It is impossible for a society to exist without laws because that is what helps hold the society together and helps peaceful coexistence. As we all know, the Judiciary plays an important part in our country. Without lawyers, the whole country could end up in chaos. There are two types of degree courses for Law offered. One is a five year course and the other is a three year course.

Qualifying Exam

Like every other professional course, there are entrance exams for Bachelors in Law too. The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is one such test that is conducted for the undergraduate program in eleven national law universities. National Law School of India University, Bangalore, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (Nalsar) University of Law, Hyderabad, National Law Institute University, Bhopal, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhi Nagar, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, (Kochi), etc are some of them.

Another exam is NLU Delhi Admission Test conducted by NLU Delhi and NLU Orissa Admission Test conducted by NLU Orissa.  Then there is the Symbiosis Entrance Test conducted by the Symbiosis campus. The LSAT India, conducted by the LSAC (Law School Admission Council), is a common test for admission to those universities that accept the LSAT scores like Law College Dehradun, Dehradun, MATS Law School, MATS University, Raipur, The ICFAI Law School, The ICFAI University, Dehradun, etc. State level entrance tests are also conducted.

Students who decide on a career in law after graduation in any field can opt for the three year LLB course. Though most colleges have switched to the 5 year course, there are still some that offer the 3 year course. Some colleges, like the Delhi University, Banaras Hindu University, etc conduct entrance exams. There are others like Balaji Law College Pune, ILS Law College Pune, etc, where admission is based purely on merit.

Eligibility Criteria

For five year course

• A candidate is eligible to take all these tests if he has completed his 12th std with a minimum of 50% marks. Final year student are also eligible to take the test.
• The candidate should not be more than 20 years old. There are concessions made in the eligibility criteria for those belonging to SC/ST, etc.

For three year course

• The student is expected to have completed his bachelor’s degree with at least 50% marks. Final year students are also eligible to apply.

How to prepare for exam

These exams test candidates on English, general knowledge, numerical ability, legal aptitude and logical reasoning. The best way to deal with English and GK is reading English newspapers and listen to the news on a daily basis. Books like Manorama Year Book and Competition Success Review will also help with the GK part. We usually tend to skip reading news that has information about court cases. But since that is what you are looking for as a career, be a little more attentive when you come across such cases. It will also help in the legal aptitude section. There are lots of books that you’ll get that deal with topics like numerical ability and logical reasoning. Practice and speed is important. You can also download previous questions from the net. Evaluate yourself after each test. This will help you identify your weak areas. Thus you can work on these areas. Always redo the paper. This would help you know how much you have improved.

After a degree, a lawyer can choose to do LLM, which is a two year post graduate course. After the completion of the law degree, the standard procedure for lawyers is to join the Bar Council of India or the State Bar Council in order to practice in court. There are various branches of law that one can specialize in. Some of them are civil, criminal, corporate, insurance, tax, etc. We assume that lawyers would only have jobs in the court. This is untrue. There is also a demand for lawyers in private and public sectors like banking, NGOs, MNCs, etc.