Internship Experience @ Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co, Kolkata: Good Work Environment, Research on Mining Laws

Name, College, Year of Study

Roumita Dey. Jogesh Chandra Choudhuri College of  Law (affiliated to Calcutta University), Kolkata. Fifth  Year (9^th 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

11^th August to 22^nd 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:

1. Researched  on  the  ‘’Mining  Rights  available in different  Countries’’  and  prepared a note on it.
2. 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.
3. Proofread the ‘’Planning Commission Draft Agreement’’ and made some Track changes on the Agreement.
4. Researched on the Comparison between Indian Companies Act, 1913 and  The Companies Act, 1956.
5. Assisted  a   senior lawyer  with preparing   a  note  on the  recommendations  of  Bhaba Committee  on  The Companies  Act, 1956.
6. 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.
7. Researched on the Comparison between Assignment of Contract and Sub- Contract and also researched on  landmark supreme court cases on the said topic.
8. 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.
9. 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.