Litigation
Drafting plaints, arguing interim applications, and learning that procedure is the law.
A day, honestly described.
You have a notice of motion at 11 AM at the Bombay High Court for an interim injunction. The plaint was filed yesterday under Order 39 Rule 1 CPC — the matter is a commercial-suit-style trade-secret dispute. You read the plaint, the affidavit, the documents annexed; you have not yet drafted the synopsis because the senior wanted to read the plaint first. At 9:30 AM the senior gives you eight changes, none of them small. You re-draft, you re-print, you take the bound brief to court at 10:45.
Most days are a mix of drafting (plaints, written statements, applications, affidavits, rejoinders), court appearances on procedural matters, client conferences, and reading. You will spend more time reading than students believe. A typical commercial suit generates a 400-page paperbook within two years; you will read it. The work rewards patience.
Trial work — examination-in-chief, cross-examination, evidence — happens 3–7 years into a suit, after the procedural battles are over. You will draft questions for cross before you ever stand and ask them. The first five years of litigation practice are procedure; the substantive work begins around year five and continues for the rest of your career.
Where the work happens. Who hires. What you'll be paid.
Where the work happens
Recruitment pathway
The litigation track has two recruitment shapes: chambers (apprenticeship to a senior counsel) and firm disputes (PPO from a Tier-1 firm). The chambers route is dominant — most general civil litigators in India come up through a senior counsel's chambers. Firm disputes is closer to a corporate-firm hiring shape: 3rd-year and 4th-year internships, PPO.
For chambers: a writing sample, a moot history (Frankfurt, Henry Dunant, Vis), and a one-page letter to the senior. For firm disputes: standard NLU/non-NLU PPO funnel. A reported judgment with your name as junior counsel typically arrives in years 4–7.
First-year vs senior associate
Drafting under supervision: plaints, applications, affidavits. Procedural appearances. Reading. You will rarely draft your own plaint and you will not cross-examine. The skill being built is procedural fluency under the CPC and Evidence Act, and the discipline of legible drafting under time pressure.
You draft plaints end-to-end. You appear on interim applications, contempt matters, revision petitions in your own name. Cross-examination on second-tier witnesses with the senior present. You begin to take briefs in your own name. The senior's name is on the cause title; the work is yours.
Compensation bands (approximate)
What law students consistently lack — and how to fix it.
Each gap below is something we have heard from Litigation hiring partners. The simulation column is what closes it before your first internship.
Drafting a plaint that complies with Order 7 CPC, has a clean cause of action paragraph, and survives a Order 7 Rule 11 challenge — students cannot do this without supervision.
The Iura litigation simulation walks you through a fact pattern and asks you to draft the plaint; the model answer is annotated for procedural compliance.
Inability to identify the precise legal injury in a commercial dispute — students argue facts when they should be arguing causes of action.
A cause-of-action mapping task with a senior's annotated answer.
No exposure to drafting a written statement under Order 8 — students have read about specific denials but cannot draft them.
A written-statement task following from the same fact pattern as the plaint exercise.
Work your first litigation brief — free, in your browser, in 45 minutes.
A real-shape brief, scored against a model answer. The fastest way to find out whether Litigation feels like work you want to do for the next decade.
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Litigation rewards patience above any other quality. The first five years are procedural drudgery that some find generative and others find numbing. Do a litigation simulation and notice which side of that line you fall on. If procedure energises you, write to a senior. If it depresses you, your secondary match is probably the right path.