Super Lawyer

Author: Donnie Ashok

  • Smrithi Ramesh on LL.M in ADR from Berkeley and arbitration work at KLRCA

    Smrithi Ramesh on LL.M in ADR from Berkeley and arbitration work at KLRCA

    Smrithi Ramesh graduated from The Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai and thereafter went on to pursue an LL.M in Alternate Dispute Resolutions from the University of California, Berkeley. Currently with her assorted skills in arbitration, mediation and negotiations she has joined the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration.

    She shares with us:

    • Her reasons behind pursuing LL.M
    • Faculty, facilities and course structure at Berkeley
    • Building a career in Alternate Dispute Resolutions
    • Overall journey as a law student and post-law-school career

     

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    What impressed upon you the idea to study law? Did you have lawyers among your relatives?

    I consider myself a first generation lawyer. Growing up, no one in my immediate family practiced law. However, I did grow up listening to stories about my great grand-father being a lawyer and that had an amazing impact on me. A healthy dose of books like To Kill A Mocking Bird and John Grisham only cemented that desire. All my varied extra curricular activities in school also revolved around my fondness for interpersonal interaction, rationalization and in advocating my beliefs to people. Hence, choosing to study law was a logical consequence of my upbringing.

    Once I started law school, while my reasons to love the law became different and more coherent, the desire to become a lawyer stayed the same.

     

    How do you recall your law school journey? Did you partake in moots and extra-curricular activities?

    Law school was more of an adventure than a journey. I studied in the School of Excellence in Law and hence access to Courts and work on an everyday basis was a huge advantage. The timing of my college made it conducive for me to intern every day for the 5 years. Luckily for me I joined this leading law firm in Chennai called BFS Legal. The Partners were very encouraging and made sure that I was exposed to all kinds of work. It was lucky for me that I found mentors in my bosses who not only taught me the law but also channelized my interests in the right direction. Being avid mooters themselves, they encouraged me to take part in moots. There began a long relationship between me and mooting. I spent 5 years during various moots.

    Extra curricular activities were a huge part of what moulded my personality.

    A big turning point in all this was when my team won the Henry Durant Memorial Moot Court Competition. We went on to win the Asian Rounds in Bangladesh and then were placed Semi-Finalists in the International Rounds. This was a first for my institution and for us personally too. The exposure we got there meeting students and lawyers all over the world was phenomenal and that also prompted us to do the Willem C Vis Arbitration Moot. It was her that I first developed my interest towards International Arbitration.

    Apart from this, I was also a part of the Moot Court Association of my college. In the final year of college I was made President of the Moot Court Association. I was part of the team that successfully conducted four National Moot Court competitions in one year. We managed to pull off a successful event on a shoestring budget. I believe these experiences were crucial in learning valuable skills that continue to help me everyday at work and outside. In the final year, I also interned with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

     

    How did your appointment at Vichar Partners (now JSA) take place? What all constituted your work profile?

    Vichar Partners was one of the few firms in Chennai that was doing great transactional work. Towards the end of law school, I had begun to take a great interest in Arbitration and also Transactional Law. I applied to Vichar and went through the interview process successfully. My work profile primarily consisted of handling Dispute Resolution cases including Arbitration. I was also able to work on a few deals and was also a part of the team that conducted due diligence. VICHAR partners gave me hands on learning on the various aspects of Corporate Law. They also had a lot of cases relating to arbitration and electricity law. It was very interesting for me to work on this as it was new and challenging. Although I was no stranger to courts, it was here that for the first time I got to represent in various forums including the High Courts, Electricity Tribunal etc. None of the books you read or lawyers you watch prepares you for the sheer thrill you get when you appear before a bench in real life.

     

    After your work experience at Vichar you joined Mundkur Law Partners. What prompted you to make this shift?

    The shift was primarily owing to my relocation to Bangalore for personal reasons. However, once I joined Mundkur Law Partners, it was almost like a second tenure at law school. All my working life, I have been blessed with amazing bosses and Mr. Mundkur was no exception. My stint at MLP saw my drafting and research skills undergo a sea change. High standards of perfection was the norm at MLP. My exposure at MLP included Corporate Law, Dispute Resolution, Education and Foreign Investment.

    By now I had more or less understood the importance of an LL.M to bolster my CV and help me carve out a niche.

     

    What was your motivation behind pursuing LL.M.? When did you finally decide that you need to do masters?

    I was first considering doing a Masters immediately after my experience with mooting at an International forum. It made me realize the importance of learning in a multi cultural environment. By the time I was in MLP, I had pretty much decided that to really equip myself, with the skills and knowledge required to further my career, an LL.M was mandatory. It was also essential for me to understand and learn for myself how the different spheres of law worked and functioned.

     

    How did you choose the university/college? How should one go about choosing a university?

    A lot of research went into the schools I had decided to apply to. The one key thing while choosing an LL.M. is to look at it for the point of view of equipping oneself rather than finding a job out of the country. It is good to do some background research on the faculty and programs offered in your area of interest. I was interested in New Venture Law, Investment and Arbitration. To me California and Berkeley were a perfect fit. I was taught by the best lawyers in Silicon Valley and the arbitration faculty at Berkeley was also great.

    I was very keen on a multi-cultural university. The key thing to identify for yourself before applying for an LL.M is to decide what exactly one wants out of the program. Once those goals are established, applying to schools becomes easy.

     

    Does Berkeley provide students with scholarships? Are there other institutions which provide scholarships? How difficult was studying abroad in terms of finding accommodation, finances and settling in?

    Berkeley does provide some scholarships. There are also many institutions that provide scholarship both inside and outside of India. People looking to apply for an LL.M should get their research in order as regards scholarship applications. Most times, there is a separate procedure for applying for these scholarships including writing essays. The deadlines for scholarships also vary. So it is good to have a schedule before one even starts to apply to colleges.

    For anyone going from India, living in the USA is an expensive proposition. More so, if it is California or New York. The cost of real estate is fairly high. However thanks to social networking, it is easy to connect with former students and your own future classmates. It’s good to take their advice regarding places to stay, when to look for places etc. Settling in is not just easy but also fun. You make so many wonderful friends from all over the world that the entire process becomes such a joy. The only key here is to go with the flow.

     

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    Did you undergo a rigorous academic schedule? How was that different from your under-graduate course?

    My academic schedule was radically different from what I was used to in my under graduate course. My under graduate course was more flexible and most of my learning came from actually working. However, at Berkeley the academic schedule is pretty rigorous with some courses having continuous assessment. One is expected to be prepared with the readings before one heads to class. To me the most important thing that stood out was how much importance was given to practical application of concepts. For people who are used to the Indian method of examination, it’s quite a challenge to adapt to the new system. I was never before exposed to the concepts of open book examinations etc. However by the second semester, it became standard practice. The exams and the learning train you to think about application than mere learning by rote.

     

    Prof. Alexander Coward’s mail inspired thousands of students all over the world. How was your experience with faculty?

    Prof. Alexander Coward’s mail is a wonderful example how Berkeley gives you the freedom to be what you want to be, whether you are a student or a faculty. The faculty is extremely intelligent and it was a sheer delight to be a part of some classes which was interactive and stimulating. Most of the faculty members are also versatile and have a great experience. For eg, my New Venture Finance class was taught by a doyen in the Silicon Valley. Listening to his personal insights just made the class more interesting, relatable and real.

     

    How is the faculty & academic schedule (your typical day) over at Berkeley? Is there time enough for non-academic pursuits?

    The academic schedule primarily depends on the courses you elect to opt at the beginning of the semester. Some people had classes spread out over a week and for some it was clustered on a few days. Very early on you quickly learn to compromise on sleep for the one year that you are there. This leaves you with enough and more time for non-academic pursuits.

    The classes offered also provide for great variety. I also had the opportunity to audit a few classes in the South Asian Studies Department as I was very interested in those subjects. This gave me the opportunity to meet and interact with stalwarts such as Asma Jehangir, Gurcharan Das, Ramachandra Guha etc. I took a class called Negotiations ( on Saturdays) and this was literally the best decision of my life. I also managed to take a class from the HAAS , the B school at Berkeley called Power and Politics in Organizations. These classes are meant to develop your skills. To say that they changed my life would be an under-statement. There are so many skills that you pick up that aid you in my day to day work as a lawyer. For eg, in Negotiations class, our final grade mostly constituted of a simulated negotiation that was recorded. This helped us analyze and dissect every aspect of the negotiation including body language, effectiveness of skills, strengths and weaknesses of the negotiation tactic etc.

    On the other hand, Berkeley is literally the epitome of fun. Non-academic pursuits are just as integral as academic pursuits. I can safely say that I spent equal amounts of time if not more just having fun and trying or doing the things I loved.

     

    How did you go about your journey of job-hunting after graduation? How did Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration happen?

    My job hunting process began as early as January. By then, I had decided to focus my entire energy on finding a job in Arbitration or Negotiations. I was warned very early on that to get a break in the field of International Arbitration is nearly impossible. I spoke to a friend and mentor, Abhinav Bhushan who is with the ICC, Paris. His insights and experiences proved extremely useful as it was he who directed me to the possibility of applying to International Institutions. I learnt from his experiences and difficulties faced when applying. I took his advice to heart and set out to write to Institutions from the very beginning of January.

    I was forewarned about the multiple rejections that come your way. Persistence is the key to job hunting in a market like this. It is also important that while making these contacts, you make an effort to stay in touch with them even if they cannot at that moment give you a job.The job hunting process was in itself a learning experience.

     

    What does your work profile as a Case Counsel at KLRCA consist of?

    The Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA) was established in 1978 under the auspices of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO).

    My job at KLRCA primarily consists of case management. This involves from the commencement of an arbitration until the Award is rendered. As an International Case Counsel, I am in charge of monitoring every stage of the proceedings assuring that every step complies with the procedural rules that parties have agreed on. The cases varies in nature of the dispute, type of arbitration and whether it is an international or domestic arbitration. Case management involves many stages of the dispute resolution process, not only arbitration but mediation and recently adjudication as well.

    Apart from this, KLRCA offers Case Counsels the opportunity to lead and be involved in developmental projects both in Malaysia and in the International arena. Developmentally, KLRCA is a young Arbitration Centre. As such there is much room to be creative and come up with proposals to improve our services in arbitration and as a dispute resolution service provider generally. Since the appointment of the current Director, Professor Datuk Sundra Rajoo, KLRCA has increased the number of Cases drastically and has revamped itself as a complete ADR solution provider. KLRCA’s other ongoing projects are in diverse fields including Sports, Medico-Legal, Investment Arbitration, Domain Name Dispute Resolution amongst others. This proves to be not just challenging but also an extraordinary learning experience.

     

    When did you realise your calling for Arbitration? What would you advice budding arbitration enthusiasts?

    Arbitration is much of a keen interest. It was also not a sudden realization but that something that happened over time. The decision was made easier as I had previously the opportunity to experience various fields of law. From the time I was an intern, I worked on Litigation, Corporate and Transactional Law. Experiencing this first hand made it easier for me to narrow down on what interested me the most. Berkeley and my experience with studying Arbitration was the culminating point of an interest that grew gradually. I strongly believe that the Law is one field which is constantly adapting. After Berkeley and KLRCA, I realized the importance of not just arbitration, but also the necessity to focus on Alternate Dispute Resolution as a field in itself.

    As advice, I would pretty much say the same thing to budding Arbitration enthusiats. It makes the world of a difference when you keep an open mind. I would also suggest that you keep yourself update on the constant developments in the field of Arbitration. Speaking to people who are in the field is a definite advantage and necessary even.

     

    How do you think your LL.M has benefitted you in your career prospects?

    My LL.M at Berkeley not only equipped me with the knowledge and skills required for a career in Alternate Dispute Resolution, but also opened my mind to avenues I did not know existed before. The Berkeley tag is a definite advantage and a welcome addition to my resume. The contacts that I made in Berkeley break across territories and has already come in handy in my career. I think an LL.M is essential for anyone interested in the field of International Arbitration and this was no different in my case too.

    More importantly, it has given me fresh perspective on everything including the law.

     

    What would be your parting message to our readers?

    While it is important to plan ahead and work towards a career of your choice, it is just as important to experience every moment of it. The people around you change you and teach you just as much as the curriculum does. It can be very easy to get caught up in this and forget the real reason behind why one chose the law. I am no one to give advice. However, everytime I find that the process overwhelms me, I remember what Atticus ( Finch) says in the book:

    “Delete the adjectives and you will have the facts.”

    It’s that simple.

     

  • Sanyukta Banerjie on LL.M in IPR from NUS and building a career in academics

    Sanyukta Banerjie on LL.M in IPR from NUS and building a career in academics

    sanyukta-banerjie-1Sanyukta Banerjie is a 2014 Batch graduate of Gujarat National Law University, currently pursuing her LL.M from NUS, Singapore. She has been one of the brightest students at GNLU and has actively participated in theatre and music during her college life. In this interview with Superlawyer, she shares her passion for IPR and teaching and the various considerations one should keep in mind while applying for a Masters Degree.

     

    How would you introduce yourself to our readers who are mostly young students of law and lawyers?

    I would introduce myself as a student of law as I believe what we study in law school, or learn over internships or even on the job is really just a fraction of the expertise that is required. As cliché as it sounds, the study of law really is a life-long journey.

     

    Please tell us a little bit about your childhood and your background? Why did you decide to pursue law and what affected your decision?

    My childhood was spent more among books than people. In fact I remember my Mum would send me off to play with the neighbourhood kids and I would instead sidle into their rooms and pore over their collection of Pinkie, Chacha Chaudhary, Enid Blyton, etc. Come to think of it, I might have come across as a bit of a prig! Reading led to writing and coupled with the fact that I usually had an opinion on almost everything, law seemed the inevitable choice. I can’t exactly pinpoint when I had that moment of epiphany so to say, but I do think my fascination with law started because at that stage of my life, and being part of the education system that I was in, law was the only medium which permitted me and in fact encouraged me to question all that I saw around me.

     

    Tell us a bit about your life in law school. What activities were you involved in apart from the regular academic curriculum?

    Oh law school! Well, I think I tried my hand at almost everything once (Except sports. Everlasting anathema). I think that’s the best part of law school, or perhaps the times we live in. Every activity is so democratically organized that even if you have a fledgling of an interest in anything, there would a club for it and people as enthusiastic as you, if not more, to share that interest with you. I was part of the Theatre Club, the Music Club and the Quizzing Club. I enjoyed mooting and writing. (Even if it be just academic papers, as nerdy as that sounds.)

