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It has been a conscious career choice. I was prepared
for the initial grill even. I started off as a trainee
at the Delhi Office of a 50-year old legal firm. Hon’ble
justice Leela Seth was a consultant there chipping in
with right kind of inspiration, which was valuable for
this starter. Trainees there were to debut with a Rs.350/-
stipend.
All these, because I wasn’t inclined for academics
after obtaining my M Sc (Delhi University, 1974) and
UGC Scholarship for Research. I was looking for something
more exciting for a profession. I called up my father
and hon’ble Justice Sarat Mohapatra, an elderly
well-wisher to confirm that I was taking up a course
in Legal studies in Delhi School of Law. Twenty-six years
down the professional line, the feeling is that, ‘Lord!
I’ve done justice to my instinct.”
You need a lot of patience and a true love for the
profession less you find yourself entangled with confusion.
It is not intelligence as much that’s required
of a would-be practitioner of law, but perseverance and
the preparedness to withstand the initial frustrations
(which I guess is true of all professions). You come
to learn the basic concepts of the practice from court
clerks. Each day has to be an appraisal day for you.
You start it at a solicitor’s firm, the foundation
laid; it is, usually, time for you to take up a specialisation.
But, now an open market economy has brought in out-and-out
transitions for the legal profession. It asks for specialised
expertise right away. Lawyers with experience in securities
and transactions, international and corporate laws are
one of those most sought after professionals today. Multi-crore
law-suits, most of which are settled out of the court
in the world of corporate governance, are dealt by specialist
lawyers/legal firms.
It is good that the law courses in premier universities
and institutes in India like NLSIU, ILS Law College etc.
to name a few have made their undergraduate law courses
an integrated (5-year) one. Students who would really
want to pursue a career in Law have to make a choice
early in their life, soon after the +2 level of study
very much like they opt for Technological or Medical
studies. They have to make a conscious choice like I
did and strive to make it big. It can’t be a disinterested
plunge in a vast and deep sea which offers you exciting
new options for practice in the legal aspects of Finance,
Social, Corporate, Properties, International Commerce
fields and many more. Frenetic developmental activities
in every sector have thrown up new, smart professional
segments for the legal specialists.
It is not a matter of surprise if you find a person
you have been adoring or admiring in the pages of newspapers
and magazines waiting right in your chamber for your
counselling. You get to interact with people from all
walks of life depending on your specialisation.
In my professional life, I’ve received clients
like author Vikram Seth and hon’ble Justice Chandrachur
among many. These are some professional turn-ons you
can’t help avoiding. And meeting varieties of people
invariably enriches your personal aptitudes. So, till
you come up with some counter points, off-beat legal
professionals are going to make hay. |
