For the past couple of months, there is a huge debate going on openly amongst the freshers / young lawyers with respect to the payment of decent wages to young lawyers, who are pursuing litigation under some senior (whether designated or otherwise) or are working under the umbrella of some bigger chamber.
Various Supreme Court judges like the present Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud has time and again observed that the Seniors in the profession must pay a decent amount to the young junior lawyers. Justice Nazeer in his farewell speech had also said similarly that the seniors must pay the junior lawyers decently. Hence, such statements coming right from the top of the judicial system in India, regarding the oppressive payment structure and also regarding meagre or no amounts being paid to the young lawyers, a lot of traction has been taken up on the social media and corridors of the Court. Such statements by Hon’ble Judges have (metaphorically) just poured fuel over the fire in the hearts of the young lawyers, who are usually not paid well and are always trying hard to make their ends meet, if at all they choose litigation, as a career path after passing out from Law School. It was not that these young lawyers were not at all agitated by the low payments / ‘exploitation’ (if I can take the liberty to term it as an exploitation) of juniors, but now, it seems that a lot of movement has gained strength over the social media, with many individuals being publicly vocal about their financial problems and miseries of being a junior in a litigation chamber / office. Netizens (as also young lawyers), who are usually critical of whatever happens in the country, have given a warm welcome to the speeches / statements by Hon’ble Judges regarding the decent pay / wages to lawyers.
The author is also in complete agreement to the said speeches / observations by the Hon’ble Judges, and by way of the instant piece, just wishes to dissect the entire problem that the junior lawyers aspiring to make a career in litigation face. Since the author is a practicing ‘litigation’ lawyer in Delhi and is also considerably junior and ‘young’, most of the analysis of a juniors’ struggle in litigation would be limited to the litigation practice in Delhi to a great extent.
Largely, most of the law school students do not wish to join litigation, because of various reasons, amongst which many of them have a problem with respect to the money that they will earn in the initial 5-6 years of their practice. After a fresher / graduate from law school passes out and aspires to join some advocate’s chamber, as per the author’s limited experience, estimation and after having discussed with hundreds of young lawyers, the following is the average remuneration that a fresher would earn if he / she joins a chamber of an advocate having majority of his / her practice in the following courts:
| Court | Average remuneration |
| Delhi District Courts | Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 |
| Delhi High Court | Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 20,000 |
| Supreme Court of India | Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 25,000 |
While the remuneration would obviously vary from chamber to chamber and advocate to advocate, however, this is fairly an average, which any fresher would earn in the abovementioned courts.
The below discussions regarding the expenses and incomes are being made keeping in mind that a young lawyer commutes by public transport (which is the cheapest mode of transport in Delhi and not by any other mode of transport, which may be costlier). Hence, the author wishes to take the most conservative and reasonable guesses while discussing the expenses. Obviously, if a liberal view to the expenses is taken, the consequences of the entire calculations and estimations may be much more disastrous.
Young lawyers in Delhi District Courts:
The majority population of freshers / young lawyers, start working in the District Courts in Delhi. Although the remuneration / payments to freshers in the District Courts is the lowest, it is paradoxical that the expenses incurred by the freshers is the maximum, when they are working in District Courts. The simple reason to this is because there are majorly 7 District Court complexes in Delhi, which are miles apart. The shortest distance between two district court complexes is 2.5km (Patiala House to the newly built Rouse Avenue), the maximum distance would be around 32 kms (Rohini to Saket or Rohini to Karkardooma or Dwarka to Karkardooma). Obviously, lawyers who are practicing primarily in the District Courts, are not able to cover all the district courts because of the time taken to commute from one court to another, but still work in atleast 3-4 major district court complexes (which are somewhat centrally located and are also in close proximity to the High Court) such as Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Saket, Rouse Avenue etc. The average distance between these court complexes is still around 12-13 kms. Even otherwise, as the proverb goes – “Beggars are not choosers” the Advocates try taking the maximum number of matters that may be possible, at times which may be at far off places.
