1. Hire less, promote more. Indian law firms have a weird 1:10 partner to non-partner ratio. Significant number of foreign law firms have a 1:3 ratio, meaning that you have a much higher chance to partnership, once you are inducted in the firm. Indian firms over hire and are badly managed in terms of hiring and workload allocation. It is not uncommon for a deal and DD team in a foreign law firm to consist of just 3 people, including an executing partner. If you need specialised practice area teams, that's a different matter. Indian deal teams are so bloated, it is ridiculous. Ofcourse, this will lead to a much higher than current workload on existing non-partners, but as one myself, I wouldn't mind doing this if there is a clearer path to partnership.

2. Big Law firms need to cartelise and not underbill each other like sweat shops. We will bill a lot higher, and everyone will earn a lot more (looking at you, oldest Kolkata law firm). This will also help standing up against foreign law firms, who presently push out Indian law firms on bigger transactions, with Indian law firms doing only the grunt work. If no one agrees to doing only the grunt work, we will all end up getting the meatier stuff which is presently hogged by foreign law firms on cross border deals.

3. More transparent partner designation systems. Enough said.

4. Promoter driven law firms need to die a quick death. We need more meritocratic firms, and not some legacy laddu sitting on top. Hopefully I will see this happen in my lifetime. Promoter driven business works well for other businesses, but my sense is that it is horrible for law firm service delivery because it promotes sycophancy and drives away/ demotivates talented individuals - lawyering is an inherently academic pursuit, and legacy laddus are doing nothing to help it.

According to her << https://indianexpress.com/article/india/columbia-phd-scholar-ranjani-srinivasan-interview-9910883/ >> she did not physically participate in the protests and the one time she was arrested by the police was based on a misunderstanding when she was trying to go to her university room.

"On April 30, there was a department picnic at Riverside Park, which runs alongside Columbia University. I went to the picnic with some cake and cookies and was returning from there when I, along with my colleagues, realised that the whole perimeter was barricaded. There were many – around 200 – New York Police Department (NYPD) officials who were roaming around there. We circled the place for over an hour, and I finally tried to get to my residential place which abuts the university. But then the police picked me up in the melee, even though I was not actively trying to be part of the protest."

There is more than funding at stake here. What are they supposed to do: "support" the liberal causes and have their registration status as universities or sponsors for international students/faculty taken away? You think that can't happen? Please think more carefully before randomly talking like this.

I am an Indian living abroad. My advice always remains the same: please feel free to put out a couple of harmless tweets/insta stuff or whatever that might act as a pin on some peoples' pride, but don't get into this protest nonsense. Not worth it. You are there to study/work. Do all that stuff, get yourself secured, get your LPR/PR/ILR (or other equivalent) statuses fixed up, probably try to even get a foreign passport under your belt if you can and then get into this funny business if you really think that this will help (which BTW it won't). If you go overseas to do the same sorts of nonsense as in India, it ain't gonna work for you. Columbia did what it was supposed to do (I have never been there, never intend to go so please don't count me as a fan). Just keep your head down and carry on with your life, nobody'll mess with you.

Very sad and a warning to all of us. It means these so-called liberal universities will conveniently support right-wing forces to save their funding and ditch students who supports progressive causes. People here criticise JGLS for doing that. Now even Columbia is doing that.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/columbia-university-betrayed-me-indian-phd-student-ranjini-srinivasan-who-self-deported-to-canada-8025361#pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Look at y'all crying blue murder about being a part of a group of 10,000 people in a country of billions (millions of which are dying of hunger and poverty), getting paid solid bucks and paying paltry tax on it. You all really need a reality check. If the biggest problem in your life is "limited access to privileged spaces for socialising", well my friend, I have news for you. Life is only going to get "drearier". Go find something else to do, if all you have is problems. And the usual trope about not having a skillset to do anything else, there a million examples of people doing stuff outside of their college degree skillset. Go figure. The only people who make something for themselves and for others, aren't sitting around moping about these cute problems in their lives.

I was researching and found that almost all judges' children have studied abroad.

I understand when politicians' children do so, as they have businesses or black money and can afford it.

But how do judges manage it? Do they fund it with their own salaries, or do they use scholarships that they access through their position and influence?

