25 out of 76 students in NLSIU’s class of 2013 were placed across seven law firms and a foreign firm after 47 students participated in the law school’s so-called “Day Zero” on 12 May 2012, when six law firms and a foreign firm visited the campus.

Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners led Day Zero recruitment with four hires each, taking Amarchand’s total hires from the fourth year batch to nine including five pre placement offers (PPO), and AZB’s hires to six including two PPOs.

Trilegal came in next, recruiting three students, while J Sagar Associates (JSA) recruited two.

Khaitan & Co, and global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company made a hire each.

S&R Associates offered PPOs to two students.

International law firm Ashurst signed a training contract with one student.

Other students participating in Day zero, secured internships in foreign law firms including Herbert Smith, Allen & Overy and Linklaters for the month of July, according to the Recruitment Coordination Committee (RCC) for 2013, NLS Bangalore.

The committee in a statement said: “This is the largest number of firms to have recruited on day zero from the fourth year in our institute or any law school in the country for that matter.”

“The recruitment coordination committee is quite pleased with the results of day zero and is extremely confident that all interested students will be placed in the coming few months” it added.

Khaitan’s hires from Last year’s day zero tanked by six, Amarchand upped its intake by two recruits, while Trilegal’s number was consistent with the last visit.

Top day zero recruiter last year Luthra & Luthra, which recruited 17 students from NLS’s class of 2012, did not recruit any from the class of 2013, after the two offers made by the firm were not accepted.

On 7 April 2012 Nalsar Hyderabad kicked off its so-called “Day Zero”, followed by GNLU Gandhinagar on 12 April and NLIU Bhopal on 16 April, weeks ahead of traditional first mover NLSIU.

An NLS RCC 2013 member said: “We intentionally kept the Day Zero for later this time so that it does not interfere with the PPOs from firms coming in.”

He told Legally India that several invited law firms last year were not happy with the chaos in recruitment plans that was created by an early Day Zero, and to avoid a similar situation this year, the RCC continually followed up with various law firms on the PPO process, reminding them of the law school’s intended Day Zero schedule.

The PPOs were accordingly confirmed before Day Zero this time.

17 fourth year students at GNLU, 15 at Nalsar, 9 at NLIU, and 14 at NLU Jodhpur were placed on their Days Zero.