The anatomy of Tilak Marg.
Surfing the landscape as a first-generation lawyer.
After surviving 5 years at law school, I was confident I would join a top-tier law firm where I would earn the big buck$ and wear fancy lawyer clothes. A few offers were awaiting my response and I had to move fast. However, a wonderful stroke of luck led me to the glorious chambers of litigation practice. While litigation was exciting, impactful and fulfilled my aspirations towards social justice and development, I also struggled daily to keep up with life as a lawyer and its challenges. For starters, you are now a poor duo chromatic (B&W) apprentice. Every penny is hard earned and there is almost always a disequilibrium in the input-reward ratio.
As a first-generation lawyer, you are literally 20 steps behind in this “race” to be whatever it is you want to achieve. Here’s a list of things I felt I had to work overtime for, during my first 5 years in litigation:
- Unlearning everything Law School taught me.
Sure you can keep the books from law school, but feel free to discard pretty much everything else. The real deal is internships, self-study, actual practice and the hustle that comes with it. I don’t mean to be ungrateful about law school and I really liked (some) of my professors. They helped me get through the curriculum and textbooks in the best possible way they could. But in law and life, nothing can prepare you for the real deal. Now, for a first-generation lawyer, that means entering the litigation landscape with no tools, other than your internship experience, which barely amounts to anything as opposed to your counterparts who have grown up in a legal environment, fostering their skills. I often had to stay back later than usual, spend longer hours on a given topic and research into the wee hours of the morning just to be able to have a conversation with my seniors. A lot of terms, phrases, procedures and practices are still beyond my complete understanding. That’s why it’s called ‘Litigation Practice’, which only gets better if you practice it consistently. - Access
Access to books, conversations, contacts, opportunities, office space, support staff. The list goes on. You MUST work overtime to gain access to this. Even for a second/third generation lawyer, these resources come with a caveat — They must still prove themselves to sustain. But as a first-generation lawyer, you’re most likely going to get exhausted by the time you start getting frequent and steady access. Keep going. Take breaks if required, to avoid burn outs and intellectual paralysis. - Recognition in court and beyond
Unfortunately, the profession does come with some baggage. If you are a somebody, because of somebody else, you have a higher chance of being noticed. What you do with that attention is up to you of course. In the initial years, being ‘noticed’ by the right people for your competitive skills can go a long way in setting a strong foundation and securing your passion to continue litigation. It opens you up to referrals, word of mouth marketing and a steady feeder cadre of cases from lower courts. As a first-generation lawyer, I hustled harder than those who had a father/mother/aunt/uncle etc. in the fraternity, simply so that I could catch up to that privilege. It is what it is. No complaints. Just hard work! - Work life-personal life balance
…….. well.
The end.
