I don’t know him personally, but he used to be friends with someone I know when he had just started out. Most of it is true he definitely is arrogant ▮▮▮

He’s not a nepo baby; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. He started out on his own with a very old Supreme Court senior adv. From what I know, he got most of his initial briefs through that connection. He mainly does electricity matters, interstate water disputes, and corporate work. The work he talks about on LinkedIn, through the dinners he attends and the people he’s friends with, is broadly accurate.

He’s well connected, and knows a lot of people in the city. He knows most of the family offices and also does a fair amount of cross-border work.

1) The retainer fee is similar when it comes to T-1 firms (say KCO and Trilegal).

2) Tax teams are generally support teams in T-1s with a few exceptions and also smaller in size. Therefore, post the position of counsel/PA, the competition for the partner position is tougher than the general corporate teams. There are not too many partner position openings for direct tax. Hope this answers your growth question.

3) In my view, there should no longer be any doubt in anyone's mind that the concept of execution partner is a dying concept and unless you have strong books, your vertical growth is limited to counsel/PA after which you will most likely be shown the door.

4) Unless your direct tax law expertise as a lawyer is supplemented by additional professional course like CA/CS/ACCA/CFA/ or any other regarded accounting course, your journey as a lateral to inhouse/advisory tax firms will be severely impacted since most of the companies/advisory companies look for a person who is adept at compliances.

5) If you are considering litigation role in direct tax, the opportunities are extremely limited when it comes to firms. AZB, Trilegal, DMD, Vaish, and a few other firms have dedicated direct tax litigation roles. When it comes to companies, you may look at companies like Adani, Reliance, who are big enough to accommodate these specialized roles. However, the issue is that for these tax roles, the minimum required experience is 7+ years and people vying for that role are too many. The alternate is to look for chambers who take up large chunk of tax work - Mr. Aravind Datar, Mr. Percy Pardiwala, Mr. Porus Kaka, Mr. Balbir Singh. However, the expectations regarding the salary should accordingly be set as the pay can't match T1. It's abysmal for most.

6) If we consider going independent, please bear in mind that the work in tax is drying up (definitely not wanting to draw a grim picture here but speaking from experience of close to 4 years) and whatever work is there is in the hands of a few individuals since everyone is bent on undercutting each other in this area of law, even the senior advocates. The fee benchmarks which have been set are terrible. It would take close to 7 years to build a sustainable practice so I would recommend not to keep your eggs in one basket. If you have any more questions, please send a follow up.

Worked with Adwiteeya and had a very positive experience. Sharp, practical and strong on documentation. One of the few seniors who would take the time to explain the "why" and not just the "what". Demanding when required, but always fair. Learned a lot from her and would definitely recommend working with her if you get the opportunity.

Easier to hire female freshers than female partners/experienced professionals since women tend to leave later on due to various societal reasons. Also, you cannot go very wrong while hiring a fresher so it's easier to hire women, which will bump up their overall diversity count.

Hey, I interned in his chambers, and my experience was good at the time. It has been a few years now, though. I would always recommend working there, as the work has a decent amount of variety.

They also prefer that if you are not in Mumbai and are planning to travel to Mumbai just for the internship, you don’t come and instead do the internship online. As far as I remember, no stipend was given at that time.

My suggestion would be to go and work offline if you can. I’m not sure which associates are still there, but the ones I worked with were understanding enough. Just be accountable for your work and try to learn as much as you can.

Also, to apply, you can easily find his email ID online and send in your application. I would suggest applying 3–4 months before the time you want to intern.

Because most of them don't have valid extenuating circumstances like illness or death of family member/loved one. They are just lazy people who sit on their arses, doing nothing, expecting to be spoonfed. NLSIU needs a break financially from someone, might as well take it from those who think they can milk the system.

I feel there can be a three-tier structure which balances the plight of the students and the need of NLSIU for funds:

1. For general category students: Charge the whole amount

2. For SC/ST/OBC students: Full waiver

3. For EWS students who are not SC/ST/OBC: 50% waiver.

Really really disappointed with the HR team at trilegal. Honestly why do they even call us for interviews if they can’t provide us minor updates. I deserve to know even if they were not moving forward with my application. Repeated follows ups but not even a single response. Pathethic team!

Lol, when it comes to biased alum, every law school has their own. Agree with most of the other points, with the caveat that other than NLSIU, standards really don't exist for NLUs anymore. NUJS is certainly worse than NALSAR and NLUD in every aspect now, be it VC, faculty, students, or infra.

NUJS students are very active when it comes to posting on social media about Modi, Palestine, Cockroach protests etc. Ask them about corruption and misgovernance at NUJS, then they go quiet.

The SJA is nothing but a vanity project for certain guys to wield power, get prominence, hit on girls etc.

Hi all,

I'm a 4th year B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Rashtriya Raksha University, Gandhinagar, looking for an internship for January 2027.

A quick snapshot of my profile:

- Interning with Trilegal (corporate practice, Sept 2026),
- Classplus/Bunch Microtechnologies (drafted commercial agreements, DPDP compliance, bonus shares/FEMA work),
- Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (NDAs, Board Resolutions, Companies Act governance research),
- Rise Legal, and as a Student Research Associate at RRU's Centre for International Law.
-
- Primary interest: Corporate & Commercial, M&A, and regulatory/compliance work (RBI/FEMA, GIFT City-IFSC).
- Open to Delhi, Mumbai, GIFT City, or remote -flexible on dates within January.
- CGPA 8.2/10, moot court and paper presentation experience alongside the above.
-

If your firm/chamber is taking interns in January, or you know someone who is, I'd really appreciate a pointer - happy to send my CV and a short cover note directly.

