Kapil Sibal is a 2nd generation lawyer and not just any second generation Lawyer. His father was a high profile Senior Advocate of his time.. can you become the next Kapil Sibal in this lifetime? The answer is a resounding yes- the Supreme Court and subordinate high courts of India have long promoted merit over everything else. If you have the stuff, this system will surely reward you.

Kapil' father, Hira Lal Sibal, was a top advocate of his time. Hira became Advocate General of both Haryana and Punjab. He was also offered judgeship of P&H high court.Hira was president of the bar as well. So, Hira must be referring a lot of cases from Chandigarh for Sibal to argue at the Supreme Court.

Kapil's three elder brothers cleared UPSC. He himself cleared civil services twice. His wife was in the foreign services. If you have that many connections you can also become a top lawyer like him. One major USP of Sibal is that he was a cabinet minister for 10 years. He got popular because of that as well. Most political parties and state governments brief him because of that. So, his name keeps coming in the newspapers and people consider him some big shot despite losing so many cases.

The gentleman whom you respond to seems quite young, uninformed and yes, naiive.

Anyone who believes a top transaction partner merely does paperwork, is an ill informed bumpkin. Taking my own rather humble example, the promoters of my clients rely on my rather blindly and ask me - "......bhai, karu ya nahi karu". That's it. All my knowledge and expertise is used to tell them succinctly, whether to do the deal or not. And if yes, how. They rely on me to negotiate not mere legalese, but commercials. I am quite certain it is the same for any top transaction partner. I do not blame this gentleman for his opinion since unless you are exposed to such settings, the average person would perhaps be equally blinkered and blissfully ignorant as he is. On innumerable occasions, my promoters will get the powers that be to call or meet me - since somethings may require a new policy or approach to be taken and the powers that be also know who I am and that what i say, will be the correct path to take.

For litigations, it appears our dear gentleman has been exposed to instructing attorneys who act as postmen and merely deliver a brief to the Counsel. A good litigating lawyer in a firm, is the one who actually strategises the matter and evolves the entire approach to be taken. The Counsels are frequently like horses i.e. they do need to be directed and shown the path. No one can do that except the instructing attorney since he is the one who knows the client and is the repository of all facts that are not only germane to the matter at hand, but, to the client. The most eminent Senior Counsels have sometimes complimented me and told me in as many words, that the victory was possible only due to my effort and thinking.

I thought it was rather essential that I write this to offer a counterview to our dear gentleman. I wholeheartedly agree that litigation is truly wonderful and very special - the thrill one gets in a court room during a hotly contested matter bears scarce replication. But, to distil transaction partners (not associates et al) to mere paperpushers, only displays a lack of knowledge, awareness and exposure.

I will not comment on money since it is honestly something I am least interested in, as I believe I earn far more than what my wants or needs require.

Minimum of 1 year and maximum of 2 years. Get noticed by your judge. If he/she likes your work and is encouraging, may be you will be introduced to other judges as a good up and coming young person. Make friends in the HC registry. All these things will set you up for practice.

Oh boy. What times.

When they called us back to office 3 days a week, my then boss started by making us come to office 5 days a week. When they themselves didn't come more than 2 days a week.

I eventually put in my papers within a month or so. Quit law firms altogether. Life has been so good after that. I get to have indulge in recreation and hobbies and I also make 5x or more in monies.

It would be great to know of the actual list of clients/ matters Ms Awasthi directly advised on in the past 10 years. Also I believe there are several partners in her team, so this selective gifting of legacy to one partner, that too in a professionally run and managed law firm, is a little confusing. Are other partners of the team (bagai, sunit, apparajitha, etc) leaving with her,

The question is less dependent on age and more dependent on how supportive and understanding your husband is.

Though, it wouldn't hurt to get married around 26-27 so that you have some experience in handling things by the time you're 30-31 and still have the option of having kids in your 30s if that is something you want.

If you are in a city like Delhi, try and work under a designated senior of the HC and a sitting judge for one year each. Will gove you a lot of exposure.

Then join a chamber for 5-6 years. Look for a good boss over anything else. Instead of a chamber, you can alternatively consider working with disputes team of a law firm. The pay will be better but the chance to argue will be less. You can then take a call on whether and when you want to go independent.

Find a good chamber and intern for 2-3 months. In one month, it's tough to gauge the culture, boss, colleagues. Might sound corny but in litigation, the place where you work for 13-14 hours a day needs to be conducive and peaceful. No point going to a toxic place. So, find out people and intern right away because vacancies are always an issue in litigation. Hone your research. Drafting you'll learn on the job. But the most important non-law skill is be proactive, be quick on the uptake, make yourself indispensable.

This is apples and oranges. The Ivies don't have an entrance exam. They are full of nepo babies who, unsurprisingly, have access to power. Harvard has special luxury dorms for nepo babies because they can't live like others. Our nepo babies go abroad because they can't get special treatment - admission or lifestyle - here and they feel more fancy among white people. So our law grads are not hanging out with the nepo babies they need to cultivate for politics. It is as simple as that.

So who is the new VC? I was told that the candidates had been interviewed last week and a shortlist of three names had been sent to the CJI to pick from. An EC meeting had also been held couple of days back. Did the name get announced there? How long before the next guy joins? What happened to all the allegations and protests against the current guy?

You have absolutely no idea about the ground reality. The IDT practice of LKS and Khaitan cannot be compared. Most of the IDT matters in the Calcutta High Court and Tribunal is handled by LKS. Khaitan does not even come second when it comes to IDT litigation in Kolkata and even pan India level also (you can checkout the reported decisions in taxmann etc to verify). Don't know about IPR, but have seen them appearing in a lot of matters.

sorry, but khaitan ipr dominates calcutta, followed by fox. Khaitan would also dominate in IDT matters. Perhaps LKS can come second in that. But again, no one in Cal HC really knows about them - so perhaps they are very lowkey and do select matters, or haven't broken into the market or whatever reason

How is Singhania & Co. LLP, Bangalore as a law firm? Would it be worth shifting from an in-house role to the firm, considering that the work primarily revolves around IBC and Electricity Board matters? Also, after a year’s experience at Singhania, would it be feasible to move to a firm like Trilegal or a similar tier firm?

Hi, PQE-2+ here,

All my work ex is with T1/T2 disputes teams, CV has sufficient high stakes commercial litigation. Want to make a switch to counsel practice in Delhi but don't want to settle for peanuts (upto 40k is peanuts but I'm open to revising my understanding). Who are the counsels I should be aiming for? And does this strictly work on cold-email basis?

Thanks