Arbitration
Section 11 applications, institutional rules, and tribunal hearings that feel like court without the robes.
A day, honestly described.
A Section 11 application before the Supreme Court is listed for hearing on Wednesday. Your client is a project-construction company seeking appointment of an arbitrator under a contract that the respondent claims is rescinded. You read the contract, the demand notices, the rescission letter, and the case law on whether the dispute survives rescission. You draft a synopsis. The senior reviews it Monday morning.
Arbitration practice in India is closer to court work than its global counterpart suggests — the procedural battles around Section 11 (appointment), Section 17 (interim relief), Section 34 (setting-aside), and Section 36 (enforcement) live in the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The substantive arbitration — examination of witnesses, written submissions, the award — happens before tribunals, but a meaningful share of an arbitration lawyer's docket is High Court work.
You will draft statements of claim, statements of defence, expert evidence affidavits, written closing submissions. You will attend institutional arbitrations under MCIA, ICA, ICC, SIAC. You will read large volumes of contracts and contemporaneous documents because arbitration is overwhelmingly document-driven. Cross-examination matters less here than in trial litigation; the contemporaneous record matters more.
Where the work happens. Who hires. What you'll be paid.
Where the work happens
Recruitment pathway
Arbitration practice has hybrid hiring: firms recruit through standard PPO funnels for their disputes / arbitration teams; chambers recruit through writing samples and direct application. International arbitration moots (Vis, Vis East, FDI Moot) carry meaningful weight at firms, more than at chambers.
For the international-arbitration track, a year at a foreign LL.M. (Cambridge, NUS, Sciences Po, Geneva) is increasingly the norm by the senior-associate stage. Not required at entry, but the partners on this track often have the credential, and counsel-track candidates eventually go to one. Domestic arbitration practice is open to NLU and non-NLU candidates with strong moot histories.
First-year vs senior associate
Drafting under partner review: statements of claim, defence, applications under Section 11, 17, 34. You will read large volumes of contemporaneous documents. You will not lead. The skill being built is contract-reading and document-analysis discipline.
You draft statements of claim and defence end-to-end. You appear before the High Court on procedural matters in Section 11/17/34 applications. You handle witness examination on second-tier witnesses with the senior present. You begin to second-chair institutional arbitrations.
Compensation bands (approximate)
What law students consistently lack — and how to fix it.
Each gap below is something we have heard from Arbitration hiring partners. The simulation column is what closes it before your first internship.
Drafting a Section 11 application that survives the Supreme Court's narrowed jurisdiction post-Vidya Drolia — students do not know what survives and what does not.
The Iura arbitration simulation walks you through a Section 11 fact pattern with the post-Vidya Drolia judicial standards as the model answer.
Inability to read a contract for the contemporaneous record — students treat contracts as static text rather than as the start of a documentary trail.
A document-analysis task with a contract, a series of emails, and a request to identify the key contemporaneous facts.
No exposure to drafting a Statement of Claim or Statement of Defence under institutional arbitration rules — the format and pleading discipline is unfamiliar.
A SoC drafting task following MCIA / SIAC rules with a partner-redlined model answer.
Work your first arbitration brief — free, in your browser, in 45 minutes.
We're shipping Arbitration simulations soon. In the meantime, try one of our published simulations to see the format.
Browse simulations →Get the full Arbitration career guide.
Six pages: firm rankings, internship timeline, the skills checklist, salary bands. Sent as a PDF.
One email today, then four more over two weeks. Unsubscribe in one click.
Arbitration practice rewards document-discipline and contract-reading patience. Pay is closer to firm-track corporate practice than to general litigation. If this is your area, do an arbitration simulation and apply to a Trilegal/JSA disputes team in 3rd-year summer.