Our counsellor was recently speaking to one of our students who was preparing for the SEBI Grade A Legal Officers’ Exam.
She had been reading about how salaries of lawyers in the private sector are skyrocketing, especially at senior level.
Although it was both her and her parents’ dream that she got a government job, she was not sure if this would be the best decision in the long term, and wanted advice.
That is when I explained that being a SEBI Law Officer is probably the only government job where you never stagnate and always have access to a variety of private and public sector jobs even after just a few years in service.
Although as a SEBI Law Officer the job itself promises very good increments and promotions every 3 years, if you choose to quit the SEBI at any point in time, you will be highly sought after by law firms, banks, NBFCs, financial institutions, startups, especially in the fintech and regtech space, and also large listed corporations.
All of these businesses have intricate connections with the securities market.
They want to recruit talented people who have worked with a regulator earlier. Ex-regulators are always in high demand in the private sector.
Your prior work experience of working at the SEBI will give you an edge over your peers, including those who have worked at law firms and companies for several years.
Hence, if for any reason you wish to quit and move on, you can even leave anytime you like, even after working for 1 year, or leave at a more senior position, such as the director level, and find lucrative jobs in big law firms, listed companies, banks, fintech companies, or NBFCs.
Here are a few media excerpts that indicate the high demand for lawyers who have worked with a regulator by law firms.
You can even start your own law firm later if you want.
The incredible market exposure, knowledge and credibility obtained while working at the SEBI will be a huge advantage. Several SEBI law officers have started their own law firms after working at SEBI for a few years.
Here are a few examples of people who have started their own law firm or joined a company/law firm directly in senior positions after working at SEBI:
- Sumit Agrawal (2007 grad), at 31, started Regstreet Law Advisors, after working for 9 years for SEBI
- Sandeep Parekh, started Finsec Law (one of LawSikho’s students is placed with Finsec Law as well), after working for 2.5 years with SEBI
- R.S. Loona, started/worked at Alliance Corporate Lawyers after working for 4 years with SEBI
- Dharmishta N. Raval started Raval & Raval Advocates, after working for SEBI for 15 years.
- P.R. Ramesh started working as Chief of Compliance and Legal at SBI Capital Markets Ltd. after working for SEBI for 11 years.
- Raghavendra Prasad started working with MCX Stock Exchange Ltd. as VP Legal after working for SEBI for 3.5 years.
As you can see, people who have started their own law firms have quit as early as 3 to 4 years to as late as 15 years, so you have a lot of flexibility to decide later whether you’d like to continue or quit.
And of course if you decide to stay longer, the additional experience always counts.
Since you have power and prestige of working with one of India’s most influential regulators, your influence only increases with seniority!
Your position and stature is well-recognised globally as well, because India is the fifth largest securities market in the world!
It is definitely leading the global charts as far as IPOs are concerned!
SEBI officers have a high level of autonomy and freedom from political interference, compared to other government jobs, such as civil services, and often the judiciary as well!
All these factors make working as a SEBI Law Officer a very exciting opportunity for anyone who wants a government job.
Our student was reinvigorated after hearing these insights and exceeded her study targets that month!
Does this inspire you to prepare for the SEBI Grade A Legal Officers exam?
Don’t worry, it is very much possible to prepare for this exam even if you were preparing for other government exams.
SEBI Grade A Legal Officers’ Exam syllabus has significant overlaps with other government exams such as judiciary, and the competition is much less as very few people know about the opportunity.
Even amongst those who know about this exam, very few people prepare seriously.
If you have been preparing for other government jobs, you can prepare for this exam by just investing approx. 2-3 hours per day for 6 months.