two questions

1. what all to prepare for disputes day zero interview?

2. for interview preparation from cv how in depth or into specificities do they do into for the interview?

3. how different are day zero interviews from internship interviews at tier 1 firms?

4. any general tips

any help is appreciated :)

Mostly CV. Do basics of company and contract thoroughly. You can't be clueless if you are asked a basic question about a company.

Read legal developments and big cases (especially Supreme Court cases on commercial matters)

Many firms cover these developments themselves. You can check on the websites. Otherwise scroll through two-three legal blogs and familiarize yourself.

GDs unfortunately are about being better than everyone else. Though they give simple topics, try to convey nuanced ideas, speak clearly and don't be rude and interrupt others (if unmoderated.) Always be polite and assertive while speaking

CV is recommended because that is the major part of the interview. But to stand out, read up on recent legal developments related to your CV and try to relate that to your answers. Same with HR questions - try to understand the firm's work and motto well so your answers seem genuine. Their websites are a good place to look. Try to show them why you see yourself working at this firm.

Don't be either cocky or cowardly. Attitude matters a lot.

OP here, ignore the trolls

That is a tough question. Day Z was only within my university so I can only tell you the composition of the associates/interns from my firm

Many NLUs, surprisingly a lot of Symbi and Jindal. I think the sad reality is that privilege begets privilege - all the non-NLU/Symbi/Jindal kids are from metros, went to good schools, upper-middle class, and so on

BUT there are exceptions. I would advise you apply to lots of firms and secure an assessment internship. You may be expected to work there between 3-6 months. Do your best, make sure you are bonding with the people, and secure some job, even at a smaller firm/chambers. Later on you can always laterally move to a T1 firm if that is your aspiration. Make sure that at your first professional experience you pick up a lot of general and specialized skills, so that a T1 firm would want to hire you

Don't lose hope. There are always jobs for good candidates

Regarding your question about higher education, no. They really don't know or care. It's the quality of work you do that matters, and how you can argue about its relation to your future studies.

Forgive me mate, but frankly, if you aren't working in a swanky foreign law firm, you don't have all that much to say for yourself. I was in London a couple of months ago, met some folks for dinner there (two families, who me and my people are friendly with). However, the two families we met in London (let us call them Family A and Family B) hadn't met each other. Both families comprise a middle-aged couple and, in the case of Family A, their daughter, who works at an American firm in London (she studied law in Britain). When one of the members of Family B asked the woman in Family A 'What does your daughter do?', she replied, 'My daughter works for [Firm X]'. As the brand value of Firm X is quite significant, the mother, upon learning that the man from Family B hadn't heard of firm X, was able to raise her eyebrows and shame him quite effectively, by getting him to do a Google search and dig up the firm's Wikipedia page. Unfortunately, that is very hard to do with the kinds of firms we think are swanky in the Indian context.

if rumours have to be considered, there was a tussle between CSS - AK - YA for equity and senior partnership. And something about loss of autonomy for AK, considering the centralised HR system at CAM operated by CSS directly. So he moved to T, completely obliterating CAM ECM. The only reasonable thing to do to continue the practice at CAM profitability was buying up ML. Ofcourse ML will be given special partnership privileges and maybe the pay of the associates will be different (not too much ironically considering CAM payed lesser lol at higher levels especially bonus payouts in ECM teams). ML will operate a firm within CAM, micromanagement, own rules and regulations. Considering he has the clients. This will lead to tussles between CSS and ML again, but ML being in a deadweight tight margin practice can only negotiate so much in a T1 GC/ Finance profiting firm. Considering his past practices, ML doesnt settle simply. Same with Rajiv, then the others.

Secondly CSS will quickly realise that they have too many people already under YA and ML has taken his whole team with so many freshers and A1/ A2s, something not required in the least at CAM. There could be firing? but that is usual in ECM. Not able to keep up margins, the recently promoted partners may be asked to leave slowly, till momentum is reached. ECM was never an efficient practice anyway though, but having ML is different. Coupled with a high profit per partner firm like CAM, this is a win for CSS. But surely CSS will have to concede equity to ML and other probably, will have to assess dynamics.

