Law

Career in Law
Qualifications in law offer attractive career avenues today. Judiciary has a very important role to play in India, which has further increased the importance of legal education. Traditionally, education in law has been considered a prestigious professional qualification alongwith medical science and engineering. Education in management science is the latest edition to this list. Legal education offers varied openings and gone are the days when a law graduate could only go in for legal practice or be a judge by joining judicial services.

Prospects
LL.B. (Bachelor of Law) is the basic degree in legal education and offers many openings. Legal practice is one of the most common one. A law graduate, after completing LL.B. can get himself/herself enlisted in the local/State/Central Bar Council to start private practice. In absence of any practical and procedural training offered by most of the universities, the lawyers have to first get a little bit of experience in consultation with some senior advocate before starting the work independently. Depending upon the aptitude and specialisation, one could start practicing in civil or criminal cases, or even both. Several law graduates prefer to specialise in only one of the above aspects. Today, the number of lawyers who specialise and practice in tax laws including the income tax, wealth tax and commercial law is increasing. Professionals dealing exclusively with the labour laws are also on the rise. Another dimension added to the conventional legal practice is setting up of legal firms/companies or even consultancies. There are several legal consultancies today which specialise in the matters like patents, trademarks, sales tax or even foreign exchange. The number of such consultancies and the services offered by them are increasing rapidly in the metropolitan and industrial cities.

Another opening in legal profession is the service with the Government or corporate sector. State judicial services is one avenue to which recruitment is made by way of a competitive examination conducted by the State Public Service Commissions. Minimum academic qualification is a degree in law and the selected candidates are appointed as Sub-Judge or Munsif. Such candidates may rise to the levels of Chief Judicial Magistrate, District and Sessions Judge or even as Judge of the High Court, depending upon the seniority and vacancies. Even after practising as a lawyer for a specified number of years, one can directly be appointed as a Additional District and Sessions Judge or even a Judge in the High Court, provided that in the opinion of the Governor/President, the candidate is considered to be suitable to hold such position.

In addition, Government sector also provides job opportunities to the law graduates as Public Prosecutors, Solicitors, Deputy/Additional Advocate Generals or even Advocate Generals. Most of the State governments hold the competitive examination for selection of the Public Prosecutors/District Attorneys. At times, it is also held along with the Judicial Service Examination. However, the Advocate Generals are appointed by the Governor of the State. In addition, the Government also needs certain Law Officers, Legal Assistants and Legal Advisers in many departments. Labour Officers in the Labour Departments of the State Governments are also law graduates with specialisation in labour laws. Recruitment to all posts is made through the Public Service Commissions and in some cases where recruitment is done regularly and the number of candidates is large, a competitive examination is organised.

Various Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), both in the States as well as at the Centre, need several Law Officers, Legal Assistants and even Managers (Legal Services). Law graduates with specialisation in labour laws or company laws are preferred in such cases. Law graduates are also required by the JAG (Judge Advocate General) Branch of Army Headquarters for handling the legal matters, Court Martials etc. Law professionals in this case are selected as Commissioned Officers in the regular ranks. But they have to undergo Services Selection Board (SSB) interview for judging their suitability for service in the Armed Forces. The SSB interview is a comprehensive test of one's personality in which leadership traits of the person concerned are judged.

One of the latest and most lucrative career option is offered to the Law Professionals by the recent boom in trade and industry. The corporate sector is fraught with many legal hitches, offered by the environment, government competitors as well as other institutional factors. Hence, legal management, which was hitherto considered part of Personnel Management, has emerged as an independent managerial functions and most of the forward looking companies now have their independent legal departments, usually headed by a Vice-President or a General Manager. With the policy of liberalisation and globalisation of Indian economy, the Corporate sector is expected to face much more legal complexities which would increase the demand for legal professionals manifold. Even the big multi-national corporations coming to India have to depend heavily on their legal department for various clearances, forex matters and labour laws.

Teaching is yet another option. Law graduates with good percentage and a good aptitude and taste for teaching, may also go in for LL.M (Post graduations) or even D.L. or LL.D (Doctorate). The teaching job can be taken up in any University or Institute offering law courses to students.

