This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

I was just talking to a law student. His goal is to finish his LLB and land a nice job that at least pays INR 30,000. 

How does he plan on getting it? Someone told him to do CS. Apparently, it will help him to get a job. 

Doing the whole CS course to get a job that pays just 30k. FML. 

As a law graduate, he can do so much better only if he learns some practical legal skills, such as contract drafting, drafting for civil and criminal cases, or even interns throughout the year in any local company or firm. 

Even many LPOs will happily pay INR 30,000 or more to a law graduate who is sincere and hardworking. 

If one can develop good corporate law skills and a nice CV to go with that, it is not at all difficult to land a job in a company or a law firm. What if the law student just invested the energy and money he will spend on doing the entire multi-stage CS course into learning the work a lawyer does in a law firm or a company? What if he spent time doing long term internships?

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Lawyers have a great advantage over CS. 

Company secretaries are hired to do compliance work. Lawyers are hired to handle contentious matters or provide very sensitive advice. Let’s just say that lawyers deal with matters which are far more high-stakes in nature.

A CS may deal with company law compliance. But a corporate lawyer is called upon when the shareholders have a dispute, or when the MCA or SEBI sends a notice, or when a multi-billion dollar deal with many moving parts needs to be structured. 

The job of CS is to maintain hygiene, lawyers do surgery.

Guess who gets paid more?

There are plenty of lawyers who earn in crores. Ever hear of a CS who remains a secretary and still get to earn crores?

What kind of job will you get after you do CS? I heard that I can get a job in a company. As a CS or as a lawyer? Not sure. I want to be a corporate lawyer. 

If you intend to get a job as a CS, please do that course. If you want to work in compliance, CS is one of the best courses you can do. Your LLB degree would be a nice-to-have decoration in your CV in that case. 

But you will then not be working as a lawyer.

It really upsets me when law students are misguided towards studying CS because some uncle thought it will help the law student to get a job. It mostly doesn’t.

There was a time, about 10 years back, when there was a great dearth of CS professionals. Anyone who did CS could easily get a job worth 50K per month back then. Not any more!

There are a lot of CS professionals out there struggling to find a job or make ends meet. It’s not how it used to be in the 90s anymore. The uncles who know everything need to stop giving wrong information to the new generation. 

It is a very long route for a lawyer to do CS to get a job in any case. Doing CS for a lawyer is taking a detour! Why CS, it is possible to get a job even if you learn baking science, but we don’t advise law students to learn baking science, do we? 

A lawyer can get much better jobs by learning the skills that are relevant to the practice of law!

Take any area of law that is in high demand, and deep dive into learning relevant skills in that area of law. Do not waste time doing CS unless your goal is to become a company secretary.

Please share this information with your friends who are thinking of doing CS because it is a practical course. They will eventually thank you.

Also please refer them to check out practical legal courses from LawSikho.com

Here are some courses in which we are currently taking admission, each of which will be way more directly and immediately beneficial compared to doing CS:

DIPLOMA

Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws

Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution

Diploma in Cyber Law, Fintech Regulations and Technology Contracts

EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE COURSES

Certificate Course in Labour, Employment and Industrial Laws for HR Managers

Certificate Course in Capital Markets, Securities Laws, Insider Trading and SEBI Litigation

Certificate Course in Media and Entertainment Law: Contracts, Licensing and Regulations

Certificate Course in Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the Workplace

Students of Lawsikho courses regularly produce writing assignments and work on practical exercises as a part of their coursework and develop themselves in real-life practical skill.