VIRTUAL INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE AT SVS ATTORNEYS, JABALPUR- MR. SIDDHARTH R. GUPTA

STUDENT’S NAME, COLLEGE & YEAR OF STUDY

Arihant Samdaria, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow, 3rd Year

ABOUT THE FIRM & ITS PARTNERS

The details about the internship; it’s mode and manner of application can be obtained via the official website of the Firm at www.svsattorneys.com.

MODE OF INTERNSHIP

Online

DURATION

16th January 2021 to 10th March 2021. (45 +7 days)

The Internship is for a minimum period of 45 days preceded by the Mentorship Period of around 6-7 days. If in this Mentorship & Training Period, you are unable to meet up the expectations of the Chambers, then you would be informed to apply at a later stage when you have acquired the requisite skills. It happened with a couple of applicants, when I was around, interning at the office. Beware, if you apply then from day one you have to perform to the expectations and 7 days period is just a test period.

HOW DID I APPLY

I applied for the internship by sending my CV along with the Cover Letter at office@svsattorneys.com, srg@svsattorneys.com. After I applied, I was communicated ‘Riders & Disclaimers’ through which I was asked to first confirm whether the riders and disclaimers were agreeable to me or not. In a way, thus the firm was very fair to me regarding what I should expect from the internship & vice versa. Like putting the whole rules of game for consensus before hand for the stakeholders, something not seen anywhere before. R & D’s are definitely frightening, but having known the challenges coming my way in internship, I was much better placed to take a call whether I must actually intern or not.

FIRST DAY FORMALITIES AND INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

I interacted for the first time with Siddharth Sir on a zoom meeting early morning on my first day of Internship along with the peer interns, where I was allotted my first research work regarding an important matter being heard before the Supreme Court. My first week of the Internship was primarily devoted to this SLP on behalf of the private medical colleges of the State, wherein I was extensively exposed to drafting Written Submissions, Rejoinder and observing Supreme Court proceedings one on one.

As the days progressed, I was allotted various tasks like Researching on Case laws, Drafting Writ Petitions, Reply, Office correspondence with Clients and all other work which is associated with a Litigation Chamber. The internship had became a part and parcel of my daily life, and my 50 days of association with the office passed in a jiffy.

The office is very supportive & always ready to provide any assistance required for tasks provided. The best part about the internship is that the instructions from Sir will follow through audio clips and he will personally monitor the work assigned by him. Sir has a hair-splitting personality and believes in precision and perfection. He will find out even the smallest of your mistakes and will guide you on how to correct those. But if you repeat mistakes after being told politely about your mistakes, then you are shown the door at the end of the initial 7 days trial period itself, and won't be confirmed for internship at all.

Perfection, precision, sincerity to one’s task & cent percent dedication to one’s ‘Karma’ are the few virtues which I must mention that I picked up whilst interning & these shall always retain in my fond memories.

MAIN TASKS

• Drafting of various Applications, Writ Petitions, Written Submissions, Rejoinders, legal pleadings, Affidavits etc.

• Preparing List of Dates; Synopsis, Case Briefs of cases listed in coming days.

• Extensive Research Work & Article writing work. If Sir is impressed with your research you are also offered to be Co- Author with him for the article.

• Legal translations & proofreading of Edited Documents. This is one thing that I need to especially mention about. Prior to this Internship, my Hindi was pretty weak, but during the course of Internship I realised the importance of Hindi Language in Litigation (especially in Northern India) and working with SVS Attorneys and doing translations of Hindi Orders/Rules improved my ability to comprehend my mother tongue, something which is most ignored.

• Typing of emails; correspondences to clients, Law Firms, other personalities in the legal field.

• Observing Court Proceedings that are happening through virtual mode and keep a track.

• Office works in an extremely streamlined manner. You keep getting audio clips throughout the day about the work you are supposed to be doing. Then you have to complete the assigned work in the deadline mentioned in the audio clip as per oral instructions contained therein.

