There are definitely some good things about working in a law firm. The pay is steady, especially compared to starting out in litigation. At a young age, you can be financially independent and even support your family if needed. The learning in corporate law is structured—you get trained in processes, drafting styles, and deal management in a way that’s systematic. Exposure to big-ticket transactions is real—you may work on billion-dollar M&A, financing, or tech deals that shape industries. The network you build in firms—clients, foreign counsel, partners—can be valuable if you ever branch out later. The brand name of a top-tier firm on your CV can open doors globally, even if you decide to shift careers. That said, the drawbacks are equally real. At the end of the day, the work in most teams is repetitive—document review, diligence, mark-ups, and compliance drafting. Even negotiations, once the novelty wears off, follow a template. You are executing deals, but not really shaping the law or creating anything uniquely your own. Then comes the lifestyle. A 10- to 12-hour day is normal, nights and weekends often get swallowed, and boundaries are blurred. The pay is the justification, but it comes at the cost of health, time, and sometimes even personality. Many corporate lawyers will tell you they didn’t “choose” this life as much as got used to it, because the money made them too weary to imagine something else. And beyond the hours and the monotony, there’s also the fact that in firms, your name rarely matters. The credit sits with the firm or the partner. Even if you’ve slogged on a deal for weeks, no one outside will know your contribution. It’s a career path that gives financial stability but doesn’t necessarily give personal recognition.

Litigation, on the other hand, is a different kind of life. The money doesn’t come immediately, but the work is real, dynamic, and your own. You’re not boxed into clerical tasks—you draft, argue, interact with clients, and solve problems head-on. Every brief is new, every courtroom exchange is different, and every appearance builds your skills. You’re tested daily, not by the length of your working hours, but by the strength of your preparation and arguments. Most importantly, in litigation you build your own name. Clients come to you for your reputation, not to a firm logo. Over time, the financial rewards surpass what most corporate lawyers will see, but beyond the money, there’s the thrill, the independence, and the sense of ownership over your career. For anyone who can afford to invest two to three years in building a practice, litigation offers not just a job but a profession in the truest sense.

Your SA was absolutely correct. You see there are a few mistakes your SA made, and principally, two of them - one, to join a law firm, regardless if its a T1 or not, and second, to choose to continue there. Working at a law firm does not affect your skill sets at all - they remain stagnant, and you end up in an endless loop of doing the same work again and again. To choose to continue there - where you have to ask for leaves, have people to report to, be in a desk job, call yourself an "employee", doing a "job" after having done a professional course is nothing but sheer stupidity. Law is a very difficult profession, and the saying goes correctly - law is a jealous mistress. You make choices in life on the basis of the situation you are in. Say, you got really bad CLAT rank and have to choose between a T3 NLU or a private law college. You take a call on the basis of the situation you are in. The SA here made the mistake most bright people do - to work in a law firm knowing fully well that their career would stagnate in 10 years. They'll either be thrown out or continue to do the same thing again and again. Do litigation, you'll only face issues w money in the first few years, but thereafter the sky is the limit - you will be in a profession, you will be your own boss, and can charge as much as you want and work whenever you want while actually applying your mind.

You did the correct thing. Please brace yourself for two things - one, the lesser pay in the initial years as compared to the law firm counterparts, and second, the success that you will have after a few years.

Litigation is not so rewarding in its intial years, but as has been said and proved time and again, it is much more intellectually rewarding, makes you well known in social circles, and gives you complete independence - everything that a corporate law firm does not provide, and where your career and skills would have stagnated because of the clerical nature of the work there.

UPDATE - OP here, I did not want to lie, I formally refused my PPO offer. Will be joining the chambers. I am thank full to all the advice, but I feel till the time I have that tier 1 offer as a back up Ill never truly be able to invest a 100% in this thing.

Now I have no option but to make this work. I have seen the struggle and hard work associates put in a Law firm, if I put that in something I find more interesting, It has to work right? I sound naive - but somehow I feel this is it for me.

