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10 Things To Know About Startup Law Practice 1. What do you do in a typical day? It really depends on what the clients have going on, as tech startup practices tend to be much more client-driven read more
10 Things To Know About Startup Law Practice
1. What do you do in a typical day?
It really depends on what the clients have going on, as tech startup practices tend to be much more client-driven than deal-driven. When a number of clients do have significant transactions on the table—like a venture financing, an IPO or a sale of the company—those transactions usually take precedence over the more routine work other clients need on a day-to-day basis. Startup lawyers spend most of a typical day working on bigger transactions for their clients (to the extent they have any at the moment), while trying to spend the short lulls in between handling small questions or requests from clients that don’t have active deals pending. It can be a lot to juggle!
2. Who do you work with?
Attorneys in this practice area work very closely with the founders and executives at their startup company clients, and eventually the company’s general counsel (once the company has reached a stage where they’ve hired an in-house lawyer). Attorneys representing investors work directly with the venture capitalist making the investment and possibly the fund’s GC or COO. Whichever side startup lawyers are on, they’re likely also interacting a lot with lawyers representing the counterparties on the transactions.
Within a law firm, fairly junior attorneys work with either a partner or senior associate. They also often consult with the firm’s specialists in executive compensation, employment, IP and commercial transactions, and tax, as these are the areas outside of corporate/securities where most startups have frequent legal questions and issues.
3. What does a common career path look like?
Startup practice provides some interesting opportunities for junior lawyers because of the sheer volume of clients. Because there are so many smaller, early-stage clients, senior associates often play a larger role in managing client relationships, and junior associates have a lot more client contact and responsibility earlier than they would in some other practice areas. Partners rely on junior lawyers to manage the day-to-day in order to provide the client with an accessible on-demand resource and to keep the client’s costs down. This gives junior startup lawyers the opportunity to develop more quickly, though it also means that junior lawyers need to demonstrate good judgment, maturity and independence early in their careers. That substantial early experience can come in handy, whether these attorneys eventually become law firm partners, go in-house at companies or VC funds, or launch startups of their own.
4. If variety is the spice of life, how spicy is this practice area?
Muy caliente! Startup lawyers, despite being at law firms, typically function as general counsel for their startup clients because early-stage companies rarely have in-house legal resources. As a result, startup lawyers end up fielding a wide variety of questions and requests, only some of which are strictly legal in nature. As with any in-house legal role, when lawyers work directly with business teams and are their first stop for any quasi-legal question, every day brings new surprises. Interestingly, law students often have the opposite impression of startup practice—they tend to think it’s highly specialized and sometimes opt for the well-trodden path to a white-shoe corporate firm (where they can rotate through different practice areas), because they think it will provide them with more variety.
5. How much wear and tear?
When startup lawyers spend most of their time working on the company side, they can get stretched pretty thin. Startups like to move very quickly (as Facebook once put it, they aim to “move fast and break things”)—which can be especially hard on their lawyers, who are usually managing dozens of active companies. First-time founders, in particular, often have unrealistic expectations about how long deals—and legal work, in general—should take. Thus, it’s a constant negotiation, not with the other side but with the startup lawyer’s own client, about timing expectations. Take that trend and multiply it by the many startup companies these lawyers are representing at any given time, and the pace can become challenging.
On the investor side, it’s often a bit better. There’s typically less work to do when representing investors, and the client is also usually more sophisticated about how these deals get done (since they do deals for a living). VCs tend to be easier to work with than investment bankers or private equity investors. Having a nice mix between company representations and investor-side deals can make a startup lawyer’s workload more bearable.
6. Of the people in this practice group who hate it, what exactly do they hate about it?
Many have complaints that are common among most corporate lawyers, with work/life balance probably at the top of the heap. Some startup lawyers find it increasingly frustrating to explain the same things repeatedly to unsophisticated company founders. Venture financing deals can also be very formulaic, which means attorneys often find themselves negotiating the same few points on every deal (which can get old quickly). Finally, there’s a lot of fee pressure with cost-sensitive startup clients, making some attorneys practicing in the space feel like the clients don’t value their work.
7. Of the people in this practice group who love it, what exactly do they love about it?
Many lawyers go into corporate law because they’re also interested in the business side. Unlike most corporate lawyers, however, startup lawyers are regularly asked to give business advice to their company clients. These clients, many of whom are launching a business for the first time, turn to their lawyers for help with deal terms as well as advice on finding and managing investors, and startup lawyers often enjoy being a business and strategic adviser in addition to a legal counselor.
Startup lawyers also enjoy being the first to know about a lot of interesting developments in the technology space and having clients working on cool or interesting products and services. Another plus for many junior startup lawyers is that they have the ability to bring in business early in their careers, since there are more prospective clients in their age cohort and personal networks than would usually be the case in other practice areas.
8. Are there common avenues out of this practice area?
As with most other areas of law, a small minority of the lawyers who start out in this field end up becoming partners in big law firms. Many startup lawyers end up moving client-side, either to their startup company clients or to VC funds (where they often take GC/COO roles). Some lawyers who go into this type of practice do so because they think they eventually want to launch their own startups. Experience in a law firm startup practice can also prepare lawyers for eventually striking out on their own and hanging a shingle.
