How to become a Lawyer in India?

Many students have seen a dream of becoming a lawyer in India. The deep study of law consists of various rules, sections and provisions which are to be used for the betterment of the people and for changing lives by providing justice to them. Being a lawyer makes you aware not only about the laws but also to the culture & hierarchy of society. A lawyer should have some knowledge about human psychology too. A lawyer is a respected post and can bring balance to any of the given society. We are providing you information about how to become a lawyer in India and sure that the information written below in this article will help you in becoming a good lawyer.

Steps of becoming a lawyer in India

Becoming a good lawyer is not an easy task as it needs lots of knowledge, sincerity and dedication. Follow the below mentioned steps and understand the process of becoming a lawyer in India –

Make your Decision

You need to make a decision of pursuing law either after 12th or after graduation.

If you want to pursue law after 12th Class

In case you want to become a lawyer and ready to pursue law after passing the 12th Exam, you need to prepare yourself for the following degrees –

• Bachelor’s degree in law also known as LLB. Make sure that the degree must be duly recognized by the bar council of India.
• In case you want to enter the top law institutions, start your preparations for the entrance exams today.

If you want to pursue law after graduation

In case you want to become a lawyer and ready to pursue your law career in a specific field, you need to hold a bachelor degree first and then you can pursue law as a career further.

• In most of the law institutions, bachelor degrees taken in any of the field are accepted but if you are interested in becoming a business lawyer, you must hold an undergraduate degree in a business field.
• Most of the law institutions in India prefer CLAT/LSAT Indian entrance test scores for their admissions.

Qualify Yourself

Attain good marks

If you will attain good marks, it will boost your application for admission in law institutions. Make sure to keep your percentile score above 55%. Top law institutions prefer the students having percentage of 85% in graduation along with eligible entrance scores.

Information about Entrance Test & it's Eligibility Criteria

You need to score high GPA along with good score in your entrance exam in order to get admission in top ranking law institutions of India.

• If you are interested in pursuing law in India, you must meet the cut-off marks list released by bar council of India. Even some of the top law colleges & universities consider the score of law school admission test (LSAT- India) too.
• The other test which is considered important for pursuing law is common law admission test (CLAT). Common law admission test is a written exam qualifies by the candidates in order to get admission in 21 national law universities of India & to pursue law courses like LLB & LLM.
• Other than most popular entrance tests like CLAT & LSAT, there are also other entrance tests which are conducted by the universities under its norms.

CLAT Exam

CLAT exam is a written examination conducted for Indian nationals and NRI’s alone. In case you are an NRI & want to pursue your career as a lawyer in India, contact the university and know the procedure of international students admission.

Exam Pattern of CLAT Exam

There is an exam pattern for CLAT exam which you need to take care of before starting your preparation –

• CLAT exam covers the following sections –
  1. English comprehension
  2. Elementary mathematics
  3. Logical reasoning
  4. General knowledge & current affairs
  5. Legal aptitude
• You must have to score 45% marks in aggregate in the 12th exams to become eligible for applying undergraduate law course.
• You must have to score at least 50% marks in aggregate in your bachelor’s degree from a recognized university to become eligible for postgraduate law program.

LSAT Exam - India vs. Abroad

Law school admission test (LSAT) is a test conducted six times annually to judge the critical and analytical skills of the candidates across the world. Scores earned by the candidates in LSAT exam are considered mandatory by the higher-ranked universities across the world.

LSAT India - It is a standardized test conducted by the law school admission council in order to provide admissions to the test giving candidates in the top law schools of India. LSAT India is conducted once annually.

LSAT abroad – LSAT abroad is a standardized test conducted by the law school admission council in order to provide admission to the test giving candidates into the top law schools of the world excluding India. For admissions abroad, LSAT is conducted 4 times in a year (in the month of February, June, September/October, December)

Apply for Entrance Test

Registration for Law Admission Test

Common law admission test score has a great significance and it helps in make your application strong and stands out among other applicants. Before giving this entrance, prepare yourself properly. After preparation, you can register for law admission test on the official web portal.

In case you want to become a lawyer within few years after doing graduation, put an exam application in the month of September/October in your graduation year.

Prepare yourself properly

CLAT is a 2 hour examination conducted once annually and its score is valid for one year. This test checks your reading comprehension, analytical, aptitude and logical reasoning skills and adds great value to your application. It contains set of 5 sections having multiple choice questions. As per the examination pattern, you will score 1 mark for each correct answer and 0.25 marks will be deducted, if the answer is wrong.

