ARUSHI PRADHAN (Advocate) 11 February 2021
175B083 Mahesh P S 11 February 2021
Hello,
Your decision to restart your career is remarkable as its best to never say never. Law in itself is multi dimensional and broad so there are a plethora of ways through which you can jump start your career again. There are both conventional and unconventional ways of doing so.
I’m going to go a bit off beat here and also shed some light on elements like entrepreneurship, content writing as well in order to help you to look at things from broader perspective.
Lawyers are sometimes considered to be the biggest troublemakers by business folks. Risk-averse attitude of lawyers, and their need to analyze legal viability in almost everything make them seem anti-business to non-lawyers. However, contrary to the popular belief, lawyers make excellent businessmen. Many top CEOs and founders of Fortune 500 companies, and indeed several iconic Indian companies are law graduates or former lawyers.
Have you heard of Ardeshir Godrej? He was the founder of Godrej group, and was indeed a lawyer to start with. MDs of companies like Goldman Sachs, Disney, IndiGo and CCavenue are all lawyers.
I asked Ramanuj Mukherjee, the CEO and co-founder of iPleaders, about this. Is it a good idea to pursue law if you eventually want to become an entrepreneur? “Law gives you a broader perspective. As a lawyer you get glimpse into many industries and businesses” Said Ramanuj, “you see the risks, the consequences and rewards from the sidelines. That kind of prepares you for your own business at some level.”
One can find a lot of common skills between an entrepreneur and a lawyer. Lawyers do have some advantages when they start their own business. If you think you have some of these aptitudes, or if you are at least ready to develop them, you could perhaps become a successful entrepreneur.
It’s a tough road, to be an entrepreneur. This definitely requires a lot of confidence in yourself, ability to build a team in the early days when resources are meager, being willing to suffer poverty and failure if things do not work out and a constant hunger for success when the whole world is against you. It’s not for the faint-hearted. However, it is certainly a thrilling adventure, and nothing is perhaps more satisfying than seeing your idea come to materialize as you win battle after battle. It is pivotal for you to know what challenges you are about to take and what can be the consequences of it. You need to prepare, you need to pull up the socks and research, read as much as you can. Talk to people, take up courses like these, research, read, discuss and create a network before undertaking the challenge. If you are all set, then there is nothing that can stop you.
Legal industry is full of broken systems and inefficiencies. It is predictable that hundreds of new companies will have to be set up to cater to the humongous legal industry in India as things mature. As a lawyer, you know better about the market than others. Will it be a good idea to team up with some engineers are build some products that solve some real life problems, something that millions of people will have to use?
If you are someone like me, then I will tell you why opting for journalism post your law degree is the best thing to do.
A journalist needs to be proactive, probing, argumentative and driven by logic. All these qualities are usually highly developed in a lawyer as well. If you are someone who has a flair for writing or speaking and can convince people with your communications, it might just be the right field for you. Coming to the economic front of it, as per payscale.com, a journalist on an average earns Rs. 3,46,511 per year during his initial years, which grows significantly over time going upto over 1 lakh per month as you become a senior journalist. If you find litigation/corporate law to be frustrating then chances are that you might never succeed. However, if you are passionate about media or journalism, the options are endless. You could be a news anchor, host a legal show on the TV, become a legal correspondent, or become producer of your own shows.
There are also now numerous legal media, starting from lawctopus.com to livelaw.com, which are doing well as specialized media on their own right. India suffers from a dearth of powerful specialized legal media unlike the developed legal markets like the USA and the UK. However, with a massive legal industry still growing and government deciding to lift the ban on advertisements on lawyers, the golden age of legal media is about to come.
What new legal media could you start?
Are you someone who actively participates in parliamentary debates in your university? Are you someone who knows how policies are framed and want to be actively involved in the formation of such legislations? Public policy analyst can be just the right job for you.
