How Can I Build a Career in Corporate Law and IBC?
Building a Career in Corporate Law and IBC can be a strong option for law students who enjoy both corporate law and contentious work. In this mentorship discussion, a second-year law student asks how to move from an early litigation background towards corporate and insolvency practice. The student had already completed an internship at the NCLAT and wanted to use the remaining years of law school to build a profile for a Tier-2 or Tier-3 law firm.
Five legal mentors responded to the question. Their advice broadly focuses on understanding the difference between corporate and IBC practice, building a strong foundation in company and insolvency law, choosing internships strategically and demonstrating genuine interest through writing, research and practical experience.
Corporate Law vs IBC: Understanding the Career Path
The first step towards building a Career in Corporate Law and IBC is understanding that the two areas overlap, but they are not identical.
Corporate law practice at law firms often includes M&A, private equity and venture capital transactions, due diligence, joint ventures, shareholder agreements, competition-law filings and FEMA compliance. Much of this work is transactional. Lawyers spend significant time negotiating, drafting and advising clients.
IBC practice, meanwhile, has a much stronger litigation and tribunal component. Lawyers regularly work before the NCLT and NCLAT, draft applications, contest insolvency admissions, deal with resolution plans and handle avoidance transactions. Therefore, IBC can suit students who enjoy both corporate concepts and litigation.
This overlap also means that a litigation background does not necessarily put a student at a disadvantage. Several mentors specifically viewed existing litigation and NCLAT experience as an advantage for an IBC-focused career. At the same time, one important piece of advice was to avoid specialising too narrowly in the second year itself.
Students can continue exploring general corporate law, banking and finance, competition law, regulatory work and compliance alongside IBC. This broader approach keeps more career options open. Later, as students gain more experience, they can decide whether to specialise in insolvency, restructuring or another corporate practice.
What to Study for a Career in IBC
The mentors consistently recommended starting with the statutes themselves before moving to detailed commentaries.
For IBC preparation, begin with the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016. Read the Code carefully and then move to the CIRP Regulations and Liquidation Process Regulations. Understanding the regulations matters because practical insolvency work often depends on procedural requirements, timelines and regulatory provisions.
Build a Corporate Law Foundation
IBC does not exist in isolation. Students should therefore develop a strong foundation in the Companies Act, 2013, particularly areas relevant to insolvency and corporate restructuring.
The recommended areas also include:
- Contract law
- Transfer of Property Act
- SARFAESI
- Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy-related legislation
- Civil Procedure
- SEBI regulations
- Basic financial and accounting concepts
A working understanding of financial statements can be particularly useful. Insolvency matters involve businesses, debts, creditors and financial information. Therefore, learning how to read a balance sheet, profit and loss statement and cash-flow statement can give a student a practical advantage.
Follow Important IBC Cases
Reading the Code alone is not enough. The mentors also recommended following important Supreme Court and tribunal decisions to understand how courts interpret the legislation.
Some of the cases specifically highlighted in the mentorship answers include:
- Innoventive Industries v. ICICI Bank
- Swiss Ribbons v. Union of India
- Essar Steel (Committee of Creditors v. Satish Kumar Gupta)
- Vidarbha Industries Power
- Lalit Kumar Jain
- Rainbow Papers
Students should not simply memorise case names. Instead, maintain a case notebook and record the facts, issue, ratio and practical significance of important judgments. Over time, this can become a valuable resource for both interviews and internships.
Keep Track of Current Developments
IBC is a developing area of law, so students should follow amendments, regulatory changes and recent judgments.
The mentors suggested resources such as IBBI, legal blogs and legal news platforms. Students can also follow NCLT, NCLAT and Supreme Court developments through sources such as IndiaCorpLaw, IBC Laws, Live Law, Bar & Bench and SCC Online.
In addition, attending IBBI and INSOL India discussions, webinars and panel events can help students understand current developments and become familiar with the wider insolvency ecosystem.
Which Internships Should Law Students Target?
Internships should form a clear progression rather than a random collection of names on a CV.
Since the student in the original mentorship question already had NCLAT experience, the mentors suggested gaining exposure to other sides of insolvency practice.
NCLT and NCLAT Chambers
Students interested in IBC can target lawyers, chambers and practitioners who regularly appear before the NCLT and NCLAT.
