Hello all,

My friend recently gave an interview at a very well known Law Firm in Delhi. The first 5 minutes of it was just related to her marital status and how she will "take leave" for marriage, which was a problem. She politely responded that this is not an issue for her, and will not impact her work.

She didn't get through but obviously felt that this was the reason. Is there any recourse here?

How is it okay for this to be a question at all?

T1 SA here - Comparatively lesser money, lower chance of making it to the top at a Tier 1 law firm or purely as an IP litigation lawyer, less exit options. However the people and teams are generally nicer and personally, the work is lot more fun and exciting. Hard to quantify the same.

A better ranking would be:

1. Generalist (Transactions + commercial disputes) [Very few teams would do this]

2. General Corporate (Only transactions)

3. M&A, PE, VC

4. TMT (Corp +Advisory)

5. Banking Finance

6. Financial Reg+ Fintech

7. Cap Marks (Again better if you do both cap transactions +litigation)

8. Disputes

9. Most other

Gun for a PPO. I've been in your place before, and I am so glad that I was ableom one of my target firms and teams. Just intern like your life depends on it—it does. I'm givin to get a PPO frg this advice, as obvious as it may be, because it is still on the cards for you and, quite honestly, the only option that you have at this point.

Dear Partners,

Law firms are not the only client facing firms that is there. Infact most software engineers that I have come across are in tech sector servicing clients both in India and abroad. They don't work on weekends at all. Sure most tech firms don't pay overtime but they including the well paying ones don't make employees work on weekends and beyond 8-9 hours. Law firm pay is really nothing to brag about. Only few law firms pay around 18 L to freshers. Any decent-good engineering college graduate will get that much. The best ones ofcourse get north of 40L. Had it not been 50% tax exemption, (which btw law firms have no control to prevent it from being taken away), there would be no justification of being at a law firm. But I guess the fault is with the students who choose to do law, not understanding any of this. I am happy with my job but I would have reconsidered my career choice if I can go back.

Banking and Finance:

Mortgage v pledge v hypothecation

Types of mortgages

Indemnity vs guarantee

Lien

Director requirements for companies

Public vs private companies

Meaning of negotiable instruments

Liquidated v unliquidated damages

Also read up on debentures in general, how they function, listed vs unlisted debentures. Types of debentures - redeemable, convertible (optionally, compulsorily, etc.)

Bluntly, if your IQ is above 100, it will fall to 80 if you do cap markets. If it's 100 it will increase to 120 if you do FRP. They are the exact opposites in work quality and brain usage terms. Comp wise - you can make more in Cap Markets once you become more senior (at the top of the pyramid).

Rich or poor, state university or central university. The basic disregard of hygiene and decency among Indians strikes again. That news like this hardly surprises Indians should at least make them introspect on what is deeply messed up in their culture regarding maintaing basic standards of cleanliness. But, of course, it won’t. “We are like that only.”

hpnlu peeps might not agree but aayush raj for IT law, dude's a grade A asshole but gotta give credit where its due, he gave amazing readings and actually discussed things while delving into so many related aspects in class (unlike his certain collegues who think bare act on its own is enough for a subject)

Lets share authentic insights based on personal experiences of using these tools for basic writing and other basic tasks. ChatGPT's free version can browse the web to some extent, but its writing can be identified easily and does not sound human most of the time. Claud's knowledge is limited to 2024. Perplexity is decent at performing basic search, but it still cannot substitute manual search for gathering relevant sources.

1. Basically, be the best student academically in your uni. Nothing less than that will even come close to getting you anywhere near the door in terms of getting the Rhodes.

2. Have active involvement with law-related experiences all around - so moots (where and when and if possible), litigation internships, internships with judges, even yes, the law firm internships. Having well-rounded profile is quite helpful.

3. Over time, start narrowing down your interests and try to have good publications in those.

4. Remember, you are going to engage in further study of law of the academic kind, so you need to engage actively with academic life. Getting research experience under your professors, for example, is an excellent start. This, other than your academic marks, will be one of the crucial things to help you when that all-important application comes up.

5. Maintain some sort of sporting/musical/artistic/other non-law interest. For example, if you are good at basketball, join a team! Also, try to achieve well in that too (some recognition, like an award).

6. Finally, build up a network of professors and professionals who will be ready to bat for you when needed (in other words, write references). With professors, the main ways this can be done is by getting the best grades you possibly can and getting research kinds of experiences under them. But also, interact with your professors! Ensure that you answer well in the class, you are that person who visits their office hours with interesting questions etc. In your internships, ensure you are doing the very best work you possibly can, perhaps be the one who is taking initiatives to do more work, who suggests unusual (good) out-of-the-box ideas. Only way to do that? To have a background of sustained thinking on the law, which requires very significant reading and reflection. As somebody once said, in the context of reading law at university, there can never be too much study.

Those are just my suggestions. Maybe others will have different ones, so also gain as many perspectives as you can.

Im from Vidarbha (studying at a T1 NLU), did one internship under a celebrity Sr. Adv. there. My analysis is that the HC is growing, but still the general fee structure is much lesser than other big cities and is nowhere compared to Mumbai and Delhi. The HC runs on Nepotism- only advocates from reputed families of senior advocates get good clients and panels. So i believe its difficult to establish a new practice there from scratch.