This is not a conventional job description. Few places are hiring in this environment. We are one of those few.
If you have enormous intellectual hunger, thirst for knowledge, and even developed legal skills right from law school itself (you’ll know this if you’ve mooted, written papers, etc.) or done something else that’s pertaining to law but unconventional (like filing multiple RTIs or a public interest litigation), but don’t want to follow the conventional path of working as a corporate lawyer, in-house counsel, or a litigator, read on.
What opportunities can you look at? What if you want something else, more unique, powerful, promising and may be even adventurous?
If you are particularly ambitious, want an opportunity to grow, contribute, make an impact on how things are happening in the world and be fulfilled, read on.
The first thing you want to be doing is work on challenges continuously, one after another. The future belongs to those who are going to work on making law deployable and usable for the wide section of audiences who can benefit from it.
Here’s one opportunity we have to offer – a Senior Research Associate and Writer. You can be someone who creates and designs courses on the cutting-edge of law after speaking to subject-matter experts and practitioners. Research and writing are going to be key tasks.
Here are some links of the kind of work you will be required to produce.
- A Businessman’s Guide to Labour Laws (here)
- Ericsson-Micromax Patent Battle (here)
- Negotiation Essentials (here)
- How Google, Microsoft, Apple and other US tech giants save billions (here)
- Lessons from Redbus exit (here)
(The legal position on some of the subjects has changed in some cases – focus on how the intention is to simplify difficult legal issues in a practical way for a specific focus group of the target audience.)
What are the tasks you perform daily to get that kind of work done?
Scope of content creation work is vast and extensive, and you will be required to develop deep legal and industry knowledge (and we know you are capable of it) in different areas of law that you create content on (even if you have not worked on it earlier). For example, real estate and labour laws are two of the problem areas we are working on solving right now.
There’s a variety of tasks that you’ll be performing at work everyday, and here’s a list:
- Making sense of law and how it is working (or not working) in the world around you. You will need to be updated on news (legal, political and business) and read legal updates.
- The scope of this work requires you to network with experts and practitioners in the areas you working on. You will be expected to develop and establish relationships regularly and be in touch with such experts on phone, email or social media. We will train you on this.
- Research skills – If you want to get to the source of problems, you like reading the law (bare acts) and seeing if things are working as design, can use Google well, read judgments, read bare acts, write in a clear . We want clear writing. Being straight and to the point is important. People should be able to read your content and identify what to do or how to use law to solve problems in their life. Boastful, superfluous, flowery English is discouraged.
- You may need to come up with solutions. Some creativity is needed (but don’t express it by writing flowery and jargonistic English, please. We want you to think clearly, write precisely and to the point).
- You will be expected to take ownership of the work and the results you produce.
- We don’t advise clients, so this is not like working in a law firm or a company. However, you can expect comparable or higher growth in legal skills as you will be identifying solutions to problems from the senior-most practitioners and experts in the areas of law on which you write. You will, in your content, project possible scenarios, likely course of action and solutions, in the course materials you create. These are educational tools.
- There’s a lot of training and personal growth and development opportunity available. At the same time, we don’t spoon feed when it comes to the basics. For example, you are expected to open the bare act and read the letter of the law on a point when you’re writing content.
- You will have a bright future and a quick growth path here. However, expect new problems to solve and challenges to address everyday. Sometimes, old problems will have to be solved in a new way.
- Should you decide to leave, you should know that your opportunities outside iPleaders will depend on the skillsets you have acquired. The industry is fast changing, and there are no fixed pathways and positions you will have access to merely because of seniority. Make a choice carefully – while working here is high-growth and fast-paced, if you want to work in a settled and slow environment, this is not a suitable place for you.
- We are highly unconventional and have sailed through the toughest of times consistently. We keep reinventing, improvising and delivering the highest possible value to our customers, and it is visible. (Think – do you know of too many other places which are hiring in this environment?)
Here’s a list of the qualifications we will consider relevant for this job. While they are not all mandatory, if you possess one or more of the above, we will consider it highly.
- Prior work experience of working in a law firm for 2 years or more.
- LLB (you’ve mooted and/or published papers or articles)
- Diploma in Entrepreneurship Administration and Business Laws
- CS (2 levels) or CA (2 levels)
If you have worked in a law firm or a company for 2 years or more, and are in the process of shifting jobs or exploring new career opportunities and you want to try this out, let us know.
Interested people please write an email to [email protected]. Please attach your CV and at least 1 recent writing sample of more than 2000 words. You can share work (or a hyperlink of it) that is already published as well.