     

    Any fond memories which you would want to share with our readers related to your days in law school?

    Haha! This question makes me feel so old. I don’t know if it’s just me but law school has you living this strange dichotomous life where your superiority complex is matched only by your self-loathing. Anyway, 2012 for me was the year of a particularly high degree of self-directed hate. But in March we stood runners up at a moot court competition and I was adjudged the best oralist which helped me put things in perspective and calmed me down immensely (only for it to start all over again next year!)

     

    As a law school student you have done a number of internships. Please tell us a bit about them and how they helped shaping up your future career prospects.

    As depressing as it might sound to certain people depending upon their private beliefs, most fundas about law school internships are actually quite accurate. Yes, interning at a place does spike your chances of securing a job there. No, it does not matter how you secured that internship or what your grades were. And yes, the nature of the beast demands a fair amount of hobnobbing and that includes both corporate and litigation sectors.  Since I was still finding my feet career-wise when I came to law school, I went step by step. So I interned with NGOs, litigation practises and law firms and I am really glad for having sampled each of these avenues. I think they helped me define my ideas about a career vis-à-vis work culture, office environment and quality of work in a manner that reading about them or asking my seniors never would have.

    Even though my ultimate aim is to teach in India, I will always be glad to have picked up such work experience along the way because when I was pursuing undergraduate studies, I remember that those teachers who had prior experiences working in legal institutions had a sounder understanding of their subject.

     

    When and why did you decide to pursue an LL.M and what were the considerations you had in mind while looking at various universities? What was your motivation behind doing an LL.M. abroad? Why not an LL.M. in India?

    My wish to teach lay at the core of my intention to pursue an LL.M. I was in my last year, had vetted almost every avenue of law through internships and quite exasperatingly, I had enjoyed all of them. As you can imagine this did not particularly ease decision-making with respect to picking a career. My college conducts an ASP (Academic Support Program) program where seniors provide remedial classes on any subject of their choice/expertise. I used to volunteer for that program and would occasionally take classes. Apart from that sometimes our curricular assignments required us to conduct presentations on a particular topic in class. And I remember all along…how do I put this? I remember just being very happy doing it. Standing before a class of forty odd students and attempting to tell them about a topic in a way that would make them engage and learn; to me was a tremendously exciting proposition. I don’t know about all that found-my-calling business but I know that teaching, in any capacity, makes me happy.

    Like any other Indian kid, I wanted my decision to receive the blessings of my parents. They were onboard with it, but my Mum insisted I pursue an LL.M outside India. What I had not completely grasped at that point, but do realize now, is that an LL.M abroad really is an educational sea-change. I have not had the opportunity of pursuing an LL.M in India but I can certify to this that an LL.M abroad (from a reputed institution albeit) really does put the ‘masters’ in the Master of Laws degree.

     

    Given the Rupee-Dollar exchange rate, it is quite costly to do masters from a foreign country. How did this factor influence your decision?

    For me, pursuing an LL.M abroad (in the absence of a scholarship) was treading a tightrope between pursuing economy and checking college credentials. So that necessarily ruled out an education in America even though some of the IPR courses there are really good. Ultimately it came down to UK or Singapore. But at that point of time UK with its immigration policy post 2010 and the more theoretical tone of its IP course, fell short. Additionally factoring in the comparative cost benefit analysis, I opted for Singapore.

     

    What were your areas of interest while you were an undergraduate student and how have they helped in choosing your subjects/courses for the LL.M programme?

    Owing perhaps to the dynamic nature of the subject and the excellence of the teacher (Dr. William Nunes), my areas of interest had been Political Science and International Relations. Then the moot happened and I found the love of my academic life – IPR.   It’s worked perfectly for me, because IPR with its WIPO origins is a subject that requires an international perspective for a comprehensive interpretation and an LL.M with a specialization in IPR provides me with that.

     

    Tell us about your days at NUS? How rigorous is the academic schedule?

    Rigorous! You can say that again and then underscore it. Whoever refers to an LL.M degree abroad as a one-year vacation is either a crazy genius or needs to get his or her head examined! A compact one year course means a year of continuous information overload and there is no way you can cheat the system. There really isn’t. On the other hand if you pick a subject that you like (and that’s usually an option with LL.M) then NUS is the best place to be. The professors really push you but all in a really clever underhand way that makes you feel like crap anytime you slack.

     

    How is the Indian fraternity over there? Were there many Indian students?

    Well I have met some really friendly, intelligent and fun people. But the way I see, if you go in with an open mind, then you are bound to meet all kinds of interesting people which I am lucky to say I have. The majority students are naturally Singaporean, followed by Chinese and then Indian. Although in terms of diaspora, depending upon the electives, the class composition completely changes.

     

    How does one go about the scholarships? Does the institute offer any scholarship? What are the key scholarships one should look for?

    Depending upon the specialization that one’s opting for, the university does offer scholarships. For example, in case of IPR there is the Ella Cheong Intellectual Property Scholarship which is merit based and all LL.M applications are automatically vetted for it at the stage of admission. Apart from that the NUS official website has a page entirely dedicated to listing scholarships that a prospective student can look into before applying, as and when something comes up. My humble two cents on procuring a scholarship – plan ahead and have obscenely good academic records because it is quite competitive.

     

    What about extra-curricular activities and your hobbies at NUS?

    Postgrad for me is a complete volte face; which is code for zero extra-curricular activities. Although, as dorky as it might make me sound I love attending conferences! I really do. Mostly they are on topics that have nothing to do with my electives. It’s such a welcome break from the routine sometimes! For one, I don’t have to do any preparatory reading, so I just pop in, listen to these really amazing experts and come away with a way more nuanced understanding of a topic than the standard Wikipedia entry on it. It’s like trivia surfing but for the non-virtual world – time flies and it gets addictive real quick!

     

    Tell us a bit about the difference in studying at NUS and at GNLU.

    Well the most observable difference for me was in terms of the student-teacher equation. Partly due to the culture and perhaps owing to a certain amount of independence that pursing a postgraduate degree permits, the structure is a lot less hierarchical. The lack of any obvious duress on part of teachers makes students feel more in control and thereby more liable for their academic result. So naturally they apply themselves more.

     

    Going forward, how do you expect the LL.M experience to influence your career?

    For someone who plans on teaching law in the future, I can already sense the way this course has changed my perspective on law as well as on teaching. In spite of the wide-ranging content of this course, I constantly feel like I have so much more to learn. I think that’s always a good takeaway for anyone who plans on imparting education in such a dynamic field as law.

     

    Any suggestions which you would want to give for students wanting to pursue higher studies abroad?

    I would suggest them to start REALLY early. So whether it is gathering material, researching on prospective colleges, preparing their statements of motivation, arranging for scholarships or procuring letters of recommendation, just start already. You won’t even realize but just getting into the process gives you such clarity of vision with respect to what you want out of an LL.M degree or if you want one at all.

  • Subhashree Sundararaman on LL.B from Kent, being 3rd at New York Bar Scholarships and authoring a book

    Subhashree Sundararaman on LL.B from Kent, being 3rd at New York Bar Scholarships and authoring a book

    subhashree-sundaraman-2Subhashree Sundaraman graduated in BSL from ILS, Pune in 2011, thereafter she left it to pursue LL.B from University of Kent. She has had the opportunity to co-author a book on Keshavnanda Bharati, take up a course in IPR from WIPO and amazingly get ranked 3rd at the New York Bar Scholarships. She shares with us her experience in taking up a lesser known path.

     

    At the outset please share with us what brought you into legal studies? Did you have friends or family members to impress upon you the idea of law?

    My great grandfather and my grandfather have both influenced me in some ways to take up law as my career choice. I was very thrilled to hear about various judgements and legal matters that my grandfather dealt with, while he was assisting the then famous lawyers from my hometown. Also, as I did not particularly enjoy the idea of taking up computer science or medicine as my career options, Law was the perfect path for me to take and it has continued to prove to be so.

     

    How was your experience at ILS, Pune? What are the best memories of your student life? What would you suggest those law aspirants who are faced with a choice of taking up ILS?

    ILS Pune was a new experience for me as I was moving out of my home town and my comfort zone for the first time, in pursuance of my higher education. In addition to producing top class lawyers, who have held and are holding high positions in the Indian judiciary, the college has a reputation of holding some of the best collections of legal books. The college timings were tabled in such a way that students had the opportunity to self-learn by making use of these resources. Apart from academics, I engaged myself in writing short stories and poems, which eventually led to me starting my own blog. I won several prizes for my blog posts. Thus, my undergraduate experience at ILS was just not about developing myself academically but exploring various things that I liked and pushing my boundaries to develop holistically. Further, the limited college timings, gave me an opportunity to explore Pune and network with diverse group of people coming from various parts of the country.

    ILS gives preference to meritorious students, who are tutored by experienced teachers as well as practising lawyers. The high calibre of the students as well the teaching quality is witnessed by students taking part in various competitions and winning laurels to the institution, which makes me proud as an alumnus.

     

    You were one of the ten students selected from the University of Pune, India to research and help in the publication of the book, which discusses the Basic Structure of the Indian Constitution. Please tell us about your experience you gathered from such an exercise.

    It was an enriching as well as a challenging experience for me to research a whole judgement along with my team members. The task involved paragraph by paragraph analysis of the 11 opinions in the Kesavananda Bharati case and prepare a summary on them. In addition, our team of researchers was assigned the task of reviewing the literature. This particular exercise helped me in improvising my drafting skills, alongside understanding the complexities in the reasoning of the judges. Further, it also enabled me to identify core reasoning in the judgments made by the judges, which sharpened by logical and analytical skills. In addition to the serious research work, I also had fun working in a team along with others during this exercise. My contribution to this work was duly recognized and acknowledged by the University and I was also given a copy of the book.

     

    How was your experience with extra-curriculars? Did you partake in moots and conferences?

    Right from my first year, I was involved in mooting at ILS. I took part in couple of on campus moots within the college, where I developed my mooting skills such as application of appropriate laws to the problems, correlating various legal issues and developing my negotiation skills. I was the lead college researcher for the runners up team that participated in a National Moot that was held in Nagpur in 2011. In addition, I took part in conferences that were conducted within ILS, they were interesting for discussion and also broadening my knowledge base on various legal matters outside academia.

     

    When did you decide to pursue an LL.B from University of Kent? How did you settle upon Kent?

    I decided to do my LL.B from the UK immediately after my 3 years at ILS, which gave me a BSL degree [Bachelors in Social Legal Science]. I settled upon Kent, after thorough research along with my parents as well my relatives in the UK, who had colleagues from Kent. From my research, Kent University and Kent Law School [KLS] impressed me a lot. Kent Law School provides a critical approach to the studying of law as opposed to studying merely the black letter law. After having spoken to couple of final year students as well as professors, who visited India from the University, I made an informed choice of joining Kent.

     

    People generally go for LL.M from reputed universities to build up a profile in a certain section of law. Why did you decide to study further Bachelors in Law? Any specific reasons?

    I have always dreamt of exploring opportunities outside India and UK was of particular interest, given its common law. Hence, I decided to do my Bachelors, instead of an LLM, because I wanted to master the law of the country as opposed to mastering in a certain section of law.

     

    How has been your experience at Kent? How was the selection procedure? How are the faculty and facilities?

    My experience at Kent is by far the best experiences that I could ask for both in terms of academics as well as social. I have been able to participate and contribute on various topics within the University and outside it. The faculty at Kent Uni are extremely inspiring, kind and supportive. Being an international student, I had apprehensions before I left India, but Kent only disproved all the apprehensions and made me feel at home. At Kent Law School, I was selected as the Course Representative in my 1st and 2nd year, and eventually became the Law School Representative in my final year. This gave me a lot of opportunity to network with fellow law students and faculty within law school and from other departments.

    As for the facilities, the University has a huge library that hosts books ranging on all topics under the sun and not just law. Further, the University encompasses other departments along with the Kent Law school, which facilitated inter departmental communication. The Kent Law School has its own Kent Law Clinic, which provides pro bono work and has received various awards including the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize. In addition, the Kent Law School has student led societies, which conduct various guest lectures and career fairs, helping students to network with barristers and solicitors.

    I was selected after being screened on multiple aspects including the reasons to pursue law in the UK and in particular Kent, my contributions in the field of law and other fields, which were all summarised by me in the form of an SOP, and of course, my grades.

     

    How different would you say is the bachelor course at Kent from a typical law school of India? What are the things which these two systems can learn from each other?

    The Bachelor degree at Kent, as mentioned earlier, provides a critical approach to the study of law.  It provides a very application based study as opposed to theoretical learning. In addition to just reading the books, we were made to read and analyse different journal articles and newspaper articles in order to correlate with the laws that we studied. Further, all our modules were not 100% exam based and were divided between exams and course works. The course works entail writing essays ranging between 1000- 3500 words on certain topics, which helped me sharpen my research and writing skills by miles. This also gave me confidence to write a 10000 word optional dissertation in my final year on consumer law.

    In addition to classroom teaching, we also had seminars, where we were divided in to groups of 20 and assigned a professor with whom we discussed various questions on the topics we learnt in the classroom. This helped me to get more clarification on the subjects from the student discussions in the seminars. The most impressive element that is different from a typical law school in India is the system of recorded lectures. Thus, even if a student is unable to attend lectures due to personal reasons, he/she could listen to the lectures that were recorded live by the professor and uploaded to individual student portals. This also helped students to make lecture notes and prepare for the exams by listening to it multiple times.

     

    What is the importance of mooting and writing research papers in the LL.B programme of Kent?

    Although, students actively participated in moots at KLS, it was not compulsory or imposed. In my first year, I saw various students participate in moots to acquire experience on mooting or sharpen their advocacy skills. However, from my observation, moots were undertaken by those students, who wanted to become barristers. I was not particularly interested in mooting, so instead I channeled my interest in participating in in-house negotiation and mediation activities.

    The LLB programme at Kent was very tight and hectic. Therefore, aside from academics and extra-curricular activities, writing research papers were not undertaken by many. This could also be because most of our course work involved researching on our own and writing essays of a minimum of 3000 words, which was a research paper by itself. The law school also published in its law school journal those course works, which secured a first. Therefore, writing a separate research paper was not considered as a necessity.

     

    You also took up a course in IPR from WIPO. Please share with us the experience of this course? How would you rate the course? Were you thinking of gaining expertise in IPR law?

