Kunal Dey, a third year student at College of Legal Studies, U.P.E.S, Dehradun shares his thought about the “race called “Law School” where students are running for something they want to achieve not because you love it, but because that is expected of you by someone or the society.”
The seed is sown through admission in the law school admission coaching centers who pledge to provide you the best possible training any law student might require in order to crack CLAT. But then comes the reality, its not that easy to crack CLAT and sometimes no matter how hard you have studied, holding your nerves in those two hours becomes the most important thing.
Every year, part of the mighty numbers appearing for the examination make it through CLAT and then starts the journey of an endless route to knowledge. I remember, my teacher telling me, “You will swoon the first day you make it through that door into your dream college.” Probably he was right, but do everyone get to experience it? Not really..you can land up in an average college and the first day might not be as happening as you thought it would be in a Law school.
I consider the first year to be the best thing that can happen in the life of any Law student, no matter in which law, school you are in. (NLU`s and Non-NLU students share the same feelings, interesting isn`t it?). You make relationships, you promise to remain friends throughout your 5 years of Law school and even after that. You try and give a shape to your dreams and tell yourself, ”Sab ho jayega…koi tension nahi hai…college mein enjoy nahi karenge toh kab karenge?” A year passes by and you realise that you have not actually done anything constructive in your first year, while some of your “serious and studious” batchmates are way ahead than you are.
So…what do ‘You’ do now? You start studying, you start taking part in activities in which you did not think you are capable of in the first year cause now, it is more important to make a good CV/Resume so that a recruiter notices you amongst the other 100 students(few colleges do possess that number and even more.) than those night outs and frequent house and birthday parties. “Circumstances change people”. I have heard this statement starting from Hindi movies to a bystander but it does not sound more relevant when you are in a Law school trying to achieve “something”.
Yes, “Something”. As you progress, you will surely realise that you need to find an answer for this “something”. So, how would you define this “something”? Is it going to be Litigation or do you want to be a core “CORPORATE” lawyer and show up in the Alumni Meet flashing your golden colour Bentley? This is a decision every law student needs to make, which can be as early as your first semester and as late as your last semester in that Placement room.
Most of the students get lured by the money these corporate lawyers earn and why shouldn’t they be? Their parents have invested so much in them, they need to repay them back somehow or the other! So, Corporate seems the right answer. Pay them back early and then start planning your dream accordingly without understanding the intricacies the profession brings with itself. As far as Litigation is concerned, I consider it to be the real law profession, where you actually get to plead before a court and there cannot be any other sphere of law practice that can match the aura of litigation. But contemporary law students are actually not that interested in Litigation nowadays because everyone wants to earn big after their five years of law school and so the Bentley story comes back.
In a law school, you are in a race, running for something you want to achieve not because you love it, but because that is expected of you by someone or the society. I hope this run ends soon and we end up achieving something which made us take that crash courses, mock tests, etc. in the first place and I am sure, the day we do that, we are going to swoon when we enter that office, that chamber, that court-room, fighting for the case, fighting for something we really care about. That is going to be a dream worth living.
Kunal, you have written your thoughts very well. Majority of the students and lawyers do feel the same. But I presume its the same kind of feeling (can be read as burden) which every professional course carries it with it.
I am least surprised by the candid admission of the writer, that most contemporary law students, are out to make big bucks quickly, even without knowing the rudiments of the subject; but the fault also lies in firms, companies engaging them, inasmuch as ,they look and in fact insist for degrees, rather than an employee who can deliver the goods.