Also, OpIndia’s attack against Rohin shows that the BJP and RW ecosystem have a vested interest in seeing Rohin punished, so we need to exercise caution.

Hahaha. Liberal and conservative minds are so different. Y’all think they’re reporting on this because Robin Bhatt is so scary and important to the right? Why ? Because of all the votes and people he can move or the money he can donate ?

When OP India writes these stories - understand it’s not because the people are important. It’s because they a) want to get their audiences laughing at how corrupt and hypocritical their opposition is and b) they want their audiences to absorb the cultural message that the left is this way, this crazy, this perverted, this corrupt, this amoral.

Maybe it was the Indira Jaising connection if anyone that made them write it. But it’s not because RB is some big deal to them. He’s just a joke and some canon fodder.

I am from the 2026 batch of SLSP. Our Day 0 placements were beyond cooked and I am not expecting any redemption or any savior in guise of a T1/T2 firm in the remaining days of campus.

Well it was not just my college but other top ones as well. Considering T1/good T2 is no more an option, is lateral hiring later on the way for our batch from a T3/Boutique corporate law firm? Also how difficult is it to make that switch and when should one make it?

NALSAR has a great alum association and bonding, they really help each other out. I know this because there was a time when one amongst us three flatmates required blood, we reached out to everyone, but no one responded. My flatmate wrote one message on his alum group and we got blood in next couple of hours. Similarly, there was yet another example of cop harassment. This guy again reached out to his alum group and bam within one hour we were out of the police station. As a graduate of a traditional university, I found this impressive.

Honestly, at the risk of feeding the cycle further, I just wanted to offer one counterpoint not to convince you (since you seem quite sure of your views), but to put another perspective out there for anyone else reading this. You clearly have strong feelings about law firms and associates, but constantly reducing the work to “paper-pushing” or “clerical tasks” doesn’t reflect the reality of what many of us actually do. Especially in disputes teams, associates are often involved in complex drafting, legal strategy, client calls, regulatory interpretation, and procedural problem-solving. And yes, not everyone argues cases in year one, that’s true whether you’re in a firm or a chamber.

Which brings me to a broader point: for the first few years, the real difference between a chamber junior and a law firm associate often comes down to appearances and even that may be limited to procedural appearances. On everything else — research, drafting, strategizing — the work can be equally demanding, if not more structured and rigorous in a firm setup. The idea that law firm associates “learn nothing” is, frankly, a bit naive.

Also worth noting is that many people actually enjoy the law firm life. It may not be everyone’s dream, but for some, it’s fulfilling, intellectually and professionally. You get to work with sharp colleagues, solve real-world problems, help clients navigate disputes, and sometimes even structure large, sensitive matters with national impact. If you stick around, you can go into BD, become counsel, make partner, or even set up your own boutique, which is pretty entrepreneurial in itself. Your shining senior advocates aren’t the only white knights in armour in this profession. A lot of good lawyering happens outside the courtroom too, quietly, effectively, and with integrity.

If litigation is your chosen path, that’s great, its a vital part of the profession. But constantly invalidating others’ choices doesn’t elevate yours. It just reinforces the impression that your argument depends on tearing other people down. There’s room in the profession for multiple paths. And most of us are just trying to do good work wherever we are.

That said, your response was completely unrelated to the original post, which asked a very real and relatable question about when things get better. To OP - know that many associates go through tough phases balancing demands and stress. It does get better with experience, time management, and sometimes finding the right fit within the profession. Hang in there, you are not alone.

one honest question, at the risk of encouraging you further but to illustrate why your posts are often trollish: why do you personally hate law firms so much, as you say? you realise advisory lawyers are a necessary part öf every legal profession in the world, and 99% of law does not end in court, right?

and for many it's a satisfying career. you get to help people, sometimes problems are tricky to solve intellectually or in terms of EQ, you might be getting to understand various businesses and their problems from the inside, bw involved in structuring, etc.

and even if you don't make partner, you might enjoy research or become counsel where the money is decent and hours might be good, or get into BD which some people enjoy, or you can start your own firm, which is pretty entrepreneurial, where you provide jobs to dozens or maybe hundreds of others, etc.

it's fine to prefer litigation, but to repeatedly discount an entire necessary part of the profession as paperwork, might be your genuinely held opinion, but it seems naive.

It doesn't. Each passing year of work brings a new and different sort of hell - work pressure, pressure to drum up business, pressure to deliver; but it's all definitely still in legal hell-o-sphere. Now that I think about it, Dante's Inferno is probably about being a lawyer.

And the longer you wait to get out, the more unlikely it is that you ever will.

