RGNUL Patiala’s 2011 graduating students are only now starting to secure the first ‘desk jobs’ after serious delays now being rectified by the college’s new vice chancellor, who only recently joined from HNLU Raipur.

The Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL) Patiala placement cell was only inaugurated by the new RGNUL vice chancellor Dr Paramjeet Jaswal on 11 May 2011 shortly after he joined RGNUL from HNLU only in February of this year.

Jaswal admitted that the placement cell was started late this year but that the recruitment process for the fourth year students was now already underway.

But he added that during his early talks with students many had indicated that they would like to become litigating lawyers or would practise at the bar alongside family members or relatives.

“One of the major criticisms of National Law Universities was that it has kept on producing corporate lawyers and not litigating lawyers,” noted Jaswal. “Thus, the fact that students at RGNUL are opting to pursue litigation as a career is a very positive change.” Additionally such students would be employers in future and not only employees, he said.

Nevertheless a placement cell had now been constituted to cater to the needs of those students wishing to secure corporate law firm or in-house jobs and the recruitment process of current fourth year students has also commenced, Jaswant added.

A faculty member of the placement cell of RGNUL told Legally India that three students from RGNUL had now secured desk-based jobs in law firms while 12 other students had been shortlisted for Supreme Court judicial clerkships.

The cell member also added that students had been consistently securing internships with law firms such as AZB & Partners, Amarchand Mangaldas, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Crawford Bayley, Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra, and with senior counsel such as KK Venugopal, KTS Tulsi, Mohan Parasaran, PP Rao, Ram Jethmalani and Shanti Bhushan.

Various law firms had responded positively to the brochures sent by RGNUL and some of them have invited the students to their offices for interviews, added the cell.

It is understood that a few students would pursue LLMs in universities in the UK and France.

Jaswal declined to comment on whether the previous administration was at fault for having not constituted a placement cell earlier, but said that various projects such as an active legal aid cells was now taking shape: “Things have improved after I joined the university four months ago. Various initiatives have been taken and RGNUL is also having a mobile justice van where we advise people of rural areas on legal issues. This is certainly a positive change.”

Jaswal had joined RGNUL in February 2011 for personal reasons, vowing to tackle similar challenges at RGNUL as had been faced by HNLU in its early years.