Strongly disagree - in a way you are promoting the said behaviour of your ex-employer. In my humble opinion, it is what it is and it should be out there, transparent, like water flowing in the Himalayan Valleys. Honesty vs Lying - If I were interviewing someone I would appreciate that they come clean.

Hi - I am looking for opportunities at the captioned law firm. Can someone (preferably working there currently or have recently left) shed some light on the culture, pay, WLB, kind of work! Also, I would really appreciate if any name of the Partner can be highlighted who is the best amongst the lot.

Simple answer. The MINIMUM expense of a SINGLE person, if you want a good quality of life in a metro city, is between 1.5 to 2.5 lakhs a month. Which end of the band you fall in depends on:

- which city it is (eg tier 1 metro like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru vs tier 2 metro like Chennai or Pune or Ahmedabad or Kolkata or Hyderabad)

- the rent you pay

- the car you drive

- your fuel costs

- Uber usage

- your vacation expenses

- your dining expenses

- your wardrobe expenses

- whether you have a maid and driver

- gym membership

- golf/tennis/padel/pickleball club memberships

- Internet and OTT subscriptions

Can you live below 1.5 lakhs a month as expenses? Sure, even in Mumbai. But your quality of life will be basic middle class.

My expenses in a tier 2 metro are around 1.8 lakhs a month. I pay no rent and drive the cheapest car for a short distance to office. My quality of life is pretty good, because this leaves me with more to spend on other heads.

I'm in my early 30s, in academia and earning below the tax slab (as per the last budget). I've been frugal most of my life and that has helped. It helps that the college is far from the city and I don't have avenues to spend money. Between savings and sending 30-40k home every month, I'm barely left with anything for leisure.

Here’s the truth: judgemental and snarky remarks are only made against middle class people, not the rich and powerful. Rahul Gandhi and Modi are lifelong bachelors, but have millions of admirers and chelas. Mahua Moitra is childless with many exes, but is hailed as a style icon and feminist. if any middle class guy or girl had such a lifestyle, the aunties of the neighbourhood would gang up and drive them away.

I find your claim that artificial insemination is very common in India hard to believe. We are a very conservative and patriarchal society. It’s more acceptable for girls to be single and childless, than single and with a child conceived through a sperm donor. I’m not even sure of the legality of it. Didn't the Modi government enact some regressive laws about artificial insemination?

So if an NLU student tweeted in favour of Palestine, he or she won't get a visa to do an LLM? There are many such students!

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/effective-immediately-us-embassy-in-india-wants-everyone-applying-for-f-m-or-j-non-immigrant-us-visas-to-change-this-privacy-setting-of-facebook-instagram-twitter-and-other-social-media-accounts/articleshow/122028852.cms

Hello mitron, we have had enough threads talking about this firm is a T1, that firm isn't. I guess its time we sub-rank T1 firms as T1.1,1.2, etc.

In my opinion these rankings would go like:-
T 1.1- CAM, SAM (lala firms on top!)
T 1.2- Trilegal, KCo
T 1.3- AZB, JSA, etc.?

What are your opinions?

I gave clat 2025 and i am already in lower t3 nlu i am willing to switch but my parents r saying that either i have to join RML as it near them or continue in lower t3...i have a rank to get all these 3 nlus.. what should one prefer?? Any opinions regarding nluos growth rate and overall comparison of these three nlus nluo rml and hnlu

Hi. I am currently in my 4th year and recently interned with CAM. I had a very good experience and the team also liked my work. I got the internship by cold emailing. I have a decentish CV with good internships and publications (one international publication). However, I have an average batch rank. I have heard that CAM only considers toppers for PPOs and rejects a candidate even if they have excellent feedback from the team they interned with. Thus, I am confused regarding whether to ask the HR for a callback or utilise my internship slot elsewhere.

First, I tried speaking to this person. Making sure I am not assuming things. Took him to a conference room and genuinely told him how he is making me feel. Things got better for a week and then back to same old.

Second, I escalated to the partner. Gave supporting evidence. Including twitter thread from someone who had quit and basically mentions everything this person has done. Partner "tried" mediating. I mention "tried" in quotes because it felt more like a you have misunderstood him, the practice is demanding etc etc. My take-away was he would rather lose an SA who has joined the team and has been working for 3 months, than a PA who has been in the team for 1 year and caused 3 attritions within that year (all people directly reporting onto him).

Once second was clear, I knew I would quit. So I did and moved out. I did mention and flag this guy in my exit interview. I am told he never got a promotion later because of that and had to quit and get partnership in another firm. Long story shirt, he is an equity partner today in a T2 firm and people continue to quit under him.

The morale of the story is, control what you can control. If the atmosphere is not sustainable, quit.

Yes. They're at best mediocre.

NLUs including the Bangalore one, students, faculty and everyone has no idea about their mediocrity. This culture is pervasive all across Indian academia, industry and professions.

Its all self declared excellence. It leaks in to law firms where some partners claim their teams are the best in the country in whatever niche practice area they're in. I mean if the best is mediocre, then you can only guess how bad the rest are.

Indian law schools and colleges don't have any depth of thought. Hate to take names, but my interactions with people from some east asian countries, their average citizen has more depth of thought and range. A so called top M&A partner in a T1 cannot comment even broadly on a small IPR issue or a capital markets issue.

Which city?
In Bangalore, Poovayya & Co, Chambers of C K Nandakumar, Thiru and Thiru, Chambers of Aditya Vikram Bhat (ex AZB senior partner), Crest Law - Dhyan Chinappa and G Krishnamurthy are some names that are on top of my head who have good commercial litigation and arbitration practice.

Please suggest some good counsels, firms or law chambers for the aforementioned domain.
I am a fresher with extensive internship and co-curricular activities in Arbitration, planning to get a decent opportunity to get exhaustive learning and building a successful career ahead.

Thank You

Relax. As of now what is certain is several seniors and mid seniors are joining the transactions team. This in any event is a small portion of their practice as the others in which they have monopolies like funds, asset management, they are only strengthening their teams further. Same with their b&f and real estate where they have grown multifold in quick succession. So time is already telling where they are heading in future.

Mac beats windows anyday. And given how most of your academia revolves around using an electronic device (doing your readings, taking notes, completing and submitting your assignments, writing long mails), i would advice going for an M3. With student discounts and all other combined, it'll come around 80k and lasts around 8-9 years (the older 2015 mac airs are still pretty much functional btw). On the other hand, a windows laptop typically lasts around 4 (less in many scenarios) and you'll have to spend money again on another device. Not to mention how unreliable they are. So if you have the capital, go for an M3 (M2 is also fine). It'll be a good investment. It's really not about appearance but ease of working and convenience.

A counsel-level lawyer is someone who has worked in the industry for long enough and has become eligible to become part of the partnership but is yet to become one. The work they do depends on the partner, some partners allow full independence to review and send things out, they’re basically learning the commercial aspect of the law firm business i.e. client retention, networking etc.