Close to 18 months from launch and we’re still considering all the parameters necessary to hire, train and deploy associates for the work that we do and how we do it, but I suppose that the most important question is how we want to do things going forward and more specifically in the context of our latest job post, what we’re looking for as well as what a young lawyer can hope to find at Bridge. Activate Q&A mode? Sure!

What do we do?

The India team currently consists of three members including myself, with the junior-most member coming in at 5 years of experience. We’re more practice area agnostic than typical firm outlets, and actually function as a hybrid between external and internal legal counsel. We act as the primary legal representatives for some of our clients while we provide specialist legal support to some of our other clients that already employ in-house counsel. Businesses that we currently actively support function in the realm of Gaming, Finance, eSports, eCommerce, Pharmaceuticals, Recruitment and Information Technology.

We devote a lot more time to our work than the market standard, making work tough, yet rewarding (this is also another aspect of working in a leaner outfit – work is a lot more intensive with a wider scope of work per person). Attention to detail and a focus on being thorough is what makes our clients, as well as us, happy. At the end of the day, we’re lawyers who love what we do and also work together as a small yet effective team.

What are we looking for? And why?

We had (and to a certain extent, still have) either the option to on-board another senior level member onto our platform or proceed with hiring someone with little experience and training them to be able to ace the kind of work that comes our way. The latter is no doubt harder for us given that we don’t hire tranches of associates every year and also given the kind of work we do and how we do it, but our approach to this role and program is more training oriented at least for the first 6-11 months depending on the candidate.

We’re also specifically looking to offset budgetary constraints at this stage by trying to focus on candidates already based out of Bangalore (thereby putting lesser stress on relocation costs) as well as reducing actual physical meetings (thereby reducing transportation costs in terms of money, time as well as energy); lastly, we do actually care about balance when it comes to work and play because we feel that the latter actually makes the former better – combined with the fact that the candidate will get to work with the rest of the senior team very closely and directly, we’re hoping this results in a good package that can serve as the foundation for a very good career.

Lastly, while we believe that the current legal education system does fall short in many respects (therefore our focus on an initial training program), we expect whoever joins us to have a complete grasp on the English language (written and spoken), Microsoft Word, and legal research, to say the least. We truly do not discriminate on the basis of law college, but whether one’s been a part of a 3 or 5 year course, we expect the fundamentals to be in place to give us something to work with.

Who is this job not for? And why?

This may perhaps be the most important section of this Post, no? What are the reasons why Bridge may not be the best fit for you? Here are a few:

1. You want to chase compensation at the level of the current factory setups (and by extension, also want to work a particular way, for particular people, and for particular hours) and want to focus on volumes;
2. You want a typical office experience and a set desk to visit every weekday (or more) and hybrid working simply isn’t for you;
3. You’re not based in Bangalore and having to move here for the role would mean incurring a lot of cost that a modest training level compensation will not cover;
4. You don’t love what you do, or at least you’re not passionate about doing great work; or
5. You don’t really care about training and mentoring and you’re already happy at the level you’re at seeing no need to learn and improve.

Okay, I want to give this a shot – what’s the process?

Well, the good news is that the entire process is centrally coordinated through the LinkedIn Job Post (hyperlinked earlier, but here you go again just in case), giving everyone a fair, fighting chance. The Post should be open for at least 5 business days from the date of this Post, and those not selected shall receive an automated message from LinkedIn so that no one is left hanging (if so, my DMs are always open).

To reiterate, those based in Bangalore with minimal experience shall be given preference (if we deviate from this, it means that we had to widen our search parameters) due to all of the reasons mentioned above. Once we shortlist the first list of candidates, we shall reach out and speak to each one (not really an interview) to gauge fit, eventually and hopefully arriving at the final, selected candidate.

I didn’t get selected, what does that mean?

It just means that this role perhaps wasn’t a good fit for you; I say ‘perhaps’, because it’s entirely possible for us to be wrong and more than anything else entirely probable that some really great future lawyers will do well even though they didn’t get selected for this position. Our loss, right?

At the end of the day, as much importance as we give it, it’s still just a job. We like to keep ourselves accessible (seriously, I spend close to an hour a day responding to DMs on LinkedIn) so you can always reach out to speak and generally converse and interact with the team.

Well, that’s it from our side – if you have any questions, please feel free to drop a line via LinkedIn (this is me) and good luck, both to you as well as us!