essentially in police custody in hospital, to prevent any unauthorised abortion. The High Court decision in that case failed the minor rape victim. Forcing a rape victim to deliver a child is unconstitutional and violative of her human rights. And compelling an adoption of an unwanted rape conceived child by a minor has its own life long trauma. Aishwarya Bhati also got the doctors to say that the abortion posed medical risks to the minor as it could potentially cause life long damage to reproductive abilities. The doctors were never asked to state that these risks were minor. Am glad that Justice Nagarathna has clarified the law.

To answer the first one. As I have said earlier. I am not from a premier college in India. The grading system our university follows is not a high scoring one. And on top of that my marks are low/below average.

Thank you for your second para. It's not as of BCL or LLM had not crossed my mind. But many are saying LLMs are useless for non academia jobs. And that BCL is primarily depended on your UG grade, which brings me back on square zero

As I told in my post my BA.LLB grades at my current college is shit . With those grades I am never making it to a BCL or even an LLM.

I don't understand why do you feel I am narcissistic. Mentioning that my 12th grades meets the grade equivalencey criteria of UK University is not narcissism. It's merely a fact. I never said that I am automatically qualified to be admitted there, because there are other factors like EC, SOP, LOR, etc

Your thought process makes no sense to me.

Firstly, you say you'd wish to do the LLB for a job at a Magic Circle or SC firm, as a solicitor, when the UK has no requirement of having an undergraduate degree in law to be eligible for those and just require the SQE. Why do you believe that having an LLB from India and adding another LLB from a UK university would make you more attractive when these firms look for things more than just bare legal knowledge?

Secondly, if you wish to experience excellent pedagogy, an LLM/BCL/Other specialized masters degree like the Oxford Masters in Law & Finance should appeal to you. You'd be building upon the foundations you already have of the law, instead of re-learning it. A masters degree would mean meaningful progression for you, as well as you getting to experience the academic prowess of apparently superior universities in a more meaningful way than you would with a second LLB.

I think there is room to have both differentiated by sex and inclusive spaces. Obviously, there must be boundaries around single sex spaces which must be respected, but that does not mean there cannot be gender inclusive spaces as well (and that does not mean relabelling accessible toilets as accessible + gender inclusive, it means doing something genuinely to have provision that addresses both the needs of those who require accessible toilet provision and for those for whom gender inclusive spaces are needed). This very binary argument does not capture the world's realities anymore.

Choose you practice area first; Connect with your seniors; Go to your nearest district court and ask the court clerks the same question-and they will help you more than you can think of; Start with trial court-since the skills you learn there are summarily transferable till the apex benches; Know that it willtruly be hectic-no money, enormous work, no self-respect, sitting at those crumbly benches of trial courtsall day and then follow the senior to his/her chamber till midnight; Follow only if you have passion for the same.