Norton Rose hunts for Indian trainees
Norton Rose hunts for Indian trainees" />Norton Rose has opened its trainee programme to newly qualified Indian lawyers and is recruiting directly from India.
The firm’s graduate recruitment partner Sam Eastwood (pictured) said Norton Rose had gone directly to several Indian colleges to recruit between three and five trainees for the 2010 intake.
“Foreign lawyers can be very dynamic when put against UK students only studying law because their fathers told them to, and they also know the meaning of hard work,” said Eastwood. “So we’re trying to be more proactive by engaging with colleges and opening up trainee recruitment to Indian-qualified lawyers.”
Eastwood added that, while it was not necessary to put Indian lawyers through a trainee scheme, as they can sit the qualification transfer exam, the firm wanted to provide them with the same opportunities as English-qualified lawyers.
The move follows that of global law firms into the Indian recruitment market.
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Readers' comments (26)
Anonymous | 23-Oct-2008 4:45 pm
nature v nurture?
It does appear that Mr Eastwood's comments leave a lot out for speculation. It is perfectly viable for a firm to want to recruit people that best fit its needs in terms of education, skills, diversity etc. However, it is incorrect to state that one nation works better (ie. is more hand-working or has a better ethic) than another and to stage a recruitment policy on those grounds. If Mr Eastwood has resolved the 'nature v nurture' debate then maybe he should be interviewed by a scientific journal and not The Lawyer.
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Anonymous | 23-Oct-2008 5:37 pm
Indian lawyers
First of all, anyone who says the LPC is easy can't have done it in the best places. The reason people do well is they're committed to a career in law or they've secured a training contract which they would forfeit should they not pass on first attempt. In my school, there was still a 16% failure rate, way higher than at most top UK universities.
Secondly, I've had some exposure to Indian lawyers from a UK top 20 firm. Can't say I've been all that impressed. Supposedly final version contracts repeatedly came back with typos. Unacceptable when you pay £400/hour.
I suspect the real reason they're coming over to the UK is because (1) the pay is way better than back home and (2) it's where the cutting-edge work is, and the legal system actually works, and with very low levels of corruption. It's no different than any other economic migrancy. As someone else put it, if Indian lawyers were so much better trained, why is it that, with its comparatively small demographics, UK firms dominate the global legal scene?
Lastly, I would say to anyone working at NR - get out while you can. When a partner begins to utter such stupidities without being censured by the rest of the partnership, there's something very wrong going on in that firm...
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Anonymous | 23-Oct-2008 6:44 pm
reasons
I would accept the below cited reasons for migration of indian lawyers to UK firms except for one - better pay. Top Indian firms may pay less if you compare that to what UK firms pay. but purchasing power parity really sways it in favor of indian firms. so clearly money is not the consideration here, its work.
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Older than the average trainee | 28-Oct-2008 3:13 pm
NR
“Foreign lawyers can be very dynamic when put against UK students only studying law because their fathers told them to...“
“...and they also know the meaning of hard work...”
As a mature student who gave up a lot of time, money and life to pursue a career in law only to be discriminated against once here, I find both of those statements deeply insulting but not surprising.
If that's the attitude of recruiters at NR to *all* UK recruits (who are clearly all only here because dear daddy told them so), then it's no wonder they're looking abroad. And quite frankly after that, NR and their Indian recruits are welcome to each other.
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Anonymous | 30-Oct-2008 5:24 am
Get a life!
The reality of the situation is that India is a growing economy with a lot to offer in terms of the quality of law graduates. So, its an economy and system that's flawed - but show me one system and economy that isn't.
So to all Indian law graduates, I say upwards and onwards! To all non-Indian law graduates and lawyers, I say, life is tough and so is competition. If you don't like the rules or lack of them, suck it up or get out of the game.
To Simon Eastwood and his ilk, I say, think before you speak and maybe even practice a bit, before making sweeping statements that embarass your organisation and irritate your colleagues and peers!
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anonymous | 16-Dec-2008 3:39 pm
world class
I think it is high time law firms in the UK and the US realised that Indian qualified lawyers are truly world class and can compete with the best legal brains in the world.
An average Indian qualified lawyer undergoes exactly the same amount of pre qualification training periods as their counterparts in the UK or the US. At the end of the day, the legal profession is very individualistic, apart from studying law seriously, it really depends on how interested an individual himself is in working on international transactions and how well he develops his personality to gain international recognition.
Norton Rose, way to go. They will probably be able to have a foot hold in South Asia much earlier than their contemporary law firms who are still very archaic in their recruitment policies.
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