GOOD THINGS

• Drafting work would be assigned to interns and also, Siddharth Sir will personally interact and guide their interns on the assigned tasks, which is not usually done in other internships.

• Responsibility is given to the Interns regarding important matters. This helps in building one’s confidence and bolsters motivation to do a particular task as an Intern knows that his efforts would be given due attention to and will be appreciated if the work is satisfactory..

• Mandatory stipend is provided to the interns in lieu of the help & services provided by them. This is however subject to one’s performance clearly.

• Learning and working with Co-interns is another thing that I had cherished in this internship, although virtually. Whenever there was immense pressure of work, co-interns are the people you look forward to. Daily calls, Late night meetings have made my connection with the co-interns permanent. I was fortunate enough to work with some great students like Ritika Rajawat from MNLU Nagpur, Barbee Bhattacharya from HNLU, Rashi Mishra from SLS Pune, and also with some others who could not complete their internship due to personal reasons.

• This was my 4th Internship and as a student who wants to pursue his career in litigation after college, I believed that this was a perfect place which provided me with the right kind of exposure to the nitty -gritties of litigation practise which would definitely help me in the years to come.

BAD THINGS -

• There are no leaves & no holidays unlike all firms of the country that offer their interns. You have to work continuously from Monday to Monday (Sunday is missing) for even 10 hours a day if it's one of those demanding days. So, there is no concept of a weekend or a weekday off in this internship, which sometimes becomes very stressful as everyone needs a Sunday in their life after continuously working for a week. However, if you have any urgency or prior commitments, then you will be allowed to have leave as an exceptional case, subject to prior intimation to be compensated later.

• The workload entrusted to you as an intern will be too much, at times it would be challenging and thought may arise in your mind that I will not be able to continue with the internship, but believe me at the end of your internship you will realize the benefits of completing the internship.

• Expectations from you in the internship are to possess the level of understanding as a professional does, which gets difficult at times for any UG intern to develop.

• There's no mercy or accommodation when urgent assignments are handed over to you. If there's urgent work handed over to you, it has to be completed by late midnight at the cost of your sleep which becomes quite unbearable at times, especially with your online classes and college commitments.

• People who are touchy, impulsive and sensitive must not apply at all as the office is not conducive for their temperament. You will be hauled up for not performing well, which may make you feel affronted if you are a pampered kid of your family. So don't apply for a bad experience. If you fail to perform, then you perish that too with reprimands from the senior ups.

STIPEND

I was awarded a stipend of 10, 000 INR at the end of my internship.

OTHER INFORMATION

• Let me clear one thing, this internship is not for those who join the internship just for the sake of adding a Certificate to their CV; this is only for those who really wish to learn about the field of litigation. I must say that these 45 days are really challenging for every intern who joins and works with Siddharth Sir, a thorough & committed professional at heart. Further, this is my 4th internship, and what I have learnt here I haven’t learnt it in any of my previous internships. You can't expect the type of work which will be assigned to you in this internship in any of the virtual internships. If you are keen to learn the skills of Litigation and ready to work hard, then you won’t get an opportunity better than this.

• Also don't apply to this office if you don't have good grades (75-80% minimum or equivalent) as the CGPA. You must have good publications, articles to your credit, if you intend joining here. Students from NLU’s are definitely given preference above others subject to their academics and publications.

• Applications below 3rd year are not even seen; so don't waste your energy applying here as your emails will be outrightly deleted without any response. You would get a reply to your email application only if it's worth being considered by the firm on above parameters, else the office doesn't even respond to the flush of internship applications flowing daily in its inbox. But the selection criteria is very objective & you are automatically picked up if you have built a good and exceptional CV for yourself. Siddharth Sir himself scrutinizes each & every CV & takes feedbacks from his channels & former interns present in all the NLU’s. If you are picked up, then be ready for a lifetime opportunity to work, else keep trying till you get through.

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