Just gave CLAT PG and secured a rank somewhere in the early 1000s. Have been working at a law firm prior. Just want some crowd sourced advice on whether it is worth doing an LLM from India and return back to the Indian Law Firm foray?
Which are some of the best Indian places to do a masters from, after the 5-year course?
If you want to return to domestic law firms, then it is not worth doing an LLM from here or anywhere else. If you want to take a shot at foreign firms, then it makes sense to do an LLM from that country. In either case, domestic LLMs are not of any use other than for joining academia or pursue higher studies like PhD.
It's not. LLMs in general have no value if you're not going for academics. Most people in NLUs do their LLM after their UG to get a new experience and learn a thing or now. In terms of marketability it has no such value, in fact, some might even say that students get paid a bit less after they come back to firms. If you want pursue academics or want to get the foreign experience then it's alright but in terms of monetary benifits you won't get any. Also, some people do LLMs because they need a break from the firm life and instead of wasting time and showcasing gaps in their CV, they prefer to do a LLM instead from abroad. Indian LLMs are useless, teachers in these courses are ofte sub standard and they don't increase your value. Don't do it for the wrong reasons.
LLMs from NLUs or most Indian Law Schools for that matter are not worth it for corporate lawyers and folks looking to get into corporate law.
It is worth it, if you are preparing for judicial services as, Judges with an LLM are paid slightly more when compared to their LLB counterparts. Also, it is better to do something for a year if no vacancies for your state are announced when compared to sitting idle at home.
For teaching and academia, a 2 Year LLM from CLC DU is much better when compared to 1 Year LLM form an institute like NLSIU.
JGLS, NLSIU, NLUD, NALSAR, NLUJ, NUJS, GNLU and SLS-P are great institutes to do a LLM at for Corp and/or Commercial Laws as well as specialist interests like WTO & Investment Laws, IPRs and Competiton Law. Do your own research and diligence however to see what fits your interest the best.
Also, kindly advise on pursuing an LLM from NLS/NALSAR. I intend to work in a good law firm. I messed up my UG from a T2 NLU hence could not secure any offers. Should I pursue the llm or should I remain unemployed and keep applying to low tier law firms? Please help! R please publish ASAP! Thanks.
If you are doing it for getting an NLU brand for law firms/placements, Indian LLM has NO value. The entire day zero of top NLUs is only for LLBs and all top law firms will only go for LLB grads on day zero. When I went for LLM, I saw the entire law school was structured around the 5 year course and bitter truth was no one really cared for LLMs, which was treated like a temporary short vacation course. LLMs were second grade citizens who were not even part of Student Body (which I later understand makes sense as we are numerically way less (same for PHd and other PG courses), we are there for just a year and our basic legal course i.e. LLB is already over). Anyways the thing that hurt me most was only placements. Of course I did not know this before that there is no day zero recruitments by big 6 for LLMs. If I had not been so naive I would have never wasted 11 months of my life. If you are doing it for academics or research based positions then go ahead. All I am saying is if you are doing it just do it for the right reasons.
NLUs don't arrange for placements, not even for their LLB students. The latter do that by themselves, taking advice from their seniors throughout five years. If any LLM batch is enterprising enough to do that, they can have proper placement. In my NLU, I've seen LLM students secure PSU jobs like HPCL, law firms like Argus etc.
I have a similar question: I wrote CLAT PG (2023) and got a decent rank. Enough to get me into NUJS. Is it worth it? Is the academic pressure going to be burdening? This is important for me as I am also preparing for the judicial services exams. What is the quality of life like in NUJS? Do LLM's get hostel facilities, what is the faculty like, etc.? Basically, any information on the LLM programme at NUJS would be very helpful.
Here we go again. The usual qtiyas on LI dissuading people from doing LLMs.
There are people with both Indian and foreign LLMs who are doing well in India. Some are partners, some are Senior Advocates, some are generally counsels, some are bureaucrats, some are academics, some are activists.
Do an LLM for whatever reason you want: whether to party abroad, or do some in-depth research, or learn about a new field or build a specialisation, or just bide time. At the end of the day, it's your hard work that will make you successful. Even starting law at 40 years and working hard for 5 years will yield more success than starting law at 25 and not working hard for 15 years. The one exception are nepo kids, who can be successful no matter what, but there's enough space in the profession for non-nepo kids too.
So just follow your heart and work hard. Good luck.
It depends on where. You should specifically ask about the faculty who teach and mentor the LLMs. From time to time, great professors take an interest in the PG programs and put effort into it. So you could end up learning a lot. But recruitment and internships are usually handled by students, and that's LLBs so it's probably harder getting them to be inclusive. If you feel that you already have the networks to apply for firm jobs after, it may not matter. In that case you can focus on getting a great education (which may or may not help you in the firm) and then on the next steps.
Just want some crowd sourced advice on whether it is worth doing an LLM from India and return back to the Indian Law Firm foray?
Which are some of the best Indian places to do a masters from, after the 5-year course?
Also, some people do LLMs because they need a break from the firm life and instead of wasting time and showcasing gaps in their CV, they prefer to do a LLM instead from abroad.
Indian LLMs are useless, teachers in these courses are ofte sub standard and they don't increase your value. Don't do it for the wrong reasons.
It is worth it, if you are preparing for judicial services as, Judges with an LLM are paid slightly more when compared to their LLB counterparts. Also, it is better to do something for a year if no vacancies for your state are announced when compared to sitting idle at home.
For teaching and academia, a 2 Year LLM from CLC DU is much better when compared to 1 Year LLM form an institute like NLSIU.
It will be a better experience.
There are people with both Indian and foreign LLMs who are doing well in India. Some are partners, some are Senior Advocates, some are generally counsels, some are bureaucrats, some are academics, some are activists.
Do an LLM for whatever reason you want: whether to party abroad, or do some in-depth research, or learn about a new field or build a specialisation, or just bide time. At the end of the day, it's your hard work that will make you successful. Even starting law at 40 years and working hard for 5 years will yield more success than starting law at 25 and not working hard for 15 years. The one exception are nepo kids, who can be successful no matter what, but there's enough space in the profession for non-nepo kids too.
So just follow your heart and work hard. Good luck.