Career in Law

My first interview was given by a dynamic girl about her law career. She is working for Hawkins cookers, part of their legal department. She manages in-house legal work, for litigation, if it comes up, works with the help of external counsel. She joined as Management Trainee for the Legal Department. She earlier worked with a corporate law firm based on New Delhi.

Being always good in debating in school, she wanted to take up a career in law, despite 80% of her family being. She chose Allahabad University for its rich heritage. It is famous for producing noted lawyers of our country. Allahabad is the biggest high court in the country in terms of number of cases, and also the oldest court. After being in college, she realized Law was much more and actually started liking it. By 3^rd year, she decided she wants to be in corporate law.

BA, LLB (Honors) – 5 year integrated course - Allahabad University

• Entrance exam CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) for National Law Universities
• CLAT – NLUs (NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, NUJS Kolkata, NLU Delhi different exam) NLU Bhopal, Jodhpur), were 11 when she was studying. May be 19-20 right now.
• LLB curriculum – depends on universities, national and central universities difficult, private not much. If you fail a subject in central university, you have to give entire year. However in National university, you can give subject later, not missing entire year.
• Specializations only in masters. However in LLB, one can take up electives of choice
• Moot courts – Students are supposed to prepare and argue for a hypothetical case. The judges are real. The proceedings are brutal. The judges trash you and even throw files. If you are shy, you are not comfortable, these will make you shameless. Once you get used to it, you enjoy. She was a part of the national panel of Moot court society of my college. There are competitions Intra-college between seniors and juniors. These competitions go upto International level.
• During Semester breaks, students take up Internships since university did not offer during the course time. Normally people do 4, can go upto 10 if the student is looking to build a strong resume. 21 weeks for 5 years to be taken up in internships. Most of the students were children of lawyers and judges. They interned in courts or law firms.
• Many colleges don’t offer electives for corporate law but then you can do LLM for that. LLM offered by National universities – 1 year, central universities – 2 years.
• LLM not that popular in India. Not much incentive. You go into LLM if you want to get into teaching. Not better job prospects. Might be less. No use doing from abroad. Some law firms might look for exposure abroad
• Litigation and corporate law are two paths after LLB
• Campus placements are good - but not many students are interested in corporate law in Allahabad University, many looking towards litigation only. Since they tend to not join even after placement, the companies show disinterest in going for placement. In national universities, there are more people looking for corporate law. Almost every university carries out placements.

First Job Experience

Off campus was hard since freshers are not preferred. My first job was at India juris, a corporate law firm. The recruitment process was through telephonic and personal round of interviews. During personal interview, they gave a short draft to check.

She handled mostly drafting work – Joint venture agreements, funding, private equity, share capital. It was good. The working hours are crazy but that’s where you can learn the most. May go upto 9-10 hours on average. 9-10PM in the night.

Current Job

She had applied for Hawkins while in college. But only after 10 months, she got a call from them. After a written exam, she underwent Group Discussion and Personal Interview. She says she is satisfied with the work. She handles in-house legal work and whenever required handles external counsel for litigation. Her role demands attending court proceedings, gauging the work of vendors and managing them as well. Work load in corporates is comparatively relaxed. Though there are late hours sometimes, nothing that cannot be managed.

Normally people with court experience are only preferred for corporate job as well.

Sweet Spots

Being in the corporate, every day you do different, so many different cases, not at all routine, no chance of getting monotonous. Every case is different. She deals with IPR, negotiation instruments, taxation matters, criminal matters. Two cases can never be the same. In law firms, drafting might be monotonous. In case of Litigation firm, there is no chance of monotony.

Hardships

Practicing as lawyer is the most sought after option. It has unlimited money too. There are few struggling years but then there is no limit. You join some lawyer and learn under him. However there is uncertainty after initial struggle also. If you want to litigate, you need mentor or family. If you are starting your own practice, it is hard to get clients. Experience is preferred. Court procedures are different and so you have to understand through senior lawyer.

Coming to Corporate law, it is not popular in India. Its new and coming up.

Most painful part of law is you have to study your whole life, you will be immersed in books. Wherever you are, if you don’t update yourself, you can’t compete.

Paygrades

LPOs are firms similar to BPOs which handle outsourcing work for international firms. The pay starts around 3-4 lakhs. The work is clerical and mostly working with documents and sorting through relevance.

Banks hire freshers for 10-15 lpa. Top law firms offer 20-25 lakhs. They take written exams, selection based on technical interview, academics, internships, personality also. Since the candidate will be handling clients. The pay might go upto 30-40 lpa.

Snapdeal, Samsung were offering 12-15 lpa at the time of her placements. The pay is based on the size of the firm and also size of the legal team. Some firms look for smaller team and invest more in them.

Firms like Bajaj financial services may offer 22 lpa after 4-5 years.

Opportunities & Growth

Apart from litigation and corporate law, you can become a judge too after graduating. You have to give exams for becoming judges in district courts (TCSJ). Judges for high courts are promoted from district courts, but it takes a lot of time. Or else if you have been practicing for about 7 years as lawyer you are eligible to give exam for high court.

Most popular option is practice, second – judiciary, third – law firms and corporates, LPOs – least preferred.

Special Certifications

As per new laws, companies need to be more transparent and compliant. According to company laws in India, you need to have a CS full time or hire external CS. Regulatory compliances, rules pertaining to stock exchanges taken care by the CS.

Similar to CAs, CS has an institute and you have to undergo exams and training before taking up CS. There are 3 levels, Foundation level, Executive and Professional. The exams conducted twice a year. You have to clear everything in one attempt. You can choose the modules. On average, people take 4-5 years and then they have to undergo training by companies authorized by the institute for 3 years. If one clears CS after law, they could get a role with both legal and secretarial responsibilities.

"Law plays a major role in the society. Accountability of the corporates and individuals is taken care by law practitioners. To strive in this field, you should have good negotiation skills, confidence, oratory skills. Desire to learn is very important, laws evolve, you can’t be stagnate. Be updated"