Introduction
Law as a profession offers a plethora of career avenues for students to explore and conquer. Thus, it is no surprise that more and more youngsters these days are gravitating towards law as their preferred choice of career and with good reasons. For every person with proficiency in communication, keen and logical reasoning, analytical skills and capacity to read and imbibe – legal sphere is the place to be. Law schools add on to these skills and make students legal professionals.
Conventionally to become a lawyer, you need to do at least 3 year graduation and then 3 year LLB course from universities, but NLU’s (national Law universities) has made it simple and more accessible with Integrated 5 year Law course just after class 12 exams (you need to clear CLAT exam for that)
Class XII
CLAT Exam
5year Law Course from NLU’s
Law has been one of the most popular career choices in our country for a long time. To become a lawyer, neither is it mandatory to have a family background in law nor is it necessary that you belong to an affluent family. Anyone can choose to study law as long as one has an interest in and passion for it.
The students must overcome their biggest challenges in the form of getting into first class chambers combined with portraying their ability to grasp the facts of a case and conveying it to their seniors, when required, in order to be successful at what they do. At the end of the day, it’s not about being a bright student, but about being a practical one to make your mark in the legal world.
Originally, students could specialize either in civil law or in criminal law. However, a lot has changed in the past decade or two. Students can now choose to opt to specialise in any of the fields available now. Some of them are patent law, company law, and international law. In today’s time, a degree in law doesn’t just mean a litigation career in a session court with an umbrella and a briefcase in your hand; it can also mean power suits with a job with the biggest corporations in the country or even outside it, if one so dreams.
Besides solicitors, barristers and judges, there is a massive array of other lawyer and non-lawyer career paths you can take within this sector, from legal journalists, legal secretaries, typists, human resources personnel, paralegals and legal executives to solicitor advocates, coroners, lecturers and court clerks.
There’s so much variety and there’s certainly something for everyone; whether you decide to take A-levels or Advanced Highers, whether you have graduated from university or whether you decided to leave school at 16, law provides you with a wealth of options.
Step-By-Step Guide to Pursue Law After Studying 12th:
Young Lawyers, welcome aboard......
be the part of a noble profession, be a Lawyer......
wanna become a lawyer just after class 12 from Top Law colleges in India, follow these steps-
Step 1- Apply for a Law Entrance Exam
Whether you are from Science, Commerce, Humanities/Arts it doesn’t matter, you can apply for Law entrance exams just after class 12th exams. major Law Entrance exams are : Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), All India Law Entrance Test (AILET), Symbiosis Law Admission Test (SLAT), Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Maharashtra State CET (MHCET) etc.
Note: For candidates to be held eligible for these entrance exams, they must obtain not less than 45% or its equivalent grade in 10+2.
Step 2 - Choose the Right Law Course after 12th Science
Settling on the right law course is the most important job that you need to do next. In India, there are a number of law programmes offered by various institutes. Since you are looking for a course right after completing 12th, you will fix on five-year integrated law courses like B.Sc.LL.B, B.A.LL.B, B.Tech.LL.B, etc. For law aspirants who want to go for law after completing graduation in any chosen field, that is also not a bad idea. Find a detailed list of integrated law courses below.
Step 3 - Choose the Right Law College to Study Law
The next step is to find the ideal college for law. With a huge list of law colleges in India offering 5-year integrated courses, it becomes difficult to find the right one yourself. Scroll down to find the top Indian law colleges that offer five-year integrated law courses.
Step 4 - Go for Further Studies or Enrol in the State Bar Council
After completion of the undergraduate law course, you can either go for higher studies like LL.M or enrol in the State Bar Council. In case you opt for the latter, you will be further required to pass the All India Bar Examination (AIBE) within two years of enrollment in the State Bar Council. You will be eligible to practice law.
Different Fields
This is the field which people have associated with this career since time immemorial. This field involves practising law in courts. Litigators or legal practitioners provide dispute resolution services to their clients by representing them in the courts of law. You might have got a general idea about this from a lot of movies. However, it doesn’t even come close to the reality. Litigation may involve civil or criminal law, but it’s not limited to that. You have other aspects like taxation law and family law as well. It can be practised in any of the courts depending on the kind of case it is.
This involves working with a company or corporate firm on their specific matters involving anything related to law including contracts and legal altercations as an in-house legal counsel. It may include, but isn’t limited to, advising them on legal matters before they take a major step, drafting their contracts, ensuring and monitoring compliance with rules and laws, or fighting their battles in court when required. Everything from drafting an employee’s appointment letter to mergers and acquisitions is done under the in-house counsel’s advice.
This is a newly emerging and successful trend where a group of lawyers come together to form a single business entity, specifically in existence to practise law. As part of a law firm, one advises clients on their legal rights, legal recourses, etc. on a contract basis; and even acting as their agent in some situations.
Judiciary & Civil Services
For those who want to work for the betterment of people and dream of handling real power and real responsibility in their work, law offers numerous opportunities in the executive and the judiciary arms of the government. The State Judicial Services Examination organised by High Courts gives you an opportunity to work in the judiciary whereas the state and centre Civil Service Examinations are conducted by Union Public Service Commission and are considered a very respectful avenue to work for your state while enjoying power at the same time.
Once a student is done with their LLB and is inclined towards law as a subject rather than as something to practise, they might follow their inclination by going for a further course like LLM or Ph.D for better understanding of the subject and concepts and/or follow through with a job in research giving you the opportunity to get paid for reading, talking, and thinking about law or in the teaching sector to enhance the future lawyers.
A career in law and a career in journalism are quite similar seeing how they require ardent reading and writing skills as well as intrinsic knowledge of how the government and the legal system works. A stream of journalism, i.e. legal journalism, focuses on matters related to law like legal proceedings, the current state of law, and precedent-setting criminal matters and break it down to the general public or work on making people conscious of a problem in the first place. It is the perfect opportunity for those with an interest in law and also with a knack for writing or media of some or the other kind. One might choose to work as a news reporter for a news channel or as a journalist in the print media. Keeping in mind how conscious the world is getting about law and how it is extremely dynamic, it is a great field to be in.
If you want to make a change in social structure or society in general, you need a lawyer to draft, litigate or amend the laws for the society. What more can make it easy then being a Lawyer yourself? A sizeable number of law school graduates join Non-Governmental Organizations (NG0s) that work for social causes. If you are passionate about socio-legal issues, then this is the right avenue for you. Law school graduates are also offered opportunities to work with international organizations such as the United Nations and with international tribunals like International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, etc.