Law as a profession : Article in the Without Reserve
Article in the current issue of Without Reserve
Career Opportunities in the Legal Profession
By Jayanti Ghose
Education and Career
Consultant
Most people believe that lawyers work in law firms or are
self-employed or work with a senior lawyer in private practice.
Some might ask whether a lawyer is a criminal layer or a
divorce lawyer or a civil lawyer. Beyond that people are not
really aware that legal professionals can hold a variety of jobs
in diverse workplaces and industries.
There are many opportunities for lawyers and there are
different kinds of lawyers. There are jobs for lawyers in the
legal departments of all kinds of businesses and industries,
both private and public, including insurance companies, banks,
security companies, forensic services, investigation services,
media companies, regulatory bodies and so on.
The government is a major employer of
lawyers as are the defence services.
Why choose a career in law?
People choose to pursue a career in law for a
variety of reasons:
■ To influence and persuade people
■ Apply rules and regulations
■ To protect people
■ For pursuing social justice
■ Solving problems
■ Fighting for people wrongly accused /
convicted
■ To make a difference
Skills required
■ Commercial awareness which includes
knowledge of current local, national, and
global business developments to appreciate
the social, political and economic issues
impacting a client’s financials.
■ Attention to detail as accuracy is critical in
a legal career
■ Communication skills- oral and written
skills along with strong listening skills- the
willingness to listen, to be persuasive,
negotiating skills and ability to explain
complex information to a client or in court.
■ Teamwork- the ability to deal with people
from all levels of the legal hierarchy.
■ Organising skills are vital for a career in
law. One has to manage case files, meetings
with clients, be able to prioritise while
remaining focused.
■ Research and information analysis are
vital for lawyers. One must have the ability to
read large volume of information, absorb it,
analyse the material, and identify the relevant
aspects out of all the information.
■ Problem solving skills- lawyers must be
creative problem solvers as the easiest or
the most obvious way is not always the best
course of action to get a positive outcome for
a client.
■ Ability to work under pressure, to take
the initiative, to be independent, resilient and
self-confident are other useful skills.
■ A healthy dose of scepticism is useful
for lawyers so they must take time to verify information about which they are not certain or confident.
■ Perseverance and enthusiasm for lifelong
learning is a must-have for success in law.
In our tech-enabled world, lawyers must also
be aware and familiar with the specialised
software or software tools in the sphere
of document management, project
management, database management, billing
etc. to manage their work effectively
Legal education options
The most direct entry into a career in law is
through the Five-Year Integrated Law degree
programme- BA LLB (Hons)/ BBA LLB (Hons)
and equivalent course, after 10+2 in any
discipline at various national and state level
law universities and the various law colleges
under different universities.
Admission is based on an entrance test.
Prominently, CLAT* (Common Law Admission
Test) conducted by the Consortium
of National Law Universities (https://
consortiumofnlus.ac.in/) which includes more
than 20 law universities in the country.
Some of the other universities /deemed to be
universities may also accept the CLAT scores
to shortlist applicants to their five-year
integrated law degree programme.
In addition, a few law universities also conduct
their own entrance tests and some states
have state level common entrance tests for
law admission.
Notifications of the law entrance tests may
appear from September onwards and the
test may be scheduled between December
and May. This means that students in class
12th would have to be on the lookout for
the admission notification while in the first
semester of class 12 for admission to the
course commencing in June-July the following
year.
The other route for legal training is through a
3-year LLB degree course open to graduates
of different disciplines in a limited number
of universities in the country, including Delhi University, Mumbai University, Pune
University, Jindal Global University, etc.
Admission to these universities is either
based on a university entrance examination
or a state level common entrance test or
LSAT-India
While the shortlisting of suitable candidates
for admission to the five-year integrated law
degree course after class 12, or the three-
year law degree course after graduation,
may be based on performance in an entrance
examination, the final selection would take
into account prior academic record of the
student, extra-curricular activities and
achievements, as well.
