“The study of the law is useful in a variety of points of view. It qualifies a man to be useful to himself, to his neighbours, and to the public…” Thomas Jefferson
(A) With the advent of globalization and the consequent revolution in international trade with increasing participation and involvement of countries, the ramifications for the legal service sector have been quantitative as well as qualitative. There has been a spurt in the activities in areas such as project financing, intellectual property protection, environmental protection, competition law, corporate taxation, infrastructure contract, corporate governance etc. The first step is to choose from the following two basic options:
If you have well-developed public-speaking and writing skills, you could consider pursuing advocacy. Advocates represents a party (be it an individual, group of individuals or a company) in a court of law. They present the facts of the case to the judge, cross examine witnesses, and sum up the reasons as to why the court should decide in their clients’ favour. Litigation practice encompasses a vast genre of cases from Constitutional matters to commercial, civil and criminal work.
Although it takes time to build up independent credibility and to establish one’s practice, but if you are able to cope up with the long gestation period and are willing to work hard, then advocacy or litigation practice is a lucrative option. At the other end of the spectrum, recent trends indicate that not many prefer to take up litigation practice these days owing to poor working conditions in the district courts.
Alternatively you can opt to work in a law firm, or even in the legal department of a multinational organization as a legal advisor. In this capacity, you will be expected to counsel your clients as to their legal rights and obligations and suggest the appropriate course of action.
Popularly referred to as the “Corporate Law Practice”, it primarily involves two key requirements, ie, advising on (i) compliance with various corporate laws/corporate governance; and (ii) key business transactions. Nowadays, the full-service law firms are primarily engaged in negotiating and drafting of various contracts and agreements. These documents range from loan instruments, infrastructural contracts to project finance contracts and joint venture and technology transfer contracts. In the recent past, this practice has been offering better prospects since there is a significant demand- supply gap.
Once this decision is made, the second step is to select the area or stream of law to work in. Today’s legal market has changed tremendously, and the options available after gaining a degree in law are immense, and are continuously growing. Today, you can pursue a lucrative career in wide-ranging areas, viz, corporate law, intellectual property law, environmental law, human rights law and labour law, just to name a few alternatives.
(A) It is often said that “there are many ‘professions’ within the profession of law”, and rightly so! In other words, there are several fields or areas in which a lawyer may specialise in. For instance:
(A) While pursuing the LLB Degree, you can pursue several extra-curricular activities which will go a long way in boosting your qualifications and improving your career and/or education prospects.
As per Bar Council of India’s ‘Rules on Legal Education’, Universities have been asked to adopt a “Practical Training Scheme”, comprising Moot Court; Observance of Trial; Interviewing Techniques and Pre-trial Preparations. Accordingly, various law schools now provide an opportunity to participate in the following activities:
‘Moot Court’ is an exercise which is a way of improving critical thinking skills, presentation skills, participation skills, the skills to work as a team, in addition to enhancing students’ knowledge of law. In order to succeed in this activity, you should know how to analyze the facts of the case in regard to the subject of the case and be able to apply the law to the particular facts. Moot court problems cover wide-ranging topics from Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure Code to Contract Act and Companies Act, and so on.
Now-a-days various law schools, especially the National Law Schools, offer plenty of opportunities to participate in Intra and Inter- School Moot Court Competitions.
The law syllabi of various law schools now also offer the students an opportunity to engage in mock interviewing sessions of clients in the Lawyers’ Office/Legal Aid Office and record the proceedings thereof in a diary.
In a lawyer – client meeting, the client conveys his problem and concerns to the lawyer. The lawyer in turn listens, jots down notes and questions the client for the relevant information. This sharing of information, through verbal communication is called ‘interviewing’.
(A) In case you choose advocacy as a career, then you will be essentially required to plead in various courts/ tribunals etc, and be actively involved in litigation. You will have to begin as a junior or assistant to an Advocate, undertaking routine work like filing, researching, drafting notices, securing adjournments and, of course, attending court with your senior. Gradually you will graduate to drafting of suits and applications etc. After acquiring sufficient drafting experience, you will be expected to participate actively in court, by making appearances before judges and arguing the matter.
In the event you choose to begin your career by working in a law firm, then you will be required to give legal advice to clients on a wide range of subjects. Initially you will join as a junior associate in a firm gaining experience in a variety of matters, from company laws to taxation, under the guidance of senior associates and partners. Here as well, after years of experience, you may rise to the level of a senior associate and subsequently become one of the partners of the firm, in which position you will be directly involved in dealing with the clients.
(A) An internship is an integral part of legal education and contributes to both the professional and personal growth of a budding lawyer.
One of the most challenging struggles which a student of law faces is to gain work experience during the period of the LLB course. Law is a practise-oriented profession, and fortunately nowadays, several law schools lay emphasis on exposure to law firms/ lawyers. Law firms and lawyers also find internships a useful mode to identify prospective employees. Many firms have well chalked out internship programs in place and eventually recruit from the pool of students who have interned with them.
