Bengaluru PE/VC boutique · 9 lawyers · 4 years
The firm was scaling. Three associates were hired through a recruiter at a premium fee. Within six months: one resigned for an LLM in the UK, one moved to an in-house role at a portfolio company of one of the firm's clients (awkward), one was let go because the work expected of them was never what was actually scoped. The partners blamed the recruiter; the recruiter blamed the partners' role briefs.
There was no documented role profile, no structured interview process, no skills assessment, no expectations memo, no onboarding plan beyond "we'll figure it out". Indian law firm attrition is rising — Vahura forecasts continued lateral movement to international firms and in-house roles — but unstructured hiring multiplies the problem. Replacement cost in international benchmarks is USD 200k–1M+ per associate.