9. What are some market trends that impact this practice area?
Startup practices can sometimes be countercyclical, because people who are laid off in economic downturns often decide to start their own businesses. However, by and large, this practice area is closely tied to the strength of the VC funding market, as well as M&A and IPO activity.
After significant increases in private company valuations in recent years, there has been a lot of talk among tech industry observers that we may be in the midst of another tech bubble (albeit of a different sort than we saw in the late ’90s). Though there have been some signs that startup financing markets have taken a breather of late, the party does not appear to be over quite yet.
10. If you had to recommend one candidate from a room crowded with recent bar exam graduates, what specific qualities would he or she have that would ensure success in this practice area?
This practice area requires a lot of soft skills: interpersonal skills, communication skills and pragmatic judgment. While it’s not strictly necessary, a demonstrated interest in tech can help land a job at a firm specializing in representing startups, as jobs in startup law practices have become highly coveted in the last few years. Finally, successful junior associates in this area need to be self-starters—being proactive with clients and issue spotting before a problem becomes a problem turns a junior lawyer into a trusted adviser in short order.
Source: Above the Law
Many of this year’s top 10 are pioneers exploiting technology to change their firms and the legal world. This year’s 10-strong shortlist for most innovative individual was dominated by those read more
This year’s 10-strong shortlist for most innovative individual was dominated by those who are using technology to change the practice of law. The judges were impressed by Karl Chapman, chief executive of Riverview Law, which has produced Kim, a “virtual assistant” that helps in-house lawyers manage new instructions and process their work. Another strong contender was David Wakeling of Allen & Overy, a pioneer of automated legal drafting, part of the trend towards freeing lawyers from repetitive tasks.
But the most impressive legal technologist, and the winner of this year’s award, was Charlotte Stalin of Simmons & Simmons — not, the judges felt, one of the most innovative firms in the past, but seventh this year in the FT 50 ranking. Ms Stalin is best-known for the Navigator legal technology tool, which has been widely adopted. Her next project, inevitably, is a Brexit transition tool.
Also impressive was Keith Schilling, the defamation specialist who says one of his proudest achievements was representing model Naomi Campbell when she won her privacy claim against the Daily Mirror — the first successful such claim in England. He has transformed Schillings into a multidisciplinary partnership, incorporating cyber security specialists and a former general, to protect reputations and privacy in a social media age.
Michael Skapinker, chair of the judging panel
Charlotte Stalin joined Simmons & Simmons in 2006 as a partner in the financial services regulation practice, after working at Clifford Chance in Sweden and London. She set about thinking of new ways to work with clients, most notably an online service providing regulatory guidance to fund managers. It was launched as Navigator: Funds, providing information to clients on a subscription basis.
Ms Stalin is the force behind many of the firm’s market-leading regulatory tools. This year she launched MiFID2 Manager, which will help the firm’s lawyers and clients manage the complex compliance process relating to the second iteration of the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, which comes into force in 2018.
Clients say it stands out from similar initiatives because it not only provides information but can also help guide non-legal users through the process.
Bernard O’Connor, Nctm Studio Legale
Describing himself as a trade lawyer with a penchant for agriculture, Bernard O’Connor has created interesting specialisms for himself. One is expertise in geographical indicators, which identify products as from a specific region, such as Champagne.
His background in more than 100 trade cases for the European Commission made him a valuable asset for Turkish Cypriot farmers in the Halloumi cheese case. The application of Greek Cypriot cheese producers to the commission for “protected designation of origin” status did not initially include northern Cyprus producers of the same cheese, which they call Hellim. Northern Cyprus is not recognised as part of the EU, but Mr O’Connor’s arguments helped the Turkish producers’ claims for inclusion to be agreed by the commission in July 2015.
He says being a slow reader helps when dealing with complex legal and political challenges because he comes up with arguments and ideas others might miss.
Derivatives and structured finance lawyer David Wakeling used time away from his usual work last year to address a problem clients were only starting to anticipate. Contemplating new regulations for the global over-the-counter derivatives market, he realised the impact they would have on big banks. New margin rules mean banks will have to renegotiate contracts that could include up to 10,000 counterparties and require legal advice in numerous jurisdictions.
Using off-the-shelf software, he designed a solution that allowed junior lawyers to do the coding themselves, inputting rules and regulations from around the globe to create the firm’s MarginMatrix system.
Now that the majority of the legal work could be done using technology, the firm partnered with Deloitte to apply the consultancy’s people and processes to the remaining drafting and negotiations work.
After starting his career developing new trading platforms at UBS, Akber Datoo retrained as a lawyer to bring his data and technology skills to the law.
Mr Datoo was an associate with Allen & Overy between 2005 and 2010, before leaving in 2011 to set up D2 Legal Technology. Most of the business’s 65 employees are senior lawyers with capital markets experience, who also understand computer systems.
D2 Legal works for investment banks and asset managers, providing strategic consulting and technology to manage capital markets legal documentation. Mr Datoo now works with their in-house legal teams to develop what he calls “a legal data domain” and give legal departments a similar level of control over their contracts and opinions as client and product teams have traditionally had over their own data. His services are helping in-house lawyers understand the value they can bring through not just the law but also data and systems.
After studying law and starting out in investment management, Karl Chapman embarked on an entrepreneurial career based on recruitment, training and human resources businesses.