Undoubtedly now, this leaves CAM to be a Tier 1 (unfortunately) practice in ECM, they were already doing very well in PF, B&F and GC with heavyweights like LV and the others. ML will now truly be a tier 1 firm heavyweight, and not just a star practice in a tier 2 firm. Firms like S&R have died down in ECM , doing just a few mandates, deteriorating numbers considerably, this can be due to their extremely bureaucratic structure and hard to gel with people. CAM already has billion dollar IPO mandates for next year for Uber Level companies, ML addition will only add several more. CAM can now negotiate better costs with clients, have more bargaining power in the listed market. Possibly internally, atleast the ECM practice would be one with good culture considering ML will run a tight knit team as he ran at Indus, and micromanage affairs. CAM would undoubtedly attract more talent now considering the good culture and already decent tier 1 pay. I just hope CSS doesnt crush this down as he likes to do.

It's not a T2 practice - enough and more lead managers are testament to it. Nobody comes close to the culture of the team despite the workloads and the fact that that they've managed great increments and aggressively pursue clients.

This comment is pretty telling - we'll see how places with huge resources and longer relationship cope. No smoke without fire.

You can't run a firm with this being the sole reason for someone to stay. To retain the remaining folks, Indus doesn't have much choice than making few EPs. They have to announce it during the retreat. Although, if MC is leaving along with other EPs, I think offering equity will become a joke.

Hi, I am a fresher this year in a T-1 Nlu and will be heading towards my first internship in November. I sincerely want to intern under reputed advocates working in High Court or even supreme court for that matter. Please dont make fun of this as I am not aware of the nuances, can a fresher intern at HC and SC ? If No, then I understand. If yes, please please please tell me the names of advocates under whom I can apply for my first internship. I would be highly obliged.

Regards

It will be tough. Are you general category? If yes, I think you should set your sights on private universities, given the stiff competition for seats in NLUs and government universities: Jindal, BITS, NMIMS (last two especially if you live in Mumbai), Symbi, Bennett and Nirma.

Hello, I am an anxious fourth-year law student from a tier 3 NLU. I got an internship at Trilegal Bombay. I am hoping to convert it into a PPO after a call-back. I request someone to please help me out wrt how I can get a PPO out of this internship.

Additionally, I request people to please tell me which teams/partners in Tri hire more or are planning to hire more for the 2026 batch.

Thank you so much for your help!

I've recently completed my assessment internship at SRL, Bangalore, and was invited for a callback assessment - despite being an assessment intern. I'm wondering if this unusual scenario could potentially lead to a PPO as most people I know receive PPOs after completing their assessment internships. Could anyone share insights on my hiring prospects, given this unconventional path? Any guidance or experiences shared would be greatly appreciated.

How do you know 'several law firms refused' applications? Just trying to create a narrative which you guys anyway peddle from day 1 of this program's genesis. About to wrap up my degree in NLS, and I have not seen any indications of the admin favouring our batch. Promotional activities and outreach activities are a different thing. Nothing is an open secret, it is just rumour mill that is churning out false narratives on the creditworthiness of this program. None of the folks in the LLB program have ever engaged in the US vs. Them debate. The person in LLB who participated alone due to other team members not being able to participate on account of visa issues did acknowledge that in his post. Nobody is negating their hard work. The other poster's response was in relation to you casting doubt on people's ability to perform well; point being that the 3 year LLB guy was able to perform even without BA LLB co participants being on board. Had they been there, you would have likely given all the credit to the BA LLB participants. It's you who is negating the effort of other people just because they happen to be from a different program.

You are very quick to point the supposed unfair advantages that we are accorded with, but would very conveniently leave out the assistance y'all get from certain key POCs in firms.

Nothing we do is ever enough for you or your ilk to prove that students in the 3 year LLB are equally passionate and hardworking. Earlier the narrative was ohh they didn't perform well in moots, now that we are making a foray in that domain, the narrative has shifted to ohh the top 24 ranks are from BA LLB. Given your numbers isn't that inevitable? We're just a two-three year old program, and within that duration we have improved our performance in moots. The guy who topped univs is one example, but even if you remove that as one odd case, there are people who have secured good ranks. Maybe not in top 25, but surely in top 45. The combined strength of LLB cohorts is somewhere around 100-120 students. This including both the batches. That is the batch strength of one entire section in BA LLB. Given your numbers, it's likely that you would have more participants.