    I took the IPR course from WIPO during my first year summer break, while I was in England. The course gave me an in depth view of the fundamental elements of IP. I would recommend the course for anyone who wants to get an insight in to the IP Law. The course is well structured and provides a good basis before one takes up IP Law as full-fledged module. The course helped me make a choice before I took IP as one of my final year modules. I enjoy IP Law and I aim to have it as one of my practice areas.

     

    You had earlier cleared the New York Bar Scholarship with an astounding third rank! Please share a few tips and strategies to crack the scholarship.

    The New York Bar Scholarship was facilitated by BARBRI International, a leading provider of post qualification training for legal professionals. I am not sure if this scholarship is a recurring one. I came to know through couple of legal agencies that I had signed up to. The Scholarship entailed the applicants to write an essay by critically reviewing the recent “Right to be forgotten” judgement given by the ECJ involving Google and discuss the legal ramifications in applying the ruling to other cases. A simple tip to crack any scholarship is to keep abreast of the current legal activities, as one of the aims of scholarships is to test the commercial awareness of the applicants alongside other elements and how legal decisions affect businesses. Currently, I plan to work for couple of years and then I plan to sit the New York Bar exam availing my scholarship.

     

    Which are the other scholarships you would suggest applying for?

    There are so many scholarships that are available, which are interest and need based. Therefore, students who wish to pursue their interests should keep their ears and eyes open and look for opportunities to gain advantage.

     

    What are your long-term goals? Where do you see yourself in ten years’ time?

    My short to medium term goal is, in 3 to 5 years become a leading in-house corporate lawyer with a sound expertise in the fields of Mergers and Acquisitions and Intellectual Property law. I intend to continue building my key skills in these areas by handling a variety of challenging and knowledge enriching work assignments. My long term goal is, in 10 years acquire necessary leadership skills that will help me lead legal functions of large corporate organizations.

     

    What is your message to your juniors at Law School? Any career advice you would like to share?

    I have always believed in the saying, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt. Therefore, my message to my juniors at law school would be to dream big, explore all the opportunities that come their way, acquire as much knowledge and experience as possible, for it would help along the way in building their career. It is understandable that law school is a five year commitment and sometimes, it might feel monotonous and tedious. However, having crossed that bridge, I would advise not to give up for it is totally worth it.

     

  • Anirudh Krishnan on graduating from Oxford, leaving Clifford Chance to establish a career in litigation arbitration

    Anirudh Krishnan on graduating from Oxford, leaving Clifford Chance to establish a career in litigation arbitration

    Mr. Anirudh Krishnan graduated from NALSAR, Hyderabad and did his LL.M from Oxford University. He is the founder of AK Law Chambers, Chennai and has previously worked as a trainee solicitor at Clifford Chance, London. He specializes in the area of arbitration, commercial and constitutional litigation. He has authored the book “The Law of Reservation and Anti-discrimination, LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur (2008)” and has edited “Justice Bachawat’s Law of Arbitration and Conciliation, LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur (2010)”.

    We asked him to share his deep insights on:

    • Taking up arbitration as a career.
    • The importance of moot and other co-curricular activities.
    • Pursuing LL.M from Oxford University.
    • Being the author of a leading book on Arbitration and Conciliation.

     

    Please introduce yourself to our readers. Please tell us a little bit about your childhood and your background?

    I am an advocate, an academician, a family man and a travel enthusiast.

    I have spent all my childhood in Chennai. I come from a fairly conservative Tamilian family. My parents are both lawyers. My father is today a senior counsel and like most successful lawyers, has put in the hard work to come up as a litigator. My mother, though busy at work, has ensured that she was there for me at all points of time in my life. The attention that one gets during his/ her childhood largely shapes one’s character and I can say I have been lucky on this count. I have also been greatly influenced by my grandfathers, who have been role models for me.

    My schooling has had a considerable impact on my life. My school- Vidya Mandir is known for focusing on developing the right kind of value system in its students. Vidya Mandir does not expose its students to an ultra-competitive atmosphere till the 11th and 12th standards, the objective being to encourage students to take up activities other than purely academics. In school I used to play state level chess, a fair amount of tennis and also participated in numerous debates and public speaking activities. The public speaking comes in handy today.

    I must say that I was lucky to have had the kind of childhood that I did. While it was a shielded childhood I can say for a fact that the values instilled in me at that point of time ensured that I stood grounded during more challenging times ahead when I faced the real competitive world.

     

    What impressed upon you to take up law as a career?

    My entry into law was fairly dramatic. I had been focussed only on engineering despite the fact that my parents were both practising lawyers and had their own law firm. So when the prestigious National University of Singapore offered me a seat, I was off to Singapore only to realise that I wanted to pursue my under grad studies in India. I, then, joined a leading engineering college in Tamil Nadu which was affiliated to Anna University. In a funny turn of events, I ended up failing my first semester Physics (a subject about which I was passionate and in which I had always topped), by one mark. I was certain there had been mistake in the corrections/evaluation. I was completely disillusioned by the system and decided that I would attend law entrance classes and take the law entrance the following year. I found the legal reasoning course (taught by Mrs Hema Raman) so interesting that despite clearing the physics paper by 32 marks after applying for re-evaluation (I got 81 on 100 as against the 49 marks initially given), I stuck to my decision of changing over to law.

    When I look back at this incident, I relate very well to the philosophical statement that whatever happens, happens only for the good.

     

    How was your experience at NALSAR, Hyderabad? What activities were you involved in apart from the regular academic curriculum?

    Perhaps due to the hunger created by the waste of a year in Engineering College, right from day one at NALSAR, I was focused on achieving as much as I could academically. Most of my activities therefore were co-curricular activities such as moot court competitions, attending conferences, writing papers for publication, etc. I was keen to get  overseas exposure and I was among the first few students to represent my university in conferences in London and Australia. I was extremely interested in writing and published numerous articles in various journals, both Indian and International. In my 5th year, I also managed to convert my research on reservation and anti-discrimination into a book which was published by Lexis Nexis Butterworth Wadhwa, Nagpur. I used to play the odd game of cricket but during my 5 years in NALSAR my focus was primarily academic.

    I fondly remember my NALSAR days both from a personal and professional front. I made some very close friends at NALSAR- friends who will be there for me when I need them. Professionally, NALSAR provides a highly competitive academic atmosphere where you push yourself continuously to achieve more and more. This was the first time I was being exposed to such an atmosphere. The NALSAR experience (which in a way is similar to the real life experience) made me aware that to be amongst the top, you need to constantly update yourself and be on the move. You do not have time to celebrate what you have achieved- you constantly look at what is next. However, it gives you a high to be the first to do something and NALSAR provides you every opportunity to achieve this high.

    NALSAR also provided me the great privilege of being taught by the best of Professors- the late Professor Vepa Sarathi was a living legend- at the age of 95 he could still cite case laws far better than anybody I have ever seen. Professor Errabbi’s lectures on powers of the Parliament still reverberate in my ears. I also thoroughly enjoyed Professor Unni’s classes on IPR.

     

    What were your areas of interest during your graduation? How did you go about developing expertise and knowledge in these areas?

    There were a lot of areas that interested me- Contract Law, Intellectual Property Law, Arbitration, etc. If I were to pick my favorites during my stint at NALSAR, it had to be Constitutional Law and WTO Dispute Resolution. At one point in time, I was thinking about a career in WTO Law very seriously. That would have meant sacrificing all other areas of interest. I liked most areas of law and I did not really want to sacrifice all other areas to become a WTO expert.

    More than any specific area, I just like interpretation of law. I like the fact that as lawyer you would have to look at the same provision of law in two or three different ways based on the fact scenario and which side you are on. This is what fascinated me. It is these interpretational issues which created controversies. So what I would do was for our mandatory projects at NALSAR, I would look up some area in that subject which had caused a lot of controversy and I would request my professors that I be permitted to write on that controversial area. Not only will it make my project interesting but it would give me every opportunity of publishing my paper. Ultimately it is only when you write and research on controversial areas, do you hone your interpretational skills.

    Therefore while I did have my favorites, I have not been an area specific person. Yes, today I do a lot of commercial work, arbitration and company law work but that by itself is a fairly wide range. I am open to most of the other areas and I think if you want to be a litigation lawyer, you cannot say I want to be a person who super specializes in an area.

     

    What was your motivation behind doing an LL.M. from Oxford? Why not an LL.M. in India?

    I had taken a decision that I would identify 4 to 5 top universities and apply to them and if I did not get into those universities, I would not pursue my LL.M- I would come back to India and practice straight away. My choice was ultimately between Oxford and Stanford- Stanford had a fantastic arbitration course and Oxford was known for its common law centric courses. I preferred the latter. While today arbitration is one of my favorite areas and it is an area where I do a fair amount of work, my intention was always to come back to India and ultimately to become a senior counsel and for that an overall grounding is more important. Oxford is unparalleled when it comes to its common law training- common law originated in Oxford. It is for this reason that I chose to do my masters at Oxford. Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard have run the LL.M programmes for decades. Most of the Indian LL.Ms are comparatively new but are soon catching up.

     

    Please tell us how one should write a SOP for Oxford and other Ivy League Universities?

    Writing an SOP is like preparing a short marketing flyer of yourself. You need to see which of your achievements is likely to attract a University and package your SOP in such a manner that you link that achievement with your reasons for pursuing a LL.M and ultimately link the two up with your future goals. I was told by a senior who guided me through the LL.M application process, that an SOP was a 1 minute advertisement about yourself and that you had to catch the reader’s attention immediately so as to keep them interested. He was right.

    In addition to the above, I would also look at the areas that each university specialized in- for instance Oxford is known for its common law. I would also bring that into my reasons for application.

     

    Could you please tell us about your experience at Oxford University? How rigorous is the academic schedule?

    Oxford provides the best possible academic atmosphere in the world. I took a good mix of subjects- some purely theoretical and some case law heavy courses. My focus was on commercial law, international dispute resolution and aspects of constitutional law.

    The course was extremely hectic. There is a common belief that one “takes a break” while pursuing his/ her Masters in Law. While no doubt a person can choose to have it easy by taking easy courses, in my view adopting such a route would only be a huge waste of time and money. My course involved atleast 14 hours of reading every day.

    While the tangible benefits from the unjust enrichment and international dispute resolution courses are palpable, the intangible benefits are extraordinary. You start looking at the logic behind the law rather than only the letter of the law. It was an exhilarating experience to interact with legends such as Professors Gardner, Honore, Swadling, Edleman et al. Some of them used to interpret case laws in manners you did not think were even possible. A one to one with such persons has definitely helped me add to my skill sets. Ultimately, education is only about building skill sets.

    Even on the personal front, Oxford was good- that is the year I met my wife, Goda who was then pursuing her LL.M at London School of Economics.

     

    You have edited Justice R.S. Bachawat’s ‘Law of Arbitration and Conciliation’ and authored ‘The Law of Reservation & Anti-discrimination’. How was your experience authoring such scholarly books?

    In my 4th year at NALSAR, I wanted to write a book on the Law of Reservation. I got in touch with Mr KK Wadhwa of Wadhwa Publications- frankly I did not expect him to take me seriously as I was after all an unknown 4th year law student and he was India’s leading law book publisher. However, the encouragement he gave me was something I could never have imagined. Another person who made the book possible was my Vice Chancellor, Dr Ranbir Singh, because of whom the book was released by Mr P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister at my convocation. The book was published by LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur. The book had the distinction of being placed in the libraries of various High Courts, the Supreme Court and the Parliament.

    The same publishers approached my good friend and then colleague at Clifford Chance, Anirudh Wadhwa and me to be the Chief-editors of the 5th edition of Justice R.S. Bachawat’s Law of Arbitration and Conciliation, which we took up. I am happy to say that the book has got wonderful reviews internationally including from leading Queen’s Counsel and academicians such as Mr David Joseph QC and Professor Rob Merkins. The book has also been cited by many Indian Courts.

    Book writing is a very exacting yet enjoyable experience. An author has to read every single case law on the point- for the arbitration book there were approximately 5000 cases which we had to read between the two of us. While there were a team of research assistants helping out with both books, it was ultimately for the authors to read each case and ensure that the ratio is extracted accurately.

    I can say that all the effort was worth it. Book writing helps improve your clarity of thought- you look at how best you can simplify a proposition for a reader and how best you can categorize propositions to keep a reader interested. Ultimately, what you do as an author is what you need to do as a litigating lawyer.

    The books have also got me a lot of recognition and today I can say a number of opportunities have opened up because of it. I have got invitations to speak at numerous conferences- Indian and international (including at places such as 39 Essex Street Chambers, London and Kuala Lampur Regional Centre for Arbitration), have had the distinction of being part of an elite panel constituted by the Chairman of the Law Commission (Justice A.P Shah) to deliberate upon proposed reforms to arbitration law, have had the chance to depose as an expert witness on Indian law in an ICC arbitration in London, have been appointed as an arbitrator, have been included as part of the panel of arbitrators of Nani Palkhiwala Arbitration Centre and have built a very good professional network owing to this recognition.

     

    You have worked at Clifford Chance as a trainee solicitor for a while before establishing your own law firm, AK Law Chambers. What made you come to India and start your own firm?

    I was of the view that work experience in a foreign jurisdiction would always come in handy. Therefore, even though I always wanted to litigate, when Clifford Chance, for the first time, wanted to recruit from India and called for applications, I thought that it was my best chance to get some foreign exposure. After a detailed screening process, I got the job. I decided that I would take up the job atleast for a period of two years and then take a call.

    I enjoyed my stint at CC especially the time I spent in the international arbitration department. More than even the law, CC taught me professionalism and client management. As a lawyer in India, unlike at CC, we often do not pay enough importance to deadlines and minor typographical faux pas in communication. My experience at CC holds me in good stead especially when I deal with foreign firms and MNCs.

    However, my stint at CC made it even more clear to me that I wanted to do contentious work (litigation and arbitration) and if that were so, it made sense to return to India as India provides far more opportunities to young lawyers than any foreign country. The salary to me was never a major factor since I was confident that hard work and focus would get me enough money someday.

     

    Tell us something about your firm, core areas of practice?

    A.K Law Chambers is a boutique practice primarily focusing on commercial and company litigation, arbitration and public law litigation. I have a team of four very sincere lawyers under me.