No offense, I'm just curious because I want to pursue an LLM in the UK, but I can't due to a lack of funds, and I don’t want to risk taking a loan.

The practice area - at least at a T1 level is relatively new. Informally folks have been undertaking the work, but not as a singular practice area. The scope is really great, but the firms teams and space for associates are relatively limited. All Managing Partners and specifically from the family led firms - CS, SS and HK all obviously have the rich friends to fund the practice, but the actual non-family lawyers are Bijal Aditi and Shabnam at KCO and Shaishavi and Radhika at CAM. The teams here since they’ve got the upper hand simply by working for a while are also very good. Not sure who does this at SAM / Trilegal / AZB. Shreya Rao works independently and is very smart and academic. Does a lot of tax too.

It is called punching up. Anant Ambani, just by being fat, cannot escape the scrutiny over how he gobbled all of our attention over his wedding. He is rich enough to take better care of himself. If a person like that, with all the required resources, cannot help but be lazy while bragging their wealth and power (which they have not even earned on their own) in pur faces then, at the very least, we have a right to roll our eyes over their farce.

If you are not able to understand that the Supreme Court of India and its Chief Justice do not know how to deal with credible allegations of corruption against a fellow judge and are making it up as they go along without even filing an FIR, then I have nothing more to say.

Good point but it’s a common practice. I have seen people designated by courts in tier 3 cities who write: “Mr X, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court.”Their rationale is that they have appeared before the Supreme Court in some matter or the other. The lay client doesn’t know, only lawyers know the truth!

Chronology samjhiye:

1. False reports spread in the media that no cash was found

2. Harish Salve deceived into making a statement on the basis on that false report

3. Mahua Moitra spreads narrative that this is a set-up to impose NJAC

4. AMS gives a sympathetic statement as well.

5. Pro-Congress social media handles go into overdrive

6. Lawyers from the left/liberal spectrum meet with Varma

I have a genuine question. Katju was designated as senior advocate by delhi HC, then why does she say senior adv Supreme Court on linkedin ? Is it the same ?

Where can we find a full list of All the lawyers who worked on 377 ? AK was only representing 1 or 2 petitioners.

Ideal situation:

- iPad for hearings, MacBook for drafting.

While you can use a MacBook for both (hearings will be a bit more difficult as compared to an iPad), you will have a horrid time using an iPad for drafting.

If you cannot get both, id recommend getting an iPad (preferably a 13 inch air/pro) for arguing and making notes, and say a cheaper windows laptop for pure drafting. (Tip: See the refurbished thinkpads on amazon. i5 processors for 20 - 25k plus 6 months to 1 year amazon warranty. They are surprisingly quite good for the price.) You can always upgrade to a MacBook later.

Litigator here who uses iPad & Macbook both.

You can't properly draft on an iPad. You can do it if you really want to, but it won't be efficient or quick at all.

iPads make it easier when handling multiple documents/complex casefiles (LiquidText helps!). For simpler cases, say a straightforward writ/bail/suit admission hearing, you can use laptop for sure. But LiquidText makes refering to notes & multiple pages at once far more smoother.

Dear Litigators on this space, do you find iPad easier to manage your drafting and court hearings or do you still prefer macbooks? I often see many litigators use laptops even for physical hearings.

Would help to hear from someone who has had to make the choice.

I want to shift away from Windows for a change.

Lost out a good chunk of money for calling out exceedingly egregious behaviour by some.

No one had complained about performance throughout the year - in fact, certain senior members delegated entire matters for execution without oversight so that they can go on vacations, multiple times through the year. Also, met targets in terms of recovery, and far exceeded in terms of billing.

CAM is a disgusting place run by megalomaniacs at the partner level (mostly). Upward progression will be allowed by such partners only if you feed into their megalomania or give up all self-respect.

Try your best to be in top 15 - 20% in the next few sems before ranks freeze, that may put you in the top 50% of the batch. If you're eyeing a corporate law career, target a PPO, and if not, then you must be in the top half of the batch to have a good chance at tier one firms on Day Zero.

Why do kids not understand that it's ok to have a period like this in life? Slog in out for 2-4 years and move out. Things get better A3 onwards esp SA onwards.

