Internship Experience at SVS Attorneys, Delhi (Physical): Handsome Stipend, No Holidays

Details of the Student

Sangam Ghorpade, IV Year, Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai

Name of the Organization

SVS Attorneys, Delhi

Partner- Mr. Siddharth R Gupta

About the Firm

SVS Attorneys is a litigation law firm with its offices in Delhi, Jabalpur, Bhopal and Indore. The partner of the firm is Mr. Siddharth R Gupta, Counsel, Supreme Court of India. The major practice of the firm lies in the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts and Tribunals across the country. The firm is a group of competent and experienced professionals with associates as their team.

The expertise of the firm is in the Constitutional, Civil, Criminal, Service-related matters, Taxation, Banking, Arbitration etc. The major centre of the practice is the Supreme Court of India, but the firm has a huge clientele base across the country. The details can be accessed at the official website of the firm.

Mode of Internship

I have done my internship physically partly and partly virtual, however applications for virtual internship are also accepted as well. In fact, the work is paperless in a true sense. There is an excellent Virtual Conference set up for meetings with the clients, discussions with the associates and interns.

Eligibility

The applications of only fourth and fifth year students are taken into consideration, however, third year students of exceptional academics and merit may get an opportunity to undergo the internship.

Application Procedure

To apply, send your properly formatted CV along with Cover Letter at office@svsattorneys.com and CC the same to srg@svsattorneys.com.

Discipline – aesthetics matter a lot, and only properly formatted CVs with sound academics are looked into. You will get a response within a week if your CV is to be picked up, else please presume it’s rejected.

The confirmation on email is followed by vc meeting cum interaction with associates at the firm. There is a document titled ‘Riders & Disclaimers’ you are provided to be read carefully and only after consenting it that, you are good to go. This is the first stage when after reading this document itself many people drop out ‘Riders and Disclaimers’. 

Duration of Internship

November 15, 2022 to January 30, 2023 (Including sanctioned leaves)

Internship isn’t supposed to be for anything less than 55-60 days. It is to be completed in two phases. First, the assessment period of 7-10 days, during which you will be assessed on the basis of your hard work, behaviour, sincerity, dedication and willingness to learn, along with other factors.

During the assessment period, the senior associates and associates monitor the interns, and internally report to Siddharth sir. Siddharth sir, himself, takes updates from the associates about the interns and monitors their work, time to time.

On being convinced about the willingness to undertake the firm’s pressure, workload and responsibilities that the assessment is confirmed for the full fledged internship. At this stage many people either themselves drop out or are dropped out if not found suitable in the chambers. Post this confirmation, the second phase of your life changing experience starts.

Working Environment

The staff at the firm including Senior Associates, and Associates are very supportive and helpful. They are accessible and willing to help the interns whenever and wherever in need including Siddharth sir himself, who also spends a good amount of time with his interns, especially when its a physical one.

However, everyone at the office is very strict and particular about the delivery of work. The allotted work is to be done before the deadline, which is specifically mentioned at the time of allotment of the work. There is proper format to do every work and the same is mentioned in the INTERNSHIP TOOLKIT in detail. Everything moves in a system and you have to acclimatize to it. Unlike other places, there is a detailed INTERNSHIP TOOLKIT running into more than 50 pages that has to be thoroughly read and understood before you start an internship.

You have to be available 24*7 throughout the period of internship; no leaves and holidays. Saturdays and Sundays are working and there is no relaxation in terms of timings even on weekends. Rather you might have to work more on weekends from 10 AM till 9:30 PM, and it doesn’t stop here. You have to complete the remaining/pending work even staying awake till midnight. The entire period of internship is replete with workload and humongous pressure of meeting deadlines that tests your backbone at times. If you survive your backbone in this Chambers, then perhaps you are suitable for any and every litigation office of the country. 

However the entire internship is not only learning, but a life changing experience, where you know what litigation actually means and what it takes. This is the place to intern in the globe for those who are passionate about litigation, but not at all for those who don’t aim at joining it. For those going for corporates, this internship will prove to be a disappointment as there’s hard core work involved which caters to Court practise. 

Siddharth sir, even after 17 years of experience  being in a comfort zone of his profession works tirelessly for 14-15 hours minimum a day. You will find him active and in the same spirit throughout the day, more as the day closes. Working at SVS Attorneys is so tough that 9 out of 10 people leave the internship within a week. I was witness to almost 14 interns coming and leaving within 8-10 days of their joining owing to work pressure and hectic timings. However those who chose to continue are unanimous that they learn everything in this internship, whatever they would have learnt cumulatively in all other internships put together of theirs in other offices. This internship prepares you for the worst, enhances your stamina to work; meet deadlines, which is nowhere even in bigger tier -1 labels.

I would suggest people applying to undertake physical internship in HYBRID mode – partly virtual partly physical split into half. Working physically in the office is a different experience altogether. I have minutely and closely seen the professional life of Siddharth sir and other associates at the firm only because of my physical mode of internship.

