Today, legal profession happens to be one of the most lucrative career options for many aspiring students. Few other careers offer similar power, prestige, and financial rewards that are associated with this profession. Moreover, the continuing boom in the Indian economy has led to a sharp rise in the demand for lawyers. Areas like corporate law, intellectual property law, mergers & acquisitions, etc. to name a few have seen a massive increase in the demand for lawyers. Thus, it is not surprising to see that more and more students every year are opting for a career in the field of law.
To meet this ever increasing demand from students, an increasing number of colleges and universities today offer diverse courses in the field of law. Courses such as BA LLB, BBA LLB, BCOM LLB, LLB, etc. are quite common today. In addition, a large educational hub like Delhi NCR alone offers many choices to students in terms of colleges offering courses in the field of law and in terms of the variety of programs available. When there are so many choices available to students, then it can sometimes become difficult to decide which is the best course and the best college for you. So, in this article, let us get a careful understanding of the important factors that you must consider while selecting the top law college and the best law course for yourself.
1. Practical Exposure
As a matter of fact, a lot of legal work is based on interpretation. So, being a successful lawyer today is not simply about reading and memorizing bare acts. Instead, you need to understand how courts habitually interpret and apply various acts. This understanding can be gained only through practical exposure. A good law college would, as a matter of routine, conduct various events such as mock courts, mock parliaments, mock United Nations, etc. so as to provide students practical exposure to the art of preparing and presenting their arguments. A number of such events are judged by practicing judges from the higher courts or by other renowned legal luminaries and practitioners.
Indeed, a good law college would also offer excellent opportunities for internship with senior judges, top lawyers and law firms, etc. Such an internship is also critical in providing the necessary practical exposure.
Therefore, before choosing a law college, you should ideally talk to some of the alumni or current students of that college. This would give you valuable information regarding the amount of and quality of practical exposure provided by that particular college.
2. Facilities & Faculty
As an established norm, a good law college must have world-class infrastructure, including academic buildings, libraries, access to databases and journals, etc. Likewise, the quality of the teachers and professors at a law college goes a long way in determining the quality of education that the college provides to its students. So, before joining a law college, you must ensure that it performs well on this parameter. Joining a law college that performs poorly on this parameter can be extremely harmful for your career.
Ideally, you should do at least some research online to get a sense of how each college performs in different rankings of top law colleges. This would clearly reflect the quality of facilities and faculty that a particular college has.
3. Availability of Courses
Subsequent to your preparation of a shortlist of top law colleges that you are interested in, you must also check which of these colleges offer law courses that meet your requirements and interests. Here, you must not forget that your career is something that you must practice for the next 30 years (or more) of your life. Hence, you must choose an area that genuinely interests you and appeals to you. Thus, it is extremely important that you pick a course that meets your requirements.
After doing this, you need to do some online research to identify which of your preferred law colleges offer your desired course. Also, you must check how each course offered by a college is ranked by various surveys. For instance, college A might be ranked higher than college B overall but the BBA LLB program offered by college B might be considered the best in the country. In such a case, for BBA LLB aspirants, college B might just be a better choice than college A.
These are then some of the most valuable tips and guidelines for selecting the best law college for yourself. Follow these simple methods and you will find that the road to a successful career has become much smoother for you.
