Doing an internship in law and planning to make a career out of it is a dream of many. But, many of the law aspirants get confused about where they should start their initial stage. The ones, who as fresher’s, are often scared by the challenges of harmonizing and balancing their life between the school life of the law and the extra-curricular activities as they have little to no idea from where and how should they began the work. Be it working on a research paper or preparing for moot court competitions, they are confused.

This is the condition of every law student who graduates from law school. In the initial stage, they find themselves in a fix. Getting themselves interned at the best place haunts them. Proper planning, securing vague pre-placement offers (PPO) and preparing for job interviews keeps them to bang their heads until they find a perfect place.

Gone are the days when one who was not able to get an admission in any of the best law courses would ultimately, apparently as a last option, select L.L.B as a course. But, today, it is not the case. At present, almost every year countless students (who keep on increasing every year) appear for an SAT, LSAT, CLAT, AILET, etc. so that they could claim one of the seats presented by each examination (subject to expansion). And, the lucky few would get through. But what happens next?

Some people have real plans for their life while some get scared to give it a try.

So, to solve the confusion of law students who want to intern; let’s have a lookout at the internship plan for law students should have.

Having an Internship plan for a law student is a must and getting practical knowledge is highly considered in the legal profession and this can happen only if you take up meaningful internships during your LLB course.

So, when is the best time to start an internship? The decision to do internship in the very first year of a law school itself may not be very fruitful. In order to be capable enough to fully raise its value and gain from the experience, doing a shift from the second year onwards is well-thought-out. Though, the “internship formula” set by most law schools is that internships should be taken from the first year itself, with an altered opportunity being discovered every year.

For example, You can try your hands in at least 10 internships in a 5-year course program.

In 1st internship:

Go for NGOs and find out the ground realities.

In a 2nd internship:

Go for District court lawyer and get some depth knowledge again, learn how a ‘case’ initiates and find out how the ground realities of justice delivery in India look like.

In 3rd internship:

Go for working with HC/SC lawyer as a lot of people love to work with litigation during such internships.

In 4th internship:

Go for the mid-size law firm and try to learn the corporate culture and their work ethics.

In both the 5th and 6th internship:

Go for experimenting (start-ups, politicians, legal journalism, marketing, think-tanks, or whatever excites you. You can take short internships of just 2–3 weeks. It will help you to know how that ‘work’ looks like from inside.

In the 7th and 8th internship:

Keep your focus on the type of organizations from where you think you’d like working.

In the 9th and 10th internship:

Do be careful and notice that if the organization from where you about to go or are already in are offering PPO (pre-placement offers) or not.

You can even try out online research internship with IDIA (Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education). IDIA acts as a light in the black and white life for the unprivileged law aspirants.

Paid vs. Unpaid internships

Paid versus unpaid internships is the freedom of choice of the employer offering the internships. Some law firms pay a fixed stipend to the interns who do work for them for a minimum period of 3-4 weeks or more.

The advantages of a paid internship are many. An organization or a law firm that pays stipends is telling the fact that it is thoughtful about the internship programs. Paying stipends to the interns also provides the company with an incentive to make use of the intern’s skills to the hilt and also send a message across to the intern that their work is appreciated by the employer.

How to find your law school’s Placement Cell?

Is the law school placement cell the first place you should approach to get an internship? You can also give a call to the law firms and companies yourself straightaway and then you can even ask them if they have any internship opportunity available with them. Make the proper use of the Internet and get access to the plentiful sites and blogs that maintain the lists and links of internships.

When applying for a law internship

While you apply for the internship via e-mail make sure that the mail is well-formatted. Do not send cover letters in the form of attachments. Relatively the body of the mail should work as the cover letter. Nonetheless, if the organization has precisely asked for cover letters defining the word limit, then do send it in the form of attachments.

And, don’t forget to attach your CV. The CV should be the correct reflection of your application. It shouldn’t be messy with unnecessary information. Keep it precise.

Wait for a few days for the response after you have sent the application. If you don’t get a reply, then do remember to send a reminder via e-mail and make some inquiries about the status of the application.

If the company does not reply to the reminder e-mail, make a phone call. If you think they are responding positively then continue chasing them via phone calls and e-mails. Conversely, if it seems that they are not approaching you then it may be sensible to hunt other organizations.

Remember that “Nothing is black or white in this profession, everything is in the shades of grey”.

Law Internship is where higher education meets employment; they allow students to gain experience working in an organization while studying at university. They can be paid or unpaid and allow you to work in an organization for a set period, which could be anything from one intensive week, to interning once a week for twelve months.

The legal profession has many unique experiences to offer a future lawyer. One way of gaining experience in the legal field is through an internship with a judge. Serving as a judicial intern can have a lasting impression on the direction of your career as a lawyer because not only can an internship help you to be a more favorable candidate to potential employers, it also exposes you to different court processes you would not get in law school, including the thought processes of a judge and law skills of lawyers.

These are some important reasons why one should opt for a judicial law internship:

• DIRECTION

Law Internship provides the first-hand experience in the legal profession and a close look at the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being an attorney. Ideally, students will have the opportunity to speak with lawyers and pick their brains. Students can freely ask questions and pay attention to how they work. Another benefit of having an internship is gaining insight into what type of law a student would want to or not want to pursue after graduation from law school. Someone might think about becoming a criminal defense lawyer, but then intern for a corporate law firm and realize that is what they would prefer to practice instead.