Thanks so much!

I am so tired of this lazy analysis - which american firm is going to come and set up a 1000 member office in India to do Indian rate deals?

The problem is the under cutting and fee competition the firms have engaged in - domestic billing rates have hardly gone up, so naturally after few years the salary jumps will stall

Work as a paralegals will be as per what team hires the paralegal, just like most places. So you if you get one in transaction team, you get the same kind of work as A0 gets. Similar for disputes, they will have you be part of matters almost end to end and there is hardly any gatekeeping if you are on a matter. Disputes teams are generally nerdy so if you have that initiating attitude and care about the work you are doing and also communicate that, it is very well received. From what I know, they don’t hire a paralegal unless they have an opening for an associate. I believe that’s a general practice because why would any firm train someone for 6 months and then not hire them. It reflects poorly on the team. Its a different story if the candidate isn’t trainable and one thing I have heard is that they are very out there with their feedback so if you are lagging they will tell you and give you time to fix that (as anyone should).

if you care about what you are doing in your 30s and if you are working as a partner making crores or moved in house cause a t1 brand killed your growth because they just dont match the level of work at boutique RE firms and now you make half of what that WG lawyer makes, Wadia has a billion problems and I would not recommend RE itself to people but if you like the field and can avoid the temptation of a higher pay at the start of your career which only gets closer and closer as you grow due to higher increments at WG and eventually becoming partner aged 29 or 30 (assuming you grad at 22) and then make more than your CAM counterparts.

when you actually know what you are talking about instead of drawing stupid parallels, the bangladesh in your analogy is CAM.

I agree with this assessment. SAN’s speech at the townhall was just old wine in a new bottle! Once again SAN repeated how ELP was and is unique, is doing cutting edge work and has groomed so many good lawyers.

SAN took refuse in the past, repeated stories we have heard many times before: ELP’s Partnership deed was signed at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore on Sept 6th, 2001. The four partners couldn’t take their spouses along to Singapore, but they promised themselves that they would meet there 10 years later at the same place, with their spouses, which they did!

SAN “remembered” how he worked with “tax” as they pivoted from VAT to GST. SAN said he has been working hard (on corporate deals) ever since he returned from his US trip. SAN did not mention a single ‘trade’ deal he did.

SAN promised that lawyers and not AI would be the decision makers at the new firm that he will soon cobble together.

The decision to split ELP was presented as one taken jointly by the Co-Founders and the departing TnT Partners, in the interest of everyone in ELP. It was reiterated that ELP is very profitable. In the last 5 months, ELP’s revenues were higher than what it was in the last 6 months of the previous financial year, which was the best year for ELP till date.

SAN: “Change is inevitable. Human beings came to dominate the world since we are the most adaptable. So, we need to change and adapt.” Darwin was quoted a few times.

The term sheet is ‘non-binding’ and there is no guarantee the deal will take place. Which means the term sheet HAS BEEN SIGNED, but SAN didn’t say so expressly.

SAN spoke for around 45 minutes.

Then RJ spoke. He recounted how on Sept 1st 2001, he started working for RSM as a CA. A few days later, he was ‘told’ that he would be moving to ELP. He asked what he, a CA would do in a law firm. RJ said that everyone at ELP would be ‘safe’.

What SAN did not say: That all those who move to the remnant law firm will be protected. That he will not try to create an ‘associate-lite’ law firm.

RJ has no business saying that everyone at ELP would be ‘safe’. SAN should have said that. SAN didn’t say that. All those moving to Dhruva WILL be safe – that’s obvious – unless they want to leave and they won’t be able to for 2.5 years since they will have a lock-in.

The High Tea that followed was entirely ‘vegetarian’. Until now, ELP’s dinning hall was multi-cuisine. Even the birthday parties held once a month would have a non-veg option. A sign of times to come?

RJ, please avoid mentioning again and again how RSM, a tax and accounting firm, created ELP as its “unofficial” legal arm. Also, once you are at Dhruva, please do not join or fund SILF, that evil organization. Instead, please persuade Ryan and Dhruva to lobby for a change in Indian regulations so that lawyers and CAs can work together.

Final verdict: Come Diwali, I will collect my 60% and run.

JSA bnf (non ATU) is okay but not top tier. ATU is struggling to survive.

JSA Corporate practice is decent but not stellar. We already have a lot of mediocre people so please don’t send anymore of them here.

We, especially the Mumbai office, needs some stellar lawyers with marquee clients or big ticket deals.

IFC is fundamentally a volume‑driven account, not a meaningful revenue engine. Even in a good year, it barely crosses 4–5 crore, and that too with significant effort and hand‑holding. Beyond IFC, his client portfolio is erratic at best, a revolving door of matters that fluctuate wildly and offer no dependable contribution to annual revenue. There is no stable book, no sustained pipeline, and no year‑on‑year commercial reliability.When you strip away the noise, the numbers speak for themselves. The narrative of being a major rainmaker simply doesn’t align with the actual financial footprint.

There is no strict division of interns between the B&F team and the GC team. There is a common pool of interns.

Although the work culture is very chill, with fixed working hours and the quality of work is also good, the associates explain the tasks very patiently and spends time to teach you but the hiring process at vritti is very different. They don't hire students who are still in college. You need to graduate and then work as a paralegal for months to finally and hopefully get hired. The ideal time period for the B&F team is somewhere between 4-5 months and for the GC team it's 9-12 months, then one becomes a junior associate and then an associate. It is very time consuming process.

You can check the linkedin accounts of the people working there to cross-verify.