August 14, 2026

Can reliability matter more than brilliance as a law student? A conversation with Anagha Anuraj

What makes someone a lawyer people trust?

If you've ever thought becoming a good lawyer is about collecting prestigious internships or building the perfect résumé, this conversation might challenge that assumption.

Our next guest believes that while competence may open doors, it's reliability that earns trust. Currently pursuing the Integrated Programme in Law at the Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, she has built experience across leading organizations including Chandhiok & Mahajan, Larsen & Toubro, EY, DSK Legal, GIZ India, the National Green Tribunal, and the IPL Placement & Internship Committee. Alongside internships, policy research, legal writing, and leadership roles, she has consistently explored what actually shapes a sustainable legal career beyond impressive titles.

Joining us today is Anagha Anuraj, a law student, researcher, and legal professional in the making who believes that careers aren't built by chasing prestigious names alone, they're built by consistently producing quality work, embracing uncertainty, and earning trust one responsibility at a time.

Let's dive into a conversation about legal careers, corporate law, leadership, ambiguity, professional growth, technology, and the habits that quietly shape the lawyer you'll eventually become.

Q1. Everyone sees the internships and leadership positions on LinkedIn. What's one lesson that never makes it onto a résumé but has shaped the kind of lawyer you're becoming?

One lesson I've learnt is that competence opens doors, but reliability is what makes people trust you with responsibility.

Early in law school, I thought being a good student meant having the right answers. Internships changed that. Sometimes what mattered wasn't producing the most brilliant draft, it was returning a revised version before anyone had to remind me, admitting when I hadn't understood an issue instead of pretending I had, or taking ownership of a mistake before someone else pointed it out.

Those moments never appear as bullet points on a résumé, yet they've shaped me more than any designation ever could.

Law is ultimately a profession built on trust.

Q2. Law often rewards certainty, yet the best lawyers learn to live with ambiguity. When did you first realize that not every good legal answer is a clear one?

It happened while researching a case where every answer seemed to begin with, "It depends."

At first, that frustrated me. I'd spend hours looking for the right precedent, convinced there had to be one neat answer hidden somewhere.

Instead, I'd find:

Courts reasoning differently.
Scholars disagreeing.
Facts changing everything.

That's when I realised law isn't like solving a maths problem. Two people can reach different conclusions and still make convincing legal arguments.

I actually found that comforting.

It made me stop chasing certainty for its own sake and start paying more attention to reasoning.

I've realised that being a good law student isn't about always being right, it's about being able to explain why you think you're right, while staying open to changing your mind.

Q3. You've balanced academics, internships, committees, and competitions. How do you decide what's worth saying yes to, and more importantly, what deserves a no?

For a long time, I had a terrible filter. If something sounded prestigious, I assumed I had to say yes. Eventually, I realised I was collecting experiences instead of learning from them.

Now I ask myself a much simpler question:

Will I care that I did this a year from now, or am I only saying yes because it'll look good this week?

That question has saved me from taking on things I didn't have the bandwidth for. It has also made me enjoy the opportunities I do choose much more because I'm actually present instead of constantly thinking about the next line on my CV. I'm still learning to say no, but I've stopped seeing it as closing a door. Sometimes it's just making enough room to walk properly through the ones already open.

Q4. Many students chase prestigious names. Do you think a career is built more by the brand on your CV or by the quality of the work you consistently produce?

A strong brand can open the first door. It cannot keep opening doors forever. I have been fortunate to work with reputed organisations, and I value those opportunities immensely. But what I've noticed is that partners don't remember interns because they interned at another prestigious place. They remember the intern who:

anticipated the next question,
improved a draft without being asked, or
could be trusted with greater responsibility.

Brands create opportunities. Consistent quality creates reputation and reputation, over the course of a career, is far more durable than any single name on a CV. I'd rather spend years becoming the kind of professional who adds value to a brand than someone who relies on a brand to add value to me.

Q5. Working with different law firms exposes you to different cultures and expectations. What's one misconception students have about corporate law that only changes after stepping inside the profession?

One misconception I hear a lot is that corporate law is boring. What looks like a stack of documents on the surface is actually a series of business decisions, negotiations, and commercial strategy playing out in legal form.

One matter might involve:

handling a regulatory issue,
understanding the commercial objective behind a transaction, or
learning about an industry you knew nothing about a week earlier.

You're constantly learning because the work constantly changes. The work isn't exciting because it's dramatic. It is exciting because you are constantly solving new problems and learning something you didn't know the day before.

Q6. Leadership in college often looks like organizing events and managing teams. But what has leading people taught you about understanding people?

It's taught me that everyone carries a story you usually can't see. I've worked with people who missed deadlines, disappeared before important events, or seemed completely uninterested. Earlier, I would quietly label them as irresponsible. A few conversations later, I'd often realise I had been completely wrong. Someone was dealing with family problems. Someone else simply didn't know how to ask for help. Another person wasn't careless, they were just overwhelmed.

That doesn't excuse poor work, but it has made me slower to judge and quicker to ask questions. I think that's one of the most valuable things leadership has given me—not the ability to manage people, but the reminder that understanding someone almost always begins with listening longer than you planned to.

Q7. The legal profession is changing rapidly with technology and AI becoming part of everyday practice. Which skills do you believe will remain irreplaceably human, no matter how advanced technology becomes?

I use AI quite often, and I think it's an incredible tool but I have also realised it has a habit of sounding confident even when it's wrong. That makes me think the most valuable human skill won't be knowing everything, it'll be knowing what deserves a second look. Beyond that, I don't think empathy or judgment become less important because technology improves.

Clients don't just need information. They need someone who:

understands what they're worried about,
asks the question they forgot to ask, and
tells them the truth even when it's inconvenient.

Technology will keep changing how lawyers work. I don't think it'll change why people trust one lawyer over another.

Q8. Imagine a first-year law student reading this interview five years from now. If they remembered only one idea from everything you've shared, what would you hope that idea is?

I would hope they remember that it's okay not to have everything figured out. Some of the best opportunities I've had came from applying even when I wasn't convinced I was the strongest candidate. Most of the growth happened after I got the opportunity, not before it.

I think a lot of students spend their first year comparing timelines:

who got the better internship,
who won more competitions,
who's already "ahead."

Five years later, none of that will matter as much as whether you kept showing up, stayed curious, and treated people well along the way.

Careers don't usually change because of one spectacular moment. More often, they change because you quietly kept doing the next small thing well.

About Conversations by Brains in You

Conversations by Brains in You is a curated interview series featuring students, professionals, entrepreneurs, creators, researchers, and changemakers whose journeys offer meaningful lessons beyond conventional achievements.

Rather than focusing solely on titles or milestones, each conversation explores the decisions, experiences, challenges, and perspectives that shaped the individual behind the profile. The aim is to create a growing repository of practical insights that help students and young professionals navigate their own careers with greater clarity, productivity, integrity, and purpose.

Every featured conversation is thoughtfully selected with the belief that authentic experiences can inspire informed decisions, lifelong learning, and better human development.

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