Law Schools

Graduating students can work as "trainee advocates" with advocates or law firms but will not be able to "practice" law until they pass the all-India bar exam, the Bar Council of India (BCI) said in a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) published today, noting also that seniority of practice would be unaffected.

The second part of Legally India's first anniversary round-up focuses on what has happened in a year of legal education and incredible mooting performances across the board. Plus, we pick India's best law school in India. Well, almost.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has announced that it will carry out its all-India bar exam in association with legal market services provider Rainmaker as a multiple choice test of 100 questions on 5 December 2010 that will require a "basic amount of preparation" to pass, although the BCI admitted that graduating students would probably not be able to practice in courts until 31 December.

Legal market services provider Rainmaker will run the proposed bar exam for the Bar Council of India (BCI) as the BCI is set to unveil its new website at 1pm today which was set up by the company.

The 2010 Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) results and provisional allotments have been announced, with 86 per cent of toppers going for the four law schools established before the millennium as younger law schools establish hierarchies.

NLU Jodhpur has beaten the recession blues with its entire 2010 graduating batch of 2010 finding jobs or placements with Trilegal, Luthra & Luthra and Amarchand Mangaldas picking up 17 students in total and legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies including Clifford Chance's captive LPO hiring eight, according to faculty.

Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal conducted interviews on NLSIU Bangalore campus with 35 students yesterday (25 May), making 15 job offers and hoping to steal a march on competitors in the recruitment war for 2011 graduates.

US-based Indiana University Maurer School of Law has initiated a secondment program under which six of its students will be sent for summer internships in four Indian law firms, three non-governmental organisations (NGO) and an additional solicitor general's office this July.

HNLU Raipur's recruitment committee has placed 39 out of 63 registered students in its 98-student 2009-10 batches, with HDFC, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, Bajaj Allianz and Desai & Diwanji picking out students from the college.

The proposed bar exam will be an open book test exclusively giving litigating lawyers a "license to practice" but would not affect transactional lawyers, proposed solicitor general and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramaniam on Saturday, noting that the exam could also apply retroactively to unenrolled graduates from past years.

Nalsar Hyderabad has placed 95 per cent of 47 final year students who opted to sit for the recruitment committee, with Amarchand Mangaldas and Luthra & Luthra leading the pack of recruiters, enlisting a total of 18 final year students, although the in-house sectors' draw has doubled this year.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has agreed to postpone the planned bar exam to December, BCI counsel KK Venugopal told the Supreme Court today in the case BCI v Bonnie FOI Law College & Ors, admitting the logistical challenge of holding the exam before September in a surprise U-turn.

The new bar exam for law graduates is understood to be held in late August with the Bar Council of India (BCI) set to announce the syllabus in a matter of days. Meanwhile, NUJS Kolkata final year students and Professor Shamnad Basheer have petitioned BCI chairman and solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam to postpone the exam until 2011 because they argue it prejudices students and is unconstitutional without amending the Advocates Act 1961.

The recruitment committee of NLIU Bhopal has successfully placed 46 out of 48 students registered with its recruitment committee, as of today, while the remaining 27 of this batch have chosen active litigation and judicial services as career paths.

NLU Delhi student Apoorva Sharma has won the 2010 NUJS Kolkata fiction writing competition with a prequel to the classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, adding his own legal twist that Douglas Adams would have no doubt approved of.

National Law Institute University (NLIU) Bhopal students have launched the first issue of their law journal called NLIU Law Review with the objective of increasing the academic standards and enhancing skillsets of students.