Law Schools In New Age

Law is becoming the preferred choice of career for students across the spectrum. Law schools are imparting in-depth knowledge of diverse areas of law which is nurturing young law students to become thorough professionals in their respective domains. In this era of specialisation and domain expertise, the notion that a lawyer has to only appear before courts has been offset by the large number of law graduates opting for roles which are unconventional and novel. Avenues such as corporate law, in-house roles, legal journalism and policy and research have made the legal profession an attractive choice for people who aspire for high growth opportunities.

The number of students who attempted the Common Law Admission Test 2023 was approximately 56,000 for 2,801 seats. With the demand from the student community rising constantly, law colleges have also been mushrooming in the country. There are as many as 1,721 law schools in India.

The problem, however, lies in providing quality education - which would include stellar infrastructure and qualified, trained and experienced faculty. Many law schools have been able to bridge this gap and ensure that law students undergo quality legal education so that they are able to compete successfully in the legal industry.

As per an estimate by the Bar Council of India, about 70,000 law graduates enter the profession every year. With the Indian economy growing at an immense pace, economic growth is precipitating into a boom in the service industry. Lawyers are required to not only appear in court for their clients in litigations but also in business operations like mergers and acquisitions, strategies, taxation, alternate dispute resolution, contract management, negotiation, business transactions etc. The role of a lawyer has transformed and newer fields are emerging for legal professionals.

Impact Of Law Schools

Law schools in India are set to revolutionise the legal industry. With newer lucrative avenues for law students, the law schools are bestowed with the added responsibility to provide their students with domain expertise. The students have to be future- and career-ready when they graduate and they should not be left in the lurch in desperation for jobs in the legal market.

Law schools in India impart quality legal education through methods of debate and discussions. The legal profession stands out for its deep analytical approach to any problem that arises. For students to develop such a mindset, their institution must zero in on comprehensive and continuous debates and discussions in classroom. Making students visit courtrooms, prisons and other judicial forums and tribunals is important to make students understand the workplace environment that the legal profession offers. Moot court competitions also help in the polishing of debating skills of law students.

New Areas

Many law schools, realising the need for specialisation and newer avenues for lawyers, have begun focussing more on niche subjects such as international law, alternative dispute resolution and environmental law. These domains are attractive and offer a lucrative work scenario. Indian legal education is strictly regulated by the Bar Council of India and no law school has the authority to decide its syllabus. Therefore, the syllabus of each and every law school remains the same. The difference can, however, be made by holding thought-provoking workshops on different areas of the law to stimulate debate, discussion and discourse. For instance, the National Law University (NLU) Delhi has a project against death penalty, namely Project 39A. This project aims at studying and researching on death row convicts. It also provides free legal aid to convicts on death row. The Symbiosis Law School, Pune, also organises many seminars wherein senior lawyers and academicians share their experiences in the profession. New areas like – technology law, environmental law, artificial intelligence and machine learning law, health law and biotethics, sports law, space law and crypto currency and blockchain law are some of the new areas which will grow immensely in the years to come.

Present Challenge

The legal profession faces many different challenges in the practical scenarios. The recent policy by Bar Council of India (BCI) allowing foreign lawyers and law firms to operate in India is being seen by many lawyers as discriminatory and detrimental to economic prospects of domestic lawyers and law firms as they feel that the foreign lawyers would usurp their clientele and business opportunities. Although the BCI rules are restricted to practice of international law, it remains to be seen how this will pan out in the operational scenarios.

Another controversial point is the evergreening of artificial intelligence technologies in legal operations. Extractive and generative AI is being used by law firms, resulting in saving of precious time. This has become a cause of concern for the legal community. Although the recent experiences suggest that AI is still in a nascent stage, whether it will cause job losses in the legal market is not certain at this point.