A second tribunal internship can also be useful after gaining more foundational knowledge. Students may understand significantly more from the same type of internship once they have studied the relevant legislation and case law.
Insolvency Professionals
An internship with an Insolvency Professional or Resolution Professional’s office can provide a different perspective.
Instead of seeing insolvency only through litigation, students can understand the commercial and operational side of the insolvency process. This includes exposure to how creditors, resolution applicants and insolvency professionals approach a CIRP.
Several mentors considered this experience a strong differentiator because relatively few students explore this side of IBC practice.
Boutique Insolvency and Restructuring Firms
Students should also look for boutique firms that focus on insolvency, restructuring and related disputes.
These internships can provide hands-on exposure to drafting and research. Depending on the firm, students may work on Section 7 or Section 9 applications, replies, resolution-plan-related work or claim documentation.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 Law Firms
As students approach their pre-final and final years, they can begin targeting Tier-2 and Tier-3 firms with established insolvency, restructuring, banking or corporate practices.
The mentorship responses also stressed the importance of internship performance. Many firms recruit from their internship pools, so a strong penultimate-year internship can become more important than simply accumulating numerous short internships.
General Corporate and Banking Internships
Students should not make every internship IBC-specific. At least one internship in general corporate, M&A or banking and finance can strengthen an IBC profile.
Resolution plans, security interests and distressed transactions often require transactional knowledge. Therefore, understanding corporate and finance work can make an IBC-focused candidate more versatile.
In-House and Banking Opportunities
Students can also explore legal teams within banks and financial institutions, particularly teams dealing with stressed assets.
Such an internship can show how financial creditors approach defaults, recovery and insolvency. It can therefore complement experience gained from tribunals and law firms.
How to Build a Strong IBC Profile
A strong Career in Corporate Law and IBC profile requires more than internships. The mentors repeatedly emphasised the importance of drafting, research, financial literacy and writing.
Develop Practical Legal Skills
Students should gradually learn how lawyers actually work with IBC matters. Useful skills include:
- Drafting Section 7, 9 and 10 applications
- Preparing replies to insolvency applications
- Conducting case-law research
- Analysing whether a debt qualifies as financial or operational
- Understanding limitation issues under IBC
- Preparing due-diligence notes
- Understanding resolution-plan documentation
- Reading basic financial statements
The aim is not to master everything in the second year. Instead, students should build these skills progressively through coursework, internships and independent practice.
Start Writing About IBC
Writing can provide another way to demonstrate genuine interest in the field.
Students can publish case comments, articles and research pieces on current IBC issues. Topics such as homebuyers as financial creditors, group insolvency, personal-guarantor insolvency or recent NCLT/NCLAT developments can provide useful starting points.
Publishing two or three thoughtful pieces is more valuable than producing large amounts of superficial content. More importantly, students should be able to discuss their published work during interviews.
Participate in Competitions and Events
Students can also participate in insolvency-focused moots and academic competitions. Exposure to competitions and discussions involving IBC can strengthen both subject knowledge and practical understanding.
Similarly, attending webinars, panel discussions and conferences can help students understand how practitioners approach current insolvency issues.
Build a Case-Tracking Habit
One of the simplest recommendations from the mentors is to maintain a personal case notebook.
Each month, select important Supreme Court and NCLAT decisions and record:
Facts → Issue → Ratio → Why the decision matters
This habit gradually creates a personal database of important IBC jurisprudence. It also makes revision easier when preparing for internship interviews or law firm assessments.
Do Not Over-Specialise Too Early
Finally, students should keep their options open during the early years of law school.
A second-year student does not need to decide their entire career immediately. A better approach is to maintain strong fundamentals in corporate law, litigation and IBC, while using internships to discover which type of work suits them best.
The central advice from the mentorship discussion is clear: a student with an existing litigation background can transition into IBC without starting from zero. In fact, tribunal experience, drafting skills and litigation knowledge can become valuable assets in insolvency practice.
Therefore, students should focus on building a consistent trajectory rather than chasing a long list of internships. Strong statutory knowledge, relevant internships, practical drafting, financial literacy and demonstrated interest can together create a credible profile for a corporate or IBC-focused role at a Tier-2 or Tier-3 law firm.
