How to choose the right law school?
Investing in a good legal education requires students to take into account location, faculty profile and multidisciplinary environment of the law school, writes VC
Vivekanandan
With the CLAT scores released recently, the apprehension levels are high among the law school aspirants. They would soon have to choose their next five-year institution to incubate their legal career. The large number of CLAT and LSAT takers point to an increasing interest among aspirants to acquire a legal education. Yet the moot point is, whether all law schools are in the same league. The answer is not in the affirmative. In the run up to the admission season, one can come across a new law school advertisement every day. In this context, one can identify a minimum of six parameters to be explored in choosing a law school. In the first place, it is the ‘location’ of the school that counts. For the legal aspirants, the ‘Lab’ is outside the school. With the compulsory credit course of internship, they also need to move around to participate in moot courts, seminars, conferences etc.
Secondly, the faculty profile decides the learning process and motivation to sustain five long years. A faculty line up which is drawn across the country and abroad brings in the various shades of intellectual scholarship. Thirdly, the infrastructure in terms of learning resources is a crucial component to have an edge on the information and data mining of legal materials.
Fourthly, with the breach of the strict domestic-international barriers in legal education, the law school having academic and exchange tie-ups with global legal institutions will give the edge. However, there is a need to look deeply whether the logos of universities abroad are flaunted or actual interaction opportunities for budding lawyers. Fifthly, the work-life balance is crucial in choosing the right law school. Festivals of arts and culture, sports complexes etc will make for a positive legal professional.
Finally, ‘law’ is considered as an outcome of the interdisciplinary discourse of arts, humanities, science and management. Ideally located in a multi-disciplinary university, it has its added advantage.
Investing in a legal education needs to be an informed decision as the chosen law school is going to be the ‘home’ away from ‘home’ in the five formative years of one’s personality and profession. Bennett University’s law programmes – Integrated 5 Year BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) programmes have been developed to deliver on all these six parameters and to help students create successful careers whether in corporate, litigation, academia, or judicial services.
(The author is Dean, School of Law, Bennett University)
With the CLAT scores released recently, the apprehension levels are high among the law school aspirants. They would soon have to choose their next five-year institution to incubate their legal career. The large number of CLAT and LSAT takers point to an increasing interest among aspirants to acquire a legal education. Yet the moot point is, whether all law schools are in the same league. The answer is not in the affirmative. In the run up to the admission season, one can come across a new law school advertisement every day. In this context, one can identify a minimum of six parameters to be explored in choosing a law school. In the first place, it is the ‘location’ of the school that counts. For the legal aspirants, the ‘Lab’ is outside the school. With the compulsory credit course of internship, they also need to move around to participate in moot courts, seminars, conferences etc.
Secondly, the faculty profile decides the learning process and motivation to sustain five long years. A faculty line up which is drawn across the country and abroad brings in the various shades of intellectual scholarship. Thirdly, the infrastructure in terms of learning resources is a crucial component to have an edge on the information and data mining of legal materials.
Finally, ‘law’ is considered as an outcome of the interdisciplinary discourse of arts, humanities, science and management. Ideally located in a multi-disciplinary university, it has its added advantage.
Investing in a legal education needs to be an informed decision as the chosen law school is going to be the ‘home’ away from ‘home’ in the five formative years of one’s personality and profession. Bennett University’s law programmes – Integrated 5 Year BA LLB (Hons) and BBA LLB (Hons) programmes have been developed to deliver on all these six parameters and to help students create successful careers whether in corporate, litigation, academia, or judicial services.
(The author is Dean, School of Law, Bennett University)
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