Career Aspects and Opportunities in Law
Career Aspects in Law
Author :- Prity Kumari
Career Aspects and Opportunities in Law
When one hear the word “law”, the mind visualises some pictures and started creating a movie scene of court room battles, in which a person bearing white shirt, black pant and having a big black gown, a statue of Lady Justice, white-haired men writing wills, or judges wearing ridiculous robes and tatty wigs.
Law is such sector that touches almost all the sectors of this universe. Even, its impact can be seen when one born, the birth certificate is given to him and when one die then the death certificate is made. Thus, we can say that law starts with our life and it always remains alive.
Legal education are facing such a host of difficulties— declining enrolments, declining job prospects for law graduates, few number of campus placements, reduced public funding—that sometimes it seems the only debate that is over whether the situation is best described as a “tsunami” or “a perfect storm” for the law students. Against all these backdrops, technology offers the attractive possibility of making legal education both more efficient and more effective and opens the doors for the new law graduates.
Nowadays, the term ‘Legal Education’ touches multi-dimensional streams of education all around the world. It is not a subject that covers the scope of the law alone, however, it extends its arms to social, political, historical and economic areas too. It can’t be understood with a determinate set of definitions, as the law cannot be understood without imbibing the social segments in its ambit. It is a type of human science which furnishes relationship of law with the society.
Legal education equips the future lawyers, judges, administrators, counsellor and legal scientists to fashion and refashion ways of peace and able to contribute to national development along with the social change in a much more constructive manner. The primary aim of legal education is to
(i) provide a platform where legal scholars can contribute to enhance in-depth understanding of law,
(ii) explore vacuum areas of law where law is required,
(iii) participate in growth, evolution and improvement of legal rules whenever needed,
(iv) inculcate students with the knowledge of operative legal rules, both substantive and procedural,
(v) equip the law students with sufficient knowledge of the historical and sociological background of the legal system of the country, and
(vi) to provide students with knowledge of the other legal systems of the world so that the students do not find themselves at a complete loss when it comes to adopting a comparative approach.[1]
Thus, legal education is a multi-disciplined, multi-purpose education system which can help in developing the human resources and idealism needed to strengthen the legal system in the country.
Every law students have some common questions. For instance, What to do with this degree? Where will I stand after graduation? Do I survive in this competitive world? Will this world accept me? Will I be able to fulfil all my dreams?
It is well known to everyone that the delivery of legal service is a very complex process and it can’t be done without a team of legal professionals having calibre to do it in a hassle free manner. As a result, the legal field offers many job opportunities to the law students encompassing a diverse range of skills, experience, and education. Developments in the law and technology have also created many new legal career opportunities to the law students and trying to fulfil their all expectations.
There are plenty of job options for the fresh law graduates which are as follows-
Core Legal Careers– These are the career options that often comes in one’s mind whenever legal field is being considered. They can start their career as a lawyer, Paralegals and legal secretaries.
Careers in Legal and Administrative support– these act as assistance to the lawyers who represent the cases. The fresh graduates can also choose it as their career and this will be very beneficial to those students who are very much interested in doing the research and enthusiast in doing legal analysis. They can work as a Compliance Specialist, Conflicts Analyst, Legal recruiter, Court messenger, Law firm administrator, Contract Administrator, etc.
Careers in IT sector-As it is well known to everyone that technology has also changed the legal field to the same extent and the legal field is trying to move ahead with the same. The law graduates can take this sector as a boon to them and start their career as Litigation support professionals, E-discovery professionals and document coder, etc. During this corona pandemic, all works of the courts has becomes virtual and it has shown the world that the courts can also run when the people are at home. It has been proven that the justice is the prime aim and objective of the law. This would help us in solving the issues of pendency of cases in the courts.
Courtroom and Courthouse Careers– It is the most classic job opportunity that one can find. But rarely anyone could aspect this job opportunity after investing a lot of fees in the private law colleges along with their other expenses. Although no one should forget that the Judges also comes under this category of job opportunity.
They can also start their career as a Courtroom deputy, Court interpreter, Law clerks, Court clerks, Mediators etc.
Careers in Education field– A law graduate can start his career as a Law Professor, law school dean, Law school Admissions officer, etc.
Career in Social Work
Many a times, the law students start their career in Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that work for social causes. If one is passionate about socio-legal issues, then this is the right avenue for him and he may work with NGOs and Civil Society Organizations on issues based on environmental protection, gender concerns, caste discrimination, employment, working conditions, marginalization of various sections of the society, child rights, labour unions, juvenile justice organisations, etc. They are also offered to work with international organizations such as the United Nations and with international tribunals like International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, etc.
Other sectors–
There are also other sectors where one can find his career like in Journalism, Media, as a Legal Content Writer, legal Counsellor, and many more opportunities.
Conclusion-
Legal field is full of opportunities and also very competitive in its nature. Those days have gone when black robes and courtrooms were the bread and butter of lawyers. Lawyers have moved many moons away from the conventional and now live very much in the real world of technology.
So, the legal profession looks attractive enough, the good communication skills can make your smooth and easy. The most important skill that every lawyer must have is logical reasoning. If one is smart, presentable and not scared to voice his opinion, Law is definitely a career he should consider!
[1] Vincent Luizi, ‘Philosophy in Legal Education’, 29 JLE (1978).