You write your name as a "tired associate". Well, well - means either of the two things - you are working at a law firm, or as an "associate" in a "law office". Let's get into both - what will you do in a law firm? What's your contribution? Even assuming you are brilliant, all you do is mere paperwork for your superiors. I'll simplify it for you before answering your question on whether it gets better:
1. Newly joined associate to PA - do the paperwork for seniors above you, work and butter seniors for promotion, and treat your juniors poorly - repeating the cycle. no real work done. even if you are in a non-clerical sector like disputes - you are doing nothing but drafting something that a senior advocate would throw in the dustbin - and while you may have your appearance "marked" in court - you wouldn't have argued - and have learned nothing.
2. Salary Partner/Equity Partner - well, well - promotion time, did accomplish something - partner at where? The name of the wall is not yours. You perhaps aren't bringing in business. To bring back Re. 1 in profit, you'd have to contribute Rs. 2-4 for the same - what's the use man? By this time the successful lads in litigation would have been outearning you while contributing to the law and enjoying their lives because instead of them chasing money like you did - they chased learning and work - and are now their own bosses - enjoying 100% of what they earn (I'll come to paying "associates" later).

In any case - as much as I hate corporate law firms and as much as Legally India Mods would not publish it (I hope you do - for a change I'm gonna write good stuff now) its a far easier career trajectory, along with easy money with benefits like having an office space which is proper and infrastructure etc - which suffers fundamentally from two things - lack of independence (you are no one, you are someone in a firm not having your name), and lack of intellectual work - its routine paperwork.

Second, on being an "associate" in litigation - its a stupid term put in place by primarily Delhi lawyers and very unfortunately followed by other cities as well taking a cue from Delhi. Let's be clear - law is a profession, and litigation is the example of that. You have advocates and in their chambers, chamber juniors. The traditional system as it came from the Britishers and followed by the Indians thereafter - required that these chamber seniors don't pay the juniors any money and these juniors would quote their fee from the instructing solicitors in the original side and from the clients in the appellate side - a practice thankfully still seen in the old chartered high courts. While I have nothing against the Delhi bar - its one of the best, their system of paying the juniors and calling them an associate is a mockery to the profession - it makes them a paid research assisstant who does nothing and has the same work description as an associate in disputes in law firms.

Now, does it get any better? Well, yes, in terms of money if you are in law firm, that too soon. Perhaps you are already being paid well. But in terms of mental satisfaction? never, in a law firm - you'll end up doing clerical work and wasting your talent - in litigation? yes, before it gets even worse and you manage to get out of it with sheer hardwork.

(EDIT: NOT THE SAME PERSON AS THE OP) context perhaps on timing of this post https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/why-has-the-us-arrested-indian-american-analyst-ashley-tellis

Surprised I never knew about this! The incident was covered in the BBC, Washington Post and New Statesman (UK). Most shocking of all, the same professor had the audacity to write an article criticising the girl and various "feminists" in the Left ecosystem came out criticising the girl for naming their friends in public for not following a legal procedure!!

https://x.com/shanteehee/status/1278935905894412289

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2017/11/breaking-savarna-feminism-rules-how-raya-sarkar-s-list-alleged-harassers

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-41862615

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/world/meet-raya-sarkar-the-south-asian-student-who-made-a-list-of-predatory-academics/2018/03/02/1d7691e8-168d-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_video.html

https://www.dailyo.in/voices/sexual-harassment-academia-predators-facebook-list-jnu-delhi-university-rape-culture-20241

Why would they? Has Patrick Devlin's work been retracted because of the sexual abuse? Or that of John Searle, the Berckley philosopher? (And all this is before we get into the question of this person's possible guilt or innocence.) In fact, if anything, this should be more read and discussed and questions asked about the work in the context of these accusations (if found to be true), just as people have asked about how Patrick Devlin's arguments before the Wolfenden Committee could be squared with his own behaviour.

Totally reductive and unhelpful argument. If some people had their way, JK Rowling, of all people, would be banned!

Moderators - do your job and publish the comments! What's taking so long!? After all, that's what this site is largely for these days - somebody posting a provocation, other people responding and a third set of people just sitting on the sidelines watching, and enjoying the blood sport! The spectators of the blood sport are screaming for action!!

They are:

- Suharsh Sinha, Senior Partner, AZB (LLB NLSIU, LLM UPenn, MSc Oxford)

- Rishabh Kumar, Partner, Cooley LLP (LLB GLC, LLM Columbia)

- Ashraya Rao, Partner, KCO (LLB Symbiosis)

Zia Mody was on the jury. Also Rishad Premji, Harsh Goenka, Nandini Piramal and other A-listers.

https://et40under40.in/site/et-40-under-40/1916

I guess the only criticism can be that they have narrowly looked at law firm partners practising corporate and financial law (perhaps because of Zia’s bias) instead of expanding the field. For example, litigators like ▮▮▮ or jurists like ▮▮▮

https://thewire.in/rights/south-asian-univeristy-protesting-students-point-larger-systemic-failure

SAU just like Nalanda Univ were conceived with lofty visions and statements but completely belied the promises made. And these are directly under MEA. I wouldn't single out the NDA because UPA did little to stem the foundational rot.

