OP here. There is a PQE4 at my firm but she also happens to be 30+ due to which I can’t relate with her.

Sadly, no, I went to a T3 law school which was a 3 year law school, 90% of my batch was people who’re 30+ as well and most of them are litigation lawyers who work on Saturdays and are unavailable.

Losers? Bro most people in such firms are stuck in the rut not because the love working long hours at the cost of health and being treated like a "resource".

They either do not have an option (due to personal, family etc. constraints), or are absolutely unaware of what to do apart from this, because of limited access. I have rarely seen someone doing it cos they love it, including Partners. They are stuck because it's too late for their age or EMIs.

Unfortunately such law firms thrive on this phase every human more or less goes through.

In the US, they also have this thing called a "Senate", where both California and Vermont have the same number of seats. The Senate (equal to the Rajya Sabha, broadly) is more important than the House of Representatives (broadly = Lok Sabha) in a lot of ways.

In India, the Lok Sabha is everything, the RS has little power. Your 1st Year Law Student analogy doesn't hold.

Bring in proper checks and balances, make Tamil Nadu (or Tripura) have the same political power as UP, and then, OK, lets talk population and PR.

That's not actually true for the US. Every state has the same number of senators. Electoral college retains proportions of electors of presidential candidates wildly out of proportion to population. Only congressional districts are subject to delimitation based on a decennial census. And even then there isnt that much variation in population growth across states as there is in India.

And the congress in US plays a very different role than does the parliament in India. its much more restrained in what it is for because they have a presidential form of government.

Did I say there were no votebanks? Why do you like to fight strawmen? Here is what I said about south indian states: "These states are not successful because of some flip of the coin or because of the beneficence of the central government. They are successful because they have routinely voted based not on religious or caste based issues, although those factors may be present in a minor way, but on governance. Culturally as well, religious divisions run less deep in the southern states. You only notice the difference once youve lived in the north and the south, theyre like different countries in this respect. Political parties in the south know that they should have a list of accomplishments come election time or be prepared to lose sorely, that stoking religious or caste hatred would not tide them over in the face of failures in governance."

Please name for me the south indian government in history that has had nothing to show in terms of development or progress and yet retained power consecutively. AIMIM has 7 seats in the telangana legislative assembly. out of 119. Tell me why you think that means that governments in the south are voted in based on appeals to religion? That tally to me indicates that religious appeals of all kinds will not help you get far. Keralite politics has traditionally divided along class lines and ideological lines far more than it has on caste. Of course there are lingayats and vokkaligas- but even despite traditional divisions lingayats in the last legislative assembly crossed party lines and voted congress instead of Yediyurappas BJP. Why? Because Bommai had nothing to show for his term as CM. Vokkaligas are usually loyal to JDS, but JDS lost handily in the last election and DKS won them over why? Because JDS has corruption problems and because of Prajwal Revannas debauchery.

How much did all the rath yatra politics of the 80's help the BJP make a dent in south indian politics? Not a bit. When L.K Advani was doing his rath yatra, Karnataka was passing from the socialist tenure of ramakrishna hegde to the socialist tenure of Bangarappa. Kerala was going back and forth between two freedom fighters, one a congressman loyal to Rajiv and Indira Gandhi who prosecuted naxals during the emergency and another a communist who worked for labour rights. Tamil Nadu went back and forth between Karunanidhi and Jayalalitha, a choice between centre left and further left. And Andhra Pradesh was firmly in congress control until NT Rama rao came in. At the same time that people in north india are tearing each other up over some temple/mosque somewhere- what were south indians doing? Certainly not that. Tell me where I'm wrong.

What did the BJP have to do win in the south? Promise better governance and tone down the religious nonsense. You will never hear a chandrababu naidu or a yediyurappa spew the kind of religious appeal that gets Yogi Adityanath or even the prime minister elected. They dont do it because they know they wont win with that. South Indians do not have some trauma of partition, they simply do not view religion the same way. In fact when the Bommai government tried to do Hijab politics to save their government they were voted out- because they failed to provide governance.

I have nowhere claimed there arent votebanks. What I have claimed is that these loyalties are less set in stone. If your usual party does not work for you in an election, the people of karnataka will absolutely change up and vote the other guys in next election. And they certainly wont bother voting and turning out if they feel they havent gotten something in return from their elected government. And politicians know that. So while they might do a lot of corruption, and a lot of other stuff, they usually pick an issue or two and do a good job at that issue. Some times it's education, other times it's turning the state budget around, other times it's jobs, protecting labour class, electricity, food security, gas prices, or something else. That is what our elections are mainly about. Governance. Its not perfectly meritorious, and there is corruption. But without a record of governance and a list of achievements- an incumbent chief minister has a steep uphill climb in the south and no religous appeal is likely to save him.

Sit tight, this might be a long one.

So, last September, while I was sitting in my cubicle at a boutique law firm, endlessly sending out personalized internship applications for March 2025, I kept getting rejected within a week—either with a polite “we can’t accommodate you” or, worse, no response at all. That’s when an idea hit me.

