Raj Dev Singh, Partner, King Stubb & Kasiva, on building his career and his advise for fresh graduates and Law Students

This interview was taken by Rohit Pradhan

Mr Singh is a Partner – Litigation at KSK, Delhi for last 8 years and is primarily concerned with commercial litigation and regulatory & compliance issues. He advises domestic and international clients and private equity stakeholders across a variety of sectors in strategic and financial capital transactions. His expertise areas are Insolvency & Bankruptcy laws, Banking laws, Insurance, Manufactures law includes Legal Metrology, Food laws, Drugs, Insecticide’s law.

How would you like to introduce yourself to our readers as a partner of KSK?

I am Raj Dev Singh. I have been working for KSK for the past 6 years. I have had a very diversified background; I have started my career by pursuing engineering and then worked in a few Tech companies like HCL. Then one day I came across a notice that was served to one of my clients, and that sparked my interest in the legal field. Upon the suggestions given by my well-wishers, I have pursued my LLB from the Delhi University, Campus Law Centre.

What is the importance of participating in any extra-curricular activities while in college?

I have taken a very active part in Theatre while I was pursuing my BTech. It is important to take part in extra-curricular activities, that has a special bearing on society. I have participated in many street plays and shows for WHO and NACO which are social awareness programs that tend to have a lot of impact on society.

It helped me a great deal in getting used to the courtroom environment. Performing in front of people will give you the confidence to overcome any stage fright and will help to communicate your ideas better. Not only theatre but I would suggest every law student take part in any sort of extra-curricular activities.

These kinds of activities give you a lot of exposure and a unique kind of confidence to make a lot of difference in their legal careers. There is definitely a difference between a person who has just done their five years of LLB and a person who has been taking an active part in various things during their time in the college.

It could be writing a blog or participating in social awareness programmes or something like that as in the end, it all comes back to society. Even though you are representing your client it is more or less like fighting for the society as well.

What are the qualities your firm looks for in an intern? What is the relevance of having a structured cover letter and what do you look for in a CV?

We generally prefer a student who has at least completed three years of a five programme or two years of a three-year programme because earlier than that it might be very difficult for the students as they might not be mature enough to be able to understand what exactly the senior lawyer is going to ask.

The best part about KSK is that unlike the big firms we don’t ask the interns to do clerical jobs, but we give them hardcore lawyer jobs. We always try to have the interns work parallelly with us. We even teach the interns to draft to help them understand the subject well.

As a firm, we have got a lot of different areas of law that an intern can join, and we greatly value and respect the interns. We always celebrate any events pertaining to our intern; for example, their birthday. We do not differentiate them; we treat them at par as our associates.

When someone applies for the Job in your firm, what are the new skill sets you look for in them?

I usually go for campus placement like NALSAR Hyderabad, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, UPSC, etc. We don’t hire more than one candidate from one campus in a particular year.

Quality-wise, we see communication skill as our pre-screening factor. Legal Knowledge is a must and then the reasonableness of the law is required. These qualities differentiate the potential candidates from the rest in the PI round.

In written examination, we check their drafting skills along with Objective and subjective questions. We then go for a group discussion and finally we go for the PI round.

What are the implications that legal professionals are facing during this Pandemic? And what are the consequences if this pandemic extends for foreseeable future?

The condition during the pandemic of the majority of the professionals is not good. There are individual lawyers, then there are law firms, however before proceeding, it is pertinent that the Big four law firms stand unaffected because of their mechanism, modus operandi, process, etc.

Corporate law firms have been substantially affected negatively because of the pandemic. When we talk about independent lawyers, the majority of them have been affected in the worst condition. It has been difficult for them. I feel like Judiciary has not been kind to the lawyers and reopening of the Courts should be considered. It is high time now that Court should reopen.

If we talk about our firm KSK, we have tackled this pandemic by continuing our legal services to our client in the form of giving legal opinions from our international to domestic clients. Now IBC processes are going on, so we are have been doing many filings. Apart from this, we have been doing many things ranging from drafting, compliances, helping client, etc. 

How was your journey from the position of Senior Associate to Partner in King Stub Kasiva was like to be? Any major differences in the role?

When I came here, I already worked for 5 years in the legal sector which made me matured with respect to the reasonableness. My respective partners always appreciated it. When I joined the firm, I was supposed to manage associates.

There was a lot of work which was given to me when I joined the law firm and the workload helped me tremendously. When I was in the tech sector, I learned various skillsets, which helped me a lot in my journey in this law firm. I explored various laws extending from IBC, Legal Metrology, Food laws, insurance laws, etc.

Doing this helped me to diversify my expertise, which helped the Law firm in return. In terms of power, I have always had the liberty to hire people, decide the salary; so in terms of power, there has not been any paradigm shift in this regard. But now as a Partner, my liability has increased compared to what it was when I was a senior associate.

What would you advise to young generation lawyers and law students?

When I was in the tech sector, I was earning a handsome amount of money and then I left it to pursue law and started from zero again. I took the risk and considered my passion. Pursuing law is not an easy task, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

My first advice would be to improve the communication skills. By good communication skill, I don’t mean it to be only English. It can be in their vernacular languages as well. Vernacular languages like Hindi are preferred in the Lower Courts. So good communication skill is of paramount importance. 

My second advice would be to put lots of hard effort; earning money should not be the main objective for any freshers, the focus should be on the learning.  Many freshers directly join the High Court and Supreme Court. But the proper approach should be to work first in Trial Court.

As a law firm also, we always prefer someone who has experience of at least 2 years in the Trial Court as a practitioner. Someone who has practised in the Trial Court is more competent than the one who never practised in the Trial Court.

So, all in all, the two main pieces of advice would be to improve communication skills and to learn litigation in the Trial Court. Finally, if there is a passion to do Law, then no force can stop him or her to successfully pursue their career in Law.