Career In Law

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Types of Legal Practice

  • Private Practice: involves working alone or with partners in a firm to provide legal services to clients (individuals or corporations); some lawyers specialize in one or more practice areas while others engage in general practice.
  • Public Interest Law: serves low-income individuals, marginalized groups and social causes; practitioners may work for advocacy groups, legal aid clinics and other organizations with the goal of advancing an interest of the public.
  • Government Counsel: governments hire lawyers for legal advice and representation; lawyers directly employed by the government may work for ministries, government agencies and crown corporations.
  • Corporate Counsel: corporations can employ lawyers as in-house counsel; an in-house counsel works for a single company to advise on legal matters related to its business activities.

Practice Areas (Specializations)

  • Administrative: branch of public law dealing with the relationship between individuals and the government; regulates the power of governmental administrative agencies and ensures fair implementation and administration of laws.
  • Civil Litigation: involves a lawsuit resulting from a dispute between private parties (individuals or corporations); civil litigation is concerned with matters such as breach of contract, debt collection, malpractice and personal injury.
  • Constitutional: constitutional lawyers handle issues such as equality rights, freedom of expression, security and democratic governance.
  • Corporate and Commercial: deals with the formation and maintenance of businesses; corporate and commercial lawyers handle contracts, liability, mergers, structured financings and other business matters.
  • Criminal: a criminal lawyer may work for the government as a prosecutor or represent the accused person as a defense lawyer.
  • Family: applies to legal relationships between family members; issues in family law include marriage contracts, divorce, child custody, adoption, wills and estate planning.
  • Immigration: federal laws control the entry of non-citizens into the country; immigration lawyers assist clients in applying for entry, residing in the country and becoming citizens.
  • Intellectual Property: intellectual property law protects ownership through copyrights, patents, trademarks and industrial design registrations.
  • International: governs the interactions and relationships between nations; international lawyers may be hired by national governments and international organizations, or work in the private sector focusing on the interpretation of treaties and related laws.
  • Labor and Employment: defines the rights and obligations of employers, workers and union members; lawyers may advise management, labor or government on issues such as employment standards, workplace health and safety, and industrial relations.
  • Real Estate: deals with the purchase, sale, financing and development of land and buildings; real estate lawyers may work for developers, tenants, investors, banks or corporations on matters relating to residential or commercial real estate.
  • Securities: regulates the purchase and sale of securities (financial instruments such as stocks and bonds); securities lawyers typically work in law firms providing services to corporations and financial institutions or for governmental commissions focusing on regulatory compliance.
  • Tax: deals with the taxes levied by different levels of government; tax lawyers may advise corporations on tax strategies and implications of business transactions, or counsel individuals on matters such as legal wills and estate planning.

Top Ten Law Colleges in India

  • NLSIU, Bangalore(Est: 1988)
    Website:www.nls.ac.in
    Seats: 80
    Cut-off: Entrance test.
  • NALSAR, Hyderabad(Est: 1998)
    Website:www.nalsaruniv.org
    Seats: 80
    Cut-off: Entrance test
  • NLIU, Bhopal (Est: 1997)
    Website:www.nliu.edu
    Seats: 80
    Cut-off: Entrance test
  • Symbiosis Law College, Pune (Est: 1977)
    Website:www.symlaw.ac.in
    Seats: 200
    Cut-off: Entrance exam
  • Faculty of Law, DU, Delhi (Est: 1924)
    Website:www.du.ac.in
    Seats: 1,500
    Cut-off: Entrance test
  • ILS Law College, Pune (Est: 1924)
    Website:www.ilslaw.edu
    Seats: 240 for a three-year course and 400 for a five-year course
    Cut-off: Merit
  • Faculty of Law, BHU, Banaras (Est: 1916)
    Website:www.bhu.ac.in
    Seats: 275
    Cut-off: Entrance test
  • Amity Law School, Delhi (Est: 1999)
    Website:www.amity.edu
    Seats: 80
    Cut-off: 60 per cent
  • University Law College, Bangalore University, Bangalore (Est: 1948)
    Seats: 80
    Cut-off: 85 per cent
  • NUJS, Kolkata
    Web Site:http://www.nujs.edu/
    Cut-off: Entrance test (CLAT)

Admission process

The major law entrance exams (based on the number of candidates) are:

Common Law Admission Test (CLAT),

NLU- Delhi Admission Test,

Symbiosis Entrance Test (SET),

NLU- Orissa Admission Test,

IP University Admission Test and

LSAT- India.

CLAT is conducted once every year usually on the first Sunday of May.
Most of the entrance exams are conducted in the months of May and June.
The two most important things in your path to entering law schools would be your score in the respective law entrance examination and your senior secondary examination percentage (XII Board examination).

THE UNDER-GRADUATE PROGRAMME OFFERED BY
THE NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITIES
[5 year integrated BA/B.Sc*/B Psc**/ BBA^/ BCom^ LL.B (Hons) Degree Course]

  • To be eligible  to appear for CLAT, a candidate should have passed his/her Higher Secondary School/Intermediate Examination (10+2) or its equivalent examination with not less than 50% marks in aggregate (45% in case of SC/ST/OBC and persons with Disability).~
  • Candidates who have appeared in the 10+2 examination and are awaiting results are also eligible to appear in the test.°
  • Age of candidate should not be more than 20 years in case of General/OBC candidates (22 years in case of SC/ST and persons with Disability).
  • *Offered by NUJS, NLU Jodhpur and GNLU.
  • **Bachelor in Political Science, offered by NLU Jodhpur.
  • ^Offered by GNLU, a new course, BSL (Bachelor of Social Welfare and Policy is under consideration to be introduced).
  • ° The candidate must have passed the qualifying examination at the time of his/her admission and be able to submit its proof.
  • Subject to State reservation at the University concerned.

Pattern of the CLAT Paper for entry to the Under-graduate Programme

Total Marks 200
Total number of questions 200
Duration of examination Two Hours

Subject areas with weightage:

English including Comprehension 40 Marks
General Knowledge/ Current Affairs 50 Marks
Mathematics 20 Marks
Logical Reasoning 45 Marks
Legal Aptitude/Legal Awareness 45 Marks

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO)
Career Opportunities for Lawyers in India

In 2010, the LPO industry in India witnessed tremendous growth, with India doing very well in the domain of mergers and acquisitions. There was greater awareness about joining the LPO industry as one of the law careers.  Other reasons why India is a preferred destination for LPO are as follows:

Large pool of English speaking lawyers.

Easy access to highly skilled lawyers in India

Pay rate of lawyers in India are 10% to 15% less than the lawyers in the US or the UK.

Several Indian law firms operate 24×7.

Favorable government policies.

Legal proceedings in Indian courts take place in English.

LPO Among Law Careers

With a large number of law firms providing LPO services, this has emerged as a lucrative law career for Indian lawyers. By mid 2010, the LPO industry had created 12, 000 law jobs in India.

For eligibility, it is important to be a law graduate and well versed in writing, speaking and understanding the usage of legal terms in English.

It is estimated that the number of job opportunities in the Indian LPO industry will rise to 79, 000 by 2015.

LPO: Services Offered

The services provided in the LPO domain are usually classified into manpower intensive services and high-value services. These services are:

  • Contract Management
  • Document Reviews and Data Verification
  • Legal Research
  • Deposition Summaries
  • Patent Renewals
  • Patent Analytics and Patent Research
  • Trademark Renewals, Search and Watching
  • IP Support Services and Digital Content Watching

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