When I started this website, I had no clue, it would reach the place where it is today. A random idea about hiring interns and teaching law students drafting just popped up in my mind. I shared the same with my husband last year and since October 2020, more than 200 Young Lawyers have interned with the organisation.

Now, law is a subject, which is different when we study and the application of the same is entirely different. Three years or Five years of law college will only teach you or rather introduce you about different law topics, the Court Procedures are not even included as a part of our law school curriculum. There is indeed a huge gap between the Theory that we are taught in Law Schools and the Practical Application of Law. In order to bridge the gap between our Law School and the real life experiences law students need to work under a few lawyers to gain experience.

What can a law student learn from Internship ?

What should be the ideal duration of Internship ?

Ideal duration of Internship according to me should be anywhere between three to six months. Because it takes atleast three months for an individual and the organisation to understand each other. When you work as a legal intern a lot of work that you handle will be of a confidential nature and therefore, it is obiviously difficult for a senior to include you to assist in a legal matter. Until and unless you are exceptionally good.

These days a lot of Universities have been forcing their students to undertake one month Internship with different organisations. I personally feel that it is nothing but a disaster for the students. When a student is going to stay with a Law Firm for a month then not many lawyers will take an initiative to teach the students, guide them or mentor them. It takes atleast a month for the Intern to understand what is expected out of them, therefore a lot of law firm ends up teaching them only limited procedures.

A lot of times it takes atleast a month or two to even convince the client to file a case. The real challenge in the Legal Profession is in little nuances. It is the small steps and challenges that matter a lot and impact on the case. When an Intern stays for 2 weeks or one month, he literally misses the steps and the strategy making process, which ultimately decides the end result of a particular case.

Things to do during an Internship

There are a lot of things that an Intern can learn during their Internship Duration. Hereunder are a few things that you can Focus on During an Internship.

• How to Strategize
• How to sensitively and effectively communicate with Clients.
• Handling Sensitive Situations i.e. when your client is unable to get Bail or when You have lost the matter and the loss is huge for your client.
• How to handle Failure.
• How to research
• Learn, why and which case to File in which circumstance.
• Court Room Procedures.
• Networking with the Clients and Court Officials.

Well apart from these above mentioned points, there are also different things that you can learn from your senior.

Things not to do during an Internship

• Do not be Late.
• Communicate Effectively, do not send in random texts like a smiley or a question mark or a Apostrophy Mark. These things just reflect your lack of basic English Skills, which is the biggest drawback for a law professional.
• Do not take up an internship if you are unable to deliver. Remember that the Senior selected you over many other Eligible candidate.
• Throw your emotional baggage into your work.

Online Internship has changed the entire dynamics of the Profession, but there are still few principles that remain the same. You can convert your Internship into full time Profession provided you stay with the organisation long enough and take the organisation into confidence.

There are a lot of Law Colleges these days that are being opened every other day, but unfortunately the quality of Law students, is depleting day by day. Online Classes, is really not upto the mark and has failed to teach students miserably. The other major failure in Law Studies is opening of Private Universities, which only want to make money and fail in teaching basics to the students. They are just bothered about a piece of paper called as Internship Certificate rather than understanding if their students even learn anything at their Internship. A cost, which unfortunately students in the future will end up paying.

The times have changed and so have the requirements. It is important that the students, update them with time and do not end up becoming a victim of rote system.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge