How to choose a career in Law?

Want to pursue a career in Law? Find out how you can get into this stream by going through some popular law courses, entrance exams, and colleges.

By Diwakar Goel

We all want to be successful in life and for this selecting a good career is the wisest and surest shot. Every student has dreams that they want to pursue in life. In this era of excessive competition, being certain of the career that we want to pursue and thereafter planning to achieve our goal at the earliest is a tough task at hand.

When to start preparing for a Career in Law?

Class 10 and Class 12 are the most important milestones in every student’s life. Ideally, one should have his vision set as soon as he enters class 10^th or latest by its end, after which one has to opt for science, commerce, or humanities stream. Usually, students start taking coaching for IITs right from class 10^th, and by the time they pass 12^th they are already well prepared for entrance exams. Others would start in 11^th and anyone who starts later than this would end up taking a drop year which would become a handicap if, later, they would want to appear for civil services, IFS, judiciary, etc. because exams such as these have an age limit and the number of attempts would hence, decrease. I was not able to determine my career choice after Class 12 but I was clear about what I did not want to do.

This is a trend amongst students, that they make their career choices by seeing all their peers running towards one side, or having seen their cousin getting a handsome placement and the likes. When I was at this stage like many, the only advice I received was on the basis of the income that I would be making. I realise now that this was not good advice. You should go far beyond income and study the growth perspectives and the exposure and alternatives your career gives you because not everyone gets the golden packages and not everyone opts to. Example When you choose to become a lawyer, you have many options open – judiciary and other govt. sectors, private companies, independent practice, legal consultancy, lectureship, etc.

Which Law Course to Choose?

Law is a professional course, if you do not get hired by any popular company then you can always be self-employed. If you choose engineering you will have to look for a job or become a professor. So, it is advisable to select a professional course such as law or medicine. Professional courses are never hit by the recession. After you explore this choose which college is the best and make it. Every college discloses its facilities, placement records, etc on its websites. Here, I am sure you must have got an idea of how much planning and research you have to make.

There are some courses that you can directly pursue after 10^th like merchant navy or polytechnic then BTech animation etc.

If you have chosen law as the course of choice then you can select a 5 years integrated law course at the UG. However, if you are already a graduate then you can also pursue 3-year law course, that is, LLB.

Which is the Best College to Study Law?

UG students will aspire for national law universities (NLUs). They are considered to be good but they are not the end. In this course, before giving an entrance exam you must determine what you want to do with a law degree. If you want a corporate career then NLUs provide a head start into your career. You will get the best campus placements.

NLUs offer admissions through the CLAT exam which consists of English, quantitative aptitude, legal aptitude, and GK.  Private colleges also accept CLAT score.

If you want to become a judge then you should opt for a college where attendance is not a compulsion and you get rich library resources to study. Hein online, SCC online, Manupatra, West law are online resources that you would need, along with good books like Avtar Singh’s commentaries by eminent lawyers and jurists. Every college discloses its facilities, placement records, etc on its websites. If you want to become a practicing lawyer then the best option is to select a mediocre to low-grade Law College where attendance is not a problem. This would help as then you can start from an internship in your very first semester itself.

Take online as well as offline courses on pleadings, drafting, and also participate in co-curricular activities such as moot courts, MUNs, debates, mock parliaments, and speeches in order to improve your oratory skills.  After 7 years of practice, you can appear for higher judicial services exams. A good practicing lawyer earns in a single hearing what a judge or employed lawyer will earn in a whole year! After completing your LLB, you can also do LLM to become a professor.

How to Prepare for Law Entrance Exams?

CLAT exam is not very hard to crack. With CLAT, you can also appear for entrance exams conducted by GGSIPU, BHU, AMU, JMI, and NLU Delhi.

NLU Delhi conducts its separate exam called AILET. The exam syllabus for all the universities is the same, only the weightage differs in some sections. You do not need any special coaching to crack the exam. You just need to solve previous years’ question papers and books such as – RS Agarwal for quantitative aptitude and logical reasoning, Wren N Martin and Word Power Made Easy for English, daily newspapers preferably The Hindu for GK, and Legal awareness. There is no specific book for legal aptitude. Nowadays many books are available for the preparation which you can buy. Most of the material is available online on kindle and websites like clatgyan.com which also gives you monthly GK compendiums. If you cannot self-study and need extra push then you can take full-time coaching, distance learning is also fine in class 12^th or crash course after the board exams. I did not take any coaching and cleared the exam in the first-run simply by availing to material online. Take extra care about negative marking.

If you are already a graduate you can invest 3 years and become a lawyer by giving Delhi University’s entrance exam or that of a private college.

The scope of law is increasing tremendously. Most people are switching to law and competition is rapidly increasing. With huge reservations, the competition has reached sky-high. Nevertheless one can crack the competition by keeping cool, and as I have always said doing things a little off-stream always fetches good results. It is not necessary to opt for a career that has a good scope at present, opt for one which has rising scope at present.

About the Author:

Diwakar Goel is pursuing a BA LLB course from the University School of Law and Legal Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. He is passionate about guiding law aspirants on different spheres of the stream. He likes to study and write about various contemporary legal issues.