The Law as an education offered in India in the year 1987 as a three-year degree programme granted under the Advocate Act, 1961. The BCI (Bar Council of India) is the main regulatory body of Law education.
In the year 1985, the “Law Commission of India” has decided to establish a University for Law Education to raise the academic standard of the legal profession in India. Thereafter the first law University in India was established in Bangalore named as “National Law School of India University” popularly known as the “NLS”. It was the time when the first LLB degree was started in India.
The UGC granted the LLM one-year course in India on September 2012.
Courses & Career after 12th in Law
Law is one of the career-oriented courses after 12th. In India, the student can pursue the legal degree after the completion of the graduation in any discipline. There are the following degrees of legal education in India.
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) – 3 years
LLB is the most common degree of law education. The LLB takes the 3 year as the duration of the course.
Integrated undergraduate degrees – B.A. LL.B., B.Sc. LL.B., BBA LLB, B.Com LL.B – 5 years
One who wishes to do the integrated course can take the admission in 5 year integrated programme after the completion of 10+2 exams.
Master of Laws (LL.M.) – one/two years
LLM is the master degree in legal education having one or two-year duration. It has been started in India before 2012.
Master of Business Law
The MBL is the master degree in legal education with the specialization in business law having one or two-year duration.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
There is a good prospect for PhD after the legal education. Most of the highly reputed autonomous institution provides the PhD programmes.
Integrated MBL-LLM/ MBA-LLM – 3years
One who wishes to do the integrated course with business specialization can go for the MBL-LLM or MBA-LLM. It is a 3 year degree programme after the completion of the LLB.
Admission in Law education
- The students, who wish to get the admission in law, have to appear in CLAT 2017 (Common Law Admission Test).
- Student can go for law courses with any stream (Science stream/ Commerce stream / Arts stream) in 12th.
- The admission in the Jindal Law Global School is done through the LSAT (Law School Admission Test) conducted by the Law School Admission Council, USA.
- Some of the private and autonomous universities conduct their own admission test.
List of Top Universities in India
The top universities in India offering the legal education are as the following:
The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata
National Law University, Jodhpur, Jodhpur
Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar
Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National Law University, Lucknow
Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur
National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi
Chanakya National Law University, Patna
National Law University Odisha
National Law University, Delhi, New Delhi
Damodaram Sanjivayya National Law University, Visakhapatnam
National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi
National Law School and Judicial Academy, Assam, Guwahati
Tamil Nadu National Law School, Srirangam
Maharashtra National Law School, Nagpur
Jobs/Career in Law
Law is very reputed filed for choose as a career. It is a hard-working and sincere field. A fresher may have to work under the reputed legal firm or lawyer for initial starting of his career.
India has a great demand of skilled lawyer as per the survey done by the Bar Council of India. Only 20% of the Indian law students are eligible to work in court.
A law student can be a public prosecutor, solicitor general or a part of private legal firms after gaining experience. The law students can appear the exam conducted by the Public Service Commissions and get the position of Judge.
A good lawyer can work in ministry, government departments and various legal advice organizations.
There is a good prospect to work in UK and the US. The law of India is just similar to the law of UK. The firms and UK government offers the Indian students to work with them as legal concern.
In order to the designation, you may be the one out of the following:
- Criminal Lawyer
- Civil Litigation Lawyer
- Legal Analyst
- Document Drafting Lawyer
- Legal Journalist
- Legal Advisor
- Government Lawyer
- Judge