Only after 25 years did Mr Chapman join the law, setting up Riverview Law in 2011. He has steered its managed services business from focusing on clients among small and medium-sized businesses to serving the FTSE 100.
More recently Mr Chapman has led the firm’s transformation into a technology-based business. He formed a partnership with the University of Liverpool to develop a proprietary cognitive computing program and launched it through a US-based business, Kim Technologies. The program powers Riverview’s latest products — virtual assistants that help in-house lawyers to manage new instructions, workflows and the automation of some tasks.
Jeroen Zweers is innovation director at Amsterdam-based Kennedy Van der Laan, which is behind the Nike Alliance, a network of law firms that collaborate to handle the sportswear brand’s legal work. Mr Zweers has moved the alliance from a grouping of 33 firms in 22 jurisdictions to a virtual European law firm working on a shared online platform. At any one time, Nike can see workflows, billing and whether teams are available for work. This “digital building” facilitates better service with a single repository of knowledge.
Dutch Legal Tech, which Mr Zweers co-founded in 2015, is a platform to connect lawyers, academics, publishers, entrepreneurs, developers and policymakers. It organises events, from meet-ups to awards, to encourage Dutch legal professionals to innovate.
This year, Mr Zweers co-founded Legal Pioneer, a network that links legal innovators in the UK, Hong Kong, Germany and India.
A pioneer in aerospace and telecommunications law in Portugal, Magda Cocco is one of the partners in charge of VdA’s technology, media and telecoms (TMT) practice and the head of privacy, data protection and cyber security practice at the firm.
Ms Cocco has expanded the TMT group to African jurisdictions such as Cameroon, Comoros, Gabon, Madagascar, Namibia and Mali. She has also led multidisciplinary teams, advising on the inception and implementation of numerous projects to develop the TMT industries in these countries.
Her industry-focused approach to international growth is one colleagues at VdA have followed to expand their own practices into new markets.
Ms Cocco has also helped develop VdA’s aerospace law practice group, the first in Portugal, where her work has included drafting space policies and satellite contracts, and clarifying legal issues regarding drones.
Deep knowledge of capital markets, an ability to grasp the dynamics behind the rules governing them and the skill to articulate a vision that all parties to a transaction can support have helped Mark Nicolaides to achieve numerous firsts in the structured finance industry.
Over eight years, Mr Nicolaides’ work has featured in the FT’s Innovative Lawyers reports for innovations in pensions, helping banks to comply with Basel II capital requirements and achieving a breakthrough in an impasse over the restructuring of Punch Taverns.
This year’s report recognises his work for Mortgage Leasing Solutions to acquire and lease back 2.6m iPhones from mobile operator Sprint. The deal allows mobile phone carriers to monetise the value locked up in mobile phones currently being used by customers and in the value of their short-term leases for the first time.
After 35 years in media and defamation law, Keith Schilling has spent the past three years moving his firm from one that solely practised law to a multidisciplinary partnership that includes technologists, cyber experts, risk managers and intelligence personnel. He had concluded that in the digital age his clients would increasingly need an integrated service to defend their reputation and privacy from the incursions of social media.
In doing so, he envisaged a service clients did not yet realise they needed. “Where in the past the power to dethrone the successful lay in the hands of a well-resourced few, today anyone with an iPhone and a Twitter account can start the ripple that turns an incident into an indictment,” Mr Schilling says.
The new Schillings is transforming itself into an international reputation and privacy consultancy.
With extensive experience in the investment funds management sector, Pamela Thompson has been involved in numerous firsts that have influenced its infrastructure.
From the first offshore investment trust in the 1990s, to this year’s authorised contractual schemes (the UK’s first tax-transparent fund structure), Ms Thompson has helped to create many products and services that allow clients to seize opportunities presented by regulatory change.
As joint head of the investment funds and asset management team at Eversheds, Ms Thompson advises the Financial Conduct Authority and HM Revenue & Customs. Her team was also the only law firm practice consulted by HM Treasury to discuss the competitiveness of UK-listed companies for asset managers, culminating in the Treasury’s investment management strategy.
Source: The Financial Times
Court rejects Centre’s view that Air Force officer has no entitlement to a commission. “Let her fly... let her be airborne all the time,” the Supreme Court told the government, taking read more
“Let her fly... let her be airborne all the time,” the Supreme Court told the government, taking Air Force woman pilot Sandeep Kaur under its protective wing.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur offered relief to Ms. Kaur in her fight against the rules of the “Establishment,” under which her time as a pilot was over.
The Union, represented by Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, had appealed against a December 13, 2016 order of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), directing the government to reconsider her application for permanent commission and let her continue to serve the country.
The AFT told the Union to allow Ms. Kaur to stay on if she qualified and was found suitable.
The AFT asked the authorities to decide her application in two months. But the Union decided to take the fight to the Supreme Court and seek a stay of the order.
Refusing to accept the demand, the Bench asked Mr. Rohatgi whether she would get a pension. When he answered in the negative, Chief Justice Thakur said, “Then let her fly, let her continue.”
Mr. Rohatgi relented, saying no move would be made to decommission the wing commander, represented by advocate Arun Monga and Kudrat Sandhu, without first seeking the court’s permission.
