In-house legal counsel advise their own employer: contracts, disputes, regulatory compliance, employment matters and board and corporate work.
Read this first. This page rests on one dated pay figure from a named source. That is evidence of what that source states, not of what Legal Counsel (in-house) roles pay across India.
Public-sector companies, banks, listed companies and start-ups all employ in-house lawyers, and they manage outside law firms when a matter goes to court. The figure on this page is NTPC's Assistant Law Officer post.
An LLB and, for most posts, enrolment as an advocate.
Several PSUs recruit law officers on CLAT postgraduate scores; NTPC's notice cited here recruits through CLAT-2026.
Private companies usually hire in-house counsel after some years in a law firm or in practice.
One dated figure is on file. It comes from an employer's own notice. It took effect on 1 December 2025. Each card says what the figure is; open "How the figure is read" for the method and what it leaves out.
Assistant Law Officer basic × 12 (IDA E0) One PSU, 6 posts
E0 IDA scale ₹30,000–1,20,000; scale start × 12. Starting basic pay of the level × 12; excludes DA, HRA and other allowances.
Limits. One employer; basic pay only; PSU in-house counsel, not law-firm pay.
NTPC Limited, Assistant Law Officer (E0): Assistant Law Officer basic × 12 (IDA E0), recorded here as ₹3,60,000 a year (NTPC Advt. 15/25 — Assistant Law Officer (E0) through CLAT-2026).
No. A figure given as basic pay leaves out dearness allowance, house rent allowance and the other allowances paid on top of it, and it is before income tax and provident fund or NPS deductions. The CTC breakup calculator on this site works out a monthly in-hand figure from a CTC.
An advocate in practice serves many clients and appears in court. In-house counsel serve one employer, advise before decisions are taken, and brief outside lawyers when a matter goes to court.
| Figure | Statistic | Period | Effective | Kind | Conf. | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ₹3,60,000 | employer-band | NTPC Advt. 15/25 — Assistant Law Officer (E0) through CLAT-2026 | 2025-12-01 fresh | employer-data | 0.75 | NTPC Limited — recruitment advertisements 01/26 (Executive Trainee Finance), 15/25 (Assistant Law Officer), 10/25 (Deputy Manager) |
One employer; basic pay only; PSU in-house counsel, not law-firm pay.
legal counsel · in-house counsel · legal manager · general counsel · legal head · corporate lawyer
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Roles in Legal first, then the rest of the covered set. Listed so a comparison is one click away — no role is ranked above another, and a role appears here only when it has sourced observations of its own.