    Over a short period we have had the occasion to deal with a fair number of complex and high profile disputes. We have handled numerous arbitrations including the arbitrations relating to construction of the highest rail bridge in the world, to a huge hotel in Bangalore and the digitization of Government services in Tamil Nadu . We have also had the occasion to work on a number of Company law matters- shareholder disputes (including rectification preceding and oppression and mismanagement proceeding), winding up and insolvency matters, scheme of amalgamations and demerger etc. We also have a fair number of general commercial litigation and public law work including Writ Petitions pertaining to constitutional challenges, land acquisition matters etc. One especially interesting dispute which we handled was Writ Petition against the Competition Commission proceedings which had been initiated against all the car manufacturers. The matter involved numerous interesting issues of Competition law as well as Constitution law. We have also represented leading airlines, leading newspaper dailies in insolvency and related proceedings.

    We not only handle work at the High Court level, but also at the tribunal level such as the Company Law Board, National Green Tribunal, Appellate Tribunal for Electricity, etc. It has been a journey every minute of which I have enjoyed so far.

     

    How different is the scenario of Arbitration in India than abroad?

    The scenario of arbitration in India is very different from the scenario abroad. In India arbitrations are mostly adhoc whereas international arbitrations are almost always institutional and hence by and large more orderly. In India, arbitration suffers from a “Court system hangover” with frequent adjournments and very short sittings. In most international arbitration, a time is fixed and the parties mostly do not deviate from the timeline and deviating has its own cost implications.

    However, there are some arbitrators in India who ensure that arbitration before them is thoroughly professional and that the parties do not deviate from the timelines. These arbitrators also come well prepared and ask the right questions. I am hopeful that this trend will spread quickly and this scenario will improve.

    However for the scenario to improve, there are 2 other factors that need to be addressed- the culture of the arbitration bar and judicial interference in arbitrations. In so far as judicial interference is concerned in India, today arbitration proceedings are not only before the arbitrator . It is also about what happens before and after the proceeding before the arbitrator. There is a culture of excess judicial interference and as a lawyer unless you are aware of how to utilize the interference to your benefit, you are not in the position to offer the best possible solution to the client. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I was fortunate to be part of an elite panel consisting of among others, Justice Rohiton Nariman, Mr. Arvind Datar, Mr Shishir Dholakia, Mr Darius Khambata etc constituted by Justice A.P. Shah, the Chairman of the Law Commission to deliberate upon the reforms to be made in arbitrations in India. After numerous deliberations, the Law commission has come with a very detailed report which has been submitted to the law minister. If the changes in this report are implemented, the judicial interference would decrease a great deal and the arbitration scenario in India would vastly improve.

    In addition, the culture of arbitration has to improve. Today, most lawyers look at arbitration as an evening activity. Unless this changes and we have full day arbitrations, arbitration is not going to become the effective “Out of Court” dispute resolution it was expected to become.

     

    What should law schools introduce to generate interest for arbitration among law students?

    There is already a fair amount of interest in arbitration among law students .The undergraduate curriculum at least at NALSAR is excellent and I don’t think anything further needs to be done. Perhaps a module on investment treaty arbitration would be helpful.

     

    What advice would you have for law students who wish to take up Arbitration as a career option and what kind of skills according to you suits best in this arena?

    Arbitration is a fantastic area to pursue. However, it is very demanding and since it often involves  a trial including cross examination of technical experts, attention to detail is most important. Unless, you are on top of the factual matrix, you will never be able to apply the law that you learn. It is easy to get into the tendency of glossing over facts but in an arbitration and in any trial that can prove fatal. Therefore my advice to law students who wish to take up arbitration would be to ensure that they pay enough attention to detail and this skill can be developed by paying enough importance to a factual matrix in a case when you read it. If you read a number of complicated judgments arising out of Section 34 and Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, you will broadly get an idea of the regular issues that come up in arbitrations.

    I would also say that you must be ready to think out of the box. For this you must first need to know the law inside out as you need to know the legal basis when you come up with a new argument. Once that is strong you can experiment on new proposition. I think the ability to think out of the box is a necessary skill one needs to have to become a successful arbitration practitioner and more generally a commercial law practitioner as very often you have faced with cases where your backs are against the wall. This is what makes commercial litigation so fascinating.

     

    What are the career options for a person who wants to pursue commercial arbitration for higher studies?

    A person, after his/her higher studies in commercial arbitration, can join a leading firm which does commercial arbitration work or at some point of time branch out and start his/ her own practice. The other allied areas are WTO dispute resolution- however this is highly specialized and it would be very difficult to be a general arbitration practitioner who also practices WTO law. The next allied field is investment treaty arbitration which is a fascinating area and picking up fast in India. Investment treaty arbitration would involve disputes between States and investors relating to breach of Bilateral Investment Treaties entered into between the home State of the investor and the State in which investment is made. In India, today there is tremendous scope for this area especially after the investment treaty arbitral tribunal’s decision in White industries v. Republic of India.

     

    Lastly, what would be your message for the readers who want to pursue career in arbitration in India?

    This is the right time to catch the bus- do not miss it.

  • Ashish Arun on being the founder of Offshore Research Partners, leading Expert Witness Profiler and entrepreneurship

    Ashish Arun on being the founder of Offshore Research Partners, leading Expert Witness Profiler and entrepreneurship

    Ashish Arun graduated from NUJS, Kolkata in 2010. As a student he started working on his entrepreneurial skills while starting up with Offshore Research Partners. He didn’t have to sit for placements as ORP had already taken off. Currently he is a Partner, Principal and Director at Expert Witness Profiling.

    In this interview we ask him about:

    • Starting up and managing multiple ventures
    • Journey of being an entrepreneur
    • Importance of a co-founder

     

    How would you like to introduce yourself to our readers? Please share your academic and professional background.

    I graduated from NUJS in 2010 and currently run Offshore Research Partners, a legal research and outsourcing firm based in Calcutta. I am also a partner in Expert Witness Profiler, LLC, which is a legal research product oriented company, based in the United States. Originally from Patna, I am based out of Kolkata at the moment.

     

    Tell us a bit about your childhood, your hometown and your pre-graduate life as well.

    The first few years of my life were spent in a small town of Bihar. When I was 5, my father moved to Patna, primarily to get me a better education. Many who know me from NUJS wouldn’t believe this, but I was actually pretty good at studies as a kid.

     

    The career of a lawyer in India is still just a backup option for most students. What motivated you to choose law as a career? Did your family and friends not suggest you to go for Engineering or Medical Studies?

    As a kid, I never wanted to be a lawyer. My father is a practicing lawyer at the Patna High Court and I had seen the struggles that a lawyer has to go through during the first few years and law as a career became a strict no. After getting a decent score in boards, the natural choice was either medical or engineering and I picked medical because I didn’t want to study math.

    As fate would have it, I couldn’t clear the medical entrance exams and ended up wasting a few years after my 12th. I still wasn’t thinking of law till my cousin (a successful practicing lawyer at the Supreme Court) convinced me that I should consider studying law. If not for him and the easy competition back in 2005, I wouldn’t have studied law.

     

    Kindly acquaint us with your college life and your aspirations in college. What activities were you involved in apart from the regular academic curriculum?

    College life was the best thing that ever happened to me. I made some of my best friends, right in the first few weeks of college and the next five years were beyond imagination! I was involved in student activities right from the first year and tried my hand at almost everything; even singing – something my friends still make fun of. I used to actively participate in organizing Outlawed, the NUJS cultural fest and would also volunteer for almost every other event that took place. Student representation was something that I really enjoyed and eventually served as the President of the SJA (the NUJS student body) in my fourth year. That was a great experience as it taught me many organizational and leadership skills which still help me in running my businesses.

     

    What kind of internships did you do while you were a student? Are there remarkable experiences during your internships that shaped your career choices later?

    Like most law students, I was clueless about what I wanted to do after law school. So I tried all kinds of internships. Some of the memorable ones were from the first year when we actually spent days sitting on Jantar Mantar with the team of Justice for Bhopal, helping them with research and whatever little legal help we could offer as first year law students. Another great stint was at the offices of Siddharth Luthra, who personally taught us the basics of legal research. That internship made me understand how the right approach to research can save a lot of time and help you develop a clear understanding of the existing legal position on any issue; something that helps me today as well in serving our clients.

     

    How did you fare in your academics at NUJS? How was the academic pressure? Do you believe that excellent CGPA is the key to all success?

    If you make CGPA the benchmark, I didn’t do very well at NUJS. A good CGPA shows you are hardworking and dedicated to what is needed even if you don’t really like it. A not-so-good CGPA, on the other hand, doesn’t establish that you are good for nothing. I don’t think most of us felt any academic pressure. I may be wrong but the semesters used to be pretty easy going and everyone studied just a few days before the exams. Obviously, there were exceptions but not many.

     

    ashish-arun-2

    You started a business while you were at NUJS related to the LPO industry. Tell us the background story a bit.

    Quite a few of us used to do research for Daubert Tracker, an American legal database, to earn some extra pocket money. I had managed a few third party research projects for them in my third year and realized that there was potential in academic and commercial legal research outsourcing. In March 2009, I was helping them conceptualize a new research product and that is when I realized that I wanted to work in the area of legal research and publication. It was a good opportunity as they were willing to outsource all their research operations to me if I could set up a team of lawyers in India. One thing led to another and by the time we started the Calcutta office in December 2009; we already had 3 clients sending us work on a regular basis.

     

    A big stumbling block for student entrepreneurs is arranging capital for the business. How did you handle this? How did you find your initial team for the business?

    Capital requirements are different for product and services related companies. Since mine was the latter, we needed very little capital to get started – just enough to rent a space with 2-3 computers, a working internet connection and some basic furniture.

    The initial team came from friends and their references. That is something I would change if I had to do it again, as friends seldom make great co-workers.

     

    Did you look for a co-founder? Is this important to start a business?

    Since I started ORP after working as a researcher for Daubert Tracker for a few years, Myles Levin (Daubert Tracker’s owner) was an automatic choice for a co-founder. He funded the start-up expenses and I had been working with him for several years to feel comfortable about it.

    Having said that, I am not a huge believer in the “must-find-a-co-founder” theory. Many people start businesses with friends without truly understanding what the other person is really bringing to the table. No matter who your co-founder is, it is really important to decide the expectations and responsibilities of each person before you decide to sail together.

     

    What did you do after your graduation? Were you looking for placements at all?

    One big reason to go ahead with ORP with six months of law school left was placement options. I wanted to give six months to ORP which would have given me a fair idea if it was going to work or not. If not, sitting for placements was always an option. Thankfully, it worked fine and I didn’t have to go look for a job.

     

    Can you tell us something about the Expert Witness Profiler and Offshore Research Partners as your businesses and how did you conceive the idea for these business ventures?

    Expert Witness Profiler (EWP) was a company that was our (ORP’s) client. When one of the founders of EWP decided to leave to focus on his original business, I was presented with an opportunity to co-own the company. We were already handling their operations, from research to delivery and even post-delivery customer support – so it seemed like a good option to pick a stake and co-own the company and I went for it. It was one of the best decisions I made as the business has been growing and it is always more rewarding to be a co-owner than a vendor.

     

    You won the Star Youth Achiever Award for the Year 2010-11. Tell us something about this. How does it feel to reach these heights at such an early stage in career? And how has your journey as an entrepreneur been so far?

    Yes, the recognition and the awards came knocking very soon – but they are a mere reaffirmation of the fact that you are moving in the right direction and doing the right things. If anything, it motivated me to work harder and make sure that the growth momentum is maintained and the companies keep outperforming themselves on a regular basis.

    My journey as an entrepreneur has been like most others, I believe – I have seen good times as well as bad. Business slowdowns and a sudden upsurge in the order books have both happened and we have learned as a team, every day, how to tackle problems better and keep moving forward.

     

    How difficult would you say the first few years were of your own business? Tell us about the highs and lows.

    ORP has been profitable since the very first month – so, thankfully, we never had any financial issues. Most of the problems that we have had are what I would call a “good-quality-problem”. For example, we found ourselves overwhelmed with work and several of us would spend more than 24 hours in the office on certain days. This may sound normal to someone working in a law firm but it doesn’t really happen in the outsourcing. We have seen slowdowns and plateaued growth for a few months here and there – something that very few businesses can avoid, but other than that, it has been a pretty smooth ride till now.

     

    Did you at any point of time doubt your career choice of being an entrepreneur? If yes, how did you cope up with that?

    Never. I know it is easier to say this now with 20-20 hindsight, but I am thankful that I never really doubted it as a career choice.

     

    How do you think knowing law benefits an entrepreneur? What are the prime hurdles that a non-lawyer entrepreneur is likely to come across?

    Everyone needs to know the law – it has its own benefits and entrepreneurs are no different. However, there is a huge difference in knowing the law and being a lawyer. Because of being a lawyer, I could draft my own Agreements and I understood the legal as well as the commercial aspects of it. Or, I could incorporate a company without using another lawyer to draft my AoAs and MoAs. But then, an entrepreneur can always seek legal advice for these issues. I do not believe that a non-lawyer entrepreneur would face any specific difficulties or hurdles just because he is not a lawyer.

     

    You are a businessman more than a lawyer now. Do you feel that doing a business related course like MBA would have been better than studying law?

    Most of the projects and businesses that I have undertaken till now and plan to take up in the future are related to law. And I would not have been able to do any of this if I didn’t study law. An MBA may have helped but not as much as studying law did.

     

    Would you like to pursue higher study some day? Why or why not?

    Absolutely – but just to be able to go back to campus as a student! There is nothing better than that.

     

    Do you take interns? If yes, what qualifies one for an internship at Offshore Research Partners and how should one apply for the same?

    We do take interns and the only real qualification is that you need to be a law student. We have an internship application form on our Careers page (www.orp-india.com/careers) and one can apply using that.

    Interns are selected based on the cover letter, the accuracy and attention to detail in their CVs and a little weight is given to the year in which the student is – the higher, the better.

     

    Many law students consider working at an LPO to be an inferior choice. Why is this? What are your thoughts on the same?

    The industry is still new and the general perception is that you do not get to do any cutting edge work – the work can be mundane and repetitive. However, nothing can be farther than the truth. Yes, a lot of work that LPOs do is repetitive but if you are bright, you can move up the chain quickly and participate in the decision making process – develop new solutions, work with clients directly and do things in a few years that would take you decades in a law firm. Expert Witness Profiler prepares background reports for attorneys not only because it is cheaper to use us (ORP does all the research), but also because many attorneys do not have the same resources or the research skills that our lawyers have developed through the years.

     

    Lastly, what would be your message to law students and young lawyers who want to pursue entrepreneurship?

