By Nitin Potdar
With the policy of liberalization introduced for foreign direct investments in 1991, followed by globalization and the advent of information technology, the way businesses, governments and public institutions are being conducted has undergone a sea change. This transformation has resulted in a huge demand for consulting, engineering, management, accounting, and particularly legal professionals in India. Fortunately, in recent years, law has become a preferred career choice for many young students across all strata of society, alongside management and engineering fields. This growing interest underscores the need to equip these future legal professionals not just with theoretical knowledge, but with practical skills and real-world experience to meet the demands of a diverse and evolving society.
Previously, the career in law was restricted to families of lawyers and judges. However, the formation of national law schools has transformed the perception of legal education in India and have exerted considerable effort to impart quality legal education. We must congratulate and commend their efforts. However, I must say that there is still much that needs to be done and we have to necessarily re-design our legal education, be it academics or practical training.
However, I would like to highlight a few areas where law students still face humongous challenges, particularly the opportunity to gain practical training and hands-on experience, which needs urgent attention if we are to produce truly effective lawyers. The main challenge today facing law students is securing well-thought-out and structured and/or specialised internships, whether in law firms, with senior lawyers, the judiciary, institutions, or industry, followed by placement. Our internships today are more ad-hoc and totally unstructured.
Here are my three suggestions:
- Legal Fraternity Involvement: I strongly recommend that the Supreme Court in consultation with the Bar Council and Ministry of Law should issue mandatory directives to the legal fraternity to make internships compulsory and come forward to help the next generation of lawyers. The government could be made to provide financial support for internships to young lawyers who are hired, akin to other skills development or other paid internship government programmes. This is a must for two- and three-tier cities.
- Integration with SMEs and start-ups: Today, we have more than 6.5 crore SMEs, MSMEs, and start-ups in India, most of them are struggling to secure legal support on their recoveries, day-to-day commercial agreements/ documentations, including their financing / borrowings, and licensing and regulatory compliances for their business operations. Law students could be easily roped into these industries as interns to offer this support under a learn-and-earn policy. For this, I would recommend that the industry chambers and business forums come forward and be the bridge to connect law students with the industries.
- Legal clinics at law schools: Law schools should be asked to run free legal clinics or host Lok Adalats under the supervision of retired judges of the Supreme Court/High Courts/district courts, or retired tribunal members like the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal; Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal; National Green Tribunal; Competition Appellate Tribunal; and Securities Appellate Tribunal, among others, along with law students. While this would help law students gain the much-needed domain expertise of various subjects and also practical hands-on experience, it could also help reduce the judicial backlog of cases.
These measures would certainly go a long way in improving the quality of lawyering in India. As we continue to evolve legal education, it is essential to ensure that our future lawyers are not only well-versed in the theoretical aspects of law, but are also proficient in handling practical challenges. By integrating real-world experience with academic learning, we can better prepare our students for the dynamic landscape of law and justice.
—The writer is a senior corporate lawyer and author of a Handbook for Law Students