The CCLS India Chapter organised an interactive session on “Acing your interview - How to bag a top tier law firm job!” on the 5 March 2021. The session was moderated by Mr Ankit Sinha, who is a member of the India Chapter committee. Ms Veena Sivaramakrishnan, Equity Partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., one of India’s premier law firms, answered questions regarding what a recruiter in a law firm looks for in a candidate in terms of their CV, their expectations and their background.
Ms. Sivaramakrishnan also answered questions regarding what to expect from a law firm job and the harsh realities of working in a law firm: she pointed out that “work-life balance” is a redundant term since work is a part of your life and if one does not think so, then applying to a law firm is probably not appropriate. The profession requires the candidate to put in the hours and she rightly pointed out that there is no substitute for hard work.
Ms. Sivaramakrishnan also threw light on socially relevant questions like whether gender plays a role when hiring a candidate in a law firm or, given the broad geography of India, if a candidate’s cultural background is relevant when looking for a job at a law firm. According to her, gender and cultural background are not aspects she looks at, while interviewing a candidate and it is merit that matters. She also mentioned that she expects the candidate to ask questions at the end of the interview. In regard to questions about gaining an LLM before starting a job or at any point in their career, Ms. Sivaramakrishnan said “If the LLM supports what you want to do, why not?”.
The session was insightful for both entry level candidates and experienced professionals looking for a job switch. It was attended by new graduates, lawyers and a few law students. There was also a questions and answers session at the end, which helped in clarifying any areas of uncertainty the attendees had on the subject.
Alumni had the following comments on the session:
“Very engaging session. Great interaction!” - Ojasvita Srivastava (Commercial and Corporate Law LLM, 2014)
“Excellent Session!” - Krishan G Insan (Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM, 2020)
“An extremely insightful and wonderful session!” – Raveesha Gupta (Intellectual Property Law LLM, 2015)