One nobody has the time to spend for a very active social life even when they're from Mumbai, two people do make a social life as they live.

Mumbai offers a start to your career as nobody else does and even with rents considered a T1 A0 can save decently provided they are prudent enough. Keep going well buddy - remember you're in for a decade long thing and not a couple of years fling. And few decades in this field does sort you with enough money if not generational money.

How is life in a law firm in Mumbai? If you are not from Mumbai and don't have a social life already. firstly, do you even get time to make a new one? secondly, how to make one? Is it even possible to date or have a health friend group or hobbies in the first 1-2 years of joining?

I wonder if students of any NLU would have the courage to do this, if a politician with a tainted human rights record addresses them?

https://www.news18.com/india/mamata-banerjee-london-oxford-university-speech-bengal-cm-heckled-by-students-rg-kar-rape-case-bengal-post-poll-violence-9277863.html

The value of gold in India's households is around $ 2 trillion at current prices.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/fashion/luxury/cover-story/indian-women-hold-11-of-the-worlds-gold-read-complete-report/articleshow/116435306.cms

We haven't even counted the Gold in India's temples.

If all of this is included, then our total GDP is between $ 7 - 9 trillion already.

I’m definitely very young to say this but if you enjoy what you do, shouldn’t all of this not matter? Yes, less money sucks but are your colleagues in it because they like doing what they do or because the money is too good to quit? I believe you did a very brave thing which not everyone can do and should be proud of yourself. Life in general can be mundane and exhausting but if you enjoy what you do, everything goes away, at least for a while. I hope you find peace and things sort out well for you. If not, never too late to talk to someone or better yet, get professional help. :)

I worked in a Tier 1 firm GC team for 3 years. Although I was doing a satisfactory job, I felt completely lost in a big team and decided to do litigation, just when I was in an A3 position.

Since no disputes team of Tier 1 was ready to take me, I decided to give core litigation a shot and joined a litigation chamber in Delhi at 1/4th of my pay in Tier 1.

Its been two years now, and yesterday while catching up with one of my ex- colleagues who I worked with in Tier 1, he told me that he received his bonus letter and guess what, he received 3x my annual salary, in one shot. It made me think “Did I just commit a major fuck up of my life”

I enjoy what I do here. My current colleagues are lovely people. However, the mundaneness of life, churning out drafts day in and day out, pacifying unreasonable expectations of clients, running around in courts et al. makes me think about the choices I made in life. I tried my level best to apply in Tier 1 disputes- but for some reason best known to them, my resume always goes in the junk box.

And its not like that I have not done conventional things to make a good resume. I am from a Tier 1 NLU, my grades were good, I have done great moots and worked in Tier 1. I have even done great matters in litigation. But then this constant rejection has made me too much underconfident about myself. I feel like I am headed nowhere in life. My daily routine is moronic cycle of events where I am burning my midnight oil on weekends, but my corp friends are having a gala night on those weekends and are faring much better than me, financially. At the expense of sounding bitchy here, but I feel like I am a much better lawyer than them and I do not feel compensated enough for what I do.

I know litigation is marathon and yada yada. But I dont know what to do. Just feeling stuck.

1. The lines are delineated in a long line of caselaws.

2. For defamation, the aggrieved person has to file a suit or approach a JMFC/JMSC, and the court decides whether it's defamatory or not. Violence in response to a perceived transgression of FOE is not acceptable.

3. Content may be abusive or have a political agenda, does not make it beyond FOE. Political agendas are one of the MOST IMPORTANT things that FOE has to protect. Constructive criticism is not mandatory for a person to be allowed to speak.

I'm currently a 2nd year law student in a tier 2 NLU who wants to go into corp. While I have a t1 internship for June 2026, I'm unsure on how to plan my other internships and explore more areas of corp law. first gen and don't have contacts. pls guide, really need genuine advice.

Hello! It is the last week of March and I don't have an internship for the Month of May in hand. I am a 4th year from a Tier III NLU looking to build a career in corporate law. Any suggestions on a niche firm where I still have chances of getting an internship? I will call it quits and start preparing for judiciary if I don't get an internship.