It is impossible to talk about the birth of modern India without mentioning Gandhi and Nehru, the lawyers who helped to win independence for, and then ruled, the country. Yet in spite of these role models, a career as a lawyer has not been attractive for Indian graduates until recently.

Many Indian lawyers today remember working for no pay when they first qualified. Until 1996, five years after the country underwent economic liberalisation, bright graduates preferred to go into management consultancy where salaries were up to four times higher than the legal remuneration of Rs72,000 a year – about $3,000 at 1996 exchange rates.