Hence, when a fresher works with an Advocate practicing primarily in the District Courts, he / she usually runs and shuffles between atleast 2 district courts on any given day. Although there are cheaper modes of public transport such as metro, destination buses by Bar Association to ferry lawyers from one court to another, these are sometimes more time consuming and availing them at times would mean missing your matter, which would eventually lead to facing the senior’s admonishment for missing a matter (which is justified to a certain extent). Hence, for the sake of calculation, if we are also calculating the most reasonable and basic expenditure of travelling between one district court to another, a fresher would still end up spending a minimum amount of Rs. 100 per day only to shuttle from one court to another. This would itself amount to an amount of Rs. 2,500 per month (considering that the Court is working for almost 25 days in a month). Apart from this, a lawyer is also supposed to go to the office of the senior (which may be separate from the Court chamber). While there is metro connectivity to most of the district courts, metro connectivity to the office of a senior is not certain, and other modes of public transport may have to be availed by an advocate. This itself can be another huge expenditure altogether. Further, there are further expenses which are incurred by any advocate to commute from home to Court / office and vice versa. All in all, a young lawyer, spends an amount equivalent to 35-40% of his / her monthly remuneration, in commuting from home to courts to different court to office and back home.
Needless to mention herein that a lawyer has on any given day, atleast 1.5x to 2x working hours as compared to any other professional / corporate employee. The reason for such late working is that till 3-4 PM, a lawyer is in Court, thereafter, once Court gets over, the real struggle and work starts at office including, but not limited to drafting, briefing, client conferences, billing, other misc. work, etc. So, basically, for any average young lawyer working in a court, while he works for more than 12 hours on any given day, runs around the city and different court rooms in public transport, he / she is not able to save even the basic amount which is required to make his / her ends meet. For a young advocate who does not belong to Delhi, he / she has to certainly take a PG / house on rent, the minimum of which in a city like Delhi is in the approximately Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 12,000/-. Therefore, it is not at all possible for any young lawyer to start his / her career in litigation without the family’s financial support. Obviously, for a person who comes from not a very financially strong background, things get much more difficult, as every child in such a situation would want to support their family financially. Hence, irrespective of the talent of a young lawyer, many of them do not wish to join litigation as they cannot practically survive here. Even for a young lawyer, who would be coming from a middle class / upper middle class or effluent background, once the payment is not commensurate to the efforts put, that usually completely demotivates that young lawyer to work harder.
Specifically, in a sector like litigation, which is a completely unorganized sector, getting to work in a chamber or under some advocate, is completely based on contacts and connects (connections are also required to know about vacancies in a chamber, since they are not widely publicized as it’s an unorganized space), lesser payments and pay disparities makes the things tougher for a young lawyer. In fact, at times, owing to the nature of the profession which requires urgent acts on the part of an Advocate, the young advocate would be required to take print outs, photocopies, pay court fee, etc., which may not always be recoverable from the senior (since it may be a meagre amount and / or some of the seniors do not reimburse for each and every expenditure), it becomes very tough.
Further, what becomes much more depressing, and demotivating is that a law graduate, who would have studied law, would have cleared the examinations, got enrollment done and cleared the AIBE, is getting paid lesser than what a court clerk gets paid. I have seen instances wherein a fresher law graduate is paid Rs. 12,000/- whereas a fresher law clerk is paid Rs. 15,000/-. In one of my friend’s case, she is getting Rs. 12,000/- whereas the liftman in which her office is situated is getting a salary of Rs. 20,000/-. Obviously, by way of making these comparisons, it is not the author’s intention to disregard or look down upon the other professions and persons, however, once a law graduate studies for 5 years (or 3 years after graduation), spends a considerable amount in the education process, etc. expects to get remunerated at a respectable amount, which is commensurate to the qualifications that he / she holds.
It may not be surprising to note that in Delhi, the basic minimum wage for an unskilled labour is Rs. 16,792/-. Here, well educated, well ‘skilled’, and intelligent law graduates are paid as low as Rs. 5,000/- to Rs. 7,000/-. On the top of it, some of them are not even paid and are simply told : “What we are teaching you cannot be valued in terms of money and will help you earn your entire life”.