Internships are essential both for litigation and corporate-law related careers.
Therefore, the significance of internships for law students can hardly be over-emphasised. Some of the benefits of an internship have been listed below:
(A) There are plenty of employment opportunities for those who have successfully completed their legal education. An LLB degree, together with work experience, will make you eligible for a variety of employment opportunities such as Government services, State judicial services and defence services.
Legal education has been a part of India ever since the ancient Vedic times when the concept of dharma (rule of law) was the prevailing norm. In 1987, the system of legal education underwent a classical reformation with the establishment of NLSIU Bangalore and the introduction of the 5 year law course. Today, when the world is on the verge of becoming a global village, India feels the need to produce more competent lawyers from the global perspective who could rub shoulders with the lawyers in the international market. But whether the Indian legal education is heading in the right direction is the question which needs to be answered. Prof. R. Venkata Rao, Vice Chancellor of NLSIU Bangalore shares his views on the present system of legal education in India with us…
I have absolutely no complains if we compare the education standards of earlier times with today. Today we find that there are schools of excellence traditional universities and National Law Schools. But the major difference between today and earlier times is that the students are joining these law colleges by choice and not by chance. Earlier, law colleges used to be like the parking lot which had vehicles which could not be parked elsewhere. Today, the doors of opportunity for the students pursuing law have opened in such a way that the brightest young minds of the country are choosing law. So, we could conclude that the standard of legal education in India is as good as any of the best in the world
Well, the selection process in all law schools and colleges is based on merit only. In law colleges other than National law schools, they have independent entrance examinations whereas in National Law schools, the students appear for the CLAT (Combined Law Admission Test) after 10 + 2. In the other law colleges, the selection is based on merit only; the only difference is that the number of applicants would be less. Therefore, all law schools admit students on the basis of merit only .Whereas in National Law schools, the competition is tougher.
I basically believe that technology is a good servant but a bad master.We can make use of technology e.g. we could have a virtual classroom where we could have the best individual faculty members from various law schools all over the country. Students from all over the country could have access to the best lectures of law and that would be one way of taking the best advantage of technology which would take excellent legal education to the doorstep of every law student.
This is an idea whose time has come and it is a step in the right direction. Thanks to the Supreme Court of India. There is nothing new about a professional body conducting an examination. In the western countries, the job of the universities is to divide the curriculum and impart education but as far as the professional standards are concerned, a separate examination is conducted. What the Bar Council of India’s agenda seems to be is to produce quality professionals and to give effect to that, they are going to conduct the said examination twice in a year.
Oh certainly! In fact, we should congratulate the Union Ministry for Law and the Chief Justice of India whose objective is to bring qualitative excellence in legal education again and in that regard, establishing a national law school in every state seems apt. As a matter of fact, fifteen years ago, in a meet at Bhubaneswar, the then Chief Justice of India had suggested this idea of establishing a national law school at the capital of every state. Schools like NLSIU would be more than happy to share their expertise with these law schools so that quality legal education reaches to every part of the country.
Well, it is not that there is no standard in the existing LL.M programmes in India. The incentive for youngsters to go abroad to pursue their LL.M, apart from the international exposure, is the duration of the course which is a little more that one year whereas in India, the duration is two years. In fact, that is the reason why the UGC is giving a very serious thought to it. The 1 year LL.M programme is already on the anvil and next academic year onwards, the 1 year LL.M. programme might be launched in India. The day this one year LL.M programme is introduced in India, it will definitely dissuade the youngsters from going abroad to pursue their LL.M.. Therefore, it is not only because of the difference in standards. . After having done 10+2+5, the duration factor attracts the young lawyers the most. Therefore, the move of UGC of introducing one year LL.M is also a step in the right direction.
I would give you the example of NLSIU being established in 1987 which was the first chapter of modern legal education in India. Now, after twenty-three years, as Mr. Veerappa Moily has correctly said, this is the beginning of the second generation of reforms of legal education and we plan to produce law graduates who can match in quality with those law graduates coming out of the best law schools in the world because it is almost universally agreed that if not today, at least tomorrow the legal profession as a result of globalization has to open further.
My only message to all the upcoming lawyers and to those who are already there in the profession is that the legal profession is the only profession to be mentioned in the Constitution of India. When I say this, it means that all of them have onerous responsibility on their shoulders to fulfill the constitutional mandate which is to protect the dignity of human beings and to ensure that social, economic and political justice is done. Let us not forget about our social responsibility and social accountability and as ‘Lex Witness’ is conducting this, through you I pass this message that these law graduates should be ‘witnesses’ to a new era of prosperity in the country. …as told to Avinash Mohapatra
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