Sir, being in SAM for years now, I can tell you - that your progression will depend on a number of things including how much your team meets the target, how much your boss decides to share a piece of the pie and whether you (and your work) are liked by your team and partner.

I can assure you that like every other firm, at each level there can be a difference in payment. Like a top performing A1 is getting 23.5 whereas a low performing A1 is also getting 21.

I am really concerned about the raise.

My family has a loan. I don't like to share more details about me.

What's the payment scale I can expect as I grow up the ladder.

How much will I get paid at A1, A2, A3, SA1 & SA2 levels?

Please help me so I'd compute accordingly. If it isn't as per general standard, I might have to switch.

Responding to all the questions, assuming they are genuinely asked in good faith:

1. Law school professors who taught a student (and occasionally a work supervisor, e.g., law firm partner, if they've worked a while after law school) write these types of letters.

2. The application portals of the universities ask for the nomination (by the student) of anywhere between zero (King's College London) to one (UCL, QMUL, e.g.) to three (Oxford and Cambridge) to up to five (Harvard) referees. The form asks for the official, institution-associated, email ID of the referee(s) (so only an @nls.ac.in kind of ID would be acceptable, not any random ID like gmail). Some universities (e.g., UCL) ask for referee phone numbers as well, for further verification. Yet others (LSE being a prominent example, which asks for a compulsory two references) ask why a particular referee has been nominated, with LSE specifically giving options on their form such as "availability", "institutional policy" etc (i.e., they think that some institutions, for certain reasons, may require certain professor(s) who taught a student something specific or who were in a specific position of responsibility for a student (e.g., academic advisor) to write a reference).

3. Once the student's application is submitted (or in some cases, once the student has inputted the reference details into a form), the referee gets an automated email from the concerned university's system, giving them a secure link to upload a recommendation letter to, and a deadline of when to upload it by. The student doesn't get this link. The universities usually ask also that the reference be written on institutional letterhead. Often, these systems have the option for a popup to show up at the student's end if the referee hasn't submitted within a certain time, for the student to either change the referee they are using, or re-input the referee details, so the request of a reference upload email with the secure link gets resent.

4. The above is done to ensure that (a) the referee isn't a fraud; and (b) the student has no idea what has been written.

Hi. I received a PPO in a T1 M&A team in Mumbai. From my team of approximately 15 interns, around 8-9 people received assessment internships, out of whom me and another person received a PPO. From what I've heard from my batchmates/seniors, teams with high attrition such as M&A, B&F etc. typically give the most PPOs, while teams with lower rotations such as IP and Private Client are much harder to break into (unless you're really good at what you do)

Again, this will wildly depend on the firm, office, team etc. Mumbai and Delhi offices are your best bet statistically as these teams are the largest in size with higher volume of work. On the other hand, if you're targeting a niche practice that you can do well, interning in a smaller team can leave a bigger impact amongst your seniors. There is also a HUGE element of being 'lucky' or in the right place at the right time (my team saw several A0s and A1s quit some time before we received PPOs)

Based on what you have described, it would make sense to apply to a T2 or non-Tier 1 firm as they do not have a typical pattern of hiring (eg- freezing recruitment post Day-Zero), and usually pick up prospective associates laterally or via long-term internships.

Disclaimer - Cap marks rant.

Dunno much about other practices, but cap marks teams, some more than others, glorify overwork with motivating filing messages/posts, when you haven't even been able to sleep, bathe and function normally. Ofc they say take the day off, but the partner/senior with his next deal filing is already riling around you. All things seem to be working against the practice - it is overregulated, clients are pushy and completely unreasonable (but again they don't know how our partners run an understaffed ship so don't blame them completely), spineless partners pretending to have their shit in place and taking in more work than they can handle all the while their team has no management and structure, and next to nil PAs and SAs. And some of them can't even be bothered to read emails and delegate work properly. Maybe it's just my team though.

It's really up to the associates honestly, not the partners or management to care. I don't think we have a healthy peer environment as well in law firms. The typical corporate law firm environment is set up to follow the rules or bend them, not break them. Thus, the average employee accepts "the process" rather than questioning the status quo. Most of our decisions are governed by well-defined institutional arrangements with pre-specified obligations and rights and we just go about our day without questioning the norm

Honestly, only with the help of the masses can this change. The word 'Rebel' can sound very criminal or wrong in nature, but a "rebel" can be someone who "breaks rules that should be broken." Rebels go against the grain - the norm - the standard - to inspire positive change in professional settings as well as in their personal lives.

Sadly, no one. People don't understand that even though Upendra Baxi, BS Chimni, Bharat Desai, MP Singh etc are legends in their own right, it took them decades to establish a legacy. Moreover these are homegrown academicians, which makes it even more special. Today majority of good academics do their UG, PG, PhD, post docs abroad, and even though they have good pedigree aboard, they sometimes lose touch with the Indian grassroots. Most of them also don't return back home. In the current scenario the best cited professors are abroad, and even the ones in India are not cited heavily abroad. There's no actual indian representation, no Indian voice, it's just the colonial patchwork over Indians abroad.

