Career as Lawyer

Career as Lawyer

"To me, a lawyer is basically the person that knows the rules of the country. We’re all throwing the dice, playing the game, moving our pieces around the board, but if there is a problem the lawyer is the only person who has read the inside of the top of the box."

These are the words of Jerry Seinfeld, a famous stand-up comedian and actor. These words describe a lawyer in the most appropriate way.

  

There are many branches of law but essentially a lawyer has to present the case of his client before the tribunal or the court. A lot of preparation and planning goes into the presentation of a case. It is the duty of a lawyer to refer to the updated laws and previous cases and these have to be quoted while formulating a case and presenting it in the court. The lawyer in order to be able to present the course successfully in the court has to make sure he is well versed with all the details of the case and has thought of all the aspects of the case.

Typically no lawyer works nine to five instead this is the time they are in court. All the spade work and preparation for the case has to be done after court and thus, lawyers work beyond regular working hours.

These days, most of the large companies and MNC's have a separate legal department where there are job hierarchies for the work.The jobs of all the lawyers require a lot of research and analysis and a very thorough knowledge of the subject.

Some of the fields in which a Lawyer can apply to are as follows:

1. Advocate, Advocate General, Attorney General, Company Secretary, District Attorney
2. Legal Advisors, Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)
3. Magistrate
4. Notary / Oath Commissioner
5. Public Prosecutors, Solicitor, Teacher

How?????

Courses and Eligibility

The various Law schools and universities in India offer several academic programs in Law. The course may be of 5 years, 3 years or of 2 years of duration. One can also pursue 1 year or even 6 months Diploma courses to gain specialized knowledge in the field; however one cannot practice in the court with these short duration diplomas.

1. BA LLB (Integrated course 5 years), BSC LLB, BGL (Bachelor of general Laws), Bachelor of academic laws, or BLS (Bachelor of Social Legal): Eligibility 10+2 and Entrance Test.Entrance tests National Law School of India.
2. Diploma in taxation Law, other Law: After any graduation
3. LLB (3 years): Eligibility any Graduation and entrance test.
4. Post-graduation (LLM)/ JMMaster of Jurisprudence: Eligibility LLB.

Various Entrance Exams for admission to Law Colleges in India

1. CLAT: Common Law Admsission Test for 900 seats approximately in various National Law Universities like NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad,NLIu Bhopal, WBNUJS Kolkata , NLUJ Jodhpur, HNLU Raipur, GNLU Gandhinagar, RMLNLU Lucknow, RGNUL Punjab,CNLU Patna, NUALS Kochi, NLUO Odisha, USRL, Ranchi

2. AILET: AllInda law admission test for 100 seats in National Law University Delhi.

3. LSAT India: Common admission test for law courses in Jindal Global Law School (JGLS), Sonepat

Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Faculty of Law(ICFAI University), Dehradun

and 24 more colleges under it.

4. CET IP University: Admission test conducted for app 685 seats (60 seats in USSLS) in  University School of Law & Legal Studies

Amity Law School, Chanderprabhu Jain College of Higher Studies, Delhi Institute of Rural Development, Ideal Institute of Mgt. & Tech,

Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies.

5. SET: Symbiosis entrance test for 200 seats in Symbiosis Law School.

Course Fee

The tution fee at National Law School is Rs 80,000 per year.

Where To Study

1. National Law School of India University, Bangalore Click me
2. The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata Click me
3. National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University, Hyderabad http://www.nalsar.ac.in
4. National Law University, Jodhpur Click me
5. Indian Law School Pune; Besides the regular Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in law, the college offers six diploma courses in subjects like intellectual property rights, cyber law and medical jurisprudence Click me
6. National Law Institute University, Bhopal ; A cyber law centre funded by the Union HRD Ministry, the only one of its kind in Asia, is coming up in NLU Bhopal Click me
7. HNLU, Raipur
8. GNLU, Gandhinagar
9. Faculty of Law, Delhi University, Delhi Click me
10. Symbiosis Society’s Law College, Pune
11. ILS Law College, Pune
12. Government Law College, Mumbai
13. Amity Law School, Delhi
14. Faculty of Law, AMU
15. University Law College, Bangalore University
16. Faculty of Law, Mumbai University
17. Faculty of Law, BHU, Varanasi
18. Deptt. Of Laws, Panjab University, Chandigarh
19. Bangalore Institute of Legal Studies, Bangalore
20. School of Law, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad
21. Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai
22. Army Institute of Law, Mohali
23. Deptt. Of Law, Calcutta University, Kolkata
24. Govt. Law College, Kerala University, Thiruvananthpuram
25. R.G. School of Intellectual Property Law – IIT Kharagpur
26. CNLU, Patna
27. RMLNLU, Lucknow

Pay and Remuneration

There is a lot of variation in the pay packets of lawyers. For a lawyer who gets associated with a senior lawyer and starts practicing in the court can get a salary of Rs.25000 to abour Rs.40000 The amount will depend on the firm or the lawyer one is associated with. There is also an option to work with a legal process outsourcing firm and the salary will vary from Rs. 20000 to Rs. 50000 initially. Once successful, the legal profession is a very highly paid one but the salary depends on the popularity, experience, calibre and success of the lawyer. A very important factor that determines the salary in the initial years is the college from which one has graduated.

Career Prospects

Law as a career holds a lot of promise. Some of the fast developing areas of specialization are genetic law, cyber law, corporate law and human rights. A career in any of these fields comes with the right law degree and right amount of marketing. Another option available is to choose the State Judicial Services and start a career as a Judicial magistrate or a civil judge and move up the ladder. Apart from becoming a judge in the court, one can also work with the corporates, business houses, nationalised banks, defence services etc.

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