Career in Leading Law Firms: Interview of Ms.Bhavya Vatsa (Assocciate, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas)

1) Ma'am, please introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Bhavya Vatsa and I am from Dhanbad, Jharkhand. I completed my undergraduate degree from Amity Law School, Delhi, batch of 2014-2019. I am currently working as an Associate at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in the General Corporate practise area.

2) Please tell us about your law school experience and what are certain things which one learn during law school which helps him/her in professional career ?

I entered into ALSD with a lot of scepticism, as it was not an NLU and the general perception of NLU domination in the field was always at the back of my head. I had a great advantage in terms of having an excellent moot court society to help me regain the confidence despite not being from a premier law school. We had amazing brainstorming sessions with our seniors taking out time to take our mock sessions. Additionally, an extremely important thing was that our college had no classes in the 10th semester. We had mandatory internship for that semester along with penning our dissertation. This was the leap I needed to be where I am today.

With respect to what helps one during law school in one’s professional career is with the number of extra-curricular activities you gain an immense amount of confidence and its an absolute must in our profession. You need to have faith, confidence and immaculate drive to present yourself in the best possible manner. Hence, participate in as many extra curricular activities as you can, hone your skills you think you’re the best at. Intern as much as possible and try learning as much as possible at your internships, as that would be the only practical hands on experience you’ll get in those 5 years to carry forward when you ultimately start working.

3) 5 year law schools are a complete package with many varied experiences and a lot of things to explore but at the same time having a fixed aim is also required to excel in any field. By which year you think one should decide what they actually need to focus on be it corporate, litigation, judiciary etc.

Explore as much as you want until the end of 4th year. However, do not take your 5th year to be a vacation, it's the most important year you’d have. Until the end of my 4th year, I was planning to do maritime arbitration or masters in the same. So, explore as much as you want until the end of 4th year, because that’s going to give you a platter of seasoned choices to choose from.

4) What are the things which a law student should do, if he/she wants to get placed into reputed law firm after college ? Please share your experience regarding your academic performance along with other co-curricular activities and internships which you did during your law school.

In relation to a successful internship - you should be very vigilant with respect to the period where you think you could land an internship. Certain law firms require you to apply months before the month of internship and one should be mindful of the same. Research more about the firms you want to intern at, talk to professionals (if you know any) about the culture, expectations and responsibilities ascribed to interns before applying to firms. As an intern no one expects you to be exceptionally well informed of laws, but one should strive to be responsible while working, have good ethics and have good research skills. You should be extremely well versed with the numerous research sources that you can use to conclude on research points. Another minor but important point is, when given a research point, please take time to deep dive into the research topic to find answers/ solutions to the query. Be solution oriented - concluding a research point stating that ‘there is not enough material in the public domain to conclude’ is not solving anyone’s problem. Reach out to every last resource that you can use to have a conclusive answer. Lastly, but the most important point - always take responsibility of your work, even if something goes wrong. Accept it, don’t try and evade by giving excuses.

In relation to my academic experiences - I was extremely engrossed in mooting during my college life and it has helped me tremendously in understanding the regulatory and administrative framework of India and has heightened my research skills as well. However, I did not pursue any extra curricular activities in my 5th year, as I feel that 5th year is the time when you should focus more on internships.

5) How did you make your way into India's topmost law firm, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co ? Please share your entire recruitment process with us.

My internship at SAM was my first corporate internship. Prior to that - I had mostly gone for litigation internships. My first internship at SAM, during 2018, was initially for 2 weeks, which is the standard internship period offered to any intern. My team invested a lot of time into educating me with respect to the manner of working, giving me adequate time to complete my work, trained me to work better and explained me their expectations of me. I was actively involved in a transaction due to which my internship was extended. My call back internship was in 2019, which was during my final semester. The good part was we didn’t have classes in our 10th semester so I could intern for a longer period of time. I interned with the same team, had the privilege of working on excellent transactions, opinions, restructuring advisories, etc. Soon after, I got a PPO offer in April as the team felt that I was a good addition to the team, and rest is history. :)

6) Since, you have been working at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Co as an Associate, please enlighten us what does country's one of the most reputed law firm looks for while hiring a law professional ?

One should be extremely honest towards work. Have adequate and in depth knowledge about whatever you speak. Be confident, know your ground. Be dedicated and always take responsibility for the work you do. One should also be a good listener and know how to implement team conversations/ discussions in your work product adequately.

7) Mooting , Debating & Internships: How essential these skills are as a lawyer and the importance they hold to pave your way into big reputed law firms ?

These skills shape you as a person. So, the firms do not solely base their decision of hiring on such achievements (although such achievements definitely beef up your CV), however, what’s most important is the diverse qualities which you imbibe from such experiences and achievements. Your confidence will increase multifold, your research skills will sharpen, you’ll gain so much more knowledge of diverse subjects. These are more important to take away from extra curricular activities. The marriage of all of the above is extremely important so that you are on your best foot while paving your way in.

8) Thank you so much Ma'am for talking to us, please end it with an adage which will motivate our readers in pursuing the legal profession.

Thank you, for giving me this opportunity. Everyone reading this - please be confident when you go for internships. Don’t doubt yourselves too much. Learn about your team, your firm before you go. Be honest towards your work and everything will fall into place after that. :)