Alumni Reunion | Celebrating 25 Years | BA LLB (Hons) Class of 2000

We were excited to host a campus reunion for the class of 2000 this Saturday, August 2, 2025 as they celebrated 25 years of their graduation from NLSIU, Bengaluru.

Our alumni spent the day on campus re-connecting with batchmates, faculty, and other members of the NLS community, and celebrating their friendships and connections over the decades.

Schedule
Venue: OAB 101

• 11:00 am – 12:15 pm: Arrival
• 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm: Welcome Address
• Batch interaction with peers and Vice-Chancellor / Registrar (Hybrid Mode)
• 1:15pm – 1:30pm: Group Photo Session
• 1:30pm – 2:30pm: Lunch (Training Centre)
• 2:30pm – 3:30pm: Interaction with students
• 3:30pm onwards: Campus Walk

Reflections from our Alumni

Priya Pillai
International Lawyer 

“25 years since graduation. It sounds like such a cliché, but reuniting with our batchmates this weekend felt like absolutely no time had passed, and we were right back to those early years of exploration, discovery, and broadening our horizons! Our formative years were spent together at NLS, and have been crucial to our journeys, whether in the law or in other spheres.

My journey in international law has been far from linear – a zig zag path, with many ups and downs – and I credit NLS (or blame, depending on my mood!) for igniting the spark that got me interested in this area of the law, and for providing me opportunities such as the Jessup International law moot to solidify my interest and commitment to pursuing this in my professional life. Without NLS, my career and my life would have looked very different, I am sure.

Reliving our years on campus as well as spending quality time with old friends has been an absolute pleasure – time I will always cherish, with people I value highly for their friendship, their camaraderie, and our shared experiences and memories. …And now, the countdown to our 30th begins!”

Nandan Kamath
LawNK Partners 

“I came to NLSIU in 1995, having participated – and given up a potential career – in competitive sport. As I went through law school, I found myself falling in love again: this time with ideas, new imaginations and possibilities, and a community that both challenged and supported them.

Today, few of the original NLSIU faculty and staff members remain, buildings are being redeveloped, and new degrees added as the old ones are sharpened. Visits to a changing campus make me question what, if any, relationship I have with this stadium that I once played in. Then, as I walked down to the hostel, I felt the familiar texture of the pathways, I marvelled at the saplings and bamboo shoots that have now become trees, and I lingered at the old granite benches. Together, they said to me: ‘We don’t ask you who you’ve become, how you’ve changed, or if you think you’re winning. Welcome home.”

Diya Kapur
Senior Advocate

“Going back felt like going home.
NLS was where we grew up and grew into who we became. 30 years ago, we had walked into the gates as 18-year-olds, not sure what to expect. Five years later, we walked out of those gates having been transformed by the experience that was law school. We walked away as qualified lawyers confidently entering the world, and as humans, having formed the tightest bonds and best memories. Memories of endless hostel nights, studying, chatting, celebrating, sleeping, not sleeping, hours hanging out in the library, the quad, the breaks by the newspaper stand, the canteen, the friendships, the bonds, the sparring, the giggling, the conversations, the debates, the opinions and so much else.

25 years later when we drove into these gates, NLS felt different, yet the same. We had grown and NLS had grown. It was as if no time had passed, and yet it was clear that much time had passed. So much had been accomplished in that time. We had become a bunch of accomplished professionals. And NLS had accomplished new buildings, a fantastic new library, amphitheatre, faculty, and so much more. Sudhir (NLS Vice Chancellor) walked us through NLSIU’s journey and the plans for the future. We walked through the campus, journeying past the old and the new. Five hours later as we walked out of the gates this time, we felt warm and fuzzy, knowing that just like how we will keep growing, and yet pick up from where we left off 25 years ago, NLS too will keep growing, and yet something about it will always remain the same.”

Prof. Anil B. Suraj,
Public Policy, IIM Bangalore 

“NLSIU, Bengaluru pioneered the integrated legal education with its inaugural BA LLB (Hons) batch in 1988 and thereafter, the journey of Indian economy becoming liberalised began in 1991. In the year 2000, we graduated and entered into diverse business responsibilities entrusted to lawyers in a rapidly growing economy.

We are really happy that in the 25th year reunion, we got to congregate back on campus of our beloved alma mater. In the last couple of decades, we all have experienced various organisations and institutions. But I am very happy to find that each one of us still have the deepest love, respect, and gratitude for NLS! Our visit to the campus and detailed interaction with the University’s leadership showed our commitment to be part of the next round of development of NLS which continues to lead legal education across the world.

We were also fortunate to meet with a good number of students, many of whom were in their first year of various programmes at NLS. Their questions to us brought back many memories of our own excitement and expectations 30 years ago. As the millennium batch of NLS, we wish the students, staff, faculty and the entire NLS community the very best for the future!!”

Richa Naujoks (nee Gautam)
Senior Counsel, Hardware Solutions, Cytiva

“A bunch of almost 50-year-olds visited the NLS campus 25 years after we’d left it. Time, as it tends to, had marched on. Beloved old hostels were buried among a mushroom of new buildings, sparking heated controversy among three middle-aged ladies on whether we’d been in room 303 of the hostel building to our right, our left, or somewhere entirely different. Young lads who had helped us find a missing AIR or correctly cite it, now effortlessly wore lofty titles like Vice-Chancellor and Registrar and shared their vision for the University. But do you know what hadn’t changed? The serenity of campus on a Saturday afternoon, the school as a melting pot of people from all corners of India, the pride (still tinged with disbelief) that comes with the right to call ourselves students and alums of NLSIU. You know what else hadn’t changed one tiny bit? Us! Our friendships. These are relationships forged in the fires of midterm swotting, midnight hunger pangs, power cuts before project submissions, and mess food (note the absence of adjective as behooves the roomie of a former messcom member). These are the friends we’ve turned to for support to get through all of what the last 25 years has thrown at us. These relationships run deep.”