I use this reference for two things. Firstly, whoever wants us to believe that a regime change here will do great things is deliberately playing mischief. Let's not be headless chickens here as well. SJA superbly did it to us previously.

Secondly, despite far better documentation of institutional lapses etc, SAU students continue to get bulldozed. This doesn't mean that we continue to be nincompoops and play to the tune of the SJA who play second fiddle to JalVayu etc; instead recognise that we should come better prepared and have the tenacity for a long fight.

And in our context, we don't need a student body that is in cahoots with the admin.

Quite a few friends and batchmates of mine interned there, though in disputes. The partner or so are mostly reliant on the PA/SA, and the associates are the worst is what they say - they take interns from disputes and other practice areas and give them their work to do and tell them its urgent while they themselves laugh and talk loudly. A SA in gen corp there is a sort of a relative of mine, and he agreed with the last part - about them laughing and disturbing. About work, he said that they don't have much work, and its chill

The advice is coherent and clearly defines the relevant ethical boundaries. If you disagree, please indicate the precise points of divergence so the discussion remains substantive. And yes—I used AI to ensure clarity and accuracy. The legitimacy of an argument rests on its reasoning, not the medium through which it is articulated.

Do not know about the PPO scene, but since Aaron is now leading the TMT team at NDA, recommend working with him. He has a huge portfolio of repeat fintech clients and while you may find him scary to work with, he is a hardcore trainer. Anything learnt under him is seldom forgotten.

I don't recommend you for the same. Other than the big name firms, regardless of which city they are in (sorry, but Mumbai/Delhi would have more work) there is hardly any worthy corp work in a law firm. Further, you say you are keeping your options open - go for litigation, rather - there's no point in interning in firms other than getting a stipend. You'll only become money minded with this approach all the while not learning anything substantial other than checking checklists.

Good office, though they don't have as much work as the other traditional Calcutta solicitor firms - whose clients have mostly been loyal to them. The issue with breaking into Calcutta is that its a parochial bar - and the clients are loyal to the firms - especially in terms of the big ones. As regards LKS's work - I'm honestly surprised and disappointed that they sort of failed to break into the market - perhaps their strategy is bad, or they are into some very specific work that does not involve going to the Cal HC and/or other forums. In any case, payment really does not vary, though you may find a 10% difference here and other - because of the cost of living expenese - where those in Bombay will obviously be paid much more than someone in Delhi or Chennai. Also, why law firm? Go intern and do litigation - there is no point or future in working in law firms

5 d

s ▮▮▮ ▮▮▮. They squeeze out of the associate. The reasons being are follows-:

1. Small deal team which automatically means more work.

2. No flexibility- this worsens the situation

3. Partners attitude - keeping associate feedback session during retreat in Thailand is a testimony to my statement

4. Huge pressure

5. Highest attrition in lower and mid level

Trilegal BLR, Trilegal Mumbai (RC), TTA, CAM Noida and Bengaluru are good options to survive without being getting burn out otherwise it's ▮▮▮ 😭

Yes, it is possible.

Every year all MU colleges (including GLC) release a transfer vacancy list notice indicating the number of vacant seats available for transfer admissions for various years of all the law courses. Aspirants can follow the instructions given in the said notice and apply as per the same. I think admissions for transfers are usually based on marks obtained in law college (in the first year in your case), so as long as you have good marks in the first year you have a fair shot.

All the very best to you!

My man, I'd only give you one piece of advice - please don't make NCLT practice any more than 30-40% of your work - you'll stay restricted to that forum, which will give you the name a NCLT lawyer, and while you'd be ordinarily charging a higher fee than your counterparts in the HC (the one you have is a chartered HC with a beautiful history), any HC lawyer can be called to do an "outstation" matter at the NCLT, and charge more than you, and who may even be junior to you. Practice primarily at the HC, and regularly appear at the NCLT. Not only would you get the name a Tribunal Lawyer, but also may suffer when your name goes for senior designation - the rules of which are changing - and you don't know whether you'll be able to make it - especiually because HC lawyers tend to look down upon the Tribunal lawyers

Hi! I’m a fourth-year student interested in Commercial Litigation (M&A). I’m looking for insights on partners at Tier-1 firms in Mumbai who have a strong practice — both professionally and in terms of reputation.

Would really appreciate genuine, informed responses only. Thanks in advance!

Very interesting that he agreed to speak to an openly pro-BJP website like Lawbeat. That girl Sanya Talwar is full-on right wing, if you see her social media handle.

Should we read anything into this? Or just GS trying to maintain cordial relations with both sides of the fence?

Recently, I heard several students have started to take up the job of drafting contracts as freelance lawyers, while still being in college. I am new to this field and unsure of how to begin in this area. So, can anyone please suggest how to start in this profession to earn a side income? I would truly appreciate it.

There's a reason why capital markets team left, projects and infrastructure partner left, IPR team left, disputes team left, budding partner designates left, real estate team left, CFO left, head secretary left, HR left, communication team left, IT head left, regulatory litigation partner left - all in 4 years