Name, College, Year of Study
Roumita Dey. Jogesh Chandra Choudhuri College of Law (affiliated to Calcutta University), Kolkata. Fifth Year (9th Semester).
Name of the Organisation. City. Office Address. How was the Office? Team Strength
Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., Kolkata.
227, Anandalok Building, A.J.C. Bose Road, Lower Circular Road, Kolkata- 700020.
The Kolkata office is a small office but well decorative with some paintings and has chilled out work environment through out the office.
The Third Floor of the Building is the main office of Amarchand Mangaldas including one Pantry and a Library.
There is a Conference Room is in the Fourth Floor of the Building.
The office has roughly 11 Lawyers including Six Associates, Two Senior Associates, One Partner, One Principal Associate and One Consultant. There is also an HR and some support staff.
Interns at Amarchand & Mangaldas, Kolkata usually get plenty of space to work from, your own desk, computer, phone etc.
I was the one and only intern for that period, so I took every advantage to get quality work from the Associates.
They have a well stocked library and interns can access Manupatra from their desk making work a whole lot easier.
Duration in weeks. Days of work per week. Timings
11th August to 22nd August, 2014. (2 weeks)
5 days a week, 10.00 am to 6.30 pm.
Interns could leave at 6:30 if your work is over.
On very rare occasions I stayed back a little longer but it never exceeded an hour.
So, timings are fairly followed.
We work 5 days a week leaving your weekends free to explore Kolkata or to catch up on sleep.
Personally I liked the flexible timing as scheduled only for Interns.
Application Procedure? Internship Contact Details
I applied through emails. You have to follow up a lot with the HR lady accompanied by phone calls.
If they like your CV you will get a questionnaire to fill and then selected on its basis. It is a fairly efficient system.
The name of the HR is Mrs. Suparna Misra. One can mail his/her CV at suparna.misra@amarchand.com
She’s been very helpful and warm helping out whenever needed and generally making sure that you don’t feel lost if you’re new.
As with all large firms you need to follow up on your application and references do help. Apply well in advance to get a spot for yourself.
Accommodation
Accommodation was not an issue as I live in Kolkata.
However, for outsiders, there are plenty of Paying Guests, Hostels and Apartments available in AJC Bose Road, Rabindra Sadan(Exide Crossing), Hazra Crossing and in other main areas.
First impression, first day, formalities
The first thing I noticed as I made my way to Anandalok Building is how big the building is, the Liftman helped me to reach the Amarchand Mangaldas office in the Third Floor.
I reached by 9.30 am and had to wait for half an hour for the HR lady to come to office.
The HR lady finally reached office and described me some basic formalities for the Interns to be strictly followed.
She then introduced me to the IT guy who helped me with the IT setup and explained me few rules to follow:
Interns should access their office email-id only given to them. No personal email-id is entertained.
Interns should fill up their worksheet everyday and work at least 6 hours a day.
Interns should mail their individual worksheet to the HR on their last working day.
Main Tasks
I worked with both Corporate and Litigation Team and assigned good quality work by them.
Major tasks in the firm involved Research work.
When I say ‘’Research’’, that means a lot of research. So, if you are planning to intern in the firm, pull up your socks, and make some habit of doing research work.
As far as the research work is concerned you will get some really interesting research questions.
The associates you work with always take out the time to explain what they’re looking for and give you the context in which you are researching.
They are extremely patient provided you are also meticulous with your work.
Nobody expects you to spit out answers as soon as a question is thrown at you, take your time and work on it but be prepared when it’s time to discuss it with your Team or Associate.
There’s a lot to be learnt from these exercises and you are encouraged to put your own views forward and debate it out to help come to a complete and balanced conclusion.
During my AMSS internship, I mainly researched on the following topics which are described below:
- Researched on the ‘’Mining Rights available in different Countries’’ and prepared a note on it.
- Researched extensively on the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act, 1957 and assisted a Senior Lawyer with the interpretation of definitions of ‘’Occupier or Owner’’ from the Act.
- Proofread the ‘’Planning Commission Draft Agreement’’ and made some Track changes on the Agreement.
- Researched on the Comparison between Indian Companies Act, 1913 and The Companies Act, 1956.
- Assisted a senior lawyer with preparing a note on the recommendations of Bhaba Committee on The Companies Act, 1956.
- Researched on the various Laws applicable for establishing an Educational Institution in West Bengal; Gratuity, Provident Fund benefits, Leave policy, Maternity benefits applicable for Private Educational Institutions in West Bengal; CBSE Affiliations norms. Prepared a Due Diligence report and Assisted a Senior Lawyer.
- Researched on the Comparison between Assignment of Contract and Sub- Contract and also researched on landmark supreme court cases on the said topic.
- Researched on the Model Concession Agreements as obtained from the website of NHAI(National Highway Authority of India) and proofread the Documents to help the Corporate team.
- Researched on the landmark case laws pertaining to Corporate Criminal Liability and prepared a case note on it.
During my internship I did most of my research work on mining laws which was completely new to me.
Work Environment, People
In my opinion, the work environment is hostile. Most of them works really quietly except few(3 Associates) used to chat all the time, which disappointed me and sometimes I felt uncomfortable to complete my Assignment.
There are some associates who take time to explain things to you and give you some really good work.
The Partner Mr. Siddharth Dutta is a very nice man who makes it a point to speak to the interns.
I met him on the second day of my internship and was delighted to speak to him for 10 minutes. He is a humble person.
Best Things
The best thing about the internship was the nature of work. If you are learning towards Corporate law, this is a very good firm to intern with because of the kind of work that they do.
The office boys are also very nice and helpful and you are provided with coffee/tea twice a day.
Bad Things
Honestly, few of the Associates used to chat within the working hours in such a loud voice which made me uncomfortable sometimes, otherwise a very good internship work-wise.
What did you do to chill? Co-interns, Colleagues
The firm is located in a very nice part of the city, close to Exide Crossing (Rabindra Sadan Metro Station) which is a nice area with good eating joints etc.
I had no co-interns that time, so most of the day I used to take Home cooked food to the office.
Stipend
None.
Anything else you’d like to tell
Over all, it was a pretty good experience, except for some of the associates.
They really do some very interesting Corporate Law work, so if that’s what you aim to practice in, you will learn a lot from the internship.
I was also involved in the Birthday celebration of Principal Associate with other Associates and office staffs. They even call interns for lunch with them.
Biggest Lessons
Explore all opportunities available to you.
Try building good relations and good contacts.
Work hard in your internships for they can help you learn things which otherwise is not possible to learn in Law Schools.