When I decided to study law, back in 2005, and shared the news with my father, he was very disappointed. He had a hard time accepting that his son will be a lawyer. It was almost as if he felt that I was throwing my life away.

I got similar reactions from my teachers too.

I was a good boy, did well in school. I was studying in the science stream after 10th standard, and should attempt to become a doctor. Or an engineer at least. Law was not an acceptable option.

It took me many months of convincing my father and mother to be able to study law.

From there, in 2018 when I am writing this, perception of law as a career has completely changed. It is now considered a very good option. Everyone has heard the stories that corporate lawyers can earn in crores. Litigators can earn even more.

Engineering used to be the big favourite of average Indian parent. In recent years, engineering colleges are shutting down, and some of them even turned into ghost towns due to lack of students. Many MBA colleges have met the same fate, as jobs are hard to come by after doing MBA or engineering. In this context, law is becoming a favourite of many Indian parents. Unlike before, parents have began to push their kids towards studying law.

There are a lot of new legal career options opening up regularly, while the traditional work for lawyers have also stayed strong and only increased in demand. Everyone is well aware of the trend, but not quite about the details of where those opportunities are arising and how to capitalize on them.

As Indian economy continue to grow strongly, the demand for skilled lawyers is only going up. However, at the same time, it is a paradox that a large number of law graduates remain unemployed or struggle to find work.

This can happen for two reasons. One is that these law graduates are not adequately trained. Many of them have theoretical knowledge of law, but are not employable and cannot serve real clients as they do not have practical skills.

This is why, choosing the right law school where the administration has a vision and understanding of where the legal market is headed is very important. Always check before joining, does your preferred law school have a method in place to provide practical training to the students? Are the students graduating with jobs or are they able to find well paid work on their own?

For example, from a distance, Jindal Global Law School seems to be doing a decent job towards this.

That is the critical question to ask and then it is even more important find the right answer.

Most law schools will claim that they give practical training. Most even have some name sake courses and classes where they supposedly teach skills like contract drafting, petition drafting etc. However, usually these classes are ineffective. They do not have any proper faculty or material to teach such skills.

This is why, at iPleaders and LawSikho.com, we have began helping some universities and law schools to provide this kind of training to their students. These colleges and universities acknowledge the problem, and seek outside help to address it.

Actively learn about the career opportunities that are arising in new areas of legal work, such as M&A, banking, media law, technology and cyber law, transfer pricing, corporate litigation, energy law, regulatory litigation, arbitration and so on. See which ones appeal to you. Then decide which one you want to focus on, and what skills are necessary to succeed in that job.

Then you have to go ahead and actually build those skills. That is hard work. There is no shortcut for that.

However, if you college also helps you in that, that is wonderful. Otherwise, it is counter-productive to struggle on your own as your valuable resources, time and money, goes into the wrong direction as far as college in concerned.

To sum up, there are ample opportunities after studying law to have a fantastic career. However, one has to be careful. This is an applied area of work, not of theoretical knowledge. You must develop your skills in practical legal work one way or another.

If your college does not help you to develop practical skills, please check out lawsikho.com, and take up a course that will help you to acquire those practical skills that are valued by recruiters, and will help you to be gainfully employed or build your very own law practice with paying clients.

We know the exact problems you will face when you are trying to find internships, when you are trying to impress a potential employer during that internship, or what you will face in job interviews. We will train you to succeed in each of those stages. We will even help you to get the internships and interviews if you perform well in our course.

We know the challenges you will face when you begin your job, or when you will begin to build your own practice. We will train you for success if you are our student.

In any case, whether you come to us or not, prepare your strategy as to how you are going to get the dream job or start your own practice and find the clients. Don’t leave it until it is too late.

All the best!