Mr. Monga quoted from a Delhi High Court order in a similar case to argue that these “young ladies have sacrificed the prime of their life to serve the nation,” but got a raw deal as they left service without a pension.
The outcome of Ms. Sandhu’s case brings cheer to several women officers waging a battle in the Supreme Court for equal opportunity.
The Army’s appeal against a March 2010 Delhi High Court judgment holding that women officers “deserve better from the government” is pending in the Supreme Court for five years now. The High Court had observed that “if male officers can be granted permanent commission, there is no reason why equally capable women officers can’t.”
The High Court ruling was on a batch of petitions filed in 2003 by advocate Babita Punia and several women officers to stop ‘discrimination against women Army officers, who are given only Short Service Commission for periods extendable up to 10 years.’ The Army had cited the extreme difficulties a woman officer may have to face in combat situations.
The Navy too appealed against another Delhi High Court order declaring that sexist bias blocked women’s progress. The Navy had contended that “men and women are identified by the same yardstick”.
Source: The Hindu
Its traditional aversion to risk has meant the legal profession has not been in the vanguard of new technology. But it is seen as ripe for disruption — a view that is based not least on pressure read more
Its traditional aversion to risk has meant the legal profession has not been in the vanguard of new technology. But it is seen as ripe for disruption — a view that is based not least on pressure from tech-savvy corporate clients questioning the size of their legal bills and wanting to reduce risk.
Change is being driven not only by demand from clients but also by competition from accounting firms, which have begun to offer legal services and to use technology to do routine work. “Lawtech” start-ups, often set up by ex-lawyers and so-called because they use technology to streamline or automate routine aspects of legal work, are a threat too. Lawtech has been compared to fintech, where small, nimble tech companies are trying to disrupt the business models of established banks.
A study by Deloitte has suggested that technology is already leading to job losses in the UK legal sector, and some 114,000 jobs could be automated within 20 years.
Professor Richard Susskind, a technology consultant and co-author of The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts, predicts unprecedented upheaval in a profession where the working practices of some lawyers and judges have changed little since the time of Charles Dickens. “One question lurking in all this is whether someone can come in and do to law what Amazon did to bookselling,” he says. “We won’t see anything as dramatic, but we will see incremental transformations in areas like the way documents are reviewed and the way legal risk is assessed.”
Big law firms are pouring money into AI as a way of automating tasks traditionally undertaken by junior lawyers. Many believe AI will allow lawyers to focus on complex, higher-value work. An example is Pinsent Masons, whose TermFrame system emulates the decision-making process of a human. It was developed by Orlando Conetta, the firm’s head of R&D, who has degrees in law and computer science and did an LLM in legal reasoning and AI. TermFrame guides lawyers through different types of work while connecting them to relevant templates, documents and precedents at the right moments. He says AI will not make lawyers extinct but “is just another category of technology which helps to solve the problem”.
“Clients are aware of [AI] and how it will benefit them and they are asking the tough questions of us. In the past year we have gone from being in start-up mode to having the rest of the firm banging on our door asking about this,” says David Halliwell, a litigation lawyer and director of knowledge and innovation delivery at Pinsent Masons.
In a sign of its potential success, lawtech has its own social scene. London-based serial entrepreneur Jimmy Vestbirk has launched Legal Geek, which organises events and meet-ups for lawtech start-ups, as well as hackathons and interactive talks.
Mr Vestbirk researched legal start-ups in San Francisco before setting up F-Lex, an on-demand paralegal agency in London. He is not a trained lawyer, but confidently describes the law as ready for disruption. “Artificial intelligence is a big component of that,” he says. “There is definitely a buzz now in the legal profession.”
As Professor Richard Susskind puts it: “In 10 years’ time if you were to look at the top 20 legal providers by revenue, half will be non-lawyers.”
Another AI application is Linklaters’ Verifi program, which can sift through 14 UK and European regulatory registers to check client names for banks and process thousands of names overnight. A junior lawyer would take an average of 12 minutes to search each customer name.
Meanwhile, Allen & Overy, along with Big Four accountancy firm Deloitte, has created a service to help banks cope with tough post-financial crisis regulations. MarginMatrix codifies the law in various jurisdictions and automates drafting of certain documents. The time to draft a document will fall from three hours by a lawyer to three minutes.
Other firms are using AI for discovery exercises in litigation, which can involve laborious hours of document word searches. US law firm Cooley recently used AI in a litigation dispute in which the technology identified relevant word concepts and clusters of words in 29m documents. This led to lawyers receiving a smaller subset of data where the program “machine-learnt” through predictive coding according to how it was classified. Mark Deem, a partner at Cooley, says the firm is open to using AI partly because of its client base. “Some of our bigger clients are in the tech world and therefore the lawyers are willing to embrace technology, and get it.”
One worry is that the “Big Law” business model, with its billable hours and partnerships, is not suited to incubating tech start-ups where experimentation is vital and potentially expensive.
Tim Pullan, founder of ThoughtRiver, a lawtech start-up, is typical of the new breed of innovator, although he says: “I guess we’re somewhat older than the kids down in Shoreditch.” He was a partner at London law firm Lawrence Graham until 2006 when he decided to work in Asia for Experian, the credit-checking agency. But later he set up ThoughtRiver, based at law firm Taylor Vinters in Cambridge, to address “core productivity issues” at the heart of the law.
