Law Schools

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has published the preparation materials and model questions and answers for the new all India bar exam that is proposed to take place on 5 December 2010.

Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium said that the BCI would crack down on any recently enrolled lawyers who were practising law without having passed the proposed bar exam and that law colleges whose graduating law students did not take the bar exam could be derecognised.

NUJS Kolkata professor Shamnad Basheer and two students have threatened to complain to the Press Council of India about the law school rankings of national magazines Outlook India and India Today, which they allege suffered from "gross inaccuracies and methodological flaws" that violated "canons of journalistic ethics" and did a great disservice to students.

The bar council of Maharashtra and Goa said today that it would oppose the proposed all India bar exam after a decision reached by 11 chairmen of different state bar councils on 31 July, although the body admitted that unless the Bar Council of India (BCI) or a court intervened the exam would go ahead.

Khaitan & Co emerged as winner at NLIU Bhopal, winning the signatures of five final-year students on job offers as Trilegal, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, ICICI Bank and Pangea3 also turned up to recruit from the law school on the first day of its campus recruitment last week and Amarchand Mangaldas inviting 10 students for interview.

The Supreme Court today outright dismissed one public interest litigation (PIL) against the bar exam filed by a Delhi University law graduate and issued directions to combine the pending national high court writ petitions against the bar exam for hearing before the Delhi High Court, as Friday's Bonnie FOI case hearing was adjourned.

NUJS Kolkata saw almost a third of its batch snapped up by law firms as Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra and Trilegal together made 30 offers two weeks ago.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has responded to common queries and concerns about the bar exam, explaining that the BCI is discussing options to ameliorate lot of 2010 batch graduates, that legal challenges will cause no shift in timetable, and that the Rs 1,300 test fee is reasonable, answering questions relating to Rainmaker's appointment to assist in the exam.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has set itself less than five months to kickstart the overhaul of Indian legal education, beginning with a revised accreditation requirements for law schools, phasing out three-year LLBs, introducing benchmarking of colleges, standardising the academic calendar, creating a new national curriculum and improving teaching and continuous education.

A group of law graduates from Delhi University have invoked the Supreme Court’s writ jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Indian Constitution as two students of the NUALS Kochi have filed yet another petition before the Kerala High Court against the all India Bar Examinations.

A High Court bench in Maharashtra has ordered the petitioner students of Manikchand Pahade Law College to join the Bar Council of India vs Bonnie FOI Law College and Ors proceedings to set aside their grievances against the all india bar examin while it is understood that the BCI has written to the CJI to seek transfer of such pending petition to the Supreme Court (SC).

"I don't think students are against the exam, only against the waiting period," says solicitor general and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium, who is the architect of the proposed all India bar exam. The exam remains controversial because this year's final year students would not be able to practice law until 2011. Legally India asks the BCI chief some of the questions that have preoccupied students.

Allen & Overy's (A&O) best friend Trilegal's international finance course at NLSIU Bangalore has this year also invited 40 students from other national law schools and will be held at Nalsar Hyderabad next year, being set to rotate between law schools year-by-year.

The law ministry, law firms Krishnamurthy and Co, Trilegal and Wadia Ghandy, CLAT coaching institute IMS and law schools NLSIU Bangalore and NUALS Cochin have pledged financial or other support for NUJS Kolkata professor Shamnad Basheer's project to increase diversity in the legal profession, which visits poorer rural secondary school students to train and encourage them to apply to top law schools.