A policy analyst, almosts acts like Chanakya to the king. If subjects like public administration and governance, abstract concepts, projections or making sense of statistics appeal to you, and you want to impact the governance and businesses in India at the policy level, you can consider this as a career option. As a policy analyst you need to be continuously updated with latest laws, amendments and changes in the various policies. You should have a never ending quest for learning new updated, and ensure that you have enough expertise on various subjects. An easy way to do it is by taking up such courses which can help you up your game and get a lead amongst your peers. After all, legal dexterity and policy making just go hand in hand.
“The lawyers are well equipped with various tools of planning and understand legislations which makes them the most fit for the job,” says Shashank Atreya, public policy analyst.
P.S. Arun, another public policy researcher calls this as one of the most challenging and rewarding job for everyone who plans to make a difference. “While I heard a lot of people having an issue with the current policy, nobody did anything about it, however, I am glad I took this option. It’s true that we cannot change the ideology a certain government believes in. However, we can always try our best to push a better agenda.”
A public policy analyst is mostly recruited by various think tanks in the country like Vidhi Centre for legal policy, Centre for Law and Policy Research, Bangalore, NIPFP Delhi, ORF Delhi, Centre for Policy Research Delhi, Takshashila etc. Various policy makers like MPs (through LAMP Fellowship, Swaniti Sparc Fellowship, Vision India Foundation), CMO’s (Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh etc), Niti Aayog are amongst other recruiters of policy analysts.
There are also policy advocacy firms like Dua, PLC Chambers and others who focus only on policy advocacy on behalf of high paying corporate clients. Companies like Uber also have large policy advocacy teams where they hire experienced policy advocates. In India policy analysts often do the job that lobbyists do in other countries.
A policy analyst earns from INR 25,000 to 1 lakh per month depending on the organisation they work with.
India has recently come up as a booming sector for content creators, in any given field, and law is not far behind. What is the reason for this? Law firms are barred from solicitation or advertising as per the rules mentioned in the Advocates Act. However, law firms these days apply smarter approaches to market themselves. This is done through content marketing, where they create relevant content on most of the current legal issues and post it on various forums. The traffic that they generate out of it helps them to get leads to make better clients.
Apart from law firms and lawyers, there are also large companies like Vakilsearch, Akosha (now Tapzo), India Filings, MyAdvo and LawRato, amongst an increasing number of various legal services and technology providers which hire numerous content writers. Many PR and reputation management firms for lawyers have also sprung up over the years, helping with their branding, public profiles and websites.
Being a legal content writer can be fairly rewarding, with salaries going upto INR 50,000 to 1 lakh. Even big law firms hire legal content writers and marketing managers at substantial salary. To get started with this, you need to have a knack for writing, research and promotion.
Moreover, just like travel blogs, a small section of legal blogs are gaining major success as well. Jay Sayta, founder of Glaws.com started out by blogging on gambling laws in India. However, right from the second year he found his followers in various entrepreneurs, business leaders and bureaucrats. He has a strong following in the gambling industry which looks to him for gambling law advice. One can possibly build a successful blog and then make money by providing consultancy to the readers who need expert help.
On an average, a blog or a content creation job can fetch you a low salary of INR 25,000 to 30,000 if you aren’t really good at it. However, good content writers are very rare and highly sought after. You could easily make anywhere between INR 50,000 – 1,00,000 per month if you are actually good at it.
Freelance writers often charge per word for their writing and it can be between 50 paisa per word to INR 3 per word depending on how good you are and what results your writing can produce.
When I said earlier that I was not forced into taking up law, what I meant was I chose to do it, ofcourse there was certain influence from my parents too. However, the real man behind this choice was Mr. Deepu Krishna, who is a very well known CLATt teacher/mentor and NLIU, Bhopal graduate. I happened to attend one of his seminar’s while exploring my options to get a stable degree and I knew after listening to him that law is something that might help me spread my wings.
Being a teacher at the competitive law exams preparation institute is very rare, but certainly very rewarding. Although teaching is not an easy profession at all. It is very difficult to connect with students and teach them as per their requirements. Knowledge is not sufficient, a passion for teaching is. Remember, we all have that one faculty who knows a lot but is not able to deliver it? Teaching is not a profession, it is actually a passion to help others in the noblest way.
