Abstract:
India’s corporate legal sector offers is of the most exciting and promising careers for law school graduates, and the lawyers themselves. From the first year of their law studies, students plan and focus to make their career by honing the skills required to be inducted into the law firms by participation in events like moot-courts, negotiation and drafting competitions etc. Due to Long Hours of work, Lack of respect for junior colleagues, Lack of training at the entry-level in terms of skill, Discrimination based on marks and type of Law schools they are graduated, Restricted privileges, and Lack of freedom compel the fresh graduates to leave the firms. This work culture that flows from an autocratic and arbitrary top-down structure at firms results in workplace “mobbing.” In such a work culture, the young associates are being placed in a sink-or-swim environment, forming in frustration. There is no regulatory landscape to which the law firms are subjected to. In this background, this paper focuses on the need for employee’s mental wellness at law firms. Mental Health of an individual is a very important aspect of life as the caveat – “There is no health without mental health”. Given the rapid change in socio-occupational structure and increasing demand at workplace, mental health at workplace is a concept which cannot be neglected. Any stressful situation can have a bearing on an individual’s wellbeing and issues/stress at the workplace can be an important contributor. With changing models of law firms, there are varied challenges faced by fresh graduates which might affect their mental health in varied ways hence necessitating a structured evaluation of their mental health status.
Following issues will be discussed in this paper:
1. How far the law firms are conforming to the employee’s mental -health?
2. Whether the terms of the retention policies require a re-look to ensure employee satisfaction at law firms?
3. How does harassment and employment discrimination.at the law firms can be prevented?
4. Is there a need to regulate law firms in India?
Speaker:
Dr. Fincy Pallissery, Ph.D, Faculty at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be), Bangalore, India
Dr. Fincy Pallissery, is currently an Associate Professor and Department coordinator at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India. She has completed Ph.D from National Law School Bangalore (NLSIU) in the area of Bank Mergers and Acquisitions. She is a passionate teacher of Corporate and Commercial Laws and ensure innovation in the teaching -learning process of Commercial law subjects. Dr. Fincy has participated in various international conferences and published several articles in reputed journals in the areas of corporate and commercial laws.
Chaitra Beerannavar, Ph.D, Faculty at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be), Bangalore, India
Chaitra Beerannavar (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor at School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be) University, Bangalore, India. Ph.D. Awarded on ‘A Critical Study of Reverse Mergers as a method of going public: A comparative Study of U.S., China and India” by the Faculty of Law, Symbiosis International University, Pune in 2015. Recipient of Sixteenth Dr. D.C. Pavate Memorial Visiting fellowship at the Centre of International Studies/Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge, U.K.-2016. She has participated in various international conferences and published several articles.