NUJS Kickstarts Recruitment by Placing 7 in Trilegal

The environment in NUJS campus has been tense in the morning. Since last year’s troubled and panicky placement scenario, not only those who were sitting for recruitment but almost the whole college was waiting to see how the first interviews of the recruitment season turns out. The whole day a bunch of fifth year students and recruitment committee co-ordinators paced up and down the corridors of the beautiful academic block of NUJS ensuring a seamless commencement of recruitment process. At the end of the day, everyone was content, albeit for different reasons. Seven of them were joyous to have bagged a lucrative job offers each from Trilegal, a new age law firm which is famous for its professionalism (read it is not all about a family running the firm) and work environment (they were awarded ALB Choice Employer of the Year, 2009) apart from being one of the top paymasters. Many from the 5^th years were happy because the placement ranks went up by seven places for those remaining to be recruited. Rest of us were happy that recruitments in NUJS, for the time being at least, does not seem to be hostage to the economic slowdown anymore.

The tension was not unjustified. To start with, recruitment by foreign firms has reached an all time low globally. Traditionally the biggest recruiter of NUJS students, Amarchand Mangaldas and Suresh Shroff & Co. popularly known as Amarchand, recruited only four students from NUJS as opposed to thirty nine students in the previous year. Trilegal itself recruited only two. This year the recruitment committee was expecting them to recruit at least four but recruitment of seven students came as a pleasant surprise to most.

However, none of these jobs came easy. Almost thirty five students had applied through the Placement Committee to Trilegal. The firm shortlisted twenty five on the basis of their CV to sit for a written test. The test comprised mostly of basic knowledge of corporate law, contract law and other commercial laws. Twelve students out of those who took the test were shortlisted for personal interview which was the final hurdle before the much awaited results came. “It seems those with a good presence and presentability had the last laugh, so if you thought having a high CGPA is be all and end all, take another guess” said one unsuccessful candidate (who doesn't wish to be named). The atmosphere in NUJS boys' hostel is particularly boysterous. This success and generally, the brilliant start to the placement process, is being celebrated as we write, in authentic NUJS style which we are enjoined from disclosing.

The tough selection process points out that the firms this time are really out to get the best talents. Firms like Trilegal are starting early to get the right catches. Another view is that they are starting early to prevent the foreign law firms from getting the cream of law schoolites. Things used to be very different pre-2009 though. Firms that visited NUJS for campus recruitment often discovered to their dismay that most people from the graduating batch have already been given Pre-Placement Offers by the firms with which they interned, and if they wasted time in prolonged interviews, some other recruiter will take away whoever is remaining even before they can rephrase the question on pressnote 18 twice. Well, things have changed, but if the starting is of any indication, this should be a good year for NUJS.