Specialised areas of law
Corporate law, contract law, bankruptcy
law, family law, immigration law, criminal law,
estate law, civil law, constitutional law, labour
law, environmental law, entertainment and
media law, healthcare, insolvency, intellectual
property rights law are among the fields of
specialised practice in law.
Right after a five-year or a 3-year law
degree, a law graduate may be hired to work
in any area of law based on the employers’
requirements. Based on the area of their
legal work experience, they gather specialised
experience and knowledge to continue their
career in the same field.
Taking up a masters/ doctoral degree would
be advisable for law graduates who wish
to pursue a career in teaching, advising and
consulting in a specialised area of law.
Employment prospects
The judicial services examinations in every
state recruit fresh law graduate at junior
levels in the State Judiciary, while lawyers
with three or more years of experience
may apply for the senior level of the State
Judiciary. Lawyers/ Advocates with at least
ten or more years of experience may be
shortlisted for openings as judges of the High
Court, while some may be promoted through
the state judicial service, especially those who
joined at an early age.
The defence services recruit law graduates
into the Judge Advocate General cadre
through their own selection process as
indicated in their recruitment notification.
Engineers and scientists may also work in the
legal field in the areas of intellectual property
rights, while law graduates with a technical/
scientific education work as patent lawyers.
Regulatory authorities such as RBI, SEBI,
PFRDA, TRAI, etc. also employ lawyers.
Major law firms hire directly from the
campuses of prominent national and state
level law universities and the legal faculty of
the prominent and reputed universities in the
country. These lawyers are placed in various
departments of a law firm such as litigation,
mergers and acquisitions, property, finance,
labour, family law, environmental law, etc.
Teaching law is an important opportunity
for a legal professional, not just at a law
college/ university, but in different colleges
and universities and departments where
law courses are part of the curriculum of
business, commerce, etc. Most consulting
firms also recruit lawyers as do NGOs, and
social welfare organisations.
Prospects
Studying to be a lawyer requires hard work,
long hours, and continuous learning to stay
updated on the new laws, policies, changes
and trends in the legal environment.
Law is an interesting discipline which has
universal application as law governs a large
part of our lives. Law is never boring and no
two cases are the same. Each case throws
up problems and challenges, and law is
intellectually challenging and constantly
stimulates the mind. There are rarely any
ready or easy, clear-cut solutions and each
case requires careful consideration and
different perspectives. Thinking out of the
box is vital.
With the rapid growth of AI-powered legal
software tools advancing upon us, the
challenge for law firm managers, practitioners
and partners is to determine what best suits
their needs.
Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) is
a good opportunity for those with legal
training and is known as LPO or legal process
outsourcing. Indian LPOs usually offer services
in the areas of contract management,
document review, legal research, deposition
summaries, litigation documents, patent
renewals, patent analytics, IP support
services, data verification, IP records, patent
research, trademark renewals, trademark
watching, digital content watching, trademark
search, etc. A few of them such as legal
transcription, legal coding and indexing, etc.
are manpower intensive work while patent
and general legal research services are high
value services.
A law graduate may choose not to take up a
job directly in the legal profession, but use the
degree in social and business environments,
management, advisory, sales, marketing, HR,
recruitment, writing, journalism, media and
coaching, based on one’s aspirations, and
circumstances.
Bright and confident people with strong
communicative skills who are not lawyers, but
may be pharmacists, scientists, engineers,
doctors, accountants, as also any graduate /
postgraduate can look for work in law firms in
specialised and administrative roles.
A lawyer’s work is challenging and the higher
your responsibilities, the longer are the hours
you work and consequently your earnings.
Specialised and diverse work experiences,
enthusiasm, resilience, perseverance,
energy and continued learning are the keys
to success and advancement in the legal
profession.
*My grandson (son of Reshmy Warrier) secured rank 213 in CLAT 2022 and is waiting for college allotment.-M G Warrier
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