Last year, Rohan Menon flew to London at his own expense to appear for a series of tests at the law firm of Simmons & Simmons. These included a test in document reading, where he was called upon to analyse an M&A dossier, a written exercise where he had to draft a contract and finally, an interview with the firm’s partners.

The 23 year-old student of the Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad , emerged with flying colours.

This month, Menon returns to London to join Simmons & Simmons as a trainee solicitor on an annual salary of 40,000 pounds, to be increased to 63,000 pounds once his training period is complete in two years.

“I was one of the first from my law school to apply abroad,” he says. “In the current batch, more than half the students are joining foreign firms — and they have it much easier.”

For one thing, those in the new batch don’t have to pay their own fare to London, Hong Kong, Singapore or anywhere else. International law firms have suddenly woken up to the high grade talent available in India and are laying out the red carpet — and quite a few are stepping on.

At the National Law School, Bangalore, 65 students out of a batch of 80 have applied for campus placements this year — and 20 are joining foreign law firms. “Indian law firms now find it tough to get the best on campus.

We may eventually have to settle for the second tier,” says Akil Hirani, managing partner of Majmudar & Co, which briefly employed Rohan Menon as an associate in its Mumbai office before he decided to join Simmons & Simmons in London.

Global campus placements have come to be fairly common in premier business and technology schools, but it’s a fairly new trend in the field of law. And there’s a twist. Indian law firms view it as part of the strategy of foreign firms to stock up on Indian talent in the eventuality of the Indian market opening up.

“It stands to logic ,” says Sawant Singh, partner, Trilegal . “Once the foreign law firms are allowed to open offices in India, they will have this set of people trained in a developed legal environment, all ready to be deployed. Which is a good thing; it will serve to raise the bar in the industry.”

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