Stipends for junior advocates are a right, not a handout
The latest circular released by the Bar Council of India (BCI), which sets a minimum stipend for junior advocates, is a good development. Using ₹20,000 for the Urban and ₹15,000 for Rural, the BCI reduces the initial monetary challenges new legal practitioners encounter in their practice. However, a crucial aspect warrants deeper reflection: the culture of the stipends – both the literal meaning of the stipends and the culture that goes with them.
The circular describes the stipend as ‘financial assistance’, which essentially is money given to junior advocates, not the earnings they are entitled to as per their services. This seems like splitting hairs, but it points to the crux of how the legal profession addresses its newest members and how they view themselves.
It is wrong to label the stipend as ‘financial support’ as if it is charity from senior advocates or law firms. Unfortunately, this language erases junior advocates as the dependents of people, underestimating that they are paid for their work like any other profession. This continues to create an environment whereby juniors may feel that they should simply be thankful whenever they receive a particular consideration instead of demanding what they understand they are entitled to.
In fact, junior advocates perform crucial roles to both in and out of the court room. They are often tasked with significant physical labour: losing time for periods in the courts, lifting heavy physical files, and undertaking filing work in terms of punching, stitching and binding. They are valuable, yet they must remain unpaid, as if they did anything wrong by working as a freely volunteering corps, just as any self-employed person offering their expert services. The administration of the justice profession cannot condone nor tolerate such a clear-cut violation of the principles of justice and fairness. Why, then, should not these principles be applied to junior advocates within the profession as well?
Through confronting the power relation
These are among the reasons why the terminology of ‘support’ communicates the complexity of power dynamics underlying productivity in the legal field. Large firms and senior advocates are highly influential, while junior advocates depend on them for work experience as well as income. If such organisational provisions are packaged as financial remunerations, this hierarchy is perpetuated whereby juniors are unlikely to demand equality and respect from their seniors. The unspoken message being drilled into the girls is the perception that the stipend given is benevolence and doesn’t entitle them to it by their work.
This is not a theoretical issue, lest we here at NYU School of Law take it lightly. Many new lawyers only get exposure to long hours and seemingly endless work demands with no guaranteed pay once they graduate from law school. The stipend is not a gift; it is remuneration for work done and a way to ensure new lawyers are not taken advantage of in the name of experience.
Speaking to the Human Dignity and Professionalism
Still, the BCI has taken the initiative, which cannot be appreciated, but it is high time to change the context. Instead of ‘supporting’ junior advocates, the BCI has to acknowledge them as professionals demanding a reasonable wage for their service.
In the future, the BCI will need to shift its approach to the issue of stipends. First, the language of the existing BCI circular informing the students should simplify and make it clear that stipends are paid for the services rendered, not charity or support. Changing the word stipend to compensation benefits the profession, as it can then be argued that junior advocates deserve their pay as they are working as professionals.
Second, the stipends proposed here should be paid automatically and unconditionally, but certain exemptions should be permitted only for important reasons such as poverty. Although all the firms and advocates may not be able to provide such support, they should provide it to the extent that they can afford it. This will go a long way in preventing possible misuse of flexibility and ensuring that most junior advocates get a reasonable stipend for their jobs.
More so, the BCI and the state bar councils also have to exercise the accountability roles provided for them. Payments should be scrutinized to ensure they are accorded to deserving candidates, and the firms should be provided with standard templates to fill out occasionally to show compliance. As proposed in the BCI circular, annual reporting is right, but it must be accompanied by actions against companies that have not implemented the recommendations.
Last but not least, there is a required paradigm change among legal professionals. Senior advocates and law firms should embrace fair compensation not as an addition of a condition that slows down their progress but as a responsibility. The fairly well-paid and guided junior advocates benefit the profession and help create a healthier environment for the entire sector to thrive. Entering the situation with an aspect of ‘fair pay ’ will mean that anyone taking up the lower rank of junior advocacy will feel good about the position they have been assigned to, and mentorship will make it possible for them to achieve their full potential.
Conclusion
Justice DY Chandrachud has implored the legal fraternity to move away from an approach that treats junior lawyers as learners who are still to get exposure and experience and through whom they are mentored and apprenticed, which is very much accented in the organized legal profession, the need to alter the approach. Young lawyers receive intense competition and financial pressure, so such employees should be recognized for their right to a decent salary. The circular issued by the BCI is a good start, but the language has to change, and so does the profession’s mindset.
It is time to stop perceiving stipends as mere financial support and acknowledge them for what they truly are: adequate remuneration for the important pro-bono executive work junior advocates perform in legal practice. In this way, the principles of justice and fairness that make the legal profession will be preserved, helping every young and experienced advocate feel appreciated for their work.
Jehosh Paul is an abogado and a researcher consultant.
He also thanks Advocates Bhairav Kuttaiah and Abhishek Raj for their valuable suggestions for the book.
