ISAIL President Statement on the 2020-2023 Internship Cohorts

Okay, something is getting out of hand, and I have to address it officially as the President of the Indian Society of Artificial Intelligence and Law.

I will make it abundantly clear that the Board of Trustees, and members of the ISAIL Secretariat have been reported in good faith, for months, and nearly an year now, that some law graduates & students who were a part of the 2020-2023 cohort of internship programmes (virtual) - use the ISAIL affiliation, join law firms/ companies / chambers, and then remove the ISAIL affiliation from their profiles as if they never went there.

And based on our assessments, it turns out the law schools, law departments and their placement / internship committees have nothing to do with this. It is some students and graduates who do it by their choice.

Now, let me be clear: I don't care if you remove your association with us. It's your choice to do so. I stopped caring an year ago when I realised a lot of these former interns have no professionalism or humanity left, because they enjoy cutting off ties because "job" matters.

Sure, I always call out the problems in the legal industry and have the least interest to waste my personal and professional time in ego wars at chambers, law firms, and sections of government & judiciary.

What I will however not appreciate is this "holier than thou attitude" just because you have to "survive". Life is increasingly tough for all.

Both of my organisations are self-run. So I understand the pain of first-generation legal, policy and even tech professionals. Even if you don't have any humanity left, I will always stand with you for that part of struggle and pain you have to go through because the legal industry in India is unfair with you.

But if you cut off ties, use our name, then do not expect the ISAIL Secretariat to understand your "excuses". We have more important engagements and tasks to handle than to be treated as a trophy by this generation of law graduates, who cannot respect people who relate with their skills, talent, and their struggles.

For the batches from further years who apply for internship, we already make it clear on our website and emails about the new policy of attribution that we have adopted at the Secretariat level.

Moral: be humble, build relationships professionally with nice people. I never had a mentor in technology law, like ever. My father is a Senior Advocate but our fields are entirely different. He is a constitutional law expert, while I am into AI governance. When I started my journey, there were only TMT lawyers, and data protection professionals. There was no one in legal tech either that much those days.

Let's be nice. Let's help each other, that's all.