JOB OPPORTUNITIES

LLB is a professional degree of law catering to a legal profession. LLB courses can be pursued either for 3-year or 5-year integrated by graduates and undergraduates respectively.This section endeavours to provide the scope and procedure to enter into different legal avenues after the completion of your professional graduate degree from 3-year or 5-year program.

There are plenty of industries available for LLB graduates to work from government agencies to corporate firms. From teaching in college, working with NGOs, to exploring the fields competitive exams, there are plethora of opportunities for law graduates, which is not restricted by time or place. The first step on this path is to explore your options and track your area of interest to work on. Some of the most popular sectors in which candidates seek jobs after completing graduation in law have been mentioned below:

1. Litigation/Practice of Law

Litigation is considered to the most natural/pure practice of law. Litigation or Advocacy is a profession which is often choose by plenty of law graduates, so that they can experience the hard-core practicality of law in court rooms, legal forums and tribunals.

After completing the graduation degree, the interested candidates have to enrol themselves with their respective State council and then appear for the All India Bar Examination conducted by All India Bar Council. After successfully clearing the examination, one can practice in the court across the country.

Litigators choose from plethora of field to practice in law, for instance; Criminal law, Family Law, Bankruptcy law, Taxation law, Civil law, Property disputes, Technology and Intellectual property law etc.

It is very promising career option. However, it an uncertain one. For a new comer or first generation lawyer, making his place in the world of litigation can be tough. As the work tends to pay in a long run, people often considered this path a rocky one.

There is no fixed way to pursue this avenue, One can either initially gather some experience as a Junior assistant with a senior advocate/litigation firm and then can opt out for independent practice later on. Another way to start off as an independent lawyer from the very beginning and build up your career from scratch. The choice is majorly based of several determinants, such as income, clientele, experience in law etc.

2. Law firms and Corporate houses

Law firms is proprietorship or partnership firm or a corporate that hires lawyers and para-legal to represent their clientele. One can work in a firm right after their graduation and eventually you could clear the All India Bar examination, in order to represent the client in the court and tribunals.

It is advisable to pursue internships during your college tenure so that the candidate can explore the different firms, their work culture, area of practice etc. If you are unable to pursue internships amidst your graduation period, you can join the firms during your final year as a paralegal or research associate and understand the working environment of the firm of your choice. Another way to get into law firms is applying through your college placement cell or department.

Working with the corporate firms is one of most sort after job opportunity because the high remuneration involved. However, it is necessary to be very clear on the field of law you wish to pursue so that you can continue your interest for a longer period of time. Some of the areas of practice of law firms and corporate house are Technology law, Arbitration and Dispute resolution, Corporate litigation, White Collar Crimes, Merges and Acquisitions, Private Equity and venture Capital, fintech, Cyber laws and Data privacy etc.

3. Private Companies (National as well as Multinationals)

Every company has a legal department or wind to handle their legal disputes and compliances. The department can be versatile and embodies different legal designation such as research fellow, legal advisor, Associate, legal manager etc.

Private firms across the country or well as abroad hire legal advisors and associates for their different branches. In order to get into the private company, one can look up for vacancies and apply for the same. As the work doesn’t involve appearing the courts and tribunal, the individual can give away the hustle of clearing the All India Bar Examination.

In case someone is looking for a well-paid job, they can get an MBA after their LLB.This way, they would be able to get a dual post in companies. Firstly, they could work as legal advisors. Secondly, would be able to take part in the business administration. The dual package will guarantee excellent pay for the employees.

4. Civil Services

The Civil Services Examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission is to appoint suitable candidates for different governmental services, such as Indian Administrative Services, Indian Police Services and India Forest Services.

Law students can opt to join Government Services after completing their LLB. If they prepare themselves, they would be eligible for Indian Legal Services and the various posts that it offers. The advantage with the law students is that they can opt for ‘legal’ as their optional subject during the preparation for UPSC. Further, the three or five years in Law college gives knowledge of the subjects such as political science, economics and sociology, which are the some of the core subjects in UPSC examination.