“I thought about it for years and homed in on one particular problem we thought we could solve,” he says. That area was legal contracts: some corporate clients might minimise risk by focusing on higher-value contracts and ignoring contracts under a certain value. ThoughtRiver’s software uses AI to scan and interpret information from all written contracts used in commercial risk assessments and presents it in a central online dashboard that enables clients to assess risk more easily.
Another firm, Riverview Law, is in partnership with the computer science department at the University of Liverpool. It has launched Kim, a virtual assistant designed to help legal teams make quicker and better decisions. Karl Chapman, Riverview’s chief executive, says Kim’s features include being able to suggest the best order in which to renegotiate a series of corporate contracts.
Source: Financial Times
The NIA special court will be pronouncing sentences to convicts in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blast on Monday. The court had found all the five members of Indian Mujahideen, including its co-founder Mohammed read more
The special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court at Central prison Cherlapally in Hyderabad is very likely to pronounce quantum of sentence in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blast case on Monday.The court found all the five members of Indian Mujahideen including its co-founder Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa alias Yasin Bhatkal guilty on November 13 and convicted them on December 7.At least 17 people, including a pregnant woman, were killed and 131 injured in the twin blasts in Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagar area on February 21, 2013.
The first bomb went off at Anand Tiffins, located opposite Konark Theatre at around 7.02 pm while the second bomb went off at 7.06 pm between Venkatadri theatre and Dilsukhnagar bus stand.During the investigation, the NIA named six Indian Mujahideen operatives for carrying out the deadly blasts.The alleged key conspirator Riyaz Bhatkal, believed to be operating from Karachi, Pakistan is still at large while the five other accused namely Asadullah Akthar of Uttar Pradesh, Zia-ur-Rahman of Pakistan, Tahseen Akhthar of Bihar, Yasin Bhatkal of Karnataka and Aizaz Shaik of Maharashtra were arrested and lodged in Cherlapally central prison in Hyderabad.
Source: India Today
The Supreme Court on Friday told the Union government to keep in mind its directions setting out the criteria for selecting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director as it was told that the meeting read more
The Supreme Court on Friday told the Union government to keep in mind its directions setting out the criteria for selecting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director as it was told that the meeting of the committee to decide on the appointment will be held towards end-December.
The committee for the appointment of the CBI Director comprises the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of India.
"When you make regular appointment you will keep these directions (issued by the court in an earlier judgment) in view," said the top court bench of Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice RF Nariman reminding Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi that person to be appointed CBI Director should be of integrity and experience and from the batches of four years commencing with 1979.
"You are aware of the direction (by the top court) and the impact of this direction. When you make regular appointment, you will keep this direction in view," Justice Joseph told Mr Rohatgi.
The top court by its earlier judgment had said that "ordinarily" the government would consider the IPS officers of four batches for selecting one of them to be the CBI Director as Justice Nariman asked "what is extraordinary in (interim director Rakesh) Asthana".
As Attorney General sought a date in the third week of January, counsel Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Common Cause, said that it should be early and accused the government of seeking long dates in such cases including in the hearing of Lokpal.
At this, Justice Nariman said: "We will see the progress in the matter" otherwise we will hear and decide the issue.
The court order came as Mr Bhushan described the appointment of Mr Asthana as interim Director as "malafide" as in order to accommodate him, RK Dutta, the agency's seniormost official after retiring chief Anil Sinha, was shifted to the Home Ministry to look after work relating to terrorist activities.
Mr Bhushan told the bench that Mr Dutta had 15 years' experience coupled with three years as the head of the Lokpal police under Justice Santosh Hegde when the latter was Lokayukta of Karnataka. As opposed to this, Mr Asthana is associated with the investigation of anti-corruption cases for three years and was three years junior to Dutta.
Contesting the submission by Mr Bhushan, Mr Rohatgi told the court that it was for the government to decide which officer would serve where and in what capacity. He told the court that Mr Dutta has been sent to Home Ministry as Special Secretary to head a cell that is co-ordinating with different intelligence agencies engaged in anti-terror operation.
Besides giving him important responsibility, AG told the court that Mr Dutta's grievance about anomalies in salary too have been addressed to his satisfaction. He said that Mr Bhushan was using Mr Dutta's transfer as a ground but later was not aggrieved or had moved the court.
Source: NDTV
Jammu and Kashmir has “no vestige” of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and its own, while the citizens of the state are “first and foremost” citizens of India, the Supreme read more
Jammu and Kashmir has “no vestige” of sovereignty outside the Indian Constitution and its own, while the citizens of the state are “first and foremost” citizens of India, the Supreme Court has held.
The apex court observed this while terming as “wholly incorrect” the conclusion arrived at by Jammu and Kashmir high court which had held that the state has “absolute sovereign power” to legislate laws touching the rights of its permanent residents regarding their immovable properties.
“The state of Jammu & Kashmir has no vestige of sovereignty outside the Constitution of India and its own Constitution, which is subordinate to the Constitution of India,” a bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman said.
“It is therefore wholly incorrect to describe it as being sovereign in the sense of its residents constituting a separate and distinct class in themselves. The residents of Jammu & Kashmir, we need to remind the High Court, are first and foremost citizens of India,” it said.
