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CAREER OPTIONS AVAILABLE AFTER LAW
The various career options available after law include the following:
CORPORATE COUNSEL
Several law students opt to work with the in-house legal department of a corporate after graduating from law school. Legal managers play a critical role in the functioning of a company, and are responsible for drafting, vetting, and in several cases, negotiating contracts for the company, ensuring and monitoring compliance with laws, and handling legal disputes that the company may be involved in. Corporate counsel are required to interact with several different functions in a company, understand business and operations needs, and serve these needs in a manner that is both suitable and legal. Exposure to some of the best legal minds in the country is a given, as corporate counsel 'brief' leading lawyers who appear for the company in courts and tribunals. GE Capital, ICICI Bank, ITC, IBM, Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, Dr. Reddy's, Biocon, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG and HLL are some corporate giants that frequent law school campus recruitment programmes.
LITIGATION
The traditional career path for a lawyer, is to "go into practice", or join the chambers of a senior advocate as his junior. The traditional image of a lawyer is based on this career option. Regarded by many as the true calling of a lawyer, this option involves arguing in court on a daily basis, and applying your mind to a plethora of different issues in order to win the case for your client. There is, of course, scope for specialisation even in this field - some lawyers practice criminal law, some company law and at a later stage, even constitutional law. A legal practice is much the same as a medical practice - if one serves the needs of clients well, they will return and refer others to you, and one's reputation will grow, so that even more clients are attracted to you. Typically, a junior works with a senior to gain experience, until he is proficient in the profession. After that, one stays a junior, more or less permanently, or, as the more successful ones do, one can either inherit one's senior's practice when he retires, or split away to establish one's own practice.
WORKING IN A LAW FIRM
A law firm is usually a partnership between lawyers who have come together to offer their expertise to clients under one name. These partners share the profits of the firm as well as the risks (liabilities), and engage other lawyers to work with them as associates. These associates can work at the firm for a period of time, and, provided they establish their competence at work, can even become partners at the firm and share in the profits and management of the firm. Law firms cater to the interests of companies and private individuals alike, though most of the large law firms deal exclusively with corporate houses, i.e. companies. Work at a law firm involves dealing with a wide variety of problems that may or may not be restricted to a particular area of the law (depending on the specialisation and culture of the firm).
Major law firms have separate litigation and corporate departments. The litigation department deals with the disputes which the firm's clients are involved in. Working in the litigation department of a law firm or in a firm that does mainly litigation entails interaction with leading lawyers and a feel of the world of court practice. The corporate departments of law firms advise companies on the corporate deals which they are involved in, such as acquisitions of companies, important inter-company agreements, investment in India by foreign clients, financing of massive projects undertaken by clients and so on.
Major law firms, both Indian and foreign, recruit from the top Indian law schools. Among the major recruiters from the domestic legal schools are top law firms such as Amarchand Mangaldas Suresh A. Shroff & Co, AZB Partners, J.Sagar & Associates, and Luthra & Luthra Law Offices. Foreign law firms that recruit from Indian law schools include the UK-based Linklaters Alliance, the Singapore-based Khattar & Wong, and others. Recruits join as junior associates and are promoted based on performance.
SOCIAL ADVOCATES
Law schools often include several courses designed to address relevant social issues in their course curriculum, including gender concerns, caste-based discrimination, employment, working conditions, environmental protection and the marginalisation of various peoples. Most law schools take this a step further: NLS, for example, deals with these matters in detail through the Centre for the Child and the Law (CCL), the Centre for Women and the Law (CWL), the Centre for Law and Economic Analysis and Research (CLEAR) and the Centre for Environmental Law Education Research and Advocacy (CEERA). These centres address such issues through various research projects and action plans. Students work with professors on the same projects and the Government often takes the assistance of these centres. The effect of such exposure is reflected in the fact that a sizeable number of law school students join Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that work with these issues. Graduates from law school are also offered opportunities to work with international organisations such as the United Nations and with international war and crime tribunals.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AFTER LAW
A graduate of a good law school takes away skills that are applicable in almost any walk of life. Skills such as good communication, problem solving, risk identification, and dispute resolution are priceless in the world of business. If you dig business management then there is a road ahead! There are three broad routes you could think of - one is gunning for a business management job immediately after law school; the second is making the shift from a legal job to a business management job; and the third is to go do an MBA.
