This article is written by Snigdha Pandey, Marketing Associate at iPleaders.

“Why do you want to be a lawyer?”

This was the first question I was asked during my interview for joining law school. I still remember racking my brain to figure the answer to this question.

Being a commerce student I was expected to become a Chartered Accountant and work my way towards it. However, I soon discovered that I loved writing and debating more than tallying the balance sheets. The clincher for me was that one of my friends took me to her law preparatory classes and I was hooked! It was pure logic and reasoning based on interpretation of laws. What a beaut!

Let’s be honest, while I knew I had an interest in law (or the idea of it), I did not know at the time what kind of law I wanted to pursue and why. My reason for pursuing law remains the same – to educate people about their rights, make them understand the law in a simplified manner so that they can use it for themselves.

I did not know in which kind of organisation I wanted to work for – a law firm or a company or an NGO? Ask yourself this question. When you were eighteen years old, barely out of school, did you know which specific field of law you wanted to make a career in? I hear a number of prospective law students very confidently say “I have been told that I am very good at debating, and arguing. Hence, I decided to take law, but, I don’t want to do litigation. Corporate it is for me.” Sometimes I wonder, how misguided are they?

Having joined law school I was also nervous thinking about the fact that after working so hard, what if I end up picking the wrong area of law? I liked cyber law, intellectual property law and criminal law alike. The only logical way to ascertain my niche area of work was to explore all of them! So, I did what any law student is told by their peers and seniors – intern with an NGO,  a criminal lawyer, an IP law firm and a company.

The initial problem I faced was the usual: how do I get an internship with the organisation of my choice?

Back in 2008, when I joined law school there was no way to learn the law apart from gaining a degree from a reputed law school. I belong to the era before the advent of online courses which help law students today from CV building to learning necessary technical and soft skills, and improve their overall profile. Lawctopus, the leading website for law students to look for internship opportunities and reviews was launched much later in 2010.

I did some research each time I had to intern about the company or the law firm or the NGO. It was difficult. Not only did I have to research about the organisation, I also had to mould my resume to suit their needs. Each organisation, whether its a law firm or a company, has its own criteria to grant an internship. You are expected to mould your resume to their needs.

For example, if you were to intern in the litigation department of a company dealing in print media, you would be expected to show some knowledge or relevant experience in the field. Then the chances of your application being accepted are higher. If you’ve written a research paper on a topic close to print media – say something on ‘effect of defamation laws in India on journalists’, they see that you’re interested, if not experienced.

However, these are issues that arise much later in the years at law school. You primary concern must be how do you portray your resume when you apply for that first internship in your first year at law school.

For your first internship, your CV doesn’t really have any relevant information. What do you do then? You call up people you might know or who might know someone in these organisations and start sending out your CV months in advance. Networking is of the utmost importance throughout one’s career. Being a first-generation lawyer, I knew very few people and called up an uncle who referred me to a small law firm.

The pro of working with a small law firm is that there are not many resources hence you get to have a hands-on experience. A lot of work like drafting affidavits and notices, assisting the senior advocates comes to an intern. It is an extremely opportune learning experience for an intern as they understand the ground reality of what they may have to do a few years down the line.

Which brings us to the main question- what do you intern for? Do you intern to learn or do you intern to perform?

Do you intern to learn skills or do you perform in internships in order to get the ever-elusive pre-placement offer (PPO)?

During my internships, I learnt a lot about things related to law which is not taught in schools. For instance, in final year at law school I interned with a law firm. I was assigned a copyright infringement matter which I thought would be a run-of-the-mill case. But, turned out because of the nature of the case, evidence was to be collected in a particular manner. This is where I learnt about cyber forensics and its applications in copyright matters. How did this help me? I eventually landed a job with a media and entertainment company – my very first job.

I interned mainly to figure out the area of law most suited for me. I believe most of us who intern during law school spend their five years getting a flavour of every possible field of law. While interning with an NGO working on women empowerment, sanitation programmes, etc. I was required to interview, collate data, and prepare notes and reports. This was a very useful skill I acquired which helped me while developing and maintaining report management systems as a in-house counsel. This internship also made me realise that an NGO is not the best fit for me.

Over the next few semesters, I interned with bigger law firms and in-house legal teams in companies. My favourite internship was with an infrastructure company. I was reporting directly to the Vice President – Legal. My assignments varied from vetting agreements and preparing reports and documents to do the intellectual property registration for the entire group of companies. One day it was learning how to establish a venture business in a foreign country and its laws and the next day it was about figuring out how to establish a secondary school in the particular state of India!

The learning and mentorship in this internship were by far the best I’ve had, but they were not looking to absorb me just yet and was asked to extend the internship, instead of a PPO. That’s not something I preferred.

Looking back, maybe extending the internship would have been fruitful because the training in any industry can last easily up to 6 months if not more. I thought I did not have the time to keep interning in the same place for 6 months! But in the long term, those 6 months would have meant probably getting a PPO instead of looking for a job after graduation! The right guidance at that point in time would have definitely helped me in making a better decision.

Maybe an internship is all about performance? Making an impression instead of merely learning things for yourself? About contributing to the discussion or even starting one?

The crippling fear of figuring out which area of law is going to be your future usually comes around the 3rd or 4th year of law school. It is an overwhelming decision to make, even if you have all the information. Usually by this time a law student has been exposed to a range of activities like moot-courts, debates, publications, etc., apart from the regular course-work. These activities help you narrow down the fields of interest at the least.

Getting a PPO is very subjective in nature. The parameters differ from law firms to companies to NGOs. Some may consider past internships or areas of internships, others may consider the publications and grades, or some simply might see inexplicable promise in you!

What is common to most PPOs is a clear thought process. If a student has had good grades but no publication or moots or anything extra, they might not get the edge over their competitors who have nuanced publications to their credit with probably lesser grades. The point is that legal education is a cumulation of various demonstrable skill sets. To understand this, just think of how as a law student you would want to join the college which has the best infrastructure, academic panel, library and where students get good placement offers. Similarly, a student has to demonstrate that he has more than one aspect to his CV along with performance in the internships itself to enhance his shot at a job offer.

Some places offer jobs to the intern who works the best in terms of effective turn-in of deliverables assigned to them. Some look at the performance, past internships, publications, grades as a whole to come to a decision. There is no thumb rule followed by all organisations.

I did not get a PPO through my internships. However, I did get my job after graduation based on the skills that I learned during those internships.

Which is better learning or performing during internships?

In my opinion, learning is a more wholesome and long-term process. Getting a PPO was all I wanted during my college days, but unfortunately I did not make the cut. Maybe if I had learnt how to ace my internships, things might have been different for me. Is my life any less for the lack of PPO? No. As I learnt the skills needed to get and sustain a career in the long term, it has been working well for me. Can you ascertain the same?

Learning is an undeniable part of building ones career and requires constant efforts.It is an integral part of good performance during internship and beyond that. But what might work for one, may not work for another. All we can do is consistently learn, improve ourselves and perform!

As a famous saying goes, “aim for excellence, success will follow on its own.”