Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA)

Senior capital markets lawyer Madhurima Mukherjee, who had left AZB & Partners in April, has enlisted with J Sagar Associates (JSA) as an independent senior consultant, we understand from several sources.

Around 13 graduates of a number of national law universities (NLUs) have started an initiative called the CAN Foundation, which is short for Confederation of Alumni for National Law Universities.

There were several triggers, but I highlight two of the most important ones. As I began teaching at NUJS in 2008, I looked around my class and noted that most of my students had accessed some of the best schools in India, spoke good English and lived privileged urban lives.

Prof Shamnad Basheer, who despite his young age of 43 had become one of the most well-known, influential and impactful lawyers and academics in India, passed away earlier today in an accident.

A total of nine students from non-traditional backgrounds supported by the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) initiative have made it to national law schools.

The Supreme Court last Friday asked some national law universities to give their suggestions on a permanent body to conduct the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and to look into the misuse of the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota in NLU admissions.

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) scholars will now have a direct route to internship and job opportunities in Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), in addition to financial support during their LLB courses, according to an IDIA and HSF press release.

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) founder and managing trustee Shamnad Basheer has condemned NUJS Kolkata's administration distancing itself from IDIA, following the alleged brutal assault of IDIA volunteers studying at NUJS.

The NUJS Kolkata administration has distanced itself from the Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) initiative, following press reports of a brutal assault on NUJS students while they were leading an IDIA legal initiative to stop a construction proceeding in contempt of court.

NUJS Kolkata students were allegedly groped and brutally assaulted by “goons” after confronting contractors about the illegal demolition of local slums, the law school Student Judicial Association (SJA) said in a statement on its website.

Exceeding last year’s tally by one, eight Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) scholars from non-traditional backgrounds have made it to national law universities, with one scholar making it to NLU Delhi.

Murali Neelakantan, who had left Indian pharma giant Cipla as global general counsel in 2015, has re-entered the in-house and pharmaceuticals space with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals after two years focusing on several legal education-related interests.

The Supreme Court has issued an ad interim stay of the Bar Council of India (BCI) age limit today, and ordered the BCI that no age limit should apply to law aspirants seeking to study LLB.

There have been numerous pending challenges and at least six high court judgments on the issue of whether the Bar Council of India (BCI) can impose a maximum age limit on law students (of which four judgments quashed the age limit and two upheld the BCI’s power to set one - see table above).

Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) grows up, reports the Times, about the organisation that now has 500 volunteers in 18 cities, which has trained 200 students and helped 83 gain admittance to law schools:

The NLSIU Bangalore student population, at present, largely consists of rich, third-generation college goers who were schooled at elite private schools in tier 2 cities.

The Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) legal education NGO helped 60 scholars prepare for law entrance exams this year and eight of those made it to NUJS Kolkata, Nalsar Hyderabad, GNLU Gandhinagar, NLU Orissa and Nuals Kochi, in the first allotment list of the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2016.