5. Armed Forces

If a law student wishes to pursue his/her career in the Defence services and wanted to join armed forces. They can opt for the position of ‘Judge Advocate General’. JAG is the post in the Indian Army held by major who is the legal and judicial chief of the Army. The main purpose is that a JAG has to assist the presiding offices of the courts in interpreting and applying military laws such as the Army Act, Indian Defence Act, etc.

To pursue this option, one only has to clear the interview conducted Services Selection Board (SSB). As a general rule, Candidates have to quality one of the exams for undergoing the SSB interview, but the same is not applicable for law graduates, they only have to fulfil the eligibility criteria (A person must be between the ages of 21years-27 years, should have minimum 55% aggregate marks in graduation and should be eligible for registration with the Bar council of India or any other State Bar councils).

If the eligibility is met, you are required to check any call for recruitment and send in applications from the official website of the army. After successful application, the Candidates have to report for SSB rounds on the date intimated to the candidates in the call letter for interview. The SSB interview consists of two stages i.e. stage I and stage II. The stage (I) will consist of Officer Intelligence Rating (OIR) and Picture Perception & Description Test (PP & DT). The stage (II) will consist of Interview, Group Testing Officer Tasks, Psychology Tests and the Conference. These test will be organized over 4 or 5 days. The entire process will carry 900 marks. The final selection will be made on the basis of the marks secured by the candidates in the SSB Interview.

6. Judicial Services

Students are also free to work for the Judicial machinery of Country as a Judge or Magistrate. This requires them to pass a Judicial examination conducted by the Public Service Commission, which they can pursue right after graduation.

The law students can be appear for judicial services examination conducted by each state separately. The eligibility criteria and syllabus of the examination varies from state to state, for instance, the minimum age for appearing Rajasthan Judiciary is 23 years whereas the minimum age is 22 years in the case of UP judiciary. Therefore, it is advisable that one should be well-versed with the terms of age, qualification, relaxation and other criteria, along with the syllabus of the judicial service examination of the respective state.

The lowest post of the Magistrate, Sub-judge, or Munsif is filled up by the latest recruitments through Public Service Commission or by the supervision of High Court. The Magistrate judges the Criminal cases and the Sub Judge decides the Civil Cases. Through promotion, these judges could become district judges and also attain higher posts.They would be able to gain promotion based on their experience and seniority.

7. Educator/Academic (Researcher or Lecturer)

Students with impressive academic ability and with the skill of explaining and narrating different topics to a group of people are good fits to become a lecturer in one of the best-recognized Universities or a Law College of the country.

To pursue a career as an Academia, you have to enrol yourself into an LLM program and then appear for The National Eligibility Test (NET), which is conducted on behalf of University Grants Commission (UGC) for determining the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Eligibility of Assistant Professorship, Junior Research Fellowship or both, for Indian Universities and Colleges.

Later on, After the completion of the LLM degree, the candidate could go on to complete research in their respective field of study and earn a PhD./ this way you can also become the professor in Government Universities and Private Universities too.

8. Public Sector Undertakings

PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) units are owned by the government of India or state or corporations. The Public Sector Undertakings offer massive job opportunities by holding exams regularly and individuals who clear the exam are employed in the PSUs. Few PSUs conduct their own exams for selection of law officers and others like ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) and POWERGRID (Power Grid Corporation Of India Limited) hire their law officers based on CLAT-PG scores.

The eligibility requirement for the aforementioned job is to appear for the CLAT examination conducted for Post-graduation degree (i.e., LLM) in the respective year and then apply for the vacant seats as per notified by the PSUs.

9. Legal Advisor/Executive/Analysts

After completing your LLB, you can become a legal advisor or join law firms, Private Companies, Corporate firms, or Banks. You can provide advice on various legal matters. Furthermore, your legal expertise could also be used in NGOs. These provide their clients with legal advisory services. They also help people to make the correct decision in a given situation. Most large corporations and government organizations hire legal advisors.

Several banks conduct their respective examination for the appointment of Law officer in the respective banks, for example; The Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) exam is held for the selection of various kinds of officers in the public sector banks, SBI, Associate Banks of SBI, NABARD, RBI, SIDBI, LIC & Insurance companies, and other regular member Banks of the IBPS society. Similarly, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conducts RBI Recruitment Exam to select candidates for different officer positions such as Legal consultant.