LAW
LITIGATION
NON-LITIGATION
JUDICIARY
POST-GRADUATION
CIVIL SERVICES
LECUTRER
Legum Baccalaureus (Bachelor of Law) commonly known as LLB is one of the most versatile careers. The LLB degree opens option for almost all the fields except for certain traditional core courses. The person who has pursued has following opportunities if broadly categorised.
A) LITIGATION
Litigation is the most traditional form of career option for law students. Litigation means the court practice of law. After, the completion of LLB the student can enrol himself/herself in any State Bar Council and thereafter start practising in the particular state. According to the Bar Council of India Rules, the student has to first get enrolled with the State Bar Council which provides the provisional enrolment number for the period of 2 years, within this 2 year span every enrolled advocate must clear All India Bar Examination to get the Permanent Enrolment Number.
The Enrolled Advocate can also practise with Advocate on Record for a requisite period and give the exam of AOR, to practise in Supreme Court of India.
The students can practice in various areas of law like Company Law, Intellectual Property Law, Criminal Law, Family Law, Tax Laws, and Arbitration etc. The practice can be pursed either by joining the Chamber of the Lawyer, Litigating Firm or starting the private practice of our own.
B) NON-LITIGATION
The field, non-litigation as the name suggests do not include court practice. Non- Litigation is a very broad term; it is the most emerging avenue for law students. For non-litigating matters, students usually join law firms. The law firms are basically companies which aid and assist the big companies or individuals related to their legal matters. The usual area of practice of non-litigating firms broadly is:
a) General Corporate
The general corporate is a wide term. It means the corporate houses like the MNCs; they have a legal department in their firm like any other department. The students in order to work in MNC require the knowledge of Company Law and other laws related to the business of firm.
Furthermore, General Corporate also includes law firms which specialises in the Corporate Law like Mergers and Acquisition which aids the Corporate Houses in their legal matters.
b) Specialised Matters
There are various law firms which specialises in specific area of law and deal with those kinds of matters only. For example, there are various firms which deals with IPR matters, Entertainment Industry Matters or Taxation matters etc. These kinds of law firms are expert in matters related to particular field and are approached in related circumstances.
c) Arbitration
Arbitration is an emerging field. It basically means matters related to out of court settlement. There are firms which specialises in out of court settlement matters. These firms mainly practise in matters like Negotiation, Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration.
These were the some broad categories of the non-litigation field with various areas of practise classified under different heads. However, the work in non-litigating firms is enumerated as follows:
1) Contract Analyst
The foundation stone of any business is the contract. The contracts of these businesses are drafted by the legal team of such company. In order to understand the nuances of the language of the Contract, the aforementioned kind of companies hire the contract analyst who could explain the contracts to the party entering into it. The job of the contract analyst is to analyse the contract and check any kind illegality or fraud covered by fancy legal language.
2) Legal Advisor
The job of legal advisor is to understand the problem of its party and suggest the best possible legal recourse to them. The legal advisor just advises and do not represent their clients in the court. The companies require the legal advice for its day to day recourse for lawful conduct of business.
3) Drafting
The various formalities are the required before the formation of company until its dissolution. In each step of business some or the other documents are required to be drafted, for example the contract, memorandum etc. For this purpose the company requires the law students who could make the document legally sound.
4) Legal Researcher
Legal research is a skill. In a court both the judges and advocates require the good legal research to write the judgment or prove their point respectively. When any fact is supported by the legal proposition or precedents is accepted in the court. The job of legal researcher is to study the case, formulate relevant issues and accordingly search citations for the same. This job particularly involves a lot of reading.
C) JUDICIARY
The most traditional job of the law field is judiciary. This job comes up with the utmost respect and priviliges. In order to become judge in India there are 3 ways:
1) Direct Entry Level Exam
After the completion of LLB the law student can give the three-level exam of lower judiciary. There are no qualifications required for this exam except for the LLB degree. The person who clears this exam becomes the judge and start from the lowest level of judiciary.
2) Higher Judiciary Exam
Higher Judiciary exam is for the post of Additional District Judge/District Judge. This is also the three-level exam given by the Advocates who have been practicing for minimum 7 years.
3) Practice in High Court/Supreme Court
After the practice of minimum years (enshrined in the Constitution) in High Court or Supreme Court, the Bar suggests the name of competent advocates to be appointed as High Court or Supreme Court judges. The competency of such advocates is decided by the Bar.
D) POST-GRADUATION
After the completion of LLB the student can always pursue the post-graduation in the area of interest. The post-graduation degree of LLB is called LLM. The student can pursue LLM either from India (e.g.: NLUs or Private and Government Colleges) or from abroad like from UK (Kings College of London, Queens College, Oxford, Cambridge etc.), USA (Harvard, Stanford Law School, New York University etc.). The foreign countries also provides for scholarships (Felix for Oxford, Rhodes Scholarship etc.)
Recently, there is a trend of pursuing MBA after completion of Law degree. The post of legal HR in the companies is an emerging option for students who are pursuing MBA after Law.
The Post-Graduation is also mandatory for students to wants to pursue PhD in Law.
E) CIVIL SERVICES
The law students have an added advantage over other aspirants of UPSC and State PSC. In the LLB course students learn about the law and working of the system. The majority of the syllabus of these exams is covered during their course and they also learn the
practicality of the job which the students from other field lack. Therefore, law gives an edge for these exams.
F) LECTURER
Teaching which the most respectful job is the least preferred job by the law students. There is huge demand for law teachers across the country. The job pays well and the basic qualification required for lectureship is post-graduation.
The aforementioned list is not exhaustive; these were the few broadly classified career options after pursuing law. There are more career options like ADPO exam, government sector exams for legal officer, banking sector etc. Every industry existing in the economy requires legal assistance and therefore opens the opportunity for law students.
