big law firm job
Q. Are internships helpful in getting a PPO. How do I go about it?
Ans. Yes they are. Why...I'll tell you later. First get your hands on the PPO thingy.
GETTING A PPO
1.) You have to be in the 4th/ 5th year for that. (If you are in the 5 year course that is).
2.) Then, have a portfolio which is perfectly aligned to the place you are interning.
A 5th year student, interning at Anand and Anand (a leading IP firm) and expecting a PPO should have done at least couple of internships in IP boutiques, presented/ published a dozen papers on the subject and also completed some good add-on courses on IP.
3.) So you are at Anand and Anand. A teenie-weenie 4th year student. Now impress the boss you are working with.
Impress him with your research skills. Pop up the best caselaw for the best law which applies to the case.
Strain your mental sinews. Come up with brilliant analysis. Impress him/her.
Come up with brilliant plaints, legal opinions. Show-off your analytical and writing skills. Impress.
Be in your best formal clothes, best smile, neatest hairdo and shiniest shoes. Impress him/her.
Look like a studious student. Don’t be the dude.
Be the first to arrive. Leave last. Slog like anything. Interact with the associates at lunch. Impress everybody.
Ask great questions. About his/her lawyerly life and about life in general. About what coffee he likes.
Be good with the coffee. Impress.
Be a legal beagle. Wag your tail, always. Sniff for opportunities. Impress.
Be a legal eagle. Observe keenly. Show the splendour in the flight. Impress.
WHY INTERNSHIPS?
1.) Internships are like an add-on course you do.
For example you do a cyber law course from Asian School of Cyber Laws and learn about cyber law in theory (though it may have many 'real life' examples). On the other hand or the same hand (doesn't matter...depends how dexterous you are in using your hands) interning under a stud cyber law lawyer will provide you with a decent practical knowledge of the subject.
So a good 4 week internship, in a way, replicates doing a 100 hour practical course on the subject. (Note the word good. Most internships aren't good). Ah! Ha!
2.) Internships tell that you have an inherent interest in the subject.
In first year, for my NGO internship I intern at NABARD. Then I do internships only in legal departments of banks and niche law firms practicing banking law. The recruiter can bank upon the fact that I have an interest in Banking Law. (PJ...I know).
3.) Every skill gets chiselled.
Work ethics, practical skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, THIS skill and THAT skill.
PS- Ideally, one should intern to explore and not to pigeonhole oneself. Coz when the cat comes, the pigeon closes its eyes. He is gobbled up. The pigeon is then not in the pigeonhole. He rather becomes an a**h***. (I might go down in the history books for this quote). Ha!
PS 2- When LegalPoet doesn't write poetry, he deems himself fit to give some free advice.
PS 3- As said before (read comment # 9), I love animals.
PS 4- I'll keep on blasting law firms and hounding Kian till they don't sponsor some goodies for the bloggers. Why is it always that the writers have to starve. :P
PS 5- Then you can't blame us the writers for blowing our own trumpet...or posting the links to our own blogs. :)
A poem on how law students make a beeline for the Big Law and get CAUGHT.
DASAMAR CHANDMANGAL SWEETS:
Are law students an insect creed?
‘DasAmar ChandMangal Sweets’.
Proclaims the shop; a proud tweet!
However, it is unhygienic.
Hyped flies get hyperactive
Over its over-sugary syrup.
On sugar they are hell-bent,
Of sugar jars they care.
They fall on the mithais; snared.
Wings and legs wriggle; the body unable to wriggle out.
Soon the dead flies make the air putrescent.
The blood and the smell
Attracts mosquitoes. They drink blood,
More blood. They get drunk.
And fall on the mithais.
And die a sweet death.
Noses pucker. A pyre is set
To eulogise the animals dead.
Lo! The fire! It attracts moths.
Wah! The insect creed!
Keeps the tweet, a proud tweet.
PS- Well... law students prepare well for the 'insect' tag...interning, publishing and inging a lot. ('Inging' is a new word invented by me...I hope you'll know what it means).
And if you are a thorough-bred insect and want to know how to make your internship turn into a PPO (Pre Placement Offer), please go ahead and support my marketing gimmick by clicking on the link.
Above the Law talked to Gururaj Potnis, the director of Manthan Legal, which claims "over 700 man-years of experience in the LPO industry".
Potnis said that US firms would have to wake up to LPO if they want to survive and offer value to clients. "Some law firms are just wanting to be blind," he told Above the Law. "There is a tremendous value potential. But people do not want to take an open view."
The business case he makes is sound on many fronts: clients will increasingly request low-level legal work to be outsourced, LPO can solve headaches for management such as underutilisation and high fixed costs, as well as keep the legal work-flow ticking over 24/7 – although one imagines many US white shoe firm associates already work almost as many hours in the week, or at least did, before the downturn.
In typically ironic, vociferous and often offensive fashion (you have been warned), Above the Law readers commented on the story in droves – currently the thread runs to 123 comments and counting.
They include the good ("Again, outsourcing is not a magic solution to every problem. But properly used, it can be a very useful tool."); the bad ("These Indian lawyers are helping to BURST THE BIGLAW BUBBLE!"); and the ugly (from a "parody of a xenophobic hick").
See today's story on Legally India about the Scottish, who see the future of Indian outsourcing in Scotland.