• PROFESSIONALISM

Whether your internship places you in a courtroom, in front of clients, or has you behind a desk in an office, you’ll see how lawyers conduct themselves. Seeing how lawyers treat their clients, support staff, their fellow lawyers, court personnel, and judges will help prepare you for similar interactions when you interview and go on to begin your career. Simply knowing how to behave in a professional setting will help ensure that you never stand out for the wrong reasons.

• SUBSTANTIVE WORK

When properly supervised, an intern in the last year of law school can be performing the same type of work as a lawyer in the first year following law school. By the third year of law school, a student is gaining cumulative knowledge. The main difference between a third-year law student and a lawyer in the first year of practice is that one has taken the bar exam.

• BETTER UNDERSTANDING

While law school teaches you the fundamental substantive law you need to know to “think like a lawyer,” the key is learning how to apply those concepts and principles learned in the classroom to situations in the real world. An internship offers students that opportunity but it will also benefit them when they’re studying for the bar exam. An internship at a law firm can definitely come in handy when it’s time to take the bar exam.

• GOOD RESUME

Completing a law firm internship makes law school graduates more marketable to employers. They want to see that they’ve done more than just go to class and earn passing grades. Law internship exemplifies their dedication to learning as much as possible about the law, not just in the classroom, but in the real world.

Students can and should take advantage of the internship opportunities offered through their law school. Even more importantly, students should take these temporary openings seriously and perform as if the positions were permanent. Why? Because someday they could be.

Pre-script- The links in this post will take you to some invaluable articles. Please do click on them. I have spent quite some time researching for this piece. Links at point 3 and 15 are specially brilliant. Some of you might like to move straight over to point 11, from where the advanced tips start. Anyone can make a good CV provided you are ready to work for it. Paths are made by walking, not waiting. Touche.

1.) Learn Great English. Learn to speak english, write english. Learn how English eat, blow their noses and clean their bottoms. But to remain cultured, stick to the Indian culture. It is better, politer and more suave (Poets tend to be chauvinists).

However just to pin- prick your pride here is Wikipedia's article on 'Hin'glish. Don't make the silly mistakes pointed here. BTW as I said, poets are chauvinistic; if you prick my pride with a pin. Ouch! It swells!

2.) Intern in every possible break. Intern after college hours, if possible. There are also online internships possible.

The online internships offered by the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal and the Volintern program of Nishith Desai Associates are doable.

3.) Research. Write papers. Write professional blogs. If you want to get into a corporate firm write on corporate law. If you IP is your field get cracking on IP topics. Look for call for papers here. (In your comments you may thank me for this link).

4.) In summers do summer courses. In winters do winter courses. With all this workload you will not remain a SPRING CHICKEN. But still, try doing a SPRING course.

Soon from a chicken you will turn into a hen. An egg laying hen actually. If you do not change, you still will be a productive chick. In your CV you can be really cocky about this.

WIPO has summer courses on IP law. ISIL has a course on international law every year. CCS has short courses for the socially inclined too.

5.) Get great CGPAs. Be in the good books of your faculty members. Bootlick them, if necessary. Or ask them "Sir/Ma'am, can I be your research assistant".

This will sufficiently ego massage them. Scratching their heads, they are bound to ponder, "Have I turned into such a BIGSHOT, that I need a research assistant"?

6.) Moot. TOM should moot. HARRY should moot. DICK should moot. JOHNY with his mouth full of sugar should moot. ALICES in wonderlands should moot. Even if you are bad at it, moot. The drunk PIPO was brave enough to moot. What keeps you at bay?

7.) Get into the College's Law Journal board. Everybody can't be the editor. At least be a member.

8.) Present papers. Go to seminars and make contacts there. You will do well to read this book I am planning to read. It is called 'How to work a room' by Susan RoAne.

9.) Make best buddies with the best seniors at your college. When you meet them say a loud 'Wassup!'. Show some teeth with the lips curved upwards. They might soon employ you.

10.) Do online courses. Attend webinars. Be a sponge. Take in good from everywhere. WIPO, Asian School of Cyber laws etc. have good courses. (Readers, please come up with some more).

ADVANCED TIPS

11.) Intern once. Intern twice. The third time you go there as an associate. Pick a firm whose practice area you will like to immerse yourself in. Follow this advice. Impress. The elusive PPO will be yours.

12.) Make sure 'googling' your name gives great results. We will soon burn our telephone directories. The smarter ones among us will save them as 'antiques' for diverser investment options. However, Google will be your buddy for some more time at least.

If you are on google you are a stud. If you are not you are a dud. Duh!

13.) Attend events. Attend seminars. Be a people's person. If you don't want to get in a pee-pool, get to know people.

I accompanied Mr. Basheer for the NUJS diversity project to Sikkim. He had spent a month there earlier and we were well received. His friends included two, grade 11 kids: Suku Singh and Palzor; the most respected monk of the area, the hotel attendant, the school teachers and the bakery owner, among others. Get the point?

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell tells us about three kinds of people: The connectors, the mavens and the salesmen. Atleast be one of these.

14.) Develop a good LinkedIn profile. Study what like minded people are doing and shadow them. Do read this article on how law students should use LinkedIn.

15.) Tie shoe laces with the other hand. It improves left brain-right brain coordination. If you are a computer engineer, get to know cyber law. If you are a lawyer learn java and website designing.

Shake things around a little bit. Freshness is good for your lungs and your life. See how creative people can get with CV making.