When a counsel from Trilegal is posting this, shows so much on the state of affairs. Is the market really that bad?

Khaitan just released a new report on mergers predicting a rise in M and A transactions for the second quarter of 2025

If this the state for M and A which is supposed to be a very lucrative practice, what about other subsets like employment/cap marks...or even disputes

Which area should an Associate join in a law firm then?

The legal profession is in chaos.

It’s oversaturated. Everyone’s competing to the bottom. Clients push back on even basic fees like they’re haggling over roadside chaat. And honestly? It’s exhausting. Here are a few real stories from my independent litigation practice in Delhi that sum it all up:

1. Section 34 petition for a ₹30 crore arbitral award.

Big money at stake. Complex issues. Multiple hearings. I quoted ₹7 lakhs all-in—with instalments, mind you. Still got undercut by someone who quoted ₹1 lakh. For the entire thing. No typo. One. Lakh.

2. Reply to a legal notice—client’s staring down a potential contempt case.

I quote ₹15K, knowing I’ll be pulling an all-nighter, skipping the weekend, crafting it like a Supreme Court reply. Client says, “How about ₹4K?” I declined, obviously, and just gave him some pointers ex gratia—so he could YOLO his way through the legal minefield.

3. Arbitration hearing (March 2025).

Client snaps at me for charging ₹50K for a hearing that lasted 2+ hours—and took two days of prep. His logic? “I can’t lose this case anyway, so why are you charging?” This, right after I got him interim relief. Delulu is truly the solulu.

4. This one hurt.

Spent two months drafting a detailed oppression & mismanagement petition—every comma placed with care. Client never filed it (strategy reasons), then straight-up ghosted on the fee. In another case where I got him exactly what he wanted, he randomly deducted 35% from the bill. No conversation, no rationale. Just… vibes.

I’m not broke. I’m not bitter. But let’s be real—this is not sustainable.

The undercutting, the entitlement, the disrespect for labour—it’s wild.

I became a litigator to fight cases, not clients. Wtf!

Absolutely. It is a profession that is completely saturated now and the number of new lawyers coming in (or even those who came in say post 2010 or so) is just beyond the capacity of the current market. Strongly recommend that that you pivot if possible as the explosion of law schools has only made this problem worse.

Why is M&A bleeding? Trilegal M&A might be bleeding but not otherwise.

I joined as a Capital Markets A0 and they've been telling me that I may be replaced anytime now. If M&A is gonna cut down then safe to say freshers will loose jobfaster than usual.

Request to mods to flag such posts because this creates unwanted panic and hysteria, the least of which someone at a A0 level needs.

Stop fearmongering. Corporate law is currently the best profession for young law graduates to earn financial stability in their lives. With increasing globalisation and India signing FTAs with developed countries, the market is going to open up more. The PE/VC market is still at a very nascent stage in India as compared to the mature PE market in the US/UK. When Indian PE market matures and capital markets reach all time high, practice areas like M&A/PE/VC, capital markets, B&F will become the highest billing fields, even more than US (barring China). The A0 pay would easily cross 40-50 LPA in the next 10 years. Mark my words.

" To advise on fintech and crypto, swaps and derivatives, AI algorithm regulation etc? Or even basic litigation stuff like drafting a plaint, strategising on jurisdiction, damages claims etc?"

That's what the law courses are for. You seem to forget the LLB part of the degree.

You're hearing all of this on this anonymous platform infested with trolls. Not out in the real world. It is true that things have grown worse at NUJS, but the same thing applies to all NLUs and most private law universities across the country. Yet the overt political interference at NUJS is one of the highest in the country of all NLUs and that makes it difficult for the place to recover. Case in point, no good person is willing to apply for the post of a VC now. The students are apathetic and don't care at all, which is the worst part of it all.

I think it's less about looks in the genetic sense but more about appearance - be fit, look presentable with fashionable, well matched and well fitting clothes, maintain good skin and hair and you definitely make a better impression upon everyone. My partner is obese and a PA is fat too (plus ugly) and yet they command attention by being well dressed and obviously confident, smart etc.

1. Looks are subjective - you can groom yourself well and be fit and 90/100 you would be at par with someone conventionally good looking.

2. Life is very very hard - if you have gained weight, or not looking your best - be easy on yourself. You are surviving and sometimes that’s enough.

3. You will see partners who may be considered overweight, not good looking etc killing it in the profession. Geniuses here may tell you otherwise but if they can you can.

I am a very fair guy with a clipped accent, who also used to be quite handsome (very fat now). I think that these external factors have helped me early in life. In South India, fair skinned girls are considered “pure” and treated like goddesses, but fair skinned guys too can have an edge. From a young age, my complexion was somehow seen as a sign of my being a “good” person. My accent also made a big difference.

But don’t just bash India. You see this colour bias even in the West, East Asia and the Middle East… Korea and Japan are horribly racist.

My logic here would be to get a watch on the more expensive side and get clothes/shoes/suits on the value for money side, by value for money i do not mean cheap but brands like raymond and loius phillipe who do an excellent job at making good quality suits that last forever if maintained, therefore i would recommend the following.

1. get a seiko watch worth around 50k (presage, sport etc)

2. get a tailored raymond suit - for 20 to 25k

3. get formal shirts from marks and spencers ( their autograph line up is a banger and extremely high quality ) four shirts are gonna come out to around 20k
4. get a pair of formal shoes from somewhere like aldo or even mochie/ hush puppies work should not cost you more than 10k for a pair

all of this comes around to 1 lakh or 1 lakh 20 at max, if you feel like splurging more I would definitely splurge more on the watch, at the 70 or 80k mark your are knocking on the door of good swiss brands like the tissot prx for example, there are others as well

kudos !!

