Scope of career in legal field : A summary

Elizabeth Chongneihoi *

Charles Dickens once said, “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.” Gone are the days when law as a career was just about bad people, crimes, courtroom, trials, and judges. Over the past decade, the role of a legal professional has transformed tremendously to serve a wide range of functions in our society and now comes along with prospects even more rewarding than ever before.

Whatever the era maybe, lawyers always make a difference in the society. While graduating in Law earlier meant getting into litigation or judiciary fields, it now opens up a big pool of socio-economic opportunities

Let us discuss some new age careers in law:

Legal Analyst: They work for corporate firms or law firms in swanky offices, get dressed like corporate executives and work on laws pertaining to the sphere of a company and its operations.

Legal Advisor: A legal advisor can get a job from all kind of companies. They serve as consultants with corporate firms, media houses, NGOs, financial institutions regarding their legal obligations, duties, legal relations with other firms, customers and public in general.

Document Drafting Lawyer: These lawyers specialize in drafting various documents containing agreements, case material, terms and conditions, etc.

Legal Journalist: They cover crime beats, legal proceedings in courts, arbitration courts, international courts and arbitration events.

Social Work Lawyer: A good number of law graduates are joining NGOs that work for social causes. Those who are passionate about socio-legal issues and are bothered about the plight of underprivileged in the society, choose to work as social work lawyers.

Academician: Some law graduates choose to pursue teaching as a career. They further their research in all aspects related to law and its influence on society.

Human Rights Lawyer: These lawyers specialize in human rights laws and help the public in fighting for their rights against wrongdoings.

Environmental Lawyer: With the whole concept of sustainable development, environment protection is the need of the hour. Environmental lawyers advise clients on green initiatives and sustainability issues and have to be well-versed in commercial contracts, regulations, and federal & provisional statutes.

Labor and Employment Lawyer: Labor and employment lawyers handle conflicts and disputes between employees and employers, and help formulate employment contracts.

Intellectual Property Lawyer: For as long as invention and innovation exist, intellectual property lawyers will always be needed to procure rights to new ideas and protect the ownership of existing creations.

Cyber Lawyer: Cyber lawyers deal with the legal issues related to the use of the internet. With the increase in social media and use of cyberspace, the crimes in the cyber world are increasing and thus, the role of cyber lawyers has become very prominent. With the increase in need of regulations in different walks of life, many law graduates today opt for an MBA, write the Civil Services exam, or pursue a course in social services, social media, etc so as to understand the nitty-gritty of every industry. Similarly, people from other professions are also pursuing law so as to understand legal aspects of their respective industry.

Civil services and law

LAW AS AN OPTIONAL

Who can opt?
A prevalent thought is that law being a highly specific subject, one shall opt for law only if he/she has legal graduation or comes from legal background.
However, non-legal graduates can also opt for law.

Is it beneficial?
Syllabus of law optional overlaps with cereal studies, hence no thorough specific study is required.
Papers are application-based, therefore rote-memorisation is not needed.
Questions posed are generally related to current events. Therefore, one can answer by focusing on current affairs.
Syllabus in not very exhaustive and can be easily covered. Keep making notes and stay updated for any legal amendments.

DIMENSIONS OF PREPARATION
APPROACH TOWARDS THE PAPER

As a law graduate, one has an edge of logical and analytical approach over the other. One shall exploit this to make full use of reasoning and fetch high scores.

The papers, often pose questions that demand decision-making on part of the candidate. If one systematically figures out the positives and negatives, and premises his answers on reasonable grounds, he/she can produce concrete answers that satisfies the question adequately. Therefore, immense focus on answer-writing, both logically and legally, is required.

LEGAL DIMENSION

Questions if answered with appropriate and applicable sections and legal provisions brigs weight to the answer. It depicts search and knowledge on candidate's part. Application of relevant laws solidify the answer and lays down concerts solutions the problem raised in the question. Therefore adding legal dimension is highly essential to score high.

MEMORY POWER

Though law papers are application-based and often involve practical problems, significance of memory while attempting a law optional paper cannot be ignored. In order to concretise the answers by adding legal elements to it, one needs to be well-versed with the relevant laws and provisions. Section numbers and case laws to support the answers have to be kept handy while answering application-based papers. Hence, it is recommendatory that candidates work on their ability to memorise the case names and legal provisions.

One can conclude on an optimistic note that law offers a great opportunity to excel in civil services. What one essentially needs is thorough knowledge and the right approach. If individuals keep themselves informed and well-updated, perform with a logical approach, he/she can come out with flying colours.