“I don’t feel stupid, just inadequate. After three years of studying the law, I’m very much aware of how little I know.” John Grisham, the Rainmaker
Before dealing with the question of role of lawyers and law firms in the development of legal education, it would be pertinent to understand what legal education actually signifies. The concept of legal education should be understood in a holistic way rather than following a narrowapproach. In a layman’s understanding, law should be read only by those, who plan to pursue a career in law or in other words, legal profession. However, now the time has come when every individual should have basic legal education and the law students should know more than the bookish law. Law is so closely interwoven with our daily lives that we cannot severe it in any manner. Whatever we do some or the other law is related with almost every aspect of our daily existence. As Frédéric Bastiat said, “Life, liberty and property do not exist because men made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”
It is horrendous to imagine a lawyer admitting something contrary to his case and being thrown out of court within a minute. The situation becomes graver in criminal cases where even a slight mistake can turn the outcome of a case. A single mistake in drafting a legal notice may ruin a case while an error in a plaint or a written statement may ultimately be the cause for a person losing a case. A single wrong question in cross examination may again be the sole cause for a party losing a civil case or in his getting convicted in a criminal case.
However, in the last one decade, the system and manner of legal education have undergone tremendous positive change and the credit goes primarily to the principle of ‘demand of quality lawyers’ occasioned on account of socio-economic and political developments in the country; which has led to the setting up of high standard supply chain in the form of national law schools. However, we need to check that these law students should not get into another extreme of commercialisation of legal profession, which is today being referred as ‘legal business’; and it should not happen that we prove John Grisham’s following quote right, “All students enter law school with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the public, but after three years of brutal competition, we care for nothing but the right job with the right firm, where we can make partner in seven years and earn big bucks.”
The role of lawyers and law firms in enhancing the quality of legal education and strengthening legal system emanates from the principle of corporate social responsibility. Being a responsible corporate citizen, it is our responsibility to serve society in whatever way we can. What can be a better way to do so than to improve legal education and awareness, which would ultimately result in a better law and order situation resulting in a happy society?
Legal associates, who are working in law firms, can enrich students with their practical expertise. There is a vast difference between a class-room and the court room. At the same time, our existing syllabus is not in conformity with the industry’s requirements. Plethora of new legislations have come up which are not included in most college syllabus’s at all.
Various law firms contribute in the development of legal education in different ways, which are both conventional and novel. Internship
Some of the top national law schools have started compulsory internship or training programme for their students to equip them with practical aspects and intricacies of law. For this, they are placing their students with law firms and advocates. However, if we trace back the importance and history of such training programmes, we find that before the Advocates Act, 1961 was enacted, there was a system by which a law graduate had to undergo training by way of apprenticeship in the chambers of a lawyer for one year and pass a separate bar examination conducted by the Bar Council on the subjects of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898.
It was only after a law graduate successfully completed his apprenticeship and the bar examination that he became eligible to be enrolled as an advocate. This provision was even continued in original Advocates Act. However in the year 1964, the provision of apprenticeship and bar test was omitted by way of amendment.
When the same was reintroduced by way of the rule making power of the Bar Council of India (BCI), Supreme Court held that BCI can not reintroduce provision of apprenticeship by way of rule making power. In other words, it requires amendment of Advocates Act. However, in the same case, Supreme Court has accepted the recommendation of Justice Ahmedi Committee and inter-alia observed that training under senior advocates, with a view to equip them with court craft and to make them future efficient officers of the court, became a felt need and there cannot be any dispute on this aspect.
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