To top it all, you just don’t become a mentor, you become someone who has an immense following. Students actually become very close to the mentors. They look at them as philosopher, guide, friend and most importantly a teacher, which has helped them shape their future. Also, it is a highly rewarding job, and if you manage to get a lot of selection, and end up having a good brand image, chances are you might not have to worry about your finances at all, right from the start of your career.
Not just CLAT there are a bunch of competitive exams that you can start your prep institute/teaching for. For example, AILET, LSAT, SET, CET, GGSIPU, DU LLB, CLAT for LLM students, UPSC, NE and a lot of other judiciaries and clerkship exam. All of these provide a huge scope for you to venture into and help all the interested candidate with their career options.
You need to be constantly updated with every legal development in terms of the above mentioned competitive exams and be sure that you have enough knowledge to answer any question that pops up the mind of the students. In my opinion, the task of becoming a legal competitive exam mentor is probably the most difficult of all preparation courses, because you are not just dealing with young, impressionable minds but also dealing with the most unsettling, probing and inquisitive minds of all. However, if you are ready to take up the challenge, it is equally noble, rewarding and challenging – thus, becoming the perfect package.
If you believe your law degree will help you in any of the endeavors, it will. However, you will have to develop yourself enough to it. If you have a great idea to start your business, then develop it further by understanding how to go about it. If you want to become a journalist, write regularly for various newspapers/magazines. If you want to become policy analyst, an intern at the right place. If you want to become an investment banker, enhance your knowledge if you want to become a blogger, start writing NOW! Develop yourself, speak to as many people as you can, take up courses like this to enhance your skills and knowledge and to become successful.(source: ipleaders)
Also here are some of the rather more common or conventional careers in law
Corporate Counsel – Corporate lawyers handle all transactions on behalf of companies either as a part of their in-house legal team or as part of corporate law firms who have been retained to provide legal services. The work area ranges from negotiating contracts to facilitating mergers, ensuring compliance of regulations, et al. A fresher starting off at a decent law firm can expect to earn between Rs 6-8 lakh per annum.
Judiciary and Civil Service – Exams for entering judicial services are conducted state-wise. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts a nationwide exam for recruitment to various civil service positions in the Government like Indian Administrative Services (IAS), Indian Foreign Services (IFS), Indian Police Services (IPS), etc. These are safe options for graduates desirous of a stable government job and for the ones who would like to view things from the other side of the table by becoming judges. However, it is recommended to sit for these exams after obtaining 1-2 years of work experience. Salaries for judges and government officials are revised from time to time as notified by the Government.
Judicial Clerkship – One can also gain experience and put his researching skills to good use by working under judges in various courts by opting for judicial clerkship which is offered on a contractual basis. A Supreme Court judicial clerkship can pay between Rs 40 – 50K per month.
Media and publication – Law graduates can also work towards the dissemination of information to the public on important legal matters by writing books, reporting news by covering courtrooms (legal journalism), etc. People with a penchant for writing, current affairs and politics will find it to be a very satisfying career.
Legal Process Outsourcing – By working at LPOs, law graduates can provide intelligent solutions to overseas clients like document review and support, contract vetting.
Academia – Another option for law graduates is to give back to the community by taking up the noble profession of teaching. However, one needs to have a Masters degree to become eligible to apply for teaching posts in colleges and universities. NET will also have to be cleared to get tenure. Salary will depend on the applicable Pay Commission. A Masters in Law (LL.M.) degree will add a ‘specialised’ status to your profile, especially when pursued abroad. Further, LL.M. in international laws like international commercial arbitration, international trade, international law and policy, will place you in the unique position to pick a country of your choice to settle in.
Social Work – Lawyers are, arguably, best equipped for undertaking social work as they are aware of the legal rights and obligation of all strata of society. Meaningful work can be done by working with NGOs and Government Commissions like National Commission for Women, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, National Human Rights Commission, etc.(source: indianexpress)
I hope this helps, do plan adequately and choose wisely, good luck.
Thank you
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