“A lawyer must know everything about something and something about everything”
~ English barrister – Lord Henry Brougham.
The Beginning
I am a law graduate who pursued BALLB(H) program from University Institute of Legal Studies, Shimla. My first year as a student of law was all about discipline, greeting our seniors, respecting them and addressing them as Sir/Ma’am, which was a new experience. The legal subjects for the first year were Constitutional Law, the Law of Torts and Family Laws, while the other subjects were for BA. The law subjects were difficult for me, since it was the first time for me to understand legal language. Some teachers simplified the topics for us to be understandable by first year students, but the syllabus was too lengthy that it was not covered in time, particularly for the law subjects. The books referred to us by Law School Lecturers were difficult to understand because I hadn’t built that understanding within a year. So for me, it was challenging, although I passed my exams, but didn’t score good.
COVID Pandemic and Law School
The second year of Law School threw up more challenges, since COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and our classes turned to remote mode. At this point, I was not able to focus on legal subjects. Reason being that the subjects which were not quite understandable in offline/physical classroom, were now not at all understandable in online mode. Therefore, while I took notes from teachers during online classes, I also started taking help from the internet, which turned out to be the best source of learning for me. After completing my first year at Law School, I never bought another law book. At this point, I had understood that referring to one author wasn’t enough and didn’t make the concept clear for me. With online studies without books, I scored much better in my second year as compared to the previous year.
My Experience with law books
As mentioned above, after my first year, I never read a book for Law School Exams. I referred to the primary source of law, i.e., Bare Acts, and online resources like legal blogs and YouTube videos to understand the concept of the law. Since then, I never scored less marks in my Law School. My conclusion is that referring to one book or author is not a good idea, and when you are planning to take an exam for a legal subject, I would always suggest referring to legal blogs, as they provide a better understanding than books.
Understanding the ‘Law’ Subjects
Well, every law student experiences his/her own ups and downs, when it comes to law subjects. Something similar happened to me as well. Some of the subjects of law which proved to be difficult for me to understand were the CrPC, CPC and Law of tort as these were somewhat practical subjects of law and very time consuming to understand and prepare for exams. It was not easy to cover the syllabus in a week. You need to be in touch with the subjects of law on a daily basis.
There is this thing about legal subjects, that they are difficult, but at the same time, they are very interesting too. I personally found the IPC and IPR to be my fields of interest, while at the same time, it is quite a challenging task to remember all those sections.
Law School Exams
For the first time when I appeared for Law School exams, I had the habit of writing in paragraphs and points, but it was apparently not the right way to answer when you are in the Law College. We used to have four questions, for fourteen marks each. So, we had to write about the eight pages for one question including, majorly discussing the introduction, history, objectives, then the main part of the question, relevant case law or illustration, and conclusion at the end. This pattern needed to be followed in all the law subjects. Besides the written exam, there were practical subjects too, which were easy to understand. However, preparing the practical file was quite a challenge. Further, during the course of my law school studies, we were supposed to do client counselling sessions and moot courts. In the beginning, preparing the moot file was also a challenge for me, but I was able to grasp it properly soon with the guidance of teachers and classmates. In my final year of law school, we had three moot courts, which was a bit overburden since we had to prepare the moot file as well as present the case.
My Experience with College Internship
When you are in your Law School, you have to pursue a mandatory internship. The Internship program suggested by our college was particularly focused on the practice of advocacy and did not connect us with any Law Firms or Corporates. Due to this, my internship experience was confined to advocacy and not with the other fields of law. The best as well as shocking experience during the internship was when I went to the courtroom and realized for the first time that it was totally different from what they show in the movies. The first day in the court was surprising for me, as the case was heard within a minute and the advocate asked for another date, which in legal jargon termed as “Request for adjournment”. This was the first thing I learned and many other experiences followed during my time in the Court.
Working under the Advocates is not easy, since not all of them will entertain you, and don’t expect that they will teach you anything. They will tell you what to do, and now you have to observe the advocate. If he assigns you a task, do it! Don’t say no to any task, as it will lead to less learning. Always do your internship with an advocate who has been practicing for a few years, since the senior advocates don’t have time for interns. The best place to do your internship is your nearby District Court, which will give you understanding of the Indian Legal System at the root level.
