A few metres away, students huddle around a notice board covered with flyers with information on membership procedures for different student committees for the coming academic year 2008-2009, from sports to moot court competitions. One committee conducts legal literacy programmes in rural areas and partners with local non–profits. There’s also “Legala”, an annual inter-collegiate competition that culminates in “Strawberry Fields”, a popular rock concert.
Evidently, the law school’s rigorous trimester system, each trimester spanning 70 days entails eight exams and four research papers, has not dampened the students’ enthusiasm towards activities.
Third-year student Srinivasan Gowrishankar says, “Life in NLS is hectic and stressful but you learn how to have fun. We develop a great deal here by learning from our peers.”
His classmate Vrinda Maheshwari agrees: “I don’t know how the trimesters pass by. There are so many activities during the year. But of course, you have to learn to prioritize and balance academic and extra curricular activities.”
Maheshwari, who will graduate in two years, believes she will not get into legal practice of any sort but wants to pursue further studies in liberal arts and then teach.
Until a few years ago, NLSIU received criticism from the legal fraternity since the majority of the students took up plum offers by corporate law firms and multinational corporations; very few offered their services in spheres such as litigation practice in courts, legal education and social work.
In the last decade, more law schools like National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, or Nalsar, University of Law in Hyderabad and National University of Juridical Sciences, or NUJS, in Kolkata burgeoned to fulfill the rising demand for legal services in developing areas such as intellectual property laws, taxation and mercantile laws.
Second-year student Tasneem Deo, who got a seat in NLSIU after her second attempt and also spent a year at Symbiosis Institute of Law in Pune says: “There’s really not so much a law college can give you than what you take away from it.”
The recruitment drive at NLSIU in the last two years has seen top law firms in the UK, such as Clifford Chance Llp., Linklaters and Allen and Overy Llp., whisking away top students in anticipation of the opening up of the legal services sector in India with attractive pay packages. The end of 2007 saw law firms in India hiking their salaries by 30-50% to stop the loss of fresh talent.
Abraham, all set to graduate in July, is looking forward to practising at the Amarchand and Mangaldas and Suresh A. Shroff and Co.’s Bangalore office this year. He has been offered Rs12 lakh per annum. “Our students are in demand. Students I teach earn over 50 times what I earn,” says Parvathi Menon, assistant professor of law, poverty and development at NLSIU.
“Lawyers have a role to play in the development of a maturing economy like India. Talking not as an immediate graduate from law school but from a holistic level we can help in setting up a fine regulatory system by adopting practices of other countries that help facilitate deals across the world and attract foreign investors,” Abraham says.