Reappear if you are not satisfied

In case you are unable to clear the examination or not satisfied with the score, you can reappear in the exam as there is no upper limit specified for pursuing law in India. Law institutions want a score of 50% or above in CLAT exam. In case you fail to score even 50%, you can appear for the exam next year again as you can give as many attempts as you want to give.

Apply for Law School Admission

Don’t forget to include important documents

After clearing your entrance exam, the next objective for you is to apply for credential assembly service (CAS) as early as possible. Buy your CAS service as early as possible which is used by most of the law schools. When you send your transcripts, score and recommendation letter, a file is created and these copies are sent to law schools. There are certain documents which you need to take care of –

• You need to send a recommendation letter as it is preferred by law schools. You can get your recommendation letter from your undergraduate faculty or present or past employer too.
• A short essay which is considered as a good opportunity to express your ideas in order to attract the committee. If the word limit is assigned for the essay, kindly stick to it.
• Make an impressive cover letter in order to tell committee that how much interested you are in becoming a lawyer.

Choose a good law college with the help of entrance score

Choose a good law college by considering the below mentioned points –

• Try to check your candidature in UGC & BCI approved law schools. In case you fail to take admission in any of the approved law school, make your attempt again after doing more preparation.
• Use your CLAT/LSAT exam scores as well as percentage to search a better school for yourself.
• Do check the employment passage rate before choosing your law school.

Note - You have no restrictions and can apply for as many colleges as you can to increase your acceptance rate.

Steps after taking admission in Law School

• Choose a full time program to become a powerful lawyer. You should concentrate entirely on becoming a lawyer. Focus on your goal & work hard.
• Create a network and join a study group in order to meet other law people doing exam preparations. A placement depends upon your grade, so take your exams seriously.
• After doing graduation, you must clear your bar exam by selecting a particular state for practising law.
  1. Every state has its own bar exam to qualify and it is conducted by the state bar council. If you want to practise a law, you have to clear the bar exam of that particular state. You can also apply for India bar council exam under bar council of India.
  2. Register for the bar exam & prepare yourself by collecting the required material.
  3. After clearing the bar exam, clear your character and medical test.

Search for Jobs

There are two ways to search a job –

• On campus Interviews
• Off campus interviews
• Search your job early in your semester holidays. If you get a chance to practise a law under boing clerk, take it as may be he will not pay you that much well but will help you in making great connections with lawyers. You may also take a decision of which law you want to practise? In the final year, do apply for campus placements and off-campus internships. Make your resume & get ready with your graduation documents.
• You can also search for a job through student networks formed to apply various jobs. It includes your alumni network and college study groups.
• You can gain experience and make a great value by doing volunteer work. Continuous volunteer works keep your skills updated and you can add these things to your bio data as well.

Lawyer Duties

Lawyer performs their daily duties as per their client needs and area of specialization. Hence, it does some or all of the following duties –

• Case preparations & attending court hearings
• Drawing up contracts & legal documents
• Law explanations & giving general legal advices to the clients
• Supervision of agreements and settling of client disputes
• Doing research work and collecting the evidences
• Supervising legal assistants
• Evaluating and analysing legal documents
• Defending & prosecuting
• Handling cases like a diplomat
• Backing up allegations of the client by showing the evidence
• Giving attention to plaintiff’s demands & requests

Lawyer Skills

It’s not easy to become a lawyer. You need some special skills and polishing on regular basis to achieve the status of a lawyer. Some of the important skills which a lawyer must possess are as follows –

• Oral communication
• Written communication
• Time management
• Legal research
• Analytical & logical research
• Client service
• Good knowledge about the laws and the present technology

Lawyer Qualities

Good qualities are what make a person a complete lawyer. The most important qualities of a lawyer are as follows –

• Good communication skills
• Good analytical skills
• Good research skills
• Ability to make good judgements
• People skills
• Creativity based skills
• Hard work and dedication

Importance of a Lawyer

Lawyer is a very important person for his client as he not only represents him in the court but also advices him in every legal situation. A lawyer not only represents individuals but companies too. It is the responsibility of a lawyer to act in their client’s best interest regardless of how much small or big the case is. A lawyer is a person who possesses the ability to work on big cases such as Civil or criminal suits as per their specialization. A lawyer has only one objective that is to cover the legal risk of his/her client at any cost. He may involve himself in reimbursements & negotiations too.

It is a good career option as you can opt for one/multiple cases at a single time such as finalizing a divorce case, drawing up a will, any compensation suit etc. You can specialize yourself in any of the law suits and accomplish your goal of becoming a good lawyer.

No doubt, it is a good career option but it is a risky profession too. In case you are handling and defending a false case of rape, presenting wrong evidences in court to save your client can also book you for perjury.