Academic Study
Conventionally, LL.B. study is taken up after doing graduation in any stream. The three years LL.B. course, after graduation, enables a candidate to become a law professional. Hence the Bar Council of India has now decided to introduce a five-year integrated law programme after 10+2 level. After completion of this programme, a candidate would be awarded a degree of LL.B. Many Universities/Institutions in India have already switched over to this new system. Among these are: Mohan Lal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, Kerala University, Osmania University, Calcutta University, Madurai Kamraj University, Symbosis Societys Law College at Pune, Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, M.D. University Rohtak, Calicut University, Pondicherry University, Andhra University, Shivaji University Kolhapur, Nagpur University and Jodhpur University.

The admission procedure and rules adopted by various Universities are different. Some of the universities have also started the method of having an entrance examination for LL.B. Courses, but this practice is not very common. The minimum requirement of marks at the 10+2/graduation level is also different.

One of the most prestigious degrees in law is given by the National Law School Bangalore, sponsored by the BarCouncil of India. It is a five-year integrated programme taken up after 10+2 level. The admission is granted on the basis of an entrance test. To be eligible, a candidate must have secured at least 50 per cent marks in any discipline at 10+2 level and should not be more than years of age. National Law School (NLS) has a few examination centres for entrance examination at places like Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore and Pune. The entrance examination is objective type in nature and is only in English medium. The questions invariably cover the areas like Reasoning, General Awareness, Numerical Aptitude, Legal Aptitude and Preliminary Political Science.

NLS offers one of the best LL.B. degrees in the country. Even post graduate courses are offered at the School. Teaching is not restricted to the conventional class-room methods only and adopts innovative ways to make the study of law more practical and interesting. Methods like case studies, mock court procedures and mock trials are resorted to with a view to make the understanding easy and observing. Most of the law graduates of NLS, who wish to take up salaried jobs, are picked up by many private concerns by way of campus interviews. Even those who decide to go in for Government jobs or private practice, have been doing exceptionally well.

The aspiring candidates must prepare well on the aspects like General Awareness, Reasoning, Numerical Aptitude and basic knowledge of Political Science and Indian Polity. All the above information is available in plenty in "The Competition Master" month after month. Aspirants are advised to start early and continue to be in touch even after their selection, particularly if they wish to go in for competitive examinations after the LL.B.

In addition to LL.B. degree, many universities and institutes also offer other diploma courses in several disciplines of law, including Administrative Law, International Law, Labour Laws, Tax Laws and Corporate Laws. These diplomas may be useful in specialising in any one of the above aspects, particularly for MBAs, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and other such professionals. A graduate degree in law with any of the above professional degrees is of great advantage, particularly when seeking a good job in the corporate sector.

There are many universities which offer law degrees by correspondence or open education system. Normally such degrees are called BGL (Bachelor of General Laws), BAL (Bachelor of Academic Law) or even LL.B. (Academic). Annamalai University, Madurai Kamraj University, Kurukshetra University and Jammu University are some of the universities offering such law degrees. But this must be understood clearly that such degree do not entitle anyone to practice in any court of law and such law graduates may be eligible for doing legal and related work in the corporate sector only.

The opportunities available to law graduates are ample and a person with such a degree can straightaway go in for legal practice or seek a Government or Corporate job. After an initial struggle for a few years, during which time the lawyers try to understand the procedural and practical aspects, private practice become highly paying and one can choose the courts at Sub-Division/Taluka/Tehsil Level, District Level, State Level or even at the Central Level (Supreme Court). But one thing must be kept in mind. One has to have a certain type of aptitude to be successful in legal profession. The candidates willing to do well must cultivate the required aptitude. Such an aptitude includes good communication skillsboth written as well as oralgood listening and understanding capability, regular reading and having general awareness of happenings in the country as well as around the world. The technological development has also influenced the legal profession where computers have made deep inroads in a big way and in the years to come, computers will be increasingly used in legal profession. Hence, a good knack of the handling computers is also a must.