    Just because one thinks that an idea is great and has a lot of potential should not be the only factor in deciding whether you want to go ahead with something. Most startups fail because there is no demand for the products or services they create. Therefore, it is really important to assess the market and make sure that you are either fulfilling a need that already exists or you would be able to educate your target market and create a need for your product or service.

     

  • Anamika Ahir on appointment and work at SEBI, internships and publications

    Anamika Ahir on appointment and work at SEBI, internships and publications

    anamika-2Anamika Ahir graduated from NLIU in 2013. She was an avid mooter during her law school years and has multiple publications to her name. Presently, she is working with the Securities and Exchange Board of India. We asked her to share her experiences with us.

    She tells us about:

    • Recruitment process at SEBI
    • Importance of Internships
    • Writing for journals and publications

     

    Tell us a bit about yourself – your childhood, life before your career in the field of law and educational background.

    I remember myself to be a little reserved as a child. I took academics seriously but I was also inclined towards extra-curricular activities. I actively participated in creative activities like writing poems, singing, and dramatics in school. I enjoyed camping and outdoor adventures and ended up attending two years of NCC (National Cadet Corps) during school days. Lately, I have developed a fondness towards learning languages and I have already cleared first proficiency level in French.

     

    How did you choose the field of law as a career?

    I never seriously thought of pursuing law as a career. The idea was suggested to me by my parents, although no one in my family is from legal background. At first I was a bit unsure about it but after giving it a thought I decided to “give it a try”. Fortunately, I managed to get through NLIU, Bhopal and decided to pursue law at once. Since then it has been an awesome journey and there was no looking back.

     

    How would you describe your time at NLIU? What kind of co-curricular activities did you participate in?

    Law School was a remarkable experience for me. It was more like a roller coaster ride than a cruise. I have had numerous ups and downs, but somehow I’ve been able to land on my feet. All the thrill and fear during the ride has made my persona more resilient than ever. I think that the dearest reward I received from my law school education is the skill to appreciate a particular issue from various perspectives. This, I believe, is the most valuable asset of a lawyer.

    While pursuing law, amongst a host of activities I chose to participate in moot court competitions and presenting papers in seminars. I considered both these activities to be indispensable if I wanted to make the most of my legal education. Personally, I enjoyed mooting the most. I had the opportunity to represent my university at moot court competitions organised by the Bar Council of India and Chandigarh Judicial Academy. Presenting a case before a bench comprising of high court and district court judges was an elating experience for me.

     

    Which is the most important co-curricular activity in law school considering its relevance to the field of law?

    Honestly, one cannot classify any one co-curricular activity as “most important” based on its relevance to the field of law. The diversity in the field of law forbids any such general classifications. For example, a student interested in legal journalism might find debating and writing papers more useful than mooting.

    However, having said that, I would still recommend students to try their hand at mooting just for the experience. Moot courts are a unique attribute of law schools and this itself makes it worth giving it a try. Mooting develops all critical skills such as legal writing, researching and speaking simultaneously. These skills are more or less relevant for most fields of law.

     

    You published legal articles in multiple journals when you were in law school. Do you feel this activity just contributes to building a polished CV or does it have relevance beyond that?

    Publishing articles definitely has its relevance way beyond polishing your CV and bragging about it. The main benefit of publishing articles is reaped while writing the article even before it gets published. That’s right! The reason why publishing articles is held in high regard is because it is the best evidence of a student’s researching & writing skills. The process of research and analysis followed while writing a paper ensures the overall development of critical legal skills. It not only builds confidence but also reflects on your academic orientation. Keeping in mind the numerous benefits of publishing a paper, trying your hand at writing is worth the effort and the success in getting your work published is irrelevant.

     

    How should one get started about publication? How much time is required to write an article?

    The best and the easy way will be to work sincerely on the projects you submit as a part of your curriculum. If you have a well written project half of your job is done. Now, all you need to do is convert your project work into an article by adding the desired research and structure as per the requirement. This is ideal for students who have not yet ventured in the field of writing. For those who have already tried and tested their writing skills, they may identify topics of their interest which have legal relevance and then pursue it to its logical end.

    The time frame within which an article can be written depends on the subject of the article. In my case, I have always written on legal issues highlighted in current affairs. Therefore, it was imperative for me to finish writing within a week or less keeping in mind the ever changing position of law.

     

    You have worked at ELP, NDA as an intern. Tell us about your experience at these internships. Now that you look back, how do you think these internships influenced your career?

    I managed to score an internship at NDA through the Placement Committee of my university. The selection process involved screening of your CV followed by a telephonic interview. My work profile while interning at NDA majorly involved due diligence of companies and research work related to FEMA and Companies Bill. This was my first internship with a big law firm and I left no stone unturned to ensure that I make the most of it. Unfortunately, I fell very ill during the internship and was not able to put in extra hours of work when required. Nevertheless, I ensured that I did not miss work on any day and was always ready to push myself as much as I could during the office hours. Even after this I was lucky enough to secure a second round of internship at NDA.

    My second internship was at ELP. I applied to the HR of the firm personally and secured an internship. My work profile at ELP was similar to that of NDA as far as the due diligence and research work is concerned. This time I also got to draft and review agreements and affidavits in addition to the research work.

    The whole experience of working within the corporate structure helped me in gauging my potential of working and growing in such organisations at a very early stage. This helped me in making crucial decisions during my placements.

     

    Did you plan out your internships throughout law school or did it all just happen by chance? Any advice for the young law students as to how they should choose and plan their internships?

    By the end of my second year of law I had decided to pursue a career in corporate law. Since then, all my internships were planned in advance. Luckily for me everything worked out well and I was able to score some good internships.

    According to me following factors should be considered before choosing an internship:

    1. Firstly, decide on what type of law you want to pursue, the earlier you figure out which area of law is crafted for you the better. The first two years of law can be dedicated to discover which area of law you desire to pursue. It is a good idea to intern with an organisation which specializes in the field of law of your choice. For instance, if you pick family law or labour law you might consider an internship with either a boutique law firm or a practising Advocate focussing on the area of your interest.
    2. Secondly, the timing of the internship must be considered while making a decision. Any internship after your second year of law should be well planned and must be associated with the field of law you want to pursue after graduation. All the experimentation and testing must ideally be over by that time. Also keep in mind the part of the year in which you want to intern. If you plan to intern during the summers, don’t forget that courts are closed in June for summer vacation, therefore, interning under a practising Advocate will not give you the expected court room exposure.
    3. Thirdly, the length of your internship must be considered before making any decision. Most internships last for a summer. Such internships allow you to focus on your law school studies during the academic year. You can opt for longer internships provided that your law school attendance and examination rules permit you to do so.
    4. Fourthly, I would advise students to refrain from interning at big law firms in the first two years of their law school. It’s a well known fact that most big law firms do not accept interns from first, second or sometimes even third year of law. Any internship with such organisations in your initial years of law is a giveaway of the fact that the internship was obtained through personal contacts. This will reflect poorly in your resume at a later stage. The other reason to avoid interning with big law firms initially lies in the fact that law students at entry level are not well equipped to deliver the work expected from interns in such organisations.

     

    How do you think one can make most out of internships?

    There are mainly three things a law student gains out of internships:

    1. Practical knowledge: Internships are a device of bridging the gap between pedantic orientation of a law student and the pragmatic approach of a professional. In order to maximise this, interns should develop a mindset to let go of the idealistic academic approach towards work and focus more on the ultimate goal of “How to accomplish work effectively”. For example, if you are asked to research any topic, it is imperative for the intern not to begin with an academic approach. It is always a good idea to “ASK QUESTIONS” and to know the background in which a specific research work is given before you start your full-fledged research. Most of the time the person giving instructions may not mention why he needs a particular information or what is going to materialise out of the given research exercise. Asking questions will not only give you clarity but also display that your aim is not to mechanically get done with the work but highlight your genuine interest in your work.
    2. Networking: One of the most important advantages of interning is NETWORKING. Building a good rapport within the organisation and also amongst other interns will reward you throughout your career. Starting this as early as possible is a smart move. Networking will open your mind to new opportunities and keep you abreast with the dynamic legal industry.
    3. Building work ethic: Internships are the only occasions during which a law student gets the feel of work culture in the legal industry. One should use this opportunity to build work ethics. Later, this exercise will make your transition from a student to a professional very smooth.

     

    How relevant did you find your law school education with the kind of work you were required to do during internships?

    Quite relevant, I must say. While interning at law firms, I found myself already equipped with necessary skills of legal research, legal writing and drafting of documents. The law school curriculum ensures that these skills are developed in students to a certain level. All you have to do is put them to use in order to hone them to perfection.

     

    Right after your graduation, you’re working with SEBI. What is this experience like? What were the obstacles and challenges you faced during this job?

    Working with SEBI is a unique experience. SEBI is a comparatively new regulatory organisation (it was established in the year 1988) with a challenging role assigned to it. Indian securities market is changing with lightning speed. Understandably, the regulator is also making sincere efforts in keeping itself abreast with the dynamic securities market. Being a part of the legal front of SEBI, my role in the organisation is equally challenging.

    The experience of working with SEBI is enjoyable and at the same time full of responsibilities. The biggest challenge while working with SEBI was to understand the fundamentals of the complex functioning of securities markets. When I joined the organisation I had sound theoretical knowledge of laws relating to securities market. But it wasn’t long before it dawned upon me that this wasn’t enough. It took me quite some time to figure out the structural and functional aspects of the securities market. I am still learning the interplay of most of the sophisticated mechanisms of the market.

     

    What would you suggest a law student should do in order to land a job in SEBI?

    SEBI follows a two tier selection mechanism for recruiting officers.  I would advise all students who are interested in working with SEBI to keep a track of announcements made in this respect. Information regarding the examination is available on the SEBI website. The first tier of the selection process involves Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) based examination. The said examination is conducted for the following subjects:

    1. English
    2. Quantitative Aptitude
    3. Reasoning Ability
    4. General Awareness

    Based on the score of this examination, candidates are shortlisted for the final round of personal interview for recruitment of officers at Grade- A level. Law students must be well versed with the latest developments in laws relating to securities market. In addition to this brushing up constitutional law and procedural law before appearing for the interview will be helpful.

     

    Lastly, what would be your parting message for our readers?

    I have made a sincere effort to share my insights candidly with the readers. I would advise all the readers to always strive for better and never let the sense of complacency overshadow the urge to grow and excel. To compete with oneself is the best way to push your limits. Remember, the toughest competition is always the one which you have with yourself. Follow this and you will find yourself self-motivated far from envy and unhealthy competition.

  • Shweta Bansal on work at AMSS, leaving firm job for Civil Services and acing it

    Shweta Bansal on work at AMSS, leaving firm job for Civil Services and acing it

    shweta-bansal-2Shweta Bansal a graduate from NUJS, Kolkata, After a successful career with AMSS, she went for the Civil Services. With utmost diligence and determination, she successfully cleared the Civil Services exam. She gives an insight into her childhood, the hurdles in life which she overcame and how she has been able to mould her life into a real success story.

    In this interview she talks about:

    • Her life and journey as a law student
    • Preparing for the Civil Services
    • Books and other knowledge sources helpful in preparation
    • An insight into the interview process

     

    Please introduce yourself to the readers? Please tell us a little bit about your childhood and your background?

    I was born and raised in Lucknow and pursued my schooling from the prestigious La Martiniere Girls College Lucknow. My life took a drastic turn at the age of 6 due to a major spinal injury, after which for many years I had to push myself immensely to grapple with a disability. Gradually, with the support of family, friends, and teachers, I continued with my studies. My grandmother has been thoroughly instrumental in my life and is the reason behind my little success story. At the Intermediate level, I studied humanities with Economics and secured a top spot in my class 12th boards. My good performance at school and at extra-curricular activities can be attributed to my teachers, more specifically to Mrs. Bhavna Kalra who taught me the importance of standing up on my own two feet. Thereafter I pursued my law from NUJS and spent few of my most crucial and definitive years there, shaping and building my career in Law.

     

    How was your experience at NUJS? What activities were you involved in apart from the regular academic curriculum?

    [sociallocker]
    I look back at my experience at NUJS as a great learning experience and despite the struggles I encountered, it provided a strong base to my career in Law. I am a person with a keen interest in a variety of non academic activities and NUJS gave me a brilliant platform to explore various such opportunities to help groom me as a well rounded personality. I fared well academically despite several health challenges and had an opportunity to perform with my college band, participate in fine arts and sketching competitions both at NUJS and at other Fests and Cultural events. I was even fortunate to present my paper at Hong Kong on legal valuation of patents as a solution to farmer suicide due to crop failure.

     

    You secured a job with AMSS. What worked for you in securing the placement?

    My journey with AMSS has been the best experience of my life. In 2006 after completing a two and a half month internship with AMSS, New Delhi and I was offered a pre placement at the Firm by Ms. Anuradha RV who has been a constant guide and support throughout my career at AMSS and even after. The work experience and firm culture at AMSS is unmatched and goes a long way in understanding and dealing with different areas of law. My experience at AMSS was exceptionally good and Mr. Shardul Shroff has been like a father figure in my life, Ms. Gunjan Shah and Ms. Purva Chadha played an instrumental role in shaping my legal skills and mentoring me.

     

    When and what inspired you to appear for Civil Services after having a career at AMSS?

    Truly speaking I was always keen to take the civil services exam but wanted to establish myself professionally before taking the plunge. I personally feel having an option to fall back upon provides you with the required security to give your best at the preparation level and if one has law as a career, civil services would tremendously compliment it as a career.

     

    How did you manage preparing for the Civil Service exam with your law firm job and other commitments?

    I was fortunate to be granted a sabbatical by Mr. Shardul Shroff to help me prepare for the exam.

     

    When did you start preparing for the exams? When should a person ideally start preparation for the Civil Services exam?

    Civil Service preparation requires absolute dedication and thus in November, 2010, I took a two year sabbatical leave from my work at AMSS and pursued my preparation. I gave my prelims with 5 months of preparation and cleared it however I couldn’t clear the mains due to my Hindi language paper. In my second attempt I cleared all three legs paving my way for the services.

     

    How many hours did you put in for your preparations every day? Is having a fixed schedule or weekly targets important according to you?

    The key to Civil Service preparation is consistency and diligence. I would plan my preparation targets on a daily basis and made it a point to achieve them so that there is no backlog created as the material to be read and study is extremely vast. My targeted study period was nothing less than 8 hours daily. Reading of The Hindu daily is a must for any civil services aspirant.

     

    Which were the easiest and the toughest part of your preparation?

