This article on how to use social work to progress in your career is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, Co-founder & CEO at iPleaders.

Is there any way I could tell how you would turn out to be a few years down the line?

This is a question that a whole lot of people will have to ask themselves about you. The law firm partners and PSU managers in recruitment interviews, people sitting on boards that will decide whether you should get a scholarship to study abroad, investors who may invest their money in your business or your future spouse. There would be instances where you may have to ask this question about others as well.

Since none of us can see the future, we judge people by their track record. It’s an imperfect way of judging people – but that’s all we have. We ask people what they want to do in future, and we see if what is being said at present can be substantiated with what those people have been doing in the past. Hence, if a painter comes to you and tells you that he will study medicine next year – you would not take him seriously unless he can demonstrate from his past that he had an interest in medicine for some time. Similarly, if your friend is a long-time shopaholic, and tells you one day that she is going to mend her ways henceforth, you would not take her very seriously until she demonstrates the strength of her will through action.

This is another reason everything you do at law school will become very important as your legal career progresses. In case, you apply to prestigious foreign universities for further studies, or ask for scholarships or research grants from various foundations and endowments, or ask for a coveted employment – they will see the promises you make to them through the lenses of what you have been doing in the past. If you say that you have a penchant for social work, they would want to know what social work you have done in the past. If you claim you are hard-working, you need to give them some examples of your hard-work that really stands out. If you say that you are capable of taking initiative and see a project through till completion – they would want to know if you have done that in the past. This is a very crucial step in credibility building.

What are the chances of you making a big impact some day?

Before Universities like Oxford or Harvard offer you a seat, they want to know whether you have it in you to make a significant contribution to the society someday – the philanthropists who helped to build those universities ensured that those universities look for that element in the character of prospective students. The standards go further up if you apply for a scholarship – again coming from philanthropists, charity and governmental foundations – they want to know if their investment into your further studies is likely to be beneficial to the society overall. Even if you are just applying for a job, or a research position – people would ask you to demonstrate many qualities – such as your sincerity, ability to get along and work with other people, leadership potential, communication skills and so on. What is a better way to demonstrate your skills than working for social causes? Where would you get more freedom to implement your own ideas, polish your skills and create as much goodwill as you can through social projects? If working for a social cause for philanthropic reasons is not exactly your cup of tea, consider doing it for the selfish reasons. I’ll bet on the chances that you’d often find it more fulfilling than working merely for money, fame or achievement sooner or later.

There is another major reason to focus on social initiatives – ideas and projects, even products and services that change the world ultimately focus on benefiting a lot of people. The most successful businesses deliver value many times over when compared to what they take from people. This phenomenon is becoming stronger with the internet economy. If you deliver 10 times the value of the price you charge, little else matters.

Social projects to pursue while you are studying law

While you are studying law, you have plenty of opportunities and a lot of time to work along these lines. Let me share some ideas with you, and surely you can come up with your own ideas in some time.  

Legal aid is not just about running a legal aid clinic

Most law colleges have a legal aid clinic. Some of them focus on providing free legal advice – but most are run like very poorly managed charities, with little resources. If I were a poor chap in need of legal services, I would not rely on a college legal aid clinic. The quality of services is reflected by the quality and volume of work that comes to such clinics. If it was otherwise, in a country like India, where a great majority of the population cannot afford lawyer’s fees, legal aid clinics would be overflowing with work. In any case, have you ever heard of any legal aid clinic of a top Indian law school which has filed a major PIL? Why not?

Legal aid clinics in our colleges are plagued by the lack of ambition, resources and willing students. Joining the legal aid society in most cases is a CV building exercise. We need teachers and students who understand the potentials of a good legal aid clinic, and colleges which are willing to spare resources and students’ time to devote to legal aid clinics.

Those of you who fight in Legally India and other forums over the name and prestige of your college, please take a couple of minutes to think – how would it impact the brand name of your college if your legal aid society was taking up the cases of the underprivileged and fighting in the courts, filing and winning major PILs? Will that not make headlines of every national newspaper in the country? Is that not capable of launching many a career of young lawyers?

Some legal aid societies still do a good job when it comes to legal literacy camps. What is required, however, are more sustainable, well-planned initiatives – that have the measurable impact on lives of people.

