This Law School Experience has been shared by Arya Pandey, 3rd year law student at Navrachana University.

Hello dear readers! I am Arya Pandey, a third-year law student pursuing Business and Law (BBA-LLB) from Navrachana University, Vadodara, Gujarat.

Navrachana University is a private university located in the Vasna area of Vadodara. Business and Law were two of my top favorite areas that I wanted to go ahead with, and so out of all the integrated law programs available, I chose this one.

Choosing BBA LLB might be beneficial for someone who’s also interested in the realm of business and would want to experience that field in the future.

Introduction

Law school is a beautiful journey, that leads a naïve eighteen-year-old to their dream career path when they reach the end of the five years program.

You might enter the law school clueless and without intact knowledge as to which field you want to expertise in, but these five years of college make you aware of your strengths weaknesses, and interests so that once you graduate you are confident about the field you want to excel in.

This article will help you gain insight into choosing the correct law school, the life at law schools, the hardships that you will face, and the solution you need to find out on your own.

I will reflect on my two-year journey at Navrachana University through this article to help you paint a picture of law school and its activities and it’s hardships in your head.

You can achieve anything you want, once you make your mindset.

Okay, a lot of us, or should I say most of us think, the crack code to achieve a great job with good pay or a great opportunity to work with the top reputed law firms and advocates, is by getting into the NLU’s or top reputed private law schools such as Symbiosis or Jindal Global.

No doubt, getting into these colleges brings an abundant amount of opportunity for students to get into the top tier law firms or work with the top advocates. But this is not the only way.

When I first got into my law school, I had no idea about these things, and slowly when I started watching YouTube videos of people from top law schools getting internship opportunities in some of my dream firms such as Tri Legal or Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, I started to regret my decision of choosing this law school.

I always been optimistic, no matter how hard the situation is. However, the thoughts of me failing to get the opportunity to work with these firms started making me depressed and less active in the activities taking place in my law school.

I started to feel I would fail and now there is no chance for me to achieve all of my dreams.

A few months later, I heard a senior of mine from the same law school got an internship opportunity to work with one of the reputed law firms in Delhi for two months last December.

This made me curious and I started researching and also looked at his CV and his accomplishments and found out that there was still a chance for me to get the opportunity. I might still be able to fulfill my dreams if I work harder in my law school.

So, the correct answer is, there is no right law school that would get you all these amazing opportunities, its your hard work that paves your way.

If you get into the top law school, you might have some perks but without hard work, you cannot attain those opportunities.

And if you are in a small law school, just like me, you still have the opportunity, you might get it the hard way, but you will get it.

You just need to strategize each step in your law school and there is no one stopping you from getting that offer letter.

Strategies

These are some of the strategies that I started implementing, coming from a non-NLU and not so reputed law school, to gain internships at top tier law firm:

1. Maintaining good grades: Since we come from a small law school, maintaining an academic grade is important. I have maintained a CGPA of 8. 30 in both my first year and second year and am striving to continue the same or higher for the next semesters.
2. Actively participating in various competition such as moot courts, client counselling, mediation, article writings etc., they add a lot value to your CV, and lightens your potential: When you participate in any of these competitions, make sure they are organized by NLU’s or some reputed law college, a winning certificate from competitions organized by such colleges would boost your CV. It would showcase you are no less than any student studying from those colleges, it would showcase your potential.
3. Actively participating in your law school, such as being part of different committees in your law school: This shows you are actively contributing to your law school and it also throws light on your leadership and team skills.
4. Getting more Publications.

This is another important strategy that you need to focus on. You have to focus on getting your blogs, articles, and research papers published in some reputed platforms. Once you find your interest, you should start writing and publishing in that particular area of law.

This criterion is crucial, and a good publication helps you secure a good internship. Interviewers play close attention to your publications. So, make sure you get those.

Internships

While your goal is the top firms, it is important that you gain experience in as many small firms as you can. You need to have at least a one-month internship at the district court.

The greater number of internships you will have on your CV’s, the stronger CV you will have and the chances of you getting your dream internship would also increase.

If you follow these strategies, you would easily secure yourself a good internship at the top law firms.

While a lot of people focus on Moot Courts and its importance in law school, it is also important to know, you don’t need to excel in moots only to ace your law school or get good internships.

Yes, participation in moot courts competition at least once is important to gain experience but not the only way to enhance your CVS.

If you want to go ahead in the litigation field in your future, moot courts are important for you.

But for those who dream of going ahead in arbitration, negotiation, etc., moot courts may not be important for you.

So you can shift your focus from moots to client counselling, mediation, policy drafting, paper presentations.

Conclusion

Its all upon you. The power to secure your future is vested in you. No one, can stop you from achieving your dreams.

So, choose your law schools wisely, and prioritize getting into the top law schools, but, if you fall short and get into small law school, remember, it’s not the end.

You can still get your dreams true. You just need to work hard and you will achieve your dreams.