Experts & Views
Reader's angry open letter to law aspirants & law firms: Don't believe the NLU hype
A reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, sent us a missive yesterday about his / her reality of job hunting while at one of the younger national law schools. It rang true and was rather interesting, so I thought it was worth sharing (I see that more or less the same letter has also been published on Lawctopus independently).
Note - we haven't confirmed the placement situation at CNLU Patna, but what is described does not seem far fetched, though it does need to be taken with a pinch of salt too - a lot of 2014 batch students, even at the 'top' NLUs, have anecdotally had a hard time trying to get jobs this year. Mostly, it seems to have been the economy and law firms cutting back considerably.
While Day Zeros for the 2015 batch look rather strong (stories here), I remember how tough it was trying to get Day Zero information out of the 2014 batches in 2013 (partly caused because everyone was panicking about the economy and scaring off recruiters by publishing their statistics).
Anyway, full placement figures for law schools' 2014 batches will hopefully be out soon and we can confirm this.
But the moral of the story is the same as it has been for several years: There are a lot of new national law schools and private law schools popping up but not nearly enough jobs to go around in India. Here goes:
I am a 5th year student from Chanakya National Law University, and has been a regular follower of Legally India.
I recently saw your article on the recruitment figures of some of the top National Law Schools namely NLS, NALSAR and NUJS which showcased a splurge of job offers whereas on the contrary schools like RMNLU are doing their best to keep their feet just off the ground.
Thus in a fit of anger, frustration and disappointment, I am writing to you to let you know of the pitiable condition of these so called "National Law Universities" which are just surviving on the mirage glory of its "National" tag and every passing year screwing up (Pardon my language) the future of a plethora of students who are jobless not because they lack the merit or are anyway inferior to the other blue bloods but by the simple reason that their college administration are just interested in collecting their respective tuition fee and other administrative charges which includes installing lifts and air conditioners in the faculty chambers rather than providing qualitative faculty members or books for that matter in the library.
And this personal vendetta against students does not end right there, we have a 75% compulsory attendance in all 5 years including 10th semester, which basically rummages our chances to even secure a PPO since no firm would even get a a hang of who you are and what you are capable of doing in a 21 days internship.
That being said securing an internship in the first place is also a blind race for most of us, we make our own contacts (jugaads) and hope against hope that somebody in that firm/ organisation or institution notices us.
We the batch of 2009-2014 are graduating in June 2014, with only 2 people placed right now (if only you can call that so, because the terms of recruitment are subjected to a paid internship for 6 months with a promised stiphend of Rs. 15,000).
So much for studying 5 years in a National Law School. So much for taking an exam among 50,000 aspirants and making to a National Law School, So much for taking a student loan and promising your dad, that better days would come soon, so much for expecting that merit at the end of the day wins.
And Dear Law Firms, if you are listening, may be, just may be, we don't belong to the top law schools, but it might surprise you that we might know just as much or may be more than those you recruited.
Maybe it's time you come up with a recruitment policy that helps you pick up talents from all law schools, help us to help you to form a better legal fraternity.
Author's follow-up note:
The entire reason for writing to Legally India was to make sure that it reaches the crowd. Every year the number of students taking CLAT are increasing, they are taking expensive crash courses to get into more expensive colleges with just one bare minimum dream- to make something for themselves.
At the end of 5 years, when they see all their batchmates getting through the not-so-great engineering colleges placed with job offers from TCS and WIPRO, and worse those few people who made it to the top 4 national law school holding job offers from foreign firms and contemplate their situation of having to pay off a lumpsome student loan without a decent job, or any job for that matter- it is the worst feeling possible, not to mention the fact that you feel incompetent and unnerved.
Though the damage that has been caused to our batch is irreparable, I hope this tiny attempt on my part, would probably secure few of my juniors a little upperhand in shaping their future.
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It is extremely easy to pass out of the top law schools. People are rarely failed, especially on the re-test. Learning is mostly through extra-curricular stuff or your own interest.
Now some perspective: 5 years back, the placements for the top three Nationals were pretty much stellar as they are now. 5 years back, the placements for the other national law schools were not so stellar, as they are now.
5 years back, people who got into CNLU and the likes (same tier colleges) and hoped to secure an amazing 'foreign' placement at the end of their study were clearly hoping for pigs to fly.
Point of the entire thing being that it is no secret that the top three Nationals are different from every other law school in the country. They are not the top just because they are Nationals. They are there because a lot of factors have played into making them what they are today. I will not for once agree that students at other colleges can easily outdo students at the top three Nationals. Well sure, exceptions are there, but hey, tough luck as they say. (I mean, NLS Bangalore won Jessups for heavens' sake. Give them credit!)