This is nothing. I have seen several such policies in other firms in metropolitan cities, both the good ones and the bad ones. It only shows that these firms are nothing and will suck your blood for nothing - no career growth and nothing to reward you other than money - with no way to grow up. This is why litigation is much better - real work is done there and there is no concept of leaves - everyone is their own boss and can leave work and take a vacation whenever they want

What even is the discretionary bonus. Inse yearly bonus toh time par diya nahi jaa raha.

Yahaan yearly bonus bhi discretionary hi hai. It is the owners discretion when the bonus is to be released and how much is to be released. Billing, partners' recommendations, your hardwork, nothing matters

Ive been researching a lot about non-litigation roles for lawyers, especially in the finance sector, and it’s been tough to find proper info especially around salary in india

i’m trying to understand what kind of pay and qualifications are needed for legal roles in places like investment banks, mncs, fintechs, pe/vc firms, consulting companies etc (not law firms)

also wondering if there are any other sectors where lawyers can get well-paying non-lit roles, even as freshers

if anyone here has insights or has worked in these spaces, would really appreciate your guidance!

To Law Graduates who have access to their Alma-mater University/Law College-paid resources like Manupatra, SCC and prestigious international/national journals and magazines,

1. Our Uni Admin is of the view that Alumni shouldn't be provided access as their contract with such platforms is for educational purposes and thus they get a discount which can't be extended to the ones who've long since graduated. The underlying reason is also that it would be a massive expenditure for our Uni.

2. So, is there a solution to this problem? How did your Law School figure out a way to provide you guys access?

3. I know that most of the firms do have subscriptions to these platforms. But, for a graduate opting to litigate, it'd be a boon to have such an access.

Posting this comment as a prime example of why such comments are trollish.

1. Calling mods 'snowflake' is not a bona fide attempt to engage in discussion.

2. Please learn constitutional law: the government has a duty to you to protect your right of free speech, internet platforms or people's living rooms have no such duty to you.

3. You are constantly posting spam about law firms being places to do clerical work and only litigation being real law. We get it, you really do believe so and have reasons for it, but it's not what the person has asked and is a trollish attempt to derail a thread.

Hi, people of LI. I have secured an internship at this firm, but it will require me to relocate for a month. Can anyone tell me about the firm? I know it is a good firm for M&A/PE/VC. But any additional information would be useful, as well as their hiring prospects. Thank you!

No.

Getting a job in a magic circle or AM 100 firm feels like a dream. But these days if you are really competent in a decade or less you can make partner at a tier 1 law firm in India.

It's far more difficult to make partner at an US or UK based firm than in India. Indian legal market is about to become even bigger (along with the country's GDP) Western Economies and law firms are already running at full capacity.

I recently interned for a well known DRT, DRAT lawyer in Mumbai. What I wanted to know was how much money could a lawyer starting in the field could hope to make. To the best of my knowledge, the practice is heavily dependant on getting yourself empanelled with various PSBs and playing the volume game well while managing costs by hiring relativity junior lawyers.

The reason is that your interviews are not going as well as you think. If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to request your interviewer to give you feedback after the process is over. Most of them will be happy to have a chat and you will have a better understanding of where you stand.

Partners need Associates and therefore they are not hired to fire. Lawyers work in high pressure situations so if you are the one who understands where is the senior coming from and deliver what you are expected to do, imo you will not find ppl toxic unless they use abusive language or yell.

Why don't you go work in litigation? Why do you want to work in a law firm? I don't understand - if you are 2024 graduate, its already more than a year. You claim to have worked for a year and left because it was toxic. Do you think any other law firm, whether T1 or T77 would be any less toxic or the nature of the work would be the same. On the issue of connections, when you have connections, why, for the sake of yourself, go through the torment of working in a firm where you'll be a slave? Why not go for litigation where atleast you'll be your own boss? Goes beyond me.