The apex court said this while holding that provisions of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) are within the legislative competence of Parliament and can be enforced in Jammu and Kashmir.
The bench set aside the verdict of Jammu and Kashmir high court that had held that any law made by Parliament, which affects the laws made by state legislature, cannot be extended to Jammu and Kashmir.
“The HC judgment begins from the wrong end and therefore reaches the wrong conclusion. It states that in terms of Section 5 of the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, the state has absolute sovereign power to legislate in respect of laws touching the rights of its permanent residents qua their immovable properties,” the apex court said.
It further said, “We may also add that permanent residents of Jammu & Kashmir are citizens of India, and there is no dual citizenship as is contemplated by some other federal Constitutions in other parts of the world”.
The apex court judgement came on the appeal by State Bank of India (SBI) against the high court verdict which had held that the SARFAESI Act would collide with the Transfer of Property Act of Jammu & Kashmir, 1920.
SARFAESI is an enactment which entitles banks to enforce their security interest outside the court process to take possession of secured assets of the borrower and sell them outside the court process.
Source: HT
2016 law firm salary surveys bonanza: Find out if you're over- or under-paid One thing is for sure: There is no gold standard in law firms when it comes to how much you get paid read more
2016 law firm salary surveys bonanza: Find out if you're over- or under-paid
One thing is for sure: There is no gold standard in law firms when it comes to how much you get paid
Please hover over each line in the chart to see individual figures according to each recruiter (click here to view larger version of chart in new window).
The range of salaries at India's law firms is wider than ever, with even a 10-year PQE (post qualification experience) lawyer on remuneration (including bonuses) potentially ranging all the way from Rs 25 lakh per annum to Rs 200 lakh, according to salary data from four legal recruitment consultants compiled by Legally India.
According to data from recruiters Aquis Search, Legal League Consulting, Michael Page and Vahura, even for entry level lawyers who just graduated from college there is a wide potential range from between Rs 5 lakh per year (Legal League figures) to Rs 18.2 lakh (Aquis figures).
(See previous surveys of starting salaries here).
Each recruiter has reflected ranges of salaries for ranges of several years of seniority, which means that the numbers for each point of seniority are a little fuzzy.
Also, in light of the wide ranges, especially between different recruiters' assessments of the market, no figure in isolation should be taken as gospel.
There is also the fact that recruiters' maximum recorded salaries are likely to be higher than average, because job moves with the largest salary hikes could be down to only a few top performers, who are relative statistical outliers.
However, when combined as in the chart above, this gives an amalgamation of indicative, average ranges.
Our previous in-house salary surveys in 2011, in 2011 and 2012 had revealed a similarly large divergence of figures between firms, often even within the same firms.
(see full tabulation of our 2012 data at the bottom of this article, or click here for the full story and graphic from 2012).
Versus 2012: Top end appears to have sky-rocketed (or is it the recruiter effect?)
We have also compared Legally India's 2012 survey of tier 1 and 2 firms, and the 2016 recruiters' data, which suggests that at the more senior end of the market, remuneration has more than doubled.
However, it is difficult to infer precise pay increases across the board from this, due to the time elapsed, the different methodologies used, and recruiters usually being involved in placing candidates with pay-hikes.
That said, according to the data, it appears that maximum salary ranges have increased in the last four years across the board from between around 20% to 40%, particularly at the more senior levels:
PQE
|
2012 (maximum) |
2016 (approximate maximums) |
0 |
15 |
18.2 |
1 |
16 |
22 |
3 |
18 |
26 |
4 |
20 |
34 |
5 |
23 |
40 |
6 |
38 |
65 |
7 |
55 |
80 |
Mumbai-Delhi divide
Legal League and Michael Page have also broken their figures down by city.
On average, according to Legal League's figures, Mumbai law firms pay around 10% more than firms in Delhi, while according to Michael Page, the difference can be around 20%.
Legal League had also divided its figures between what it calls tier 1 and tier 2 law firms, which suggest that tier 1 firms pay between 30% and 50% more than tier 2 firms.
Full tabulation of all recruiters original figures below, in alphabetical order.
PQE |
Designation |
Law firms Delhi/Mumbai (Rs lakh) |
0 |
Entry Level Associate |
11.2 - 18.2 |
1-2 |
Associate |
14.4 - 22 |
2-3 |
Associate |
17.4 - 26.4 |
3-4 |
Associate |
19.8 - 34 |
4-6 |
Senior Associate |
28.6 - 52 |
6-8 |
PA / MA |
44.2 - 80 |
8-12 |
Salaried/Retained/Associate Partner |
70 - 200 |
PQE |
Designation |
Tier 1 law rms Delhi (Rs lakh) |
Tier 1 Mumbai |
Tier 2 law rms Delhi |
Tier 2 law rms Mumbai |
0-5 |
Associate |
8-24 |
9-25 |
5-15 |
7-16 |
5-8 |
Senior Associate |
18-55 |
22-60 |
14-25 |
16-28 |
8-12 |
PA/Counsel/MA/ Partner |
55-70 |
55-75 |
25-40 |
28-45 |
10+ |
Partner |
65-100+ |
70-120+ |
40-65+ |
45-90+ |
|
Law rm Delhi (Rs lakh) |
Law rm Mumbai (Rs lakh) |
3-5 |
12-20 |
12-25 |
5-10 |
20-60 |
25-75 |
10-15 |
60-100 |
75-120 |
15+ |
100++ |
120++ |
PQE |
Law rms (Rs lakh) |
1-3 |
9.5 - 25.4 |
3-5 |
19.8 - 43 |
5-8 |
35 - 72 |
8-10 |
62 - 110 |
10-15 |
90 - 175 |
15+ |
120 - 250 |
Via survey of 400 lawyers in early 2012.
