Career Options After a Legal(LAW) Degree – by Shambhavi Mishra

The National Law Universities are a coveted choice for legal aspirants because of their promise of good corporate placements and a comfortable salary. NLUs were set up to modernize Indian legal education and encourage the new generation of layers to join the bar and improve the quality of lawyers. However statistically speaking the largest number of recruiters from NLUs are legal firms and In-house legal departments of corporations. The student cannot be blamed for wanting to lead a comfortable life and choosing corporate jobs over other career choices, and a career in litigation does not promise either monetary independence or self-sufficiency for at least the first few years of practice. This aim of this article is to succinctly explain the plethora of other career options that the courageous law student can explore post law school.A lot of batch mates of mine are interested in a career in the Civil Services for recruitment in different services of the Government of India. For those interested in research, there is an option to join the academia and maybe even teach future students of law. Laws students can also research on the Indian judiciary as yet another career choice. For those with a concurrent interest in journalism, legal journalism is also an option.Government service as lawyers is also a popular choice. Last but not the least the writer would like to reiterate litigation as an attractive career choice for those who do not want a desk job and want to be independent. I have been told that while it is easy to become a transactional lawyer after litigating for a while, it is difficult for the transactional lawyer to adapt to a litigator’s life after a corporate job. Agreed that the waiting period for building a good practice is long, unsure and tiresome, but you are promised there will never be a monotonous day in your life. For the future lawyers reading this, I urge you to at least try your hand at a legal practitioner’s life by interning at a lawyer’s chambers.