I'm currently a second-year literature student at LSR and am trying to figure out what to do after my degree. I never seriously considered law as an option because I was under the impression that the 3-year degrees from CLC, GLC and the likes put you at a significant disadvantage compared to 5-year BA LLB grads from NLUs. However, I recently found out that a handful of my seniors (some of the brightest in their batch, with Master's offers from Oxbridge and Ivies that they declined for financial reasons) have joined the 3 year LLB programme at NLSIU.

Law students and lawyers, what's the verdict on this new degree? Students will obviously be at some kind of disadvantage because they don't have the same kind of legacy and alumni base BA LLB students do. But is this disadvantage significant enough to make the degree a bad investment? Or will the brand name and generally good calibre of students it seems to be attracting balance that out?

Since I've been told this matters a lot: I'm not from a family of lawyers. I do have close family friends who are very successful lawyers/judges, but none of them are in corporate law, which I'm told the NLUs focus on. I don't know anywhere near enough about the field to have decided what kind of law I would want to practice, but I don't want to make peanuts since (a) the degree would be a significant investment of my parents' money and (b) if I was comfortable with a 20k/month job, I'd just look for one after my BA.

Bhai Mumbai dekhle, all good( i mean good and not the time pass) get law firm jobs within 6 months of graduation. They easily switch to any desired firm after 1-2 years. You're clearly not at disadvantage. And it's from colleges like KC and GJ Advani. Nlsiu would be much better, only thing for you to worry is internships which Mumbai peeps have.

That is reassuring, thanks. But my concern with NLSIU is: will we not be treated like the LLM batch and ignored by recruiters in favour of the 5-year batch? Most of the other three year colleges either have only 3-year degrees or a 3-year degree that is just as well-established as the five-year one. NLSs, on the other hand, rose to prominence because of their 5-year degrees. Won't that be a huge issue?

As far as the faculty is concerned, the 3-year batch is getting the best faculties while we (5-year batch) are getting the aberage or below-average faculties. Sudhir is trying to push the 3 year LLB batch and is favouring them big time.

Not sure about how placements will play out though. I guess placements will favour the 5 year batch

If you qualify NLS Bangalore for 3 year LLB, go for it without thinking twice.

If money is not an issue, consider applying to Oxford, Cambridge, King's College London, UCL or similar institutions for 3 year LLB or Jindal Global Law School in India which has a very good 3 year LLB course.

Choose Campus Law Centre at Delhi University or GLC Mumbai or ILS Pune preferably in same order if fee affordability an issue for you.

Yes, this is an important point. Are you rich? If yes, go to Oxbridge, LSE, KCL, UCL, Warwick, Edinburgh, Glasgow etc etc. In fact, pretty much any UK law school listed in the BCI list. You already have an LSR brand name behind you. But if money is an issue choose NLSIU. If you don't get into NLSIU then JGLS or DU.

You will do well very well with a degree from NLSIU. Apart from the fact that NLSIU is the #1 law school in the country, LSR itself is a brand name with good networks. LSR + NSLIU = a great combo. You yourself said that people turned down Oxford for NLSIU. What more do I need to say?

Please ignore the idiots asking you not to go to NSLIU. They are jealous people who will ruin your career.

I am a 3rd year BA LLB student at NLSIU. The general outlook regarding the three-year LLB course can be best described as uncertain. The administration did try to merge the Recruitment Co-ordination Cells of both the courses, however, this proposal was met with opposition from the BA LLB students and this idea, for now, has been scrapped.
I believe that the LLB students may find getting internships in law firms more difficult than the BA LLB batch for obvious reasons. However, litigation is a different story and I have seen many LLB students already interning under great lawyers.
Hope this helps!

The entrance examination for the 3 year LLB programme is a breeze. Last year around 1900 candidates wrote the examination. The CLAT examination, for the five year programme, attracts around 75,000 candidates. The LLM programme perhaps has greater competition for seats than the 3 year LLB.