Office is specifically particular about the dress codes, attire and appearances of each and every person present at the office. You have to be formally dressed, clean shaved, short hair and organized in presentability, otherwise marching orders for leaving the office for the day are issued post 2 prior warnings on the subject. This is something I have never seen anywhere else in any firm. However after 30 days of physical internship, it taught me what being properly dressed holds and means in my profession. Demeanour and dressing is the gateway to your personality, is what I learnt in this office. Being always well dressed and presentable is an intrinsic habit and attitude all of us don’t possess but must inculcate. 

Main Tasks

The following are the main tasks that I have done during the period of my internship at SVS Attorneys, under the guidance and instructions of Siddharth sir.

• Extensive research in the Arbitration matters under Arbitration Act.
• Research in Civil & Criminal Matters, SLPs, Transfer Petitions etc.  to be filed in the Supreme Court.
• Drafted various applications and pleadings, assisted in drafting SLPs and other submissions to be submitted in the Supreme Court.
• Attended discussions of the clients and client counselling process.
• Attended the proceedings before the Supreme Court of India, High Courts through virtual mode.
• Translation and proof checking of legal documents supplied by the clients for preparation of SLPs in Supreme Court or other miscellaneous pleadings.

What’s noteworthy about this place is if you don’t know how to do any assignment, you will be guided by associates, twice / thrice but even then if it’s incomprehensible for you to understand, then siddharth sir himself preaches and most of the doubts get dispelled by this time, thereafter even then if you aren’t able to understand then you have to be on your own. 

My Experience With Siddharth Sir

I have had an opportunity to work directly under guidance and instructions of Siddharth sir. I also had opportunities to travel with him to different places in relation to outstation appearances, since my internship was physical. I travelled to Bhopal for an arbitration matter, Allahabad for a DRAT matter and then local Courts not excluded. Everyone sees Siddharth sir as very strict, particular, disciplined and always preoccupied with work. However I had an opportunity to see his lesser known side which many won’t be knowing at all. Extremely friendly, helpful, witty in his private life, spiritual and God fearing is a dimension of his private life, which outsiders don’t know.

I learnt what industry and hard work means in life and where it can take you to which heights only in personal interactions with him. Spending time travelling with him taught me the importance of values, honesty , dedication, sincerity in life and that you are invincible if you know how to work hard in life. ‘Hard work always comes before destiny and destiny has to bend on knees before hard work’ is the lesson I learnt from him in a physical internship of 30 days (remaining virtual).

Utilising each and every minute of your life before it expires uselessly is the lesson I learnt from him. Even if awake at 4.30 AM in the morning, he would keep working and thinking about his work tirelessly and planning for it. At most unusual places and occasions I found him doing his office work through sending audio clips to his juniors and interns for e.g., at 4 AM in the morning from railway station to hotel of stay when the distance was 15 mins, he was giving dictations over audio clips which juniors after waking up may complete.

Whenever he is in the fitness club on the treadmill, he used to record his audios and send on groups; flights and rail travels are another unusual example. Summing up, I learnt that every minute of life must be taken as invaluable utilising it to the maximum, if you intend to reach some place or height in life. 

The Office has some peculiar practices to name a few; the interns and juniors would have lunch together, albeit late at times but all will eat together. Once a week all interns and juniors are taken out for dinner at some good place to dine. However, other than this, in office hours there are no compromises on work quality and deadlines, which are even punishable on defaults. 

Stipend

SVS Attorneys pays handsome amount of stipend to the interns at the satisfactory conclusion of internship way above the market standards, almost double. 18k was what was offered to me. However, it is completely contingent upon your dedication and performance. There have been instances where interns did not get stipend at all, or got lesser nominal amounts for their underrated performances despite writing emails and text messages to the office for release of stipend.

Bad Things 

Everyone at the office has to work seven days a week, without any breaks or holidays. Strictness and inflexibilities on timings makes the internship very cumbersome. Personal life when you are interning, especially at Delhi, goes for a toss, without any avenues to enjoy the city or its countryside lanes. Just work and work tirelessly for 11-12 hours a day. Many a times you have to stay late in the nights to complete the given work if Siddharth Sir is sitting in office with his associates. You will be asked for updates at any time and you cannot make excuses for not completing the work as cross examination and counter verification ensues on performance. So excuses are elusive, cannot be taken at all, nor acceptable in office.

For those who need to have breaks and holidays in their internships, this place is ‘STRICTLY NO GO’ place. That’s just not accommodated here. However, the office is very very lenient on leaves. You take a leave and get the internship period rolled over/ extended accordingly depending on the number of leaves you take but then eventually you have to complete 55-60 days. 

The other bad thing is that you are not aware how much stipend you shall be awarded as there’s no fixed standard. If your performance over 60 days is good, then you may be given 16k to 18k as stipend for a physical internship, but if it isn’t then nothing comes out of the grill and the whole period might go penniless. However, I was awarded a stipend almost double the market standards as a testament to my service to the offices.

Conclusion

However, despite all the above, for every aspirant of litigation as a career, I would suggest him or her to do an internship at SVS Attorneys once. It will prove to be a gamechanger of your life; the way you look at it from outside and what it takes and means from inside.

Contact Details

If you would like to know more about the internship and the firm, you can reach out to me at sangamghorpade2001@gmail.com/ Mob. 8552034415.

For more information visit the Official Website.

Source: Lawctopus