Karnataka High Court lawyer Vivek Siddalingaiah called to Bar Council of England & Wales as member of Lincoln's Inn

Former Tatva Legal lawyer and advocate practicing before the Karnataka High Court, Vivek Siddalingaiah has been called to the Bar of England & Wales as a member of The Hon'ble Society of Lincoln's Inn, London..A 2010 graduate of University Law College (ULC), Bangalore, Siddalingaiah enrolled with the Bar Council of Karnataka and practiced with senior insurance lawyer BC Seetharama Rao for about four years. He then pursued his LL.M. in Civil Litigation & Dispute Resolution at University of London in 2015. On his return to India, Siddalingaiah joined Tatva Legal in 2016, where he practiced before the High Court of Karnataka and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). In 2019, he moved back to London and started working with the Financial Ombudsman Service (a statutory organization established by the Parliament of the UK) as an adjudicator..Having always wanted to join the Bar Council of England & Wales, Siddalingaiah applied for the Bar Standards Board to get registered as a Barrister. Reminiscing on his journey, he said,"I really wanted to qualify as a Barrister since 2010 when I was a lawyer in India, but for personal reasons I couldn’t. Finally in 2019 I felt it was the right time. Unfortunately, because of COVID-19, there were a lot of cancellations and postponements of examinations.However, based on my 8 years of experience back then and my LL.M., I was asked to sit for only for the Bar Transfer Test. I was exempted from the regular, traditional Bar Course. In the Bar Transfer Test, I was asked to only give 4 Procedural and Advocacy papers namely civil litigation, criminal litigation, advocacy and professional ethics.".Acknowledging the mentorship he received from one of his friends, Siddalingaiah said, "One of my close friends is a Qualified Barrister in Pakistan helped me go about the entire process. There are very few people in India who have actually cleared this exam because the Bar Transfer Test is only for people with minimum post-qualification experience".On being called as member to Lincoln's Inn, Vivek said, "I’m proud to say that this is the largest Inn in the UK which has over 21 thousand members throughout the world and there are less than 100 members from India and I’m one of them."Siddalingaiah was recently appointed Civil Servant at His Majesty's Court & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice..Sharing his future plans, he said, "My plan ahead is definitely to move back to India and shift my practice from Bangalore to the Supreme Court. In the long run, I want to serve the Indian Judiciary.".As advice to young lawyers and law students, Siddalingaiah said, "Explore different options. There are a lot of varied options available. Qualifying as a Barrister is a very serious, competitive and pretty expensive process. So, one needs to consider their financial position, experience and also the determination. In the UK, especially, very few get to qualify as Barristers and less than 500 get placed in chambers every year. That’s how competitive it is." .On the qualities that law students must inculcate, he said, "The first thing I’d definitely advise is patience. I wanted to qualify back in 2010, but it took me 12 years because of various reasons. Never feel bad that you’re running late…Second is dedication and the third thing is a to-do attitude. It’s a very difficult exam and the dates are announced only 30-40 days before the actual exams…keep up-to-date with the developments, because all these exams are very analytical or case-study based questions. There are no direct questions in the exams, they are all scenario-based. One needs to keep themselves updated with the recent developments in the legal field in the UK." .Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.