Law and Order

In US legal drama Suits, junior associates would spend long nights in a basement room leafing through boxes of documents, barely getting any food or sleep, sometimes for days. That's not exaggerated television drama but a usual Monday at many Indian law firms. Young lawyers routinely spend nights stitching together due-diligence reports, scrubbing boilerplate clauses, or comparing contracts that differ only by a comma.

- By Himani Kothari

Vasu Aggarwal (26) & Darsan Guruvayurappan (25)

Co-founders, Lucio

That grinding backdrop is where Lucio's founders, Vasu Aggarwal and Darsan Guruvayurappan, located their opportunity. The two met by accident on their first day at law school after being assigned to the same hostel room by a random draw (they have stayed roommates ever since).

By their final year, they had watched a steady procession of seniors enter the profession with enthusiasm, only to burn out within a few years. The problem wasn't the practice of law; it was the volume of repetitive work that consumed most of a young lawyer's day.