No one really knows what is going on except maybe Nishithbhai and NaiDA. The mass hiring is to make up for the exits at a mid and senior level. Personally do not think the firm will shut down anytime soon but its performance will continue declining until it eventually loses what is left of its reputation and becomes just another firm in the system.

I'm a Jindal alumnus who graduated 6+ years ago. Problems have always been there, but with DJ as the Exec Dean, this was bound to happen. She has a very, well, let's just say 'different' way of looking at things - which mostly tend to be very authoritarian, contrary to whatever she may preach in class. Look at what she had done to the previousy-very-successful legal aid clinic. Not surprised at all, just disappointed at my alma mater.

It's okay, don't worry. There are a few ways you can deal with this:

1. Talk to the professors you are close to, or those who are known to be helpful to students. They can guide you on how to deal with the situation.
2. If you had any medical leaves/leaves for competitions, etc., they should be considered, and again, talk to the department concerned for the same.
3. Take a backlog this time, and realise what you have done. Next time onwards, start to attend classes instead of missing them for no reason at all.

Hi all,

I got my LLB degree in 2018 and an LLM in 2019. I have worked in various capacities since then - litigation, legal journalist, in house role, law firm and also as a knowledge manager. None of them have been satisfying - sometimes its the boss, sometimes it's the team, sometimes work culture. Money has been a constant source of disappointment too. At my current job, its all 4. I think its time that i quit law. But I cannot figure out what to do next. Any guidance would be appreciated.

The PAs in this team leave because the existing partners are surviving on existing book and there is no scope of growth. In last 4 years, at least 7-8 PA level and 5-6 SA level people have left the team. Just facts for anyone arrive at conclusion and these facts can be easily confirmed.

There's no need to. You are doing well where you are. Give it another 5 years - and you'll be independent and having clients. In 10-15 years, you';d have grown successful. In 20-30 years, you would be outearning the people of your level where you want to switch. Just give it some time. You'll be thankful that you did not jump to a clerical sector.

Its so funny that people who come and bark and say that corporate law firms are better than litigation because there's merit in law firms and litigation stenches of nepotism fail to realise that most of the law firms are family run. They have nepotism there as well. These delusional people fail to realise that law firms fail to offer any growth opportunity - any thing real. Yet they want to go and work there.

While DRT/DRAT/NLCT/NCLAT practice is much rewarding in terms of money, and the relative ease in it, there are two key factors which you must consider - first, the restrictive scope within which these tribunals operate, and second, the tag of becoming a tribunal lawyer. On the first, these Tribunals are limited in their scope and you'd be limited by the same. Second, whether we like it or not, there are hierarchies in lawyers - seniors in SC, then perhaps others of SC, then seniors of HC, where some HCs are considered better than others, then others of HCs, then district court lawyers. Tribunal lawyers, despite their earnings and wealth in knowledge, would always be lower in that hierarchy - and their senior designation can be affected too.

God knows. As far as I have used these two, it was not helpful at all [used for research in disputes]. As for a PE/VC team concerned, which would primarily be focused on more nuanced document review and DD work, where there is no requirement of any strategy, I believe the AI platforms you mentioned should be able to work. After all, they can do these clerical work with ease.

It's honestly sad and laughable that you want to know the package in a category of work that you are looking forward to. There cannot be a term called package in a profession. With the advent of the NLUs and the law firms, the unfortunate non-achieval of the goals of NLUs have deroded this culture and profession of law. Today people want to know packages and salary as if it is some kind of a job - it isn't. And if it is, you are just selling yourself to a firm where you can never grow and be someone independent.

You use the term "job". In law, there are no jobs. Its a profession. It is sad to see that people are today having such an incorrect notion about this. Much has been said about the growth trajectory (the lack thereof, ie) in law firms. In a smaller city like Pune which does not have a HC, it's even more prevalent. Those who seek to be in firms, are only gonna suffer much later.