    The easiest part for me during the Civil Service preparation was to tackle and remember the material provided by the coaching institutes, which hardly constitutes 30% of the entire bulk of study material one has to go through. Moreover I was extremely fortunate to get great guidance and support from Cyril Darlong Diengdoh and Ashutosh Salil who constantly mentored me. The tough part is primarily to figure out the remaining 70% of the study material and syllabus and this makes all the difference. I also faced the mammoth ‘Maths’ dilemma in CSAT since I had primarily been a student with a humanities background. I consider prelims and General studies papers for the Mains the toughest leg of the entire exercise. Prelims requires a thorough reading of  the fundamental concepts of different subjects and mains requires more focus on the current affairs.Prelims is the first scanning ground so the competition is really tough and negative marking only adds to the competition. Mains in contrast gives you an opportunity to get creative with your answers of course without derailing from the subject. GS paper I and II of Mains require very thorough reading of the editorials and various reports published by the government.

     

    What are the aspects that a Civil Service aspirant must focus on and start preparing for in advance?

    I would begin by stressing on the basics, they are the cardinal point of the entire preparation for Civil Services and if one is well prepared with the basics, one can tackle most of the questions. It is also important not to get lost in the sea of knowledge. Instead, focus on a few basic books so that revisions are possible. Since Prelims focuses more on the basic concepts, NCERTS can be quite handy, the Main examination is a combination of basic and current affairs, so your focus should be on newspapers, government reports and government websites.

     

    What were the attributes of your legal education and background which helped you in succeeding in the Civil Service Exams?

    A legal education and background definitely helps in the civil service preparation especially in Polity and General Studies Paper I and II of the Mains. Certain topics are common between the Law paper and Public Administration so that makes life easier. Also having studied law equips you with analysis and digging of most concepts and thereby providing an added advantage in writing answers. My background as a lawyer went a long way especially in my interview as most of my interview questions were based on law.

     

    What is the importance of CGPA for law students especially for Civil Service exam aspirant? Does it make any difference during the interview?

    CGPA is important and it is a reflection on the attitude and seriousness of a student but it does not per se reflect upon the merit of the person. Thus it makes a good impression to have a good CGPA but it is not the only factor that determines the merit of a student.

     

    Tell us about your interview? What kinds of questions were asked by the interview board?

    My interview was conducted by a 5 member panel headed by Mr. P.K. Mishra. The panel is always well read and grills you on the basis of your mains form. The major thrust of the questions was about my take on various socio-legal issues like Khap Panchayat, live-in relationship, decriminalization of S. 309 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises attempt to commit suicide, the Aruna Shanbaug case. My legal background and extensive work experience also helped me tackle questions about good governance and withdrawal of subsidies. The panel also intended to assess my perspective on various problems and my ability to provide a solution for the same, for instance, crimes against women and measures to curb and tackle it. During the interview the objective of the panel is multifaceted since they assess your overall personality and knowledge. In fact the panel asked me to sketch one of the panel members within 30 seconds, since they read about my interest in sketching. The interview is both grueling and unpredictable.  It is very important to maintain your calm and be absolutely honest with the panel. Mr. P.K. Mishra was a great help in my interview once he realized I knew my stuff. He discouraged excessive grueling by other members.

     

    For the meantime, before your training period starts, you are holding the position of a Consultant with AMSS. What is the nature of your consultancy with AMSS and has your role in the firm changed?

    I came back to AMSS after my mains in 2012 to work with my mentor, Mr. Shardul Shroff on a unique role which has absolute administrative bearings and nothing to do with the transactional work of the firm. At the moment, I aid the firm with regards to firm development and handle the administrative concerns and issues.

     

    What would be your message for law students who are preparing or planning to prepare to appear for the Civil Service exams?

    The thumb rule should be firstly to focus on your education as a law student, studying and working towards making one’s basics strong. It is exceptionally useful in Civil Service to hold a law degree but before plunging into Civil Service preparation one should secure themselves a career to fall back upon as civil services can be a gamble. Education, work and then Civil Service has been my strategy as I believe that one should never put all their eggs in one basket.

     

    Lastly, what would be your message for the readers who want to pursue career in Civil Services?

    There is no substitute for hard work and diligence. Consistency and dedication goes a long way in achieving the desired result. One should regard coaching institutions as a very small part of the Civil Service preparation and should rather focus more on self preparation and self study. Be honest in your preparation and give your best. The outcome is never in your hands but the effort is. Civil services requires focused study so its important to isolate yourself socially till you are done with the Mains.[/sociallocker]

  • Surabhi Modi on Clat Possible, CLAT 2015 and the mantra to successful entrepreneurship

    Surabhi Modi on Clat Possible, CLAT 2015 and the mantra to successful entrepreneurship

    Surabhi Modi is an outstanding Fulbright scholar from Delhi University. She is an ardent reader; research scholar in films and literature and a successful entrepreneur in the field of legal education. She is the managing director of Team Satyam, Clat Possible tutorials, which was conceived in Lucknow but is now a leading name in legal education and amongst tutorials nationwide.

    Surabhi talks about:

    • Her interests and journey as a scholar.
    • Her entrepreneurship in the field of law and the success of Clat Possible.
    • She discusses the viability of CLAT and her take on CLAT 2015.
    • Her mantra to law students in the area of entrepreneurship

     

    Please introduce yourself to the readers? Please tell us a little bit about your childhood and your background?

    Introductions are most difficult I must admit. I’m an educational entrepreneur and erudite. I’m currently the managing director at Clat Possible, which I must proudly admit is India’s fastest growing law test prep brand, currently at number 2 in terms of volume in its very young existence of just 4 1/2 years. I love studying which explains the fact that I’m doing that still, I’m a research scholar in films and literature. I’ve graduated from Hindu College, DU and received a Fulbright Scholarship from UC Davis in 2009. I’m an avid reader and promote reading through a small Reading Café. I’m also a movie buff and screen films for my students. I’m planning to start small film appreciation courses at various colleges as well.

     

    You have an exceptional background in English literature and have also been a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship. Tell us something about it.

    The funny thing is that I started out as a science student. I was a very curious case of misplaced love towards subjects and wrong career counselling; which is why I make a good career counsellor as well!! But eventually I had the good sense of pursuing this subject professionally and taking it forward now that I’m doing my PhD on it. Because I have always been a reader right from my school days, I always got 90 + in high school and intermediate I was comfortably able to switch to English. I loved classics and gender studies even when I did not understand the terms; so I had introduced myself to Doris Lessing, Mahasweta Devi and these helped me in getting my scholarship.

     

    Without much background, you decided to pursue your entrepreneurship in the field of law? What gravitated you towards law?

    Frankly, we were earlier only into PG entrances like CAT etc, when my friend from NLSIU brought to us his venture for law entrances. I agreed to take it up just because he was my very good friend and then I did not read much into basic details like what is market size of this product etc. We started extremely small with 8 students. all wards of lawyers or judges. Then there was no CLAT, all law schools held their own exam and we only looked at NLS, NALSAR and NUJS and also NLIU. We sent at least 7 to the NLUs from the 8 that we taught. It didn’t make business sense but the kids were very bright and it was a happy change. Next year we enrolled 17 students and that year 2005 I was even getting married so my family imposed a curfew on me for 2 months and you won’t believe these kids started coming instead to be taught by me. Now that really endeared us to this product and here we are today 4000 students plus and yet all very dear to us.

    Our passion is only fuelled further with the love these kids give us, for example this interview was requested by my very dear student Gargi. So each of us at CP would go the extra mile for these students, who in turn reciprocate our love and care. We are not perceived as coaching wala but as friends and mentors  and that’s my most prominent achievement. I’ve successfully broken the traditional ‘coaching’ mould.

     

    You are a founding member of Clat Possible. Please tell us about ClatPossible and its verticals. With so much of competition existing in the coaching and teaching field, tell us about your journey with Clat Possible so far.

    So I think I got carried away in the last question and really did answer it there, now that I see it had asked me only about how I started. Sadly, brevity surely is not my talent.

     

    In your opinion, what makes Clat Possible different from its peers?

    As I had mentioned earlier, which I reiterate; CP is not just a coaching centre. It has become (thanks to my supremely talented and highly qualified team) a mentorship program. The real reason being that each one of us has voluntarily opted for this career leaving behind great careers if I may say so or rather acceptable careers in mainstream education (which is me), FMCG sector (Satyam Sahai, Founder after his MBA) and my other colleagues who have come from Amarchand, Luthra etc. So our job doesn’t end at teaching reasoning, we help the children grow and gain confidence.

    We screen movies, hold talks on books, engage them in a parliamentary debate, hold mock parliaments, summits, policy summits. Now how these exercises one might ask are relevant to CLAT? Well, they are. The research involved would eventually help them in GK. A film might help them with language and their EQ and everything is relevant for learning which should be liberal and not skewed. Most of my colleagues are very well read and are national level debaters, researchers and mooters. Now that team can just not sit and teach a syllabus in a pedantic mould. Honestly most of us will die if we do not innovate and you see our results which are living examples of how are innovation and maverick style has helped do many students successfully join law schools and with such aplomb they are carrying themselves there. So we don’t just give the NLUs we provide them with confident students.

     

    Do you provide any work opportunities for law students? Do you recruit undergraduate law students as part time faculty?

    Not just part time- we are regular on the place com and recruit NLU talent for various roles where teaching is only one!! There is R & D, operations, franchise management, HR and even opportunities at business partnership. We are a regular firm with a proper hierarchy and roles.

     

    What are your views on CLAT and its viability and standard as an entrance exam for premier law schools in India?

    CLAT is a decent exam but has a lot of underutilized potential. Its undoing if ever there will be would be the fact that it is fraught with errors and ad hocism. It still needs a structure which needs to be followed sanctimoniously. There are also many question types to it that are obsolete and need revision. I really loved the question papers that came when there was no CLAT. Each law school had good questions and really did test aptitude in the true sense of the word. If CLAT could revert to that kind of questioning the exam would get into an international league.

     

    CLAT 2015 is most likely going to be Online; how do you think students should get themselves prepared for an online exam?

    The basic fundamental learning would not change. The only difference would come in in the platform where the paper would be supplanted by the screen. A much easier option I tell you. A computer based test is a very convenient thing for both the organisers as well as the students (if they are comfortable with on screen reading). Anyway nothing is sure now but it will happen one day for sure. As it removes a lot of hassle of printing and exam leakage and even costs.

    The students just have to practice a lot of taking exams from screens. They need a good interface and a great test engine to give them real time experience. But as I said the fundamental prep remains the same. We are now giving all handouts also on the student account of CP and the students have an option of writing both the mocks and other practice tests online. So there has to be loads of practice of sitting on the computer for more than two hours and continual reading with unwavering attention. Maybe aside from test taking students read their newspapers and magazines online to help them get into the momentum. Even books, good time to go Kindle.

     

    Being a law and CLAT mentor, any advice to students preparing themselves to give the CLAT exam and entering into law schools.

    The single most relevant advice to all CLAT aspirants and even otherwise is; start reading newspapers. Most of your career woes will end there. All issues regarding learning good English, GK, reading, concentration and even reading speed will enhance. So I’m not asking for the moon. It is just a small life style change from not reading the newspaper to reading one. After you’re done just come to CP and you’ll be mentored so thoroughly that an NLU would just be one of the benefits.

     

    What are the prime hurdles that a non-lawyer entrepreneur has to come across?

    In the lawyer world? None. Infact you are trusted more for the fact that you are not a liar….. sorry lawyer. Ha ha. But really none. And maybe that can be attributed to the fact that lawyers are a discerning people and when they see talent they respect it. I’m friends with so many lawyers and judges now, even VCs who appreciate my work, who want to work with me or who entrust me with the career of their wards.

     

    What does it take to be an entrepreneur? What are the three great skills of an entrepreneur according to you? What differentiates the best and the rest?

    Entrepreneurship is a big word and is even taught as a subject in B Schools. And I have no formal training in it which is just as well. Whatever I know today, I know from experience and more so from the whip learning from my husband who as the word goes is most intolerant of any shoddy work on my part. But yes, I’ve learnt a lot, had my share of struggles and now I can say each entrepreneurship experience is as unique as your DNA. Nonetheless it has some essential ingredients which from my experience I believe are:

    • Leading from example
    • Eye for detail
    • Knowing when to delegate

    And they are in their order of priority. Till date I have no qualms about doing ground sales, waiting for meeting principals and clients for hours each time we open our centre in a new city, eventually to be turned down or getting no audience with that principal. I have to do these things still because I know I do them best, I have resilience and also I’m the best sales pitch in the company. Now no one on my sales team can err or give up because they see me. I do not sit on a high chair saying it’s below me to meet individual clients and schools. As an MD and mentor most VCs welcome me and/or invite me and I have respect in my circles but the moment I become the business woman I get my share of ‘please come another day, the principal is busy.’ The beauty lies in this irony. I’m invited a judge or chairperson for a debate by the same institutes who would later reject my proposal.  Yes, there is a marketing team and a sales team but we all work together. Every new city sees me as the first face and we move on.

     

    Lastly, what would be your message to law students and young lawyers who want to pursue entrepreneurship?

    Please do so by all means, contact me at surabhi@clatpossible.com and let’s become entrepreneurs. It definitely has its shares of lows but then what doesn’t. but the sense of achievement the first 1000/- bucks you earn gives you may not come from the 1 lakh salary. Abstract as it may seem in thought it is just as tangible in experience. The joys of entrepreneurship are cathartic, however one should be ready to sweep one’s own room, shine the plate that says MD and then sit with aplomb in the room and play MD.

  • Bishen Jeswant, Sub-editor, ESPNcricinfo, on experience at Trilegal and sports journalism

    Bishen Jeswant, Sub-editor, ESPNcricinfo, on experience at Trilegal and sports journalism

    Bishen Jeswant graduated from National Law Institute University, Bhopal in 2011 and is currently working as sub-editor with ESPNCricinfo. He decided to leave his lucrative career with Trilegal to pursue his passion for cricket. He is also qualified to be a coach at Karnataka State Cricket Academy.

    In this interview, we speak to him about:

    • Balancing academics and extra-curricular activities
    • His experience with Trilegal
    • A typical workday at ESPNcricinfo

    What got you into legal studies?

    The reason I picked law was because I was attracted to public speaking, but you realise soom enough after entering law school that public speaking is but a minor aspect of good lawyering. So, while I may not have decided to pursue law for the right reasons, it was a happy accident because I thoroughly enough the critical reasoning and logical thinking aspects of law over the course of my five years.