"We all know how grade inflation is systemic in LLB"? A baseless allegation. You have absolutely no basis to say that grades are inflated.

I am happy that students from the BA LLB program got a good number of PPOs. I really am, because unlike petty low lives like you I don't revel in bringing other people down to get ahead in life. And trust me, none of the LLBs engage in the mudslinging contest that some of you in the BA LLB seem to enjoy. That is what makes us different. I wish you love and light and perhaps some sense too.

Byee.

Stats - https://www.barandbench.com/apprentice-lawyer/rectracker-35-students-from-nlsiu-batch-of-2025-bag-ppos-before-day-zero

1. CAM's 2 internship policy isn't set in stone. I know of at least 3 NLS BA LLB students in the past who have done the same. If you have to brag, at least don't be ignorant. CAM gives PPOs in the first internship itself if the rank is sufficiently high and we all know how grade-inflation is systematic among LLBs.

2. The rest of the team for the moot court competition couldn't make it due to visa issues. To just erase their efforts over months reeks of insecurity. Same goes for the negotiation competition which could not have done as well without the ace negotiator from the ba llb cohort.

3. 1 LLB got the highest marks in oral rounds, sure. But lets also talk about how 24/25 top ranks went to BA LLB students.

As for law firms "considering their applications", it is an open secret that several law firms openly refused to consider you all and that it happened only after much begging and personal lobbying from certain bigwigs in the admin department. Stop attributing it to your efforts when it is solely because of daddy's lobbying.

I accidentally pressed enter mods. Can you join this comment with my previous comment? Add the lines below this:

Program. I understand that an MBA is expensive. However, student loans are quite easily available & the ROI is decent for MBA programs from the Top 10 IIMs / FMS Delhi & private institutions such as XLRI, XIMB, etc.

So cheer up & work hard, you will eventually reach where you want to, life is too short to worry about things which can be improved upon by working smartly & diligently. Life is a marathon, not a 100 m/200m race.

Hi, sorry to hear that life hasn't worked as you wanted it to; however, you shouldn't consider this a sign of incompetence but of your perseverance. You currently have multiple options, and I will list some of these options for you. Firstly, you can start by applying to boutique firms such as Panag & Babu, DMD Advocates, Capstone Legal, SNG & Partners, HSA Advocates, etc.; I think there is a Legally India thread on boutique corporate law firms; search it up. Secondly, follow up on your application status at a reasonable regular interval. You can also apply to T2/T3 law firms (Again, search for the relevant LI thread); they will happily take you if you are willing to work and aren't too concerned about losing batch seniority. Coming to the batch seniority part, losing 2-3 years, even four years, doesn't matter in the long run. If you aim to become a Partner eventually, don't divert your energy towards this matter. Now, if you successfully get a job in a boutique/T3/T2 Law firm, you should work there for at least 2 years, & then laterally shift to a good T2 firm from T3/Boutique or a T1 Firm from a T3/T2.

Thirdly, if you want to earn a good salary from the get go, you can try writing CAT & join a decent IIM or a private institution for their MBA programme

Not impossible to get back in the saddle. Find a mentor at whatever Tier who will train you well and with whom you can grow. Accept lower pay for a while if you get good training but be clear that you want to be moving toward better comp. Can be a small law firm, need not be tiered. Ideal if you find a partner who eventually takes you to a better firm.

Transfer the skills you have learned at the BPO into law practice. Prove yourself by being a good mentee. Some serendipity is also needed here but I can say from experience that nothing is lost at 26. Be willing to ask for the help you need.

Excellent work by the student-run BA LLB RCC. This should hopefully shut up people (including sadly, some students) who believe that the RCCs are useless and that bureaucrats who have no idea about the legal industry will somehow get them placed.

Also, a big W for the flagship programme, despite so many issues caused by Sudhaarji and his minions. Guess the market can identify better than anyone which cohort is the real stuff :b

At Crawford the bond is for 4 years. They pay 9L fixed salary and 2-6 months of salary in form of a performance bonus. Both the Capital markets teams have a lot of work and are doing great. It's a super place to get maximum exposure possible for an A0. If you are willing to put enough efforts and if your work is decent, you get the higher end of the bonus. Additionally, out of station retainers (ones who are not domiciled in Mumbai) get a marginally higher pay.