What if I changed my college name to an NLU? Not NLSIU or NUJS, but something within the top 10.

Mind you, my CV was solid—internships with senior advocates, a top-tier IP firm, and a Tier 1/2 corporate law firm. The only thing I changed was my college name, along with a fake name, phone number, and email. Everything else remained the same. Then, I started spamming the exact same firms I had previously applied to, but this time as a "student" from one of the top-10 NLU.

Oh boy, the results were not surprising at all*.*
Not only did HRs actually respond, but I also landed interviews with firms that usually have a interview and assessment process for interns. Some of these were the same firms that had earlier rejected my application, claiming they didn’t have slots for my preferred month. Suddenly, they did. And not just boutique firms—this included some of the big law firms run by LaLas.

All it took was changing my college name, and suddenly, I was getting internships left, right, and center.

The game is rigged, and honestly, I don’t even blame the players meri hi galti thi ki CLAT main achi rank nhi aayi NLU ke liye.

HRs at law firms, please—learn to vet candidates properly. Do background verification before handing out internship slots or interview calls like candies to students from NLUs. You’re working at a law firm, for god’s sake.

Eventually NLS students will realise that no matter how good they are (and that is assuming that CLAT really tests merit to study law), they will still have to compete with an increasing number of students within NLS for their share of the overall pie and the share of NLS in that pie compared to those other law schools is not going to increase proportionately. Hence it may not be a good idea to become batch rank 100 at NLS compared to batch rank 10 of NALSAR for example.

Bahahahah. What kind of fantasy are you trying to sell to these kids. Just STOP ! Academia, especially in its current state doesn't work like this. Your experience and your qualifications have zero influence. I know people who did their LLMs and even PhDs from abroad, and apart from a few universities like Jindal, no one is taking them. Even today PhDs from DU, BHU are preferred..why ? Because it's all about the connections. So don't spend lakhs to get a degree just to try getting into indian academia. It's better to use your degree to get a job, that is more relevant than the broken down system of academia.

Look at the number of applicants, vacancies and how many end up being selected. Majority of those selected are alumni, or have some sort of connections with the existing faculties, or have some political backing. You have a better chance of spending 5 years in court and succeeding than spending 10 years in academia and still not getting a decent chance. People don't talk about this much, but right from your masters, to phd, to post doctoral, to assistant professorship depends more on connections than on your merit. That's why we are getting shitty teachers, cause they are getting selected based on favours not on their quality of teaching and research.

I am an US LLM graduate with around 9 months of work experience at a boutique law firm that specialises in Civil and Commercial disputes. I am looking to switch and would be grateful if anyone can help me with understanding about current openings in law firms in the disputes team. Should I wait for the bonus period to get over before I start cold emailing? Thank you

there is no hiring pattern as such. Folks thought by March, 2025 - there would be a freeze but there are teams which have given callbacks and what not. They do very little campus and are more heavy on the PPO route. As long as its before November, 2025 - I dont see much of a problem.

while i agree that stipends especially for outstation interns is something that they should consider giving. i'd give crediit where it's due, they were able to reimburse every cab/travel that i did for office work when i was interning w them last month, some of the associates are also kind enough to get you lunch, buy you dinner etc. lovely folks to work w imo

What’s the difference in three practice areas for someone who’s looking to join?

I’ve heard so far that Capital Marks has long hours and clerical work. How do M&A and BF lawyers compare in terms of work hours or work quality then?

Plus where’s the pay better?

There is something very fishy about the whole incident. The Personal Private Secretary visited the site with Justice Varma and others shortly after the fire. During the inspection, they used phone torches to examine the room, but no cash or burnt currency was seen at that time. the burnt cash was reportedly discovered later but how did it appear there? The Commissioner of Police's report stated that the debris and half-burnt articles were removed on the morning of March 15, 2025. The cash was reportedly found after the debris was removed, but no one saw the cash during the first inspection. There are some contradictions here. How did the cash appear after the PPS visit, despite being thoroughly inspected earlier? There seems to be a significant gap between the first inspection (when no cash was found) and the later discovery of burnt currency sacks.

Delhi lit folks, how was Justice Verma's standing before the bar generally? Was he considered to be a good judge? aware there was that previous FIR against him, but beats me why a sitting high court judge would randomly keep crores in cash at his official residence, especially in the age of . If allegations are indeed true then it is indeed a dark day for the judiciary, but something seems amiss.

Can anyone enlighten me about the leading Senior Advocates practicing criminal law in the Calcutta High Court for a possible internship (and a potential transition to joining as a junior)? I’m looking for names of senior counsels who are great mentors offering valuable learning experiences.

There are plenty of threads on the criminal litigation scene in Bombay and Delhi, but Calcutta remains somewhat underexplored.

Thanks in advance! (Also, sarcastic responses are welcome for wit, after all, is a great signifier of wisdom.)