Young lawyers in Delhi High Court and Supreme Court:
While the young lawyers are at an average paid much higher than what they are paid in the Delhi District Courts, the miseries for them are also not less. At the end of the day, even they are not able to make their ends meet. They also have to go through the same set of expenses (although a little toned down on the travelling expenses, since they are usually restricted to the High Court / Supreme Court, if their senior doesn’t take cases in other courts) and have the similar problems. Even for them, a salary of an amount of Rs. 20,000 would in no manner help them survive the cost of basic living in a city like Delhi, which involves a whole lot of expenses. Yet again, the young lawyers who come from not so financially strong backgrounds, may have to forgo their passion to pursue litigation because of this very reason and have to settle for jobs in Corporate sector / law firms and / or as judiciary aspirants or in teaching, in case they are post graduates. Although, in terms of percentage, these lawyers would be paid atleast 25% – 50% more than what a lawyer in the District Court would make, despite that, such a person cannot even make his / her ends meet. In such cases of low payments by their seniors, the young lawyers, at times, irrespective of whether they belong to Delhi or not, are often advised by their family and friends to take up their family business / some other job, which would atleast be able maintain themselves. Hence, because of this very reason, a lot of my friends, who were in fact very brilliant and intelligent lawyers, have somewhat left litigation (even though most of them were effluent) and have taken some or the other role in their family business / enterprise. This has therefore led to a huge drain in the talent, from which the society at large, could have very well benefitted from. Not only would have such lawyers helped the needy to get justice, but also 2-3 decades down the line, would they have been elevated as High Court and Supreme Court judges.
What is more shocking / depressing is that despite having paid such low sums of money to a lawyer, which is practically lesser than even the unskilled labour minimum wages, these lawyers, are not allowed by their seniors to even take up their own independent cases and pursue their own independent practice to sustain themselves. This not only stalls them from earning more money to survive themselves, but also kills the opportunity for the lawyers to go independent.
Further, even the increments, that the lawyers would get over their initial retainer is equally meagre. In case a young lawyer is being paid Rs. 20,000/- per month, a year after having rendered his services, he would still be getting the same 5-15% increment in his retainer which would ultimately be in the range of Rs. 21,000/- to Rs. 23,000/-. It is because of such low-level increments, the lawyers are further more depressed and find it very hard to struggle to pursue their dream of litigation.
Recently, the entire world has gone through the COVID Pandemic, because of which many people have been affected, families uprooted, many deaths, huge expenses incurred on medical treatments, etc. The author himself along with his family has been a victim of the COVID pandemic, having himself been in the ICU / Hospital for almost 2 months, his mother being in the ICU / Hospital for 1.5 months and having lost his father (Dr. Ashok Dhamija, the founder of this website – Tilakmarg.com) due to the COVID pandemic. Likewise, everyone irrespective of class, status, religion, country has been affected by the COVID Pandemic and has had to make emergency payments to the hospitals. In such a scenario, where the young lawyers, who wish to pursue litigation, have practically not earned a single penny and have in fact drained their savings. family savings, it is practically impossible for any such person to even imagine to bear any such medical expenditure / look after any such family emergency. If a law graduate, would have in fact joined the corporate sector, at least he would be getting a minimum amount of 1.5x to 2x what a litigation lawyer would have earned.
However, it is very unfortunate that young advocates are not being paid well, remunerated enough and expected to work for more than 12 hours a day. Once a ‘young lawyer’ wishes to go independent and start his / her own office / chamber / practice, it gets more difficult for such a person, since he / she practically may not have any savings left in his account. Therefore, there is no question of any capacity to look after the rent / day to day expenses, leave alone the dream to buy an office in the initial days.
It is not that these seniors (whether designated or otherwise) are not earning well. Any average Senior Advocate (designated) in Delhi earns in millions on a daily basis. Some of them earn into multiple millions. Despite that they shy away from paying their juniors. Even for non-designated seniors, who is having the requirement of hiring and availing the services of a young lawyer, he / she also earns into Lakhs per month. It is not that such lawyers, who are having established practices, cannot afford to pay their junior advocates. The problem does not usually lie into the finances, but it lies in the intent of such lawyers. They willingly DO NOT wish to pay their juniors, since that is what perhaps they were also objected to. In the yesteryears, in litigation, young lawyers and freshers were not paid a single penny for a long period of time. Hence, perhaps, they are just not used to the concept that lawyers are to be paid and paid handsomely.
Therefore, with the passage of times, litigation is largely becoming an “Old Boys Club”. This is exactly why CJI D.Y. Chandrachud had said that “Senior lawyers should pay their juniors well and not treat them like slaves”.
If we compare the professions in India such as Chartered Accountant, Doctor, etc. with that of a lawyer, the lawyer is in fact the least paid professional. In fact, CAs and Doctors, are even handsomely paid in internships. But, alas, in litigation, lawyers are not even paid a respectable sum after 3-4 years of practice.
But, with all said and done, with the Judges of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice of India, having raised the concerns of the young advocates, lets hope that in the coming couple of years, this problem should cease to be a problem and that young lawyers are paid well.
