The lawyers of five-years-from-now by most accounts had a harrowing weekend.
Sunday’s Common Law Admissions Test (CLAT) – the decider of who gets into 11 national law schools - was impossible to complete in the time allotted and hence mostly a matter of luck, complained many test takers who frantically circled random answers towards the end of the paper.
Semi-random CLAT results could have an advantage though in spreading the often self-perceived talent pool more evenly between law schools, which in the long term would ensure the growth of all nationals and encourage law firms to hire from more than just the top few.
From that perspective NLU Delhi’s move to hold its own entrance exam is shrewd – although there are question marks over whether this complies with the Supreme Court order that first introduced CLAT.
Strictly going by numbers of applicants to seats available, getting into NLU Delhi is now as hard as getting into one of the three most popular CLAT schools: out of almost 8000 applicants, less than 1 per cent made the cut-off mark.
While this does not tell the whole story and some students may not take up their offers opting for other CLAT schools, it is good evidence of just how popular NLU Delhi has become in such a brief space of time.
And it may also point to how important location is in the success of a law school – studying in India’s litigation capital Delhi is bound to help with internship applications and attracting recruiters, which is something that some of the more far-flung new NLSes have complained about. Which leaves one to wonder about the thinking behind possible locations of the contentious NLS Maharashtra for example, leaving aside politics.
The locational advantage also helped the first batch of Christ College Bangalore in placing its first batch of students with a respectable cross section of recruiters, according to the students.
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With court and college holidays many lawyers are enjoying a well-deserved break, although deal activity remains strong – see below.
Nevertheless, the Competition Commission is all-go and has decided to allow informal discussions pre-merger control filings after all. And FoxMandal has absorbed a boutique practice in London and Paris although details of the deal are sparse.
Please also welcome our new associate moves column, that will follow the careers of friends and colleagues in the profession. This week: An air law team for JSA and a Links lateral move in the US.
Email us a one-liner at to let us know if you have recently joined a new workplace.
Deals of the week
- 2010-11: The Indian capital markets war and how to build an army on foreign soil
- Fidelity PE drafts in Trilegal for $13m Transpole stake with AZB
- $10m investment in Bangalore mobile apps with Trilegal, Vaish
- Kochhar & Co lateral wins tender to draft national ID project laws
- Trilegal, Vaish in pre-IPO Rs 50 crore Sabre investment in Super Religare Labs
Blogs of the Week
- Third HC stays service tax on individual advocates
- Latest calls for papers, essays, book-writing & NLS drafting compo
- Legal opinion: Competition through the ages: An ideal too far?
Best of Blowgs
- Tihar Diaries… by proficient
- Beginnings at a law firm by LawManiac
- Sx and the CV by dudediligence
- Good old Litigation by mclegally
- Thoughts in my head this morning by Meerkat
- Legal factories known as “Law Firms” by phasgayavakilbabu
- Legal factories known as ” Law Firms” - Part 2 by phasgayavakilbabu
- My Rendezvous with Law by pranushak
- Pages from the Diary of a Law School Student… by pranushak
- Does God believe in Human Rights? by pranushak
- Project Sharing - A Trend by cogitasocietatis
- Fake Encounters and Honour Killings: Rarest of Rare Crimes by legaljunction
- We know what you did …Facebook, Spams and Cyber Crime & its a Facebook video now! by Shyam Chandvale
- The ghost of the “good devil” still haunts our politics posing a serious challenge to the right to equality by Sarfaraz Hussain
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Comments
[b]I DO NOT think it does.[/b]
[b]Case I:[/b] I am intelligent. I have the speed! I solve 180 questions and leave 20 for guesswork.
[b]Case 2:[/b] I am dumb. I lack speed. I solve 150 questions and leave 50 for guess work.
[b]Who'll score more?[/b] The intelligent guy who attempted more and guessed less, of course!
A lengthy, tough paper does the job of separating wheat from the chaff! That is why you have such entrance tests.
How did you arrive at the contrary, Kian?
Its CLAT. I have practiced, prayed and paid (a hell lot) for this day!
CLAT starts.
20 minutes are over. I see I have attempted questions worth a very few marks.
I have to speed up.
40 minutes. I see my watch. I decide my strategy.
60 minutes. I see my watch. I decide my strategy.
80 minutes. [do]
100 minutes. [do]
120 minutes. [do]
Time management is a huge skill in life, right?
In CLAT, those who could think on their feet, will score well. In court, the lawyer who thinks on her feet wins!
CLAT didn't favour luck. CLAT favoured those with inherent qualities required to be successful in law and in life.
Hopefully, the law school will nurture and develop these qualities.
But we don't have these inbuilt in our education/evaluation system. No one has, actually.
:(
same reason why GLC still does extremely well in placements. 42 firms & corporates + 8 counsels..beats any n school i think, in terms of pure numbers..in spite of GLC being in a mess administratively..
but again these firms & corporates come from a much wider range than just amarchand, azb, khaitan, etc...
also why GLCites opt for signing up articles in their 4th year for solicitor's..coz firms are a 10 minute walk from the college...