Don't go for brands but go with fabrics and fit in the garments. Try to get customs stitched. I dont know what you say upper middle class brands but clean and polished shoes without much wrinkles are fine. Lastly, for watch - there wont be a dearth of brand reccos. I personally wear a smartwatch. Don't like wearing two watches and like the tracking of smartwatches so thats why. Probably can wear a watch with a smart ring for tracking but I'm still good with my smart watch.

dude 1.5 lakh, seriously?

are u in lit?

konsi mahan firm hai ye

okay jokes apart you can go for ralph they seriously have great shirts. or go for ferragamo ( slightly cheaper go for Hugo boss)
watches you can start from tissot , seiko , entry level rado , Frederique Constant.

shoes you can go for Tods , bally , ferragamo

I am a fresh graduate of bba llb with a interest in IPR and I have a pretty decent experience in the field through my internships as well. It has been more than a month since I graduated and I have applied almost everywhere one can but all I've gotten is either a thanks for applying or no response at all. I got two interviews at firms no one would've heard and I fucked up the first one but the second one went pretty well imo and I am waiting for when they'll schedule the second round of the interview. Does anyone have any clue on what I might be doing wrong or give me some suggestions on places I can apply. I'll appreciate it a lot!

Bro, it’s all about give-and-take. If you’re not going to allow UK law firms in India, why should they give concessions to Indian lawyers, like visas and reciprocal recognition of degrees?

Thus, good news for middle class Indian IT professionals, bad news for middle class Indian lawyers. You can thank Lalaji LLP for that.

Seen it happen with even 1, 2 year PQE. Granted you should be from a tier 1 team. But not sure how much better merchant banker side will be for work life balance. You will still be working on same transactions just from the MB side. Workload will be lower but hours and demands from you will be similar.

As the AIFF’s statement went viral, Xavi’s representatives had to step in and clarify he’d never applied for the job. Only then did AIFF suddenly remember to “investigate”, and discovered that the emails were fake.

Basically, a 19 years old prankster made a fake email account in Xavi’s name and applied, and AIFF couldn’t wait to announce it to the whole world. Brilliant. If they’d bothered to check first, they wouldn’t have ended up making such a joke of themselves.

You'll surely make a good lawyer buddy.

This is tough to write but I’m just being honest because I need some direction...
I graduated from law school last year and spent almost a year applying for jobs, must’ve applied to around 5000 places, if not more. All I got in return were either no replies or offers for 5-10k exploitative litigation jobs or LPOs which I didn’t want to take up because I saw no growth there.

Right now, I’m working as a compliance associate. It’s night shift role, and I handle stuff like pre-employment background checks, so basically stuff completely unrelated to law. I’ve been here for nearly two months. Not only does night shift suck but I can already tell there’s no real career growth in this. It feels uncertain cause our clients are from US.. so its a glorified process associate role. Every day I just feel stuck and wonder if this is all it’s ever going to be. I’m not afraid of working or upskilling but I do feel lost. I don’t have any connections. I don’t come from money. I don’t have a niche. I’ve tried for long enough and now I don’t know where I’m heading.

Is a legal career still possible for someone like me, who’s had so many rejections and detours already? Or should I start looking in some other direction altogether? I don’t want to give up on law, but I also don’t want to spend the next few years barely surviving as im already in my mid twenties. The guilt of pursuing this degree hits harder, considering I pursued a three-year law course after graduating jobless from a BA course. Plus 1 year of diploma during my job-hunting phase. I've nothing to show for in the last 7-8 years. No govt job prep experience or other valid excuse, simply nothing at all. Relatives also mock and ridicule me for wasting my education. Needless to say, my mental health has also been in the gutter.

If anyone’s been in a similar spot or has any honest advice, I’d really appreciate hearing from you. Even if it’s not a solution and just a perspective.

The Students' Bar Associations of NLUs have released an online petition to gather support from students, faculty, and alumni of NLUs. Let’s show our support

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQmUTaPYJbxgBZClm2h4NG4Y_k8ZpGfUAm_0j7AI1Fi5kmLQ/viewform

Law firms dont offer really good scope for tax. Plus due to lack of book and business volume, partner promotions are slow and less. Also, the focus on tax practice isnt there for any large firm bar KCo. Really its only boutique firms. Having said that, merit is merit and even big 4 firms would also be a good option.

Given the necessity to have a separate thread to discuss the latest developments and trends in the Bengaluru Law firm markets, please consider this thread especially only limiting to latest rumours of bengaluru based all firms including CAM, SAM, LUTHRA, Trilegal, etc..etc, and have a meaningful discussion hereon of all the issues like PPO count for BO'26, Rumours, Movements, Expansion plans, etc.

Request Moderator to Feature this thread for better reach and helping out all the fellow Lawyers intending to work in the city for long a term.

Not only that, but reports on social media say that STEM and business students are being preferred over humanities students. Very clear that it is a RW agenda that views humanities students as leftists and anti-Israel.

https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/india/story/indian-government-mea-raises-indian-students-visa-delays-issue-with-us-state-department-embassy-kirti-vardhan-singh-2761200-2025-07-25