PQE |
Tier 1 Remuneration (incl bonus, Rs lakh) |
Tier 2 remuneration (incl bonus, Rs lakh) |
0 |
12-15 |
9-11 |
1 |
13-16 |
10-13 |
2 |
15-18 |
11.5-15 |
3 |
17-20 |
13.5-17 |
4 |
18-23 |
15-20 |
5 |
20.5-30 |
17-25 |
6 |
22-38 |
19-30 |
7 |
24-55 |
22-40 |
Source: Legally India
Author : kianganz
Salaries of SC, high court judges may go up frm : Times of India PTI, Dec 15, 2016, 07.18PM IST NEW DELHI: Supreme Court and high court judges may soon get a fatter pay packet as the read more
Salaries of SC, high court judges may go up
frm : Times of India
PTI, Dec 15, 2016, 07.18PM IST
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court and high court judges may soon get a fatter pay packet as the government is likely to bring a bill in this regard in the next session of Parliament.
Chief Justice of India T S Thakur had recently written to the government seeking a hike in salaries of Supreme Court and high court judges.
Sources in the government said the issue is under active consideration and a bill to amend The High Court and the Supreme Court Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Amendment Act may come up in the Budget session of Parliament which may begin in the first week of February next.
While the sources refused to share details of the quantum of hike sought by the CJI, they said to affect the pay hike, the Act has to amended.
As the winter session of Parliament is coming to an end on Friday, they said the bill would now come up in the Budget session.
A Supreme Court judge at present gets Rs 1.5 lakh a month in hand after all deductions from salary and allowances. The CJI gets a higher amount than this, while the judges of the high court get a lesser amount. This amount does not include the rent-free residences provided to the judges while they are in service.
After the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission, the matter was already under the consideration of the government.
Court passes landmark judgement to combat drug abuse among children TNN, Dec 15, 2016, 06.21PM IST CHANDIGARH: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Central government to curb the rising read more
Court passes landmark judgement to combat drug abuse among children
TNN, Dec 15, 2016, 06.21PM IST
CHANDIGARH: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Central government to curb the rising menace of drug, alcohol abuse among children and by formulating a national action plan for combating its harmful impact on children, while hearing a petition by Bachpan Bachao Andolan. The petition stated that due to inaction and non-compliance of the government's action plan for reduction in drug demand and supply, the fundamental rights of children across the county are being violated.
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) is India's pioneering grassroots movement for child rights, founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi in the year 1980.
The bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice DY Chandrachud passed the landmark judgment directing the government to "Formulate a national policy on drug and substance abuse within six months." It also directed the government to set up de-addiction centres in every district and conduct a national survey for preparing database on drug and substance abuse among children in the country.
Senior Advocate HS Phoolka, who appeared in this case on behalf of Bachpan Bachao Andolan said, "the petition was filed to ensure that the government of India takes proactive steps to curb the menace of drug abuse and to extend protection to children who are vulnerable. This crucial judgment will ensure that children are provided with a better, more healthy childhood."
Kailash Satyarthi, Founder BBA, responded to this judgment saying that, "Trafficking and drug abuse, inherently linked to each other, are the most prevalent forms of organised crime in the world that violate the fundamental rights of our children. I welcome this landmark judgment by the Hon'ble Court, and believe that it will go a long way in building a safer environment for our children."
Society, school and parents must come together to tackle violation of child rights especially child sexual abuse in areas of community within their reach. It is a collective responsibility and action must be taken against drug mafia and for their rehabilitation."
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Kolkata, India
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Prohibited REGISTERED USER Activities and Actions
SoOLEGAL.com REGISTERED USER Rules are established to maintain a transacting platform that is safe for buyers and fair for REGISTERED USERS. Failure to comply with the terms of the REGISTERED USER Rules can result in cancellation of listings, suspension from use of SoOLEGAL.in tools and reports, or the removal of transacting privileges.
Attempts to divert transactions or buyers: Any attempt to circumvent the established SoOLEGAL Transactions process or to divert SoOLEGAL users to another website or Transactions process is prohibited. Specifically, any advertisements, marketing messages (special offers) or "calls to action" that lead, prompt, or encourage SoOLEGALusers to leave the SoOLEGAL website are prohibited. Prohibited activities include the following:
The use of e-mail intended to divert customers away from the SoOLEGAL.com Transactions process.
Unauthorised & improper "Names": A REGISTERED USER's Name (identifying the REGISTERED USER's entity on SoOLEGAL.com) must be a name that: accurately identifies the REGISTERED USER; is not misleading: and the REGISTERED USER has the right to use (that is, the name cannot include the trademark of, or otherwise infringe on, any trademark or other intellectual property right of any person). Furthermore, a REGISTERED USER cannot use a name that contains an e-mail suffix such as .com, .net, .biz, and so on.
