Internship: A building stone towards a better career

An internship is an imperative part of the academic curriculum because it helps students in gaining practical knowledge and experience required to outshine in their respective fields. They are a building stone or a ladder that helps students achieve their professional excellence.

School of Law (SOL), The NorthCap University endeavour to make its law students, industry-ready. A law student without the experience of internships finds it hard to compete in the legal industry. Acknowledging the significance of internships, SOL has a dedicated structured internship programme. As the law is multi-disciplinary in nature, it gives many prospects to students to avail job opportunities not only in the field of litigation or court practice but also to find positions of legal consultants or advisors in corporate law firms, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), including Multi-National Companies (MNCs), NGOs and various business houses and organisations. Further, a law graduate may opt judicial services, academics or civil services. With these diverse career opportunities, comes the role of cogent choice, as to where to apply for the internship. So in order to facilitate the internships, SOL has made a planned internship programme commencing from the first year of five-year law course.

Upon completion of the first semester of five-year law course, all the students of SOL, are mandatorily sent to join various reputed NGOs for internships which inculcate in them the importance of social work and also to make them a responsible citizen. In the next step of the internship programme, the students are required to go for internships with District Legal Service Authorities or Juvenile Justice Homes which showcases the reality of law culprits and their behaviour. From the second year onwards the students are sent to District Courts, various Tribunals and offices of Public Prosecutors for internships. When a student reaches their third year of law course, a door of a plethora of opportunities opens up such as interning in law firms, under judges of High Courts and Supreme Courts, as well as under Senior Advocates and this process continues till a student is finally a law graduate. Other places where student opts for internships are National Human Rights Commissions, National Legal Services Authority, Ministry of Finance, Competition Commission of India and Ministry of Corporate affairs. The above list is vast enough to broaden the mind of students to choose wisely, according to their area of interest, the professional career which they aspire to.

Lastly, after discussing the various opportunities and planned internship programme the question still remains half answered as to the prominence of legal internships.

In addition to the above, the following are some more reasons to go for legal internships:

• Application of theoretical knowledge acquired in law school into reality
• Internships provide exposure to multifarious people, situations and work
• Instilling new skills
• Sometimes these internships may lead directly to a job offer, and
• It develops professional abilities in a student

Most importantly, internships entail in the student a sense of Confidence and Discipline which not only help in achieving the goals but also gives students an extra edge as compared to other prospective job candidates. Employers recognise the benefit of internships, but even more importantly, the experience and confidence a student gets from it are vital. During the period of internship, one gets to explore one’s threshold of efficiency and patience. A law student shall keep on overpowering one’s own level of burning out and brainstorming.

Internships, for the aforementioned reasons, are of utmost significance in a law student’s life. It is not only the skillset that one gain, but the invaluable experience which one obtains over the period of an internship. This experience shall not only help a law student in growing dynamically but also further acquaints him/her to possible volatility. School of law very well understands its relevance and help their students carving out these opportunities with the aid of distinguished faculty and exceptional staff members which supports the student in every way possible so that no one misses the race of excellence and brilliance.

About the author:

Garima Lakhmani is Assistant Professor at School of Law at The NorthCap University. She has over three years of academic experience and prior to that, she practised law for more than a year in Allahabad and Delhi High Court. Garima has a keen interest in mooting also and has judged mooting competitions at National Level.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha.