Introduction
“If you are resolutely determined to make a lawyer of yourself, the thing is more than half done already.”
– -Abraham Lincon, LETTERS of 1855.1
Advocacy has often been regarded as a noble profession since time immemorial and is often looked upon high as a profession of the nobles and elites. However, the actual refers to the definition provided by renowned Jurist, Roscoe Pound that lawyers are regarded as “social engineers” and they function as the solider of a countries Constitution, Law, Rules and Regulation. In order to bring out the best of lawyers among young minds, a critical role is played by the law schools that mould young minds to professional think tanks in order to carve out a legal career which is successful, reliable and established.
One very pertinent question which strikes the idea and thinking of young mind is “Why should one take the law” or “what are the future scopes of legal studies”. It is often difficult to give a comprehensive answer to it as the field of law is dynamic and diverse. If we take a close scrutinised look, the art of “lawyering” gained a huge attraction since the latter half of British colonial rules till the post-independence time. The noble profession of Judiciary is also an enormous career scope, establishing it as one of the most robust Constitutional posts of the country. Other professions like advocacy also gained attention and interest of young and professional mind who were interested in pursuing a career in the law field. Another scope lies in the arena of academics and research. Till the beginning of the 21st century, this stood out to be the main scope of the legal profession. However, since the past few years, this field has been viewed in a broader aspect, and it is giving a range of exploration in the dynamic field of adventure, learning and career prospect. Even a few years ago, clients with a legal matter had essentially two options. Either they used to send it to a traditional law firm or handle it in-house. Today, society demands more choices. Thus, there has been progress in the legal professional field, which is attempting to keep up to the development which has been the fruit of growing globalisation and changing scenario of the societal structure.
1. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/law.htm
To note down a few of such result, there has been the introduction of the concept of “Legal Entrepreneurship”, “Law journalism”, “policy analyst”, “law content creator”, “legal tech.”
“The new age of Legal Entrepreneurship.”
There prevailed an age-old myth that the lawyers are the biggest anti-business proponents and even been considered as the trouble makers in the path of treasure making of high turnover business tycoons. However, the practical scenario of current time shows a contradictory picture, the lawyers have turned out as successful business persons, and many of them also make out to the Forbes Magazine and is efficient business tycoons. Several CEO and owner of highest turnover business establishment of India are either practising lawyer or are having a law degree or had any experience of practising law earlier. Law provides with a more exceptional approach. Being a lawyer gives a functional involvement of industries and business. Practising law gives the idea of risks, consequences and teaches how to tackle those. One can find a lot of collective skills between an entrepreneur and a lawyer. Thus, starting up entrepreneurship with a legal experience works as a helping hand and creates advancements. The ability of convincing, foresightedness, research ability, market knowledge, leadership, risks taking ability, self-assessment and striving for betterment are the typical qualities of both lawyer and an entrepreneur. Moreover, the current legal field lacks and calls for such leadership and having legal knowledge acts as a support to entrepreneurship.
Journalism:
Legal studies and journalism might sound as a divergent field, but it has lots in common. Journalism has to cover work and news by policymakers, deal with people representatives and are there from the time of election to societal and economic deterioration. The very concept of human rights of journalist and news media is backed up and sanctioned by law. Moreover, there are several branched news media and mainstream news media which deals solely or partly with legal factor news. Having a law degree makes it convenient to pursue journalism, in accordance with the rules of PTI. Law graduates exclusively do not need to have a degree or diploma in journalism in order to learn the craft of journalism. The qualities of proactiveness, probing, argumentative and strong logical reasoning are some of what
journalism needs. The legal field already pursues these features. However, India lacks in having specialised media in the legal area as compared to its counterpart USA and UK.
Policy Analysis:
It is often found that lawyer or law students have a critical view regarding legal policies. They are of the opinion that the most of the laws, rules and regulation which have been enacted about quite a years ago have loopholes or are stagnant and needs to be changed with transformation of the society. A policy analyst’s work deals with framing the policy, seeking for its changes, staying updated with the laws or framing of new legislation. The function of the policy analyst is a form of administration of policy-making and rules and regulatory framework for the country.
Several organisations, such as Vidhi Center of Legal policy, NIFPF, are the authorities who have been bestowed with the responsibility to recruit policy analyst, regulate and lays down the ways of functioning. Other than that, there are several advocacy firms which recruit policymakers in policy-making tasks like PLC and Dua.
These organisations recruit lawyers and fresh graduates with law degrees. Law and policies go hand in hand, and a lawyer is having one of the best pieces of knowledge about administrative functioning. The lawyers are best equipped with various tools of planning and understand legislations, and this makes them the most suitable for the job of a policy analyst.
Legal Tech Law firms are increasingly under cost and time pressure from their clients as the clients are frequently guided by sophisticated in-house counsel. Thus, those counsels are becoming more demanding gradually and even more scrutinous of bills. Simultaneously, there has been a massive advancement of technology, and it is the time for the legal field to adapt to technology. It is alarming to note that only about 46% of people have access to the legal system. There is an enormous backlog in most of the court systems. As we are aware that litigation is time-consuming and expensive, technology can be utilised to assist in respect of this issue and make the court a service instead of a place as we move legal resolution online.
In a digital society, there must be an opportunity to institute extended courts where we can go beyond judgments given by judges to some kind of advanced online diagnostic system to guide people regarding their legal options, how to collect evidence and provide alternative approaches for dispute resolution.
Conclusion
The coming in the existence of the above concepts is indeed a great leap of progress in the legal field. Today, the career prospect of this field is not limited only to advocacy and judiciary. Instead, it has taken a wide-angle to this profession. Thus, it is upon the future lawyers to make these concepts a reality in India and prosper in the respective arenas.
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