    I was part of the last non-CLAT batch and we wrote a whole gamut of exams in the hope of securing admission to at least one of the top law schools. The NLIU-Bhopal entrance paper was leaked that year (2007) and we had to take it twice.

     

    How would you describe your fresher year at NLIU?

    The term fresher is often associated with ‘ragging’ and I will admit that I was slightly apprehensive when I joined college. However, I strongly feel that the ‘Personality Development Program’, as our seniors called it, was an integral part of settling in, making friends and being able to call NLIU home. There was nothing so untoward that it could not be dealt with by a positive attitude and an open mind.

    Once settled in, the first year is the time to explore and make use of every opportunity that law school provides, and it does provide you with a whole lot. Whether mooting, debating, client counselling, research paper writing or MUNs, the time in the first year was spent in turning every possible stone to assess and determine the type of activities that I wanted to pursue during the five years, and to understand the bigger picture of what I wanted to achieve.

     

    What is your advice to budding mooters?

    (Bishen has participated in various moot court competitions like Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court Competition, National Corporate Moot Court Competition and NUJS Herbert Smith Moot Court Competition. He has also won Best Speaker awards in few of these competitions.)

    Apart from having strong research, I think the most important aspect of mooting, and even arguing in a real courtroom, is reading the judge. Whether the decision goes your way or not is dependent on whether the adjudicator is adequately satisfied. Within the first few minutes of the oral rounds, it is important to gauge whether the judge is the kind of person who likes to be bombarded with law, or whether he prefers crisp logical arguments, whether he appreciates lawyers being deferential etc. I’ve also felt that a good argument is one that is not only legally and logically sound, but one that is well presented, clearly structured and easily comprehensible. It is very important to modulate your voice, change your pitch, adapt your tone, and vary the pace of speech depending on the significance of the point that you are arguing and the emphasis that you would like to lay.

     

    Tell us about the 1st All India Moot Court Conveners Conference at NLIU, Bhopal, that you were instrumental in organising as Convener of Moot Court Association.

    During my stint as MCA Convener, I felt that it was imperative to utilize my position for the betterment of mooting, and the growth my University. I became Convenor in my fifth year, and had come across various shortfalls in the country’s mooting structure through the course of my first four years. Issues ranging from the scale of marking, moot formats, fairness in matchups, seeding of teams, etc. I felt that the only way to correct these issues was to bring all those people who matter into one room and pass resolutions to standardize mooting across the board, and this is how the Guidelines for Uniform Moot Practices (GUMP) were formed, with the help of Moot Conveners from around twenty law schools, as well as Surana & Surana, a law firm that organizes around ten moots in a year, including Stetson, Jessup and the like.

    We conducted the 1st NLIU Intra University Client Counselling Competition as well that year, with the intention that this would become a national event in subsequent years, making NLIU the first national law school to have its own client counselling competition.

     

    bishen-jeswant-2How did you manage the academic pressure along with your extracurricular interests?

    There is plenty of time in college to focus on academics while doing other activities side-by-side, all one needs is the drive. For me, it was important that I undertook as many extra-curricular activities as possible during my five years. I acknowledged that this attitude would not allow me to be at the top my class academically, but I set myself a target to maintain an ‘A’ Grade (or 70%) throughout the five years. I eventually finished with about 71%, with the batch topper scoring about 75%. It is therefore a question of simply setting targets, and having the discipline and focus to achieve them.

    There is so much time that despite devoting the required amounts towards academics and extra-curricular, there is still enough left to play sports, watch movies, TV shows and spend time with friends. This may seem harsh, but those who claim that one cannot excel in extra-curricular activities without compromising on their academics, are simply looking for an easy excuse.

     

    What skills have you acquired from these internships and how helpful have they been in your legal career?

    Internships serve the limited purpose of exposing you to the professional world. No internship can prepare you for what a corporate lawyer or litigating advocate will have to deal with on a daily basis, but it can certainly provide you with the exposure required to soften your landing. Students in law school spend too much time fretting about internships. While having good internships on your CV will probably help you in landing a job, it is not worth agonizing over. The important thing is to set out your goals and ambitions and focus on carrying out the right processes, the internships and everything else will follow.

     

    How did you secure your appointment with Trilegal?

    I thoroughly enjoyed working with Trilegal, a big firm with a young culture, professional outlook and some great people. My two year stint with Trilegal taught me a lot about the need for discipline in the professional sphere, the need to pay attention to detail and the need to communicate efficiently with your peers, superiors and subordinates. I worked in the field of employment law and one of challenges was deciding whether I should specialize so early in life. I eventually decided that I would be an expert in one field right from the start rather than be a jack of all trades. It helped that the subject matter itself was quite interesting. Other challenges of the job are around meeting tight deadlines, putting yourself in the client’s shoes, being able to analyze issues from the other party’s standpoint etc., all of which you learn to deal with on the job.

     

    What prompted you to leave a lucrative legal career and join ESPN?

    The answer to this question is very simple. I have always been extremely passionate about cricket and have dreamt of working in the sporting sphere. I had spent two years working with a firm, and realized that if I would not be able to attempt a career switch few years down the line – for various reasons, beginning with the fact that most organizations would not be willing to hire a 30 year old at an entry-level job and further that I would have become too comfortable in my legal job to experiment too much or make too many compromises. The bottom line is that I would have regretted not giving my passion a chance, and it was therefore a very simple decision to make.

     

    How did you approach the ESPN for this job?

    I didn’t have any contacts at ESPN, so I had to go about this the hard way. I penned a few articles to create a portfolio of sorts and decided to use this to apply to a few places. I had applied to CricBuzz, ESPNCricinfo and had even written to Anil Kumble, who was the then President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association. I had made these applications in the hope that I would hear back from at least one of them, but somehow, I heard back from all three, and ended up being in a position to choose where I wanted to work. I chose ESPNCricinfo because, apart from being a market leader, this is a site that I have been using for years and was therefore close to my heart. There was an opening in the stats team here, and I was to write some stats based articles to demonstrate my aptitude and statistical bent of mind, all of which thankfully worked out well. The rest is history.

     

    Tell us about your workplace and what a typical workday in your life looks like?

    A typical workday could be broken up into two types – match days and non-match days. On a match day, I will usually provide continuous live stats for viewers based on the current trends in that particular game. At the end of a game (or a day, in case of a Test match), I will usually publish a statistical report assessing the day’s play. Not everyone in the office will be covering the same match, so all of us have a personal TV as well as a laptop at each of our workstations to enable to us carry out our individual duties. On a non-match day, the nature of the articles that I write will usually be more analytical and not related to a particular match, such as on whether ‘Dhoni is statistically India’s best captain’, or whether ‘Hashim Amla is statistically the best ODI batsman’. Perks of the job include being able to meet the Dravids, Chappells and Laxmans of the world on a regular basis and being able to interact with them.

     

    You have been an active cricket player and also work as a coach? How did you manage to find time for pursuing these activities?

    I had coached at Jawahar Sports Club in Bangalore and cleared the KSCA State Panel Umpires exam as well as the KSCA Level “O” Coaches Exam. The answer to how I found time is a continuation of a previous answer – the time is there, it was only a question of whether I have the drive and discipline to make use of it. In this case, I was doing something that I love, and therefore, making time did not feel like a chore. I’ve always believed that most things in life are about showing initiative and taking that first step, and once that is done, the rest falls into place slightly easier. To make the effort sweeter, all of these activities that I undertook eventually helped in bagging the ESPN job.

     

    What would you be your suggestion to law students keen on pursuing a career in sports?

    Whether my decision was right or wrong will depend on how a reader views it, but here are my two cents anyway. At any stage in our life, when we choose to do or not do something, we must ask ourselves whether we are likely to later regret our actions. If the answer is yes, we need to take steps to ensure that there is no regret later.

    Writing a blog is a good way to start building your portfolio while in college. This is something that I didn’t do, and had to therefore write articles at a later point, under a time crunch and significantly more pressure, in order to set out on my mission. Also, students are sometimes under pressure to take up a legal job because they have invested five years and a lot of money on education. However, if you find that you true calling is not law, it is only smart that you don’t waste more time in a legal job. However, if you are not absolutely certain about your career, I would suggest that you undertake a legal job for at least a couple of years so that it becomes that much easier to return to the profession at a later point, should you choose to do so.

  • Gopalakrishnan R, Co-founder, Ekalavyas, on basketball, sports journalism, and founding his startup

    Gopalakrishnan R, Co-founder, Ekalavyas, on basketball, sports journalism, and founding his startup

    Gopalakrishnan R. graduated from NLU, Jodhpur in 2011. He was always keen on journalism, and worked as an Associate Commissioner Editor at LexisNexis for close to two years from May 2011 to February 2013. He later quit it in March 2013 to pursue freelance journalism on a full time basis.

    Gopal’s interest in Basketball led him to work on positive media presence for basketball. That is when he started up with Ekalavyas.com, India’s only website for Basketball news. Ekalavyas’ idea is to use their legal acumen to represent the interests of Indian players, to aid in assisting Indian children in getting athletic scholarships in foreign universities and to work on many other avenues where sports, law and journalism meet. They also plan to work on finding out apathetic government policies in sports and curing them through litigation.

    In this interview we speak to him about:

    • His interest in sports journalism
    • Ekalavyas’ vision and goals
    • His plans for the future

    Tell us about your years in high school.

    I did my high schooling from the Little Rock Indian School which is situated within the district of Udipi, the popular temple town in coastal Karnataka. The decision to study law was made after the 10th standard. Right upto 12th I was a hardcore science student (Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Biology) because even though my school was under the CBSE syllabus, we didn’t have the option of studying humanities after 10th. Anyway, my dad was of the firm view that at least till 12th standard science is a must.

    Even though I liked science, I never seriously considered pursuing the standard options of Engineering or Medicine. I did give the state Common Entrance Test and All India Pre-medical tests, but by then my mind had already been made up that I would study law.

    The decision to study law came about because I had enjoyed taking part in debates in my final few years of school. Also, like most others, I wanted to do meaningful work that can contribute to society as a whole. [Obviously, once you join law school, all these charitable fundas usually get thrown out the window.]

    Plus, being equally interested in multiple areas of knowledge, I felt law was the perfect multi-disciplinary course that demands a fundamentally sound understanding of various streams of knowledge. But even while I was keen on studying law, at the back of my mind I knew that I would eventually club journalism and law. The reason I did law was simple curiosity in the sense that law is something that affects each one of us and which we should all have a basic understanding of. Also, I knew that an integrated BA.LLB incorporates many of the arts courses that a journalism course has. So legal journalism was the intent I had when I started applying to law schools. Also, I am a first generation lawyer.

     

    Tell us about your time in NLUJ.

    To be honest, this is something I’m still figuring out. I kind of have mixed feelings about it.

    Positives:

    NLUJ degree & internships

    On the positive side, a degree in law was a basic prerequisite for a job as an editor at the legal publishing house LexisNexis Wadhwa. So I wouldn’t have got a job at a leading legal publishing house had I not studied law. Also, what really helped are the internships that one must do in between college semesters. Each internship made me realise what I liked or disliked and helped me eliminate options. From my second year onwards, after interning at litigation and desk type law firms, I realised that my initial hunch that I was meant to be more into journalism was correct and I began doing multiple internships at Bar&Bench, and in an effort to move more from reportage into substantive legal journalism, I interned at LexisNexis during my final year and was offered a job there. I really tried to make every internship count and preferred a quality over quantity approach. Many of my batchmates preferred a quantity over quality approach where they did as many as fifteen to sixteen internships some of which were only two to three weeks long. I found that such a hectic schedule did not work for me as I needed more of a work- non-work balance.

    The residential college experience

    Also, any residential college experience is something you will always cherish. It really exposes you and opens you up to different kinds of people each with their own quirks. You realise soon enough that all those little personality traits back in school which you considered really important don’t really matter. Just to cite an example: when I joined an NLU at the age of sixteen, I thought that people who smoke were bad people. By the time I graduated at the age of 21, I was vociferously arguing that marijuana should be legalised! So that’s quite a maturity leap, all thanks to the wholly unfamiliar college environment (i.e. moving to a different city, different people, cuisine and different academic courses).

    The travel bug

    Also, one unique advantage of studying in a historic city like Jodhpur, Rajasthan was that my friends and I traveled constantly every other weekend to places like Mt Abu, Pushkar, Osian or Jaipur. So my travel bug is all thanks to college. All this travelling is coming very handy now that I’m into sports tournament coverage at different locations. It has taught me the value of packing light and to go with the flow.

    Dealing with failure

    Also, NLU most importantly taught me to deal with failure. I mean this in the most literal sense. Many of us used to easily average above 80 to 85% in school and had never failed at anything before. But in college I had my first experience of flunking two subjects in my third semester. So that way, studying at an elite college in India, where most of your peers are of top quality, naturally helps you deal with repeated failure, grow and adapt.

     

    Negatives

    Not a multi-disciplinary environment

    On the negative side I found that when I joined NLUJ, it didn’t possess the multi-disciplinary environment that I hoped an elite university in India would have, like most universities in the west do. What I mean by multi-disciplinary is having systems in place where students can also pursue parallel extra-curricular interests outside law. Of course, in due course I realised that when I joined NLUJ, it was still only five years old, unlike western universities that have hundreds of years of heritage behind them. I painfully appreciated that for every institution, it takes time to create diverse extra-curricular environments, which in any case have to be largely student run initiatives. So once I got over all the self-pity and whining and understood that the buck stops with us students, then I took the initiative to bring about a cultural change in the field I was most attached to i.e. sports.

    Not fully equipped to handle first generation learners

    I felt that the current system of legal education presupposes previous legal knowledge. It isn’t fully equipped to handle first generation law students, who approach law not as “lawyers” but mostly as science students who need things to be black and white. For people like us 2+2=4, but in law school, a lawyer is told beforehand that 2+2 can equal four, five, or six, depending on which client you are representing! In other words, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to law and that really threw me off initially.

    Coming from a non-lawyer, science background family, and especially being from a small town, I naively went into law school fully dependent on the faculty. But I immediately realised that college professors aren’t the same as school teachers. I was very dissatisfied with the classroom atmosphere and the way majority of the faculty handled student queries during their lectures. I firmly believe that learning can only happen in an environment where teachers and students alike are invested in getting to the root of the issue at hand. Unfortunately, I found that many of the questions that were put forward by me or some of my friends in the initial few months were either laughed at, ignored or considered “unrelated to the syllabus”.