If you are currently in a law college, consider this an opportunity. And no, you don’t need to win an election or get selected for some sort of legal aid committee to work on this. You can just collaborate with a few friends, maybe seniors who have graduated and start doing legal work for free or for minimal cost. Make sure you deliver the highest quality of services, make sure you spread the word and look for clients with good cases, and put in no lesser effort than one would build up a fledgeling law practice. It may be just for a social cause, but if you want to make it big, treat it like you would treat a paying job. Also, you may see that such things are done better outside institutional hierarchy that holds most legal aid clinics.

Try your hand at teaching

This is a wonderful way to develop your personality, speaking and mentoring skills. You cannot teach unless you understand the sticking points of your students unless you empathize with their situation. You cannot succeed at teaching unless you care. You cannot succeed unless you develop your own abilities and master the subjects you are teaching as well.

While in college you would get many opportunities to teach. You can teach legal subjects that you know well to juniors. Many law schools have teaching programmes where senior law students can become teaching assistants and take a few classes. If you are particularly interested in a subject, you can suggest to the teacher that you can make a presentation to the class on a particular area that is not being covered otherwise. For instance, your labour law teacher is unlikely to cover labour regulations with respect to an SEZ – and when you realise that you can offer to make a presentation on that subject. You can suggest to your CrPC teacher that you would make a half an hour session on Armed Forces Special Powers Act – which is relevant but is usually not taught in most CrPC classes. You can do this with almost any subject – choose yours.

You can even teach the less fortunate mess workers or sweepers who did not have a formal education – help them to join open schools or open universities and assist them in their studies. You can even join organisations like MAD (Make a Difference) or IDIA (which teaches students from poor economic background so that they can crack law entrances). You can even come up with your own initiative. I used to teach law entrance aspirants at IMS – and it had a major impact in my life. It taught me basics of communication and I draw a lot from the experience of teaching for hundreds of hours when it comes to the work I am currently doing at iPleaders.

Work for a voluntary organization

Volunteering is great. It teaches you how to work in a team to achieve a common goal. It is also a great way to get to know more people. Those of you who complain about lack of social life, please consider joining a voluntary organisation – if nothing else, you are likely to find a great gang of people to hang out with. If it works well, you’d like to work professionally without all the burdens that come with a profession and would learn a lot about how to get things done. You would certainly learn much more about people – volunteering is a great way to acquire leadership and people skills. There are plenty of voluntary organisations that will be extremely happy to let budding lawyers work with them. Look around, do the research and choose one. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them – very often all it takes is an email or a phone call followed up by a meeting.

File consumer cases

You don’t need to be a full-fledged lawyer to argue at a consumer court – you can even represent other people who have grievances. One of my classmates fought a case against his village panchayat in the consumer court and won good running water supply for the entire neighbourhood. I fought a case on behalf of my grandfather and mother against a fraudulent lawyer (and lost ☹). It was a great learning experience. Find the nearest consumer court – finding people with consumer law related grievances will be even easier.   

File RTIs

RTI is a great tool in the hands of a good lawyer. I have even been asked to file RTIs while I was interning – the first one was during my internship in the first year at an NGO – when the state health ministry failed to furnish the information – the news found its way into newspapers. Later I filed RTI before port authorities while interning at a shipping law firm. My knowledge of RTI procedures was always a great help. Besides, it’s a great way to explore one’s activist side. I know law students who implemented the RTI Act in their Universities and even got copies of their exam papers. Some sought information to check if all the workers such as sweepers and security guards are getting minimum wage prescribed by law.

Intern at a place you would like to travel to

This is a must do thing while you are still studying. Did you know that you can get teaching assignments at places like Ladakh or villages in Kashmir? Or that you can work with human rights organizations in Arunachal Pradesh, Bangladesh or Cambodia? Would you like to intern with an organization working on environmental protection in Nicobar islands? I once applied for an internship at a Mongolian newspaper (they didn’t accept me). My second-year internship took me to 7 different states and union territories – including places like Haridwar, Mussourie and a little-known army cantonment town called Chakrata where I came across Tibetan guerrilla forces. Part of the work was to defend a forest dwelling nomadic tribe against tyranny and prejudices of the state.

What you can do and where you can go for your internship is only limited by your imagination.