The students of DSNLU Visakhapatnam (or Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University Visakhapatnam to give its full name), have for the first time ever released their final recruitment statistics.

According to its recruitment coordination committee (RCC) press release, DSNLU’s 2019 batch has seen 39 offers for individual students, out of a total RCC size of 80, plus another 18 offers obtained outside of the RCC process. The total batch strength at DSNLU was 115.

DSNLU follows a “one person offer rule”, so the RCC involvement comes to an end “as soon as a registered candidate gets an offer from any of the participating recruiters” and candidates could not sit for any more interviews, it said.

The RCC could therefore not provide a breakdown of accepted offers as disclosed in other universities’ placements, but it should be fairly representative of job prospects.

While the results are not as strong as the older or top-tier law schools in larger cities (see list below), they do illustrate that the legal market’s long tail of law firms and law recruiters has grown considerably.

Students secured several job offers outside of the RCC process too, with one each getting an offer from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) in Hyderabad, Link Legal India Law Services Bangalore, Phoenix Legal, Singhania & Partners, HSB Partners, and King Stubb & Kasiva.

The RCC-coordinated interviews yielded a number of offers from mostly mid-size and smaller firms, and legal process outsourcing (LPO) outfits, led by 15 offers made by LexHawk Consulting, which has been operating since 2011 according to its website; Thomson Reuters’ LPO arm made two offers (with five on waitlist).

On the in-house side, software company Technosoft Solutions from Visakhapatnam itself, offered five jobs, while Kia Motors made one offer.

Law firms such as boutique financial regulatory firm Finsec Law Advisors, Singh & Singh Associates, Cholomandal IP (from Chennai), Juris Prime (Hyderabad) and Tempus Law Associates (Hyderabad), Niti Bodh in Delhi and Manilal Kher Ambalal Co (Mumbai) each made one offer to students; law firm Ethos Legal Alliance (founded in June 2018 in Mumbai) hired a total of five.

Full break-down of jobs below.

The final year RCC student co-ordinators at DSNLU were Abishek Mohanty, Gitanjali Sanyal, Vanya Srikant and Kumari Shailja, as well as Abhishek Singh, Anwesha Das, Karonika Ghosh, Ojaswini Tripathi, Varsha Mishra and Abhishek Jha.

“Efforts are still underway to ensure 100% placement of the batch,” added the RCC in its statement.

Some will be continuing with further studies: three students secured ranks in the top 100 and one student secured 41st rank in the BHU Entrance exam, according to the RCC.

Offers via RCC (max one offer per student)

Off-campus offers (one per student max)

Other final campus recruitments

• Nalsar Hyderabad’s 2019 batch of 77 students, with 52 participating in campus recruitments: 52 total jobs (36 law firm jobs, 1 international training countract, and 15 in-house roles)
• JGLS 2019 batch of 395 grads, with 88 participating: 83 total jobs (54 Indian law firms, 23 litigation, 6 in-house).
• NLU Delhi 41 jobs for 41 RCC members.