Unauthorised & improper invoicing: REGISTERED USERS must ensure that the tax invoice is raised in the name of the end customer who has placed an order with them through SoOLEGAL Payment Systems platform . The tax invoice should not mention SoOLEGAL as either a REGISTERED USER or a customer/buyer. Please note that all Documents/ Advices listed on SoOLEGAL.com are sold by the respective REGISTERED USERS to the end customers and SoOLEGAL is neither a buyer nor a REGISTERED USER in the transaction. REGISTERED USERS need to include the PAN/ Service Tax registration number in the invoice.
Inappropriate e-mail communications: All REGISTERED USER e-mail communications with buyers must be courteous, relevant and appropriate. Unsolicited e-mail communications with SoOLEGAL , e-mail communications other than as necessary and related customer service, and e-mails containing marketing communications of any kind (including within otherwise permitted communications) are prohibited.
Operating multiple REGISTERED USER accounts: Operating and maintaining multiple REGISTERED USER accounts is prohibited.
In your request, please provide an explanation of the legitimate business need for a second account.
Misuse of Search and Browse: When customers use SoOLEGAL's search engine and browse structure, they expect to find relevant and accurate results. To protect the customer experience, all Documents/ Advice-related information, including keywords and search terms, must comply with the guidelines provided under . Any attempt to manipulate the search and browse experience is prohibited.
Misuse
of the ratings, feedback or Documents/ Advice reviews: REGISTERED
USERS cannot submit abusive or inappropriate feedback entries,
coerce or threaten buyers into submitting feedback, submit
transaction feedback regarding them, or include personal information
about a transaction partner within a feedback entry. Furthermore,
any attempt to manipulate ratings of any REGISTERED USER is
prohibited. Any attempt to manipulate ratings, feedback, or
Documents/ Advice reviews is prohibited.
Reviews: Reviews
are important to the SoOLEGAL Platform, providing a forum for
feedback about Documents/ Advice and service details and reviewers'
experiences with Documents/ Advices and services –
positive
or negative. You may not write reviews for Documents/ Advices or
services that you have a financial interest in, including reviews
for Documents/ Advices or services that you or your competitors deal
with. Additionally, you may not provide compensation for a review
(including free or discounted Documents/ Advices). Review
solicitations that ask for only positive reviews or that offer
compensation are prohibited. You may not ask buyers to modify or
remove reviews.
Prohibited Content
REGISTERED USERS are expected to conduct proper research to ensure that the items posted to our website are in compliance with all applicable laws. If we determine that the content of a Documents/ Advice detail page or listing is prohibited, potentially illegal, or inappropriate, we may remove or alter it without prior notice. SoOLEGAL reserves the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate.
The
following list of prohibited Documents/ Advices comprises two
sections: Prohibited Content and Intellectual Property
Violations.
Listing
prohibited content may result in the cancellation of your listings,
or the suspension or removal of your transacting privileges.
REGISTERED USERS are responsible for ensuring that the Documents/
Advices they offer are legal and authorised for Transaction or
re-Transaction.
If
we determine that the content of a Documents/ Advice detail page or
listing is prohibited, potentially illegal, or inappropriate, we may
remove or alter it without prior notice. SoOLEGAL reserves the right
to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate.
Illegal and potentially illegal Documents/ Advices: Documents/ Advices sold on SoOLEGAL.in must adhere to all applicable laws. As REGISTERED USERS are legally liable for their actions and transactions, they must know the legal parameters surrounding any Documents/ Advice they display on our website.
Offensive material: SoOLEGAL reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of listings posted to our website.
Nudity: In general, images that portray nudity in a gratuitous or graphic manner are prohibited.
Items that infringe upon an individual's privacy. SoOLEGAL holds personal privacy in the highest regard. Therefore, items that infringe upon, or have potential to infringe upon, an individual's privacy are prohibited.
Intellectual Property Violations
Counterfeit merchandise: Documents/ Advices displayed on our website must be authentic. Any Documents/ Advice that has been illegally replicated, reproduced or manufactured is prohibited.
Books - Unauthorised copies of books are prohibited.
Movies - Unauthorised copies of movies in any format are prohibited. Unreleased/prereleased movies, screeners, trailers, unpublished and unauthorized film scripts (no ISBN number), electronic press kits, and unauthorised props are also prohibited.
Photos - Unauthorised copies of photos are prohibited.
Television Programs - Unauthorised copies of television Programs (including pay-per-view events), Programs never broadcast, unauthorised scripts, unauthorised props, and screeners are prohibited.
Transferred media. Media transferred from one format to another is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to: films converted from NTSC to Pal and Pal to NTSC, laserdisc to video, television to video, CD-ROM to cassette tape, from the Internet to any digital format, etc.
Promotional media: Promotional versions of media Documents/ Advices, including books (advance reading copies and uncorrected proofs), music, and videos (screeners) are prohibited. These Documents/ Advices are distributed for promotional consideration and generally are not authorized for Transaction.
Rights of Publicity: Celebrity images and/or the use of celebrity names cannot be used for commercial purposes without permission of a celebrity or their management. This includes Documents/ Advice endorsements and use of a celebrity's likeness on merchandise such as posters, mouse pads, clocks, image collections in digital format, and so on.
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