Hey all, hope you are doing well.

Before I start, I want to clarify that this is not to offend any student from any of the law institutes(Nlus or others) but rather a question I find myself asking as a first year student at a top 10 nlu. I was checking the placement reports of my institute and others also, and despite it being top 10 of country in placements, most probably, the reports are concerning. Only 10-20% of batch gets decent placements and 5-10% more in any job they can get. The condition is even worse in rest of lower NLUs with not even 5% of batch getting decent jobs. The 2024 placement reports of tier 1s are great though, I know not the best but good enough to consider law as a career and clat as an exam. Before proceeding further, I want to clarify that I am retaking clat with very good chances of getting a good tier 1 this time so it's not really for me entirely( "entirely" because I know a small percentage of even top nlus face this problem) and maybe it's worth mentioning also, to not attract criticism, that I like studying law but that's very very unrelated to this post. Now, especially for first generation lawyers, I wonder what the rest of batch at these NLUs or other law institutes do? I know judiciary, litigation, academia are the other options available in law aside from non law-related fields like upsc, mba or even startup. At most, 30-40% of any nlu's batch on average would be truly interested in these options( as in getting job was not in their priority at all, uninfluenced by their chances of getting one ). That leaves us with more than half the batch unplaced in top t2 nlus or jgls or slsp and even significantly more so in rest of lower NLUs and other law colleges. Now I will first talk about rest of career options and then people who only want jobs right out of college because of various reasons, many of which are not by choice. Firstly, in litigation, it's extremely tough to succeed without connections and same goes for getting promoted in judiciary field, the selection rate of which through pcs and later hjs exam is again extremely low. Then academia, that's a good option for people who want to continue their studies, research and teach later on but it's a option not taken by the most, and reasonably so in a country like India. Then there is upsc and mba left, which is open for everyone so the point of preparing for clat and then dedicating 5 years in law college, which can be gruelling, does not seem really attractive. Finally, I will conclude this post with the main question, that is, the people who want jobs but could not get decent placements( majority of t2 nlus and all of t3 nlus and other law schools), what do they do? Go for the other options mentioned above even if they don't want it and even though it's not really lucrative? Or is there a good way I have not become aware of yet that makes them not regret their law choice( a bold and exaggerated statement I know but just take the sense behind it ).

Thank you

I'm sorry to burst your bubble so late. But law school was never supposed to be a job guarantee institute like IIT or IIMs. Law as a career has always been a hustle career that actually starts post graduating from the law school. That's why 5-10 years of post struggle in courts was seen as normal. Now since the last decade, due to law firms, people have started to see the rise in placement and packages like btech or MBA. However, the majority 90% work outside law firms, and even for the 10% that do, there aren't that many law firms to accept. Your best bet is start wherever you get a chance and build up from there. All the best

It’s because law as a profession is still in the licence raj era and has not liberalised like other industries. An IIT grad can apply to Google and Facebook in Bengaluru. A NIFT grad can apply to Adidas and Levi’s in Delhi. But an NLU grad cannot apply to Linklaters or Mckenzie in Mumbai.

So much better to do an MBA than study law.

It comes back to the point I made...law as a career starts only after atleast 5-10 years of practice somewhere. Since you mentioned Linklaters, two of my very senior acquaintances are working in Linklaters. One of them is from a TLC, the other is from one of the OG NLUs. However what's common in both is that they have atleast 10 years+ experience in litigation or law firms before applying. As I said, law is a experience based career, first get the experience and then as the years roll on, you'll see a lot of opportunities pop up. The struggle is slow, the benefits are aplenty.

Moreover, legal departments will always be smaller in size compared to sales, marketing or whatever else they have for STEMs in corporate. The legal vacancy will always be highly competitive. Therefore the only way to beat the competition is through experience, not school name. On the other hand, coders, software developers, sales managers are dime a dozen when it comes to vacancies. That's why they get picked up immediately.

However the other side is corporate is not the only avenue for us, like for the non-law. Our home is actually the bar & the bench. That's the real world for us. Judge, prosecutor, advocate, legal advisor etc is something that a MBA or Tech can never be. You can work as a corporate lawyer for decades and drop out whenever you want & start a private practice in the courts. A MBA will leave one firm and either make another or join another, there's no "private" practice for them. So if you look at the larger picture, we have more options than a normal tech or MBA. It's just that you are choosing only to see the "corporate side" and let's be honest even then when they're in a soup, they need us to bail them out. So don't be hard on yourself. Be proud to learn the law.

Hey, thank for the response and wishes. However I kinda knew it but still was wondering about what the rest of people do who want jobs like is there any way. I guess there is none. Also I am gonna work hard for clat rn along with academics and get good t1 nlu first then after 5 years of consistency and efforts, hopefully will get the best opportunities I can :)