Some of the top cited law professors based in India across different areas of law are:

Prabhash Ranjan, JGLS (700) Arun Thiruvengadam, NLS (610)

Dipika Jain, JGLS (410)

Tony George, JGLS (304)

Sudhir Krishnaswamy, NLS (248)

R Rajesh Babu, IIM Calcutta (241)

K D Raju, IIT Kharagpur (241)

Anuj Bhuwania, JGLS (219)

Stellina Jolly, SAU (200 plus).

Prabhakar Singh, Munjal (203)

Source - Google Scholar

Prof. Arun Thiruvengadam, as per his Google scholar profile, has been cited about 600 times. Prof. Sudhir has been cited by 250 times and Prof. Aparna Chandra has also been cited quite a lot for law standards. Prof. Tarunabh Khaitan has been cited about 1200 times. Prof. Rohit De has been cited about 500 times and Prof. Madhav Khosla has also been cited about 750 times. Gautam Bhatia has also been cited a lot. In IP, Prof. Arul G Scaria has been cited about 100 times. Not exactly India, but S. Balganesh has been cited about 2000 times and Dev Gangjee has been cited a lot in IP. Not exactly India, but Prof. Umakanth has been cited more thn 700 times.

What rubbish! Arul Scaria is currently hands down the best IP teacher and scholar in the country and he's at NLSIU now. NLUD has only Yogesh Pai and while he isn't a bad teacher, there are several comparable or better IP teaching faculty at other NLUs like him, such as Anirban Mazumder at NUJS.

Calm down! They used an exploding telephone, if I remember rightly (perhaps I am thinking of the movie about this and may have my facts wrong, but I think not), in the case of one of the Black September terrorists (or attack planners) who killed the Israeli athletes in the 1972 olympics. They also used poison in the toothpaste of Wadi Hadad of (I think) the PLO to kill him (every time he brushed his teeth, bit of the poison got inside his system) (see Ronen Bergman's book, 'Rise and Kill First' *).

Were all telephones and toothpaste tubes of the world implanted with bombs and slow-acting poisons from then onwards?

The activists against both these types of prejudice are right: #NoJewsNoNews, #NoMuslimsNoNews.

*Ronen Bergman, 'Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations' (2018) can be purchased at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Kill-First-Targeted-Assassinations/dp/1400069718

He should join litigation and pick up cases for ex servicemen. I know plenty of JAG & other officers who retired & joined DC, HC & SC. They usually take up cases related to defence personnel & family. Majority of the army personnel live in a bubble, so certain civil/public services don't work smoothly and they end up getting into legal tussle. Moreover, his experience in the army will help get closer to the clients and understand them better. Whether people accept it or not, civilians will never understand the fauji mentality. That's where retired JAG or lawyers who served in the army step in to help. He could choose his specialisation when he get's into law. It could be civil, criminal or even tax. Make sure he takes admission in DU, as it's LLB is good for litigation, plus will give him plenty of time to intern in the nearby courts. Even if he practices in his hometown later on, the expert of Delhi courts is the best. In those three years, he'll easily learn DC to SC workings. All the best.

Estates, in a T2 firm. Unfortunately you aren't the only one who's alright with lower pay for initial years, yadayadayada. Try through PPOs and college, but if you're not from an NLU or name brand private college, you'll have to try to get into a T3 or boutique firm, then slowly upskill every 2 years to a T2, and eventually join a T1, at maybe 5-7 PQE at a T2, but you shouldn't expect to be hired with an equivalent package as someone with 5-7 PQE at a T1 firm, they tend to shave off a year or two of experience since you're coming from a T2.
I know, it isn't fair, but overall corporate law is less of a rat race during clat prep and uni when compared to JEE or NEET, but much more of a rate race after graduation.

Elaboration: Someone in his/her 30s expects a certain kind of lifestyle, but regardless of whether you're 35 or 25 you'll be expected to start as A0, with 15LPA.

It's absolutely alright. You have valid reasons for moving on, and extending your stay to complete a 1 year mark may actually become more detrimental to your mental health and well-being. If it's not working out, start looking out for another opportunity. Prospective employers may ask you the reason behind shifting jobs, and you can tell them that the work place culture did not align with your personal priorities or you didn't perceive growth opportunities etc. This becomes only a red flag when someone keeps shifting jobs without staying anywhere for long term.

You can start by updating your resume till date and reaching out to independent recruiters on LinkedIn for potential opportunities.

He need not tell the story, but he tells it nonetheless, while carefully not highlighting the fact that he wasn't in fact held accountable for his mistake. If he knows that he can make mistakes, then he should know that so can others and behave with them accordingly, with empathy.