Also, sorry to burst your bubble, National Law University dude. Just cause you study in a "National" Law University doesn't de facto make you a student of an amazing institution. 5 years should have been enough to make you realise that the word National before the name of your college hardly puts your college on a "National" standard.
So now that you're out of college, it's time you make amends for not securing an upwards of rank 250 in CLAT. Since you didn't, it's time you slog your ass out for little or no pay and hope that in time your work shines and speaks for itself. Not your college, but your work.
Cheers,
-
From a guy who scored Rank 833(I think?) for CLAT 2009 and didn't attend the top three nationals and now works 16 hours day, 7 days a week, for wages that dry up at the end of the month.
Life gets better. Eventually.
What are you made up of Mr. Lakshminath that nothing makes a difference to you!?
I went to a non-national law but top Government Law School in Pune,I have put up my education cost break up(CBU)elow to estimate Return on Investment (which is the first priority in acquiring a degree,second to knowledge)
College tution - 13000*5 = 65000
Living cost 5 yrs= 500000
books and other travel costs= 50000
TOTAL = Rs 615000
Note I was a non localite so my living cost was more
When I graduated I had 3 offers in hand,2 law firms and 1 company,law firms were willing to pay Rs 480000 and company was willing to pay a lakh or two extra.
I was unaware of any hype and can clearly say no one from my law school went to stellar foreign law firms,but everyone almost (60%) of the batch recovered their Return on Investment.
Instead of focussing too much time on national law placements,efforts should be made to create contacts and network professionally.All the hype ultimately helps only the top 5% and the rest 95 % are left in the dark with no particular information as most are from non-law families.
Remember law/politics both as a profession are ultimately family oriented businesses so for non-law people the journey is tougher but be strong and you can do it.
Also remember the difference between Inhouse/law firm and LPO and dont just choose for the sake of money.
4th and 5th year students must stay focussed and not get discouraged.
Market is bad so act smartly.
When I joined this college, I was aware that this is not NLS and would never magically turn into a top law school in 5 years time, but what I did not expect was the recruitment figures going down from 15-20 in the first batch that passed out from the college 4 years back to 2 in the graduating batch of 2014. Whereas the figures show that there has been a considerable rise of job offers in the market.
All I am trying to say, is that the students are doing their part, they are trying to acquire knowledge through self study, they are winning moots and debates without adequate resources, they are building their own contacts and procuring internships- but there is a line that needs to be drawn, there needs to be a reward for this effort. Sadly, I don't know about most NLU's, but my college effort seems to be nil in that regard.
Phewwww!!!
Firms, PLEASE consider the other colleges too. Judge the student. If you believe the NALSAR student is better, hire him. I have no animosity against them. But please don't hire dumbfucks (sorry for the language) merely because you like the college. From what I know, the 2016 batches in all these three law schools aren't comparable to their other batches. Below standard. There was a goof up in the CLAT 2011 due to which a lot of the good students went to other law schools. Firms need to keep in mind such things. I hope Kian publicizes this post enough for it to reach recruiters.
To all those who appreciated this post, thanks a lot. I really acknowledge the way, some of you even defended this article.
To Clat Aspirants 2014, please make a conscious choice will picking up a college to pursue your law graduation. Don’t get your hopes too high, this world is a cruel, cruel place.
To those who dissent: Here is the thing, I am in the top 5 of my batch, I have interned in atleast 4 law firms which feature in the top 10 of the rsg ratings and legal 500. I also got a call back from one of these firms, and though I wanted to extend my internship, I had to stick to the attendance guidelines and get back to my college. BTW one of my co-interns who interned there for 4 months, got the job, though I did get a lot of appreciation :) If that just felt bad, here is another one, I had to refuse an internship at one of the top 3 law firms in India, because a subject faculty refused to prepone or postpone certain presentations for a seminar paper. So yes, I think I did my part. If you ask me if I could have done more, I most definitely could have, but a little bit of support would have gone a long way
Its like your mom buying fruit from the local fruit seller who has been there for 10 years. Why should she try someone else if she has no problems with the incumbent.
I would like to remind Anon. up there that in the same here, the only goof up was apparent underlining of answers in some scripts because of which everyone got 8 marks or so, thus eliminating the goof up. I really hope his/her post does get that publicity as is wanted. I think our actions will speak louder than words in a comment on a blog on LI.
Knowing and understanding own weakness is the first step towards eventual success; blaming others for own weakness is never a productive step. I do not understand the logic of the student from CNLU of doing internship for a long time to get a PPO. If it is only an internship of four months that will fetch a good PPO, then why should one get into a national law school which insists on 75% attendance? One can easily get a LL.B. degree from any number of ordinary law colleges which does not insist on attendance and spend the entire five years for that coveted PPO!
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