THE LPO REVOLUTION
In the recent few years the global spending on legal services has been estimated to be over $250 billion (of which about two-third is accounted in the United States alone. With such demand for legal services, corporations and law firms need to handle the large volumes while keeping costs in check and maintaining profitability. This is where Legal Processing Outsourcing ("LPO") comes into the picture wherein core legal functions are delegated to external counsel to complete the assigned task on the basis of set parameters and fixed timelines.
India, with its large pool of English proficient lawyers trained in common law, is poised to service 60% of the global Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) requirement, estimated to be $4.5 billion by 2010.
Now you may be wondering, what exactly does an LPO do or more specifically what would you do in an LPO?
Let us first understand the operations of an LPO and the nature of work the do. An LPO is an offshore unit, undertaking legal work assigned by in which in-house legal departments or organisations from areas where it is costly to perform, such as the United States or Europe to areas where it can be performed at a significantly decreased cost, primarily India.
The array of work, which, you may have to undertake while working in an LPO, would range from High-end legal research and drafting briefs, memorandums and commercial contracts to Litigation support work like evidence related work and first level document review.
RESEARCH AND ACADEMIA
In a National Law School, a law students develops a personality where he not just follows up whatever is given to him, in his zest for learning the rules governing the country, but also digs deep into all possibilities of a given situation, for example when a Union Budget is passed by the Parliament, he wont just go through it and feel okay about how the funds were allocated, rather he will form an opinion, a critical one at times and would not be afraid to air it, by sharing the same with some of the best Publishers, Web portals. Given the high knowledge content and the out of the box thinking pattern reflected in the article, the result is often that it gets published in the National journals needless to say there are obvious incentives attached to such articles.
Research in a law school is not just confined to a specific field; today an average law student has to conduct studies and examine issues on diverse fields ranging from Intellectual Property Rights, Environment Law, Space Law, to International Arbitration.
The second stage is publication and presentation of ones works at the International Arena in publications like International Law Journals such as Harvard Law Journal, Oxford University Law Journal etc. which brings along with it recognition on the international arena and $$$$. The incentives and perquisites for your hard work dont just end there, when the countrys top most Corporate, Law firms etc. throng your college, what will make you stand out among you classmates and put you in high stead with these recruiters will be these initiative which you would have taken in your days as a law student. Standing evidence to this is the hundreds of National Law School Alumnus, who are working with International organizations like International Court of Justice, UNICEF, Amnesty International etc obviously because of their inventiveness, but some credits also goes to research conducted by them during their Law School days.
Academics, Pursuing teaching as career option comes good to those who have a desire and a passion for it, National law School Alumnus form the part of countries best faculties throughout the Top National Law Schools of the country.
CAREER IN JUDICIARY
There are two avenues open to become a member of the judiciary. The first and better known one is to start a litigation practice and hope to get elevated to the bench. The other option is to participate in the competitive process for the judicial services.
Every High Court has under its supervision the members of the subordinate judiciary of the state(s) over which this High Court has jurisdiction. Members of the subordinate judiciary (popularly known as the judicial service or the PCS (J)-Provincial Civil Service-Judicial) occupy the offices of the presiding officers of various courts right up to the post of District Judge. There are several attractive features of these judicial services including handsome perks and privileges which include among others- rent free accommodation, fuel allowances, subsidized electricity and water supplies, telephone allowances and bursaries for children's education. These are significantly better then those of civil service officers. Add to this the increased remuneration structures of the 6th Pay Commission and you've got a highly rewarding job on your hands-and the best part is yet to come. Unlike administrators or police officers, judicial officers almost always have postings in district headquarters so they never have to serve in remote areas. This allows them to have a reasonably enjoyable lifestyle too.
The judicial services have two entry levels. The first is for fresh graduates through an entrance exam conducted by the respective state public service commissions (UP, MP, Rajasthan etc.) or the High Court ( Delhi). The syllabus for these exams can be found on the website of the commissions and includes law subjects along with English, general knowledge and the local language of the state. An entry through this avenue assures you of time based promotions and a secured employment early on in your career.
The second avenue through which you may join the judicial service is known as the Higher Judicial Service (HJS). This service is open for lawyers with a certain prescribed minimum years of litigating practice, usually seven. Applicants have to appear for a competitive examination for entry to the HJS the syllabus for which is similar to the one described above. The advantage with this option is that if selected the applicant gets posted as an additional district judge which significantly hastens promotional prospects.
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