Internship Experience @ Vaish Associates, Mumbai: Drafting of pleadings, affidavits and basic research

Name. College. Year of Study

Anonymous

Name of the Organization. City 

Vaish Associates, Mumbai.

Duration of the Internship

4 Months.

How big was the office? Team strength?

Approx 25 lawyers.

Application Procedure. Internship Contact Details

I applied by myself to the HR.

Duration in Weeks. No. of days/week. Timings

4 months, Monday to Saturday, 2nd and Forth Saturday is off.

Accommodation: How, Where, How was it?

I stayed at the YMCA. Student’s Branch Lammington Road.

First impression. First day, formalities etc. 

The first day was pretty mundane, one of the associates introduced me to the entire team and the partners.

Main Tasks

I was working exclusively with the litigation team.

The work included drafting of pleadings, affidavits and basic research.

The matters were mostly arbitrations, couple of High Court matters, a few DRT and CLB matters.

The best was involvement in a big time international commercial arbitration and a SAT appeal.

The Associates gives full involvement including drafting and exposure to strategy discussion sessions if you put in effort and commitment.

Work Environment, People

The environment is basic very very friendly. It’s a happy firm with good work and good people to work with.

The principal associates and senior associate definitely impart learning if one shows interest.

Donkey work was very rarely assigned during my entire period.

Melvyn Fernandes, Tushar Shah & Amitjivan Joshi are the associates I worked with, it was a very good experience for me.

Best Things

Work- life balance, that’s the biggest plus.

The work pressure is not at all hostile.

The people are a nice lot to work with and the quality of work is also good.

Nobody forces you to slog and stay late unless it’s super urgent. The opportunity to draft memorandums and pleadings is a rarity.

Bad Things

The variety of work could have been a better.

Though not a negative, you might need to show patience with some of the team members if you are see the bright side of them.

What did you do to chill? Co-interns, colleagues

There aren’t many good hotels close by, the sandwich place PSD close by is a nice joint. I worked with 2 other trainers of my age and it was good working with them.

Stipend/ month

A very healthy stipend was paid.

Anything else you’d like to tell 

The associates actually put in time and effort to teach work.

Effort is valued greatly, if effort is put in, the associates value it greatly and reward it though I was assigned to the litigation team, the sheer amount of learning under certain associates made me take up work from corporate team also.

Total control of the matter is given if you prove you are competent.

Biggest Lessons

Good work is always rewarded with more responsibility irresspective of the stature in the firm.