    With faculty not really helping, the next option obviously is to turn to books, but I found that even existing Indian legal literature is meant more for practitioners than first or second year law students. So by the end of second year, some of us stopped contributing to classrooms debates altogether and just did the minimum required to get a degree.

    Questionable academic policies (mandatory minimum attendance, marks for attendance and too many project submissions) 

    Apart from the classroom atmosphere, certain academic policies absolutely irritated me, and still do:

    • the minimum attendance requirement;
    • marks for attendance;
    • the mandatory need to submit as many as six projects every semester, for a total of 60 projects over five years!

    I think attendance requirements need to be done away with completely. I’m fully aware that the Bar Council of India Rules mandate a minimum 60% attendance. But if you look at many other elite universities, there is no such requirement to attend classes. If you do away with this rule barely 10% of the students will turn up to class on a regular basis. I think that is a real indicator of the quality of the faculty in some of our law schools. Some of my friends barely scraped past minimum attendance requirements but are happily working in leading law firms. So that obviously shows that students don’t really consider their classroom education to be of any great value. A very close friend of mine even carried a pillow to class and happily snored away and he is now working in a tier I law firm! Secondly, the marks for attendance rule is a clear case of trying to coerce a student into attending class. If the faculty really were qualified then such underhand tactics don’t ever need to be used. Simply giving tests and assignments without any attendance requirements should be more than enough.

    Another practice that I abhorred was how padding was encouraged for all projects, tests and assignments. It was generally accepted that the longer your answers/projects were, the more marks you would get. So what usually happened was that tons of paper were wasted just rewriting the same points over and over again, and written exams became a race on who can fill up more supplementary sheets. Specifically when it came to projects, instead of six lengthy projects every semester (which leads to rampant plagiarism), it makes better sense to just have two projects each semester (one law and one non-law in the first three years), and also have page length and footnoting limits (not more than six pages and not more than two footnotes per page). This will help in cutting down copying, facilitate original research, make writing concise and improve the overall quality of Indian legal research papers.

    Teaches the “what” but not the “why”

    I guess my fundamental issue with my college education is that it did a great job with the “what” but did nothing to explain the more important “why”. They tried to teach too many things shoddily rather than a few things well. All of this is a result of learning to be too compartmentalised and the administration trying to pack a six year programme into a five year ‘integrated’ course. While on paper, the 60 odd courses that are taught across five years are great as they all directly or indirectly relate to the field of law, our faculty and legal literature needs to become more mature in becoming cross-disciplinary within each course.

    For example, in many tests or classroom lectures the teacher would go through the entire semester starting from section 1 of Indian Penal Code, narrate the section in class, follow it up with a bunch of case laws under that point and then repeat the same exercise for two and a half months with the remaining sections/other related legislation. Ideally in a course on Indian Penal Code, a part of the time needs to be spent on understanding criminal psychology/deviant behaviour, forensic tools (on how evidence is gathered) and then the select oft cited sections and caselaw should be incorporated. This will make for much more engaged learning.

    Another example is the course on Company Law, where the first few weeks ideally should be spent on understanding how entrepreneurial or disruptive business ideas develop in the first place. Only with such an understanding (where law students put themselves into the shoes of businessmen) will lawyers be able to advise their corporate clients in a simple, effective and cost saving manner.

    I think all the above issues I have with my legal education stem from a major difference in orientation towards how I viewed law and how it was viewed by some of my peers and most of my faculty. For those who taught me law, they did so as if law is a standalone subject. For me law is usually an ancillary ‘effect’ and never a root ‘cause’; it is ‘procedure’ to the ‘substance’ that is life. Simply put, law is usually always the ‘sidekick’ and never the lead hero (except maybe when it comes to fundamental rights issues).

     

     

    Tell us about your relationship with basketball.

    I wasn’t remotely great. In fact, if guys from my team in college read this they will laugh their ass off! But considering that lawyers aren’t really known for their ball handling skills, it was very easy to get onto the university team. So it was definitely a case of being a big fish in a very small pond.

    In fact in my second year, I remember how most other seniors backed out from the team before the NLS sports fest and I happily appointed myself as the captain and took a bunch of guys, many of whom were new to the game, simply because I wanted to play!

    But yes, more than my limited playing abilities, I definitely pride myself on being able to convince many of my batchmates to drop everything else and travel days on end to tournaments across India to places like Bangalore, Kolkata and Lucknow. I felt that if I could convince my fellow lawyers with my arguments to play basketball than it is an incredible achievement! Some of the guys on the team still curse me even today for either being too hard or else too talkative.

    But despite all our problems (low attendance, cash crunch and not enough practise), we did manage to win a few tournaments and shared great camaraderie. My favourite memory will be captaining our NLU team to its first ever basketball tournament win at the RMNLU, Lucknow sports fest in 2010.

    In one particular two to three month phase, I got so much into creating a “basketball culture” at my university, that I used to spend an unhealthy amount of time on the basketball court- as many as ten hours: three hours in the morning coaching the girls team, then seven hours in the evening and night with the boys team and watching countless YouTube training videos! I think I’ve learnt more from Kobe Bryant than I have from Hofeld!

     

    ekalavyas

    Tell us about Ekalavyas’ unique blend of journalism, law and basketball.

    You are correct, Ekalavyas stands at the intersection of diverse streams of knowledge- not just journalism, law and sports (i.e. basketball), but in fact even management (considering that we provide media management and PR services to tournament organisors).

    The broad notion of Ekalavyas came about because as a student of law, basketball and journalism (and to a much lesser extent music), I found that there is a huge gap between what students really need to know to succeed in a professional environment and what they are currently being taught in the classrooms, or during training sessions. This leads to a lot of confusion and self-doubt, not to mention a tremendous loss of time as students have to unlearn the wrong lessons and relearn the right techniques.

    So with this in mind, my co-founder Aravind came up with the Ekalavyas motto “Know Your Game” which is at the core of our attempt to ensure that learning should happen at the right time, in the right way, to the right people and from the right instructors. In the larger sense, just like the mythological Ekalavya figure, we firmly believe that those individuals who learn for the pure joy of learning become successful icons in their chosen field, for others to follow in their footsteps. We want to create a society full of such Ekalavyas, where free thinking individuals rationally choose to live amongst one another for individual and community gain.

     

    How did you find your co-founder?

    It wasn’t really difficult to find my co-founder considering that he stayed in the room diagonally opposite mine in the same hostel! Ekalavyas was co-founded by my college batchmate Aravind Mokkapati. Both of us immediately became friends because of our shared craze for sports. While I was in-charge of the basketball team, he was part of the university football team. We used to talk for countless hours almost every night to discuss strategies on team building for our respective sports. We would then go and apply these strategies to our respective teams with varying degrees of success. In doing so, we naturally began thinking about the larger picture of sports in India and realised that we would like to apply our tiny NLUJ sports management model to a larger pan-India scale if given the opportunity.

    Regarding long term partnership, in our case, we make it very clear that all partners need to be in this for a long haul. Most importantly, all partners need to truly believe in our credo to free up information from the clutches of select elite institutions or organisations for the equal benefit of all. We insist that all Ekalavyas partners should have parallel jobs that take care of their basic financial needs, so that when we do Ekalavyas related work, we do so not with the stress of having to make money, but because we enjoy it. Of course profitability is important, but simply as an indicator of efficiency and because it allows us to reinvest that back into our venture.

     

    gopalakrishnan-1

    What would you say keeps the majority from starting up?

    I actually think the contrary is true. More lawyers today are willing to take calculated risks much sooner in their career. That being said, of course there will always be a sizeable majority from each law school who will choose to join another law firm or company. There is nothing wrong with taking up a job elsewhere. In fact in many of these cases, law students do so to pay off their students loans and to save up enough to quit later on. Also, work experience under other individuals or institutions immediately after college is crucial as it helps you understand a professional work environment. Such experience is also valued when applying for higher studies.

     

    Are you hiring associates?

    Just to be clear, Ekalavyas is not a law firm, we are primarily a sports media/management enterprise, so we don’t hire “associates” as is understood in law firm culture. But considering that we have grown from three people last year to thirteen as of today, we are definitely constantly on the lookout for more associates.

    We are very picky when it comes to getting more people on board. Ekalavyas is quite a unique business model, because we don’t have any full time “employees” as such, but are wholly reliant on freelance reporters, photographers and artists. But once we activate our player representation arm, then we will definitely be keen on getting on board law students or young lawyers who are interested in a career in sports law. For now, among lawyers/law students, we are on the lookout for people who can contribute articles on sports law. Those interested can shoot us a mail on info@ekalavyas.com.

     

    Where do you want to see Ekalavyas five years from now?

    Five years from now, we want Ekalavyas to be the ultimate destination for all Indian basketball related news. We want to percolate our coverage into all school, college and senior basketball events. Simply put we want to be in a position to document each and every time a basketball is bounced anywhere in the country.

    If things go as per plan, we definitely hope to diversify by duplicating our basketball model to other alternate sports in India starting from football; and eventually to other creative professions (like music and arts). We feel that the problems faced by creative persons are common across all fields whether it be sports, music or arts. With our legal background, we would like to be the external support system for talented individuals to freely follow whatever their line of passion is.

     

    How did you approach your clients in the beginning?

    As of today, all our clients are sports tournament organisors. Our major coup is that we are the official media partner for many of the major national and international events organised by the Basketball Federation of India. We either directly place cold calls to potential clients, or else clients themselves reach out to us via our website (http://ekalavyas.com/) or through our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/EkalavyaPosts).

     

    Does Ekalavyas have scope of internships as well?

    As of now, we are fully relying on freelance contributors. So we definitely welcome those who wish to try their hand at sports writing, action photography, live text commentary, player interviews, sports based comic strips, or else contributing articles on sports law. Interested persons can send in samples to info@ekalavyas.com.

     

    You also worked as an Associate Commissioning Editor at LexisNexis, Gurgaon for close to two years. Tell us about your experience.

    Experience in legal publishing worked out great especially for someone like me. The decision to join LexisNexis came about by pure chance. In my penultimate semester, during the course on jurisprudence, I first tried reading Salmon and Pound. Obviously, I found that this was very dry reading. A close friend of mine happened to have a book called Lectures on Jurisprudence by NK Jayakumar, where concepts were explained simply and poignantly from an Indian context. In the typical behaviour of most book lovers, I quickly went to the inside front flap for the publication year and details of the publisher. I found out that the LexisNexis office was in Gurgaon and I applied for an internship that very winter semester break. My internship went great and I was offered the job on their commissioning team.

    A commissioning editor’s job is to study and analyse all the new and revised book projects and then make recommendations to the publishing board comprising the heads of other departments like sales, marketing & editorial. During these meetings, we give the other departments the heads up on the key features of the book that concerns them. For the editorial team, we point out how the content is structured and the various elements of the book (chapter break up, common editorial & grammatical idiosyncrasies to watch out for, possible copyright red flags and content additions needed). For the sales & marketing team we intimate them on the readership segments they need to target, as well as how the book should be packaged (i.e. whether hardback or paperback) and priced. Once the board gives its approval then we co-ordinate with the authors (either by personal visits, email or phone calls) to ensure that they send in their revised scripts on time.

    At LexisNexis, I got the chance to work on a whole gamut of legal literature that was in their publication cycle from mid 2011 to early 2013:  from the latest edition of DD Basu’s multi-volume Constitutional hardback tome to the popular Nani Palkhivala’s Courtroom Genius paperback, or even Q&A based textbooks to help students crack the CLAT or judiciary entrance exams. My time at LexisNexis really helped me understand the different contours and branches of law, not to mention a fairly in-depth awareness of the publication industry and the workings of a typical nine to five company.

    One major plus point was that I was incredibly fortunate to get to interact with many of India’s most distinguished judges, senior advocates and academic scholars. In particular I will always cherish my meetings with Justices AP Shah and Muralidhar (who were on the Delhi HC two judge bench that passed the landmark decriminalising homosexuality verdict), Senior Advocates TR Andhyarujina (of Keshavananda Bharti fame) and Mr. Arvind Datar, and retired judge CK Thakker (the famous Takwani behind the Civil Procedure books we all went through during law school).

     

    Many students after completing law are in the pursuit of entrepreneurship. What is your advice to them?

    It might be premature for us to advise others as we have only just started out. However, that being said, I can only advise that make sure you have a concrete and long term viable plan (at least on paper) before taking the plunge. Do it for the right reasons. Don’t do it to “prove a point to someone” or because it “sounds cool”. Also, I’d advise them to do a lot of varied internships and first try and fit into the existing system. If that “fit” is not possible then go ahead and start something on your own. Entrepreneurship, at least for me and my colleagues, was the last option and not the first.

     

    You have been shuttling between India and Nepal to document all important basketball tournaments. Are there any episodes you would like to share?

    Well, there are a couple of episodes which are standout memories. Some pleasant and others not so much. One huge incidental benefit is that I get to travel on the job.

    At my first tournament in Mumbai in mid 2013, I remember I was doing a post game interview, when suddenly a 6ft 5 inch international player stormed up to me as he was unhappy with the way I had quoted him the previous day. I definitely felt that this dude could kill me for sure. Thankfully, things settled down pretty quickly.

    The second, and perhaps best memory I have is from earlier this year at an international tournament in Nepal. Considering the financial crunch that most new enterprises have, I didn’t have the funds to fly into Kathmandu. So I decided to travel to Nepal from Bengaluru by the traditional route, which is a complicated three day journey by rail, road, bus and car.  While crossing the border from Gorakhpur into Nepal, unfortunately that was the same day that Gorakhpur went into the national polls. So the whole border was blocked for close to fifteen hours and I was stuck in the 40° heat and dust from 6am to 9pm! But once I got to Kathmandu and covered the tournament, the entire Indian men’s team and their Coaches personally came up, shook my hands and thanked me for documenting the event. That is a memory I will take to my grave. It felt like all that back breaking travel was totally worth it in the end.

     

    What is your message for your readers who want to start up on their own?

    Anybody wishing to start on their own will face opposition. But however difficult this may sound, it is important to try not to worry about what the other person is doing. Each one of us has a distinct set of interests and we should stick with it rather than falling prey to the perception of what should or shouldn’t be done. So if you wish to start up on your own don’t expect others around you to truly understand and support you. There will come a point when the only person who sees sense in your idea is yourself. So you need to have the courage to back yourself up when no one else around you does. Luckily, in my case, my immediate family and close friends have been insanely supportive.

     

    Photo credits: Cathy Scholl