The demand for lawyers is on the rise as law impacts our daily lives. Due to globalisation, there are job opportunities not only in almost all sectors within the country but internationally as well. Hence, a career as a legal representative is a lucrative option, says Prof S Shanthakumar
law impacts our lives in numerous ways. Hence, it is but natural that the legal profession has to do so much for us. lawyers play a very important role in the society. The skills they acquire in a law school can be successfully employed in numerous ways. law school education is very versatile and therefore, students get prepared to pursue various career options upon graduation.
Predominantly, on graduation, law students take up law practice before the courts of law where they represent their clients and seek justice. A vast majority of them prefer a private practice where they work alone or with partners in a firm to provide legal services to individual clients or corporate clients. While most of these lawyers, practice in all areas of law, a few of them choose to specialize in particular areas of specialisation like criminal law, constitutional law, corporate law, labour law, intellectual property law, real estate law, tax law, etc. A few lawyers get hired by the Government and its departments for legal advice and representation. These lawyers are directly employed by the Government for being an in-house counsel or to represent it in all litigations before various courts in India.
Apart from the above there are large numbers of corporate counsels who are employed by corporate houses as in-house counsels who work exclusively for them to advice on legal matters related to business activities. Some of the law students aspire to adorn the judiciary as judges. They prepare intensively for the judicial service competitive examinations and get selected and appointed as judges. Once appointed to the subordinate judiciary they move upwards in their career ladder over a period of time.
The most recent trend in the legal profession is the emergence of a number of corporate law firms and lPOs (legal Profession Outsourcing Companies). These law firms and lPOs visit the campus of various law schools to recruit the bright students whom they train and employ in their law firms/lPOs. Due to the attractive compensation packages, the extraordinary work experience and the working culture/environment these law firms offer, the cream of law students’ desire and prefer to join these law firms.
The present trend in legal careers is the hiring of Indian law students by foreign law firms. The cream of the students from top-tier law schools are directly hired by foreign firms. This trend holds a great promise for reasons that foreign law firms prefer to hire Indian law school graduates because of the common law system prevailing in our country coupled with the fact that the Indian law students are proficient in English and their legal skills are on par with their counterparts globally.
Even law firms in India are doing their level best to expand across national boundaries by collaborating with foreign law firms/lawyers and by forming intercontinental mergers. Though globalisation is not new, it is now gaining momentum due to the developments in technology, (Internet), automating of legal processes, developments in data security, online databases and emerging technology tools. Powerful mobile devices, software-as-a service, and secure, web-based technology allow legal professionals to work from virtually anywhere. As law firms continue to expand, globalisation will continue to reshape the landscape of the legal profession in a great way in the coming years.
In recent years, the legal industry has experienced a global paradigm shift in the delivery model for legal services. This new model, known as lPO, transfers the work of attorneys, paralegals and other legal professionals to legal and paralegal professionals located domestically and overseas. legal outsourcing, both onshore and offshore, is transforming law practice as law firms and corporate legal departments seek to minimise costs, increase flexibility and expand their in-house capabilities. last but not the least, very few of the law students aspire to join the legal academia to become law teachers/professors.
A strong education in law school also equips students with the ability to pursue employment opportunities even outside the legal profession in areas such as politics, business and bureaucracy. law students have opportunities in other sectors like banking, broadcasting, business, Civil Service, education, finance, insurance, journalism, policy analysis, publishing, social work, etc.
It is interesting to note that only a law graduate can adorn the offices in all the three organs of the Government namely the legislature, executive and the judiciary. Other graduates may occupy the high offices of legislature and executive but not in the judiciary. This is precisely the reason why it is often said that a law degree can open the door to wide variety of careers which other degrees might not.
(The writer is director ITM law School ITM University, Gurgaon)