The 2019 graduating class of Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) has broken a new record with over 57 corporate law firms offers, 24 litigation offers, and 30 higher education offers from world class universities for the graduating law students.
The top recruiter from the 2019 graduating class of JGLS this year is with the leading corporate law firm, Trilegal with 10 offers, with Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas closely following with 9 offers, followed by AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra, Khaitan & Co. Anand & Anand, Argus Partners, P&A Law Offices, Tempus Law Bharucha Singh Mundkur, and Economic Laws Practice.
The corporate recruiters for the 2019 graduating class include RBL Bank, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, Kotak Life Insurance, & Morae Global, among others. In addition, JGLS students have secured positions in top think-tanks around the country, judicial clerkships, and positions at in-house legal departments.
Over 60 organizations across various segments of legal industry have already recruited from JGLS this year, and several processes are still underway as the students graduate in the month of August. The diversity in career opportunities among JGLS continues as a trend with several graduates venturing into entrepreneurship and a few students even taking up admission in M.A. courses after completing their degree in law.
Higher education continues to form a substantive part of the career aspirations among the JGLS graduates, with LL.M, JD, M.A. and M.S offers from the top universities around the world including the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, Cornell University, King’s College London, University of California – Berkeley, National University of Singapore, Penn State University, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, University of Amsterdam, among several others.
Commenting on the success of the 2019 graduating class, Prof. C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University and Dean of Jindal Global School said “Congratulations to the graduating students of JGLS. This is a historic milestone that JGU and JGLS has reached in its 10th year with so many of our graduates receiving outstanding opportunities to pursue meaningful careers in India and abroad. This has been possible due to the dedicated mentorship of our committed faculty members and the hard work and determination of our students.”
Professor Kumar observed, “A myopic approach to careers focusing solely on job placements of its graduates tends to ignore the value of holistic professional growth of the students along with providing the broadest possible horizon of professional opportunities to its students. Legal education at JGLS enables its graduates to setup their own practice of law, or join a senior and start practicing in the courts and does not necessarily need to look for a job.”
A testimony to this is the fact that historically over 50% of the JGLS graduates setup their own practice of law, or join a senior at the bar, or their family practice of law. The vision of JGU and JGLS for careers was institutionalized when a specialised Office of Career Services (OCS) comprising of faculty members, students, and administrative staff was setup early in 2012, well before the graduation of its first batch, to define the agenda for careers of the JGLS students. Today the OCS at JGLS provides a wide range of support services to the students from mapping their careers aspirations from their first year to supporting its alumni in making their advance career decisions.
Further, the Vice-Dean of JGLS, Professor S.G. Sreejith said, “The JGLS curriculum factors a robust internship program as an essential part of professional legal education as it supplements the classroom learning of principles of law with an understanding of their application in practice, providing a holistic understanding of the law”.
JGLS has taken several measures in the past few years for promoting the students’ careers. It has developed over 200 structured internship relationships across classical and emerging segments of legal sector to expose its students to the wide range of careers in law. It has also institutionalized on-campus professional training program for preparation of civil services examination. Further, it has created a growing network of international internships with law firms, international NGOs, human rights organisations, judicial departments, and judiciary, including White & Case (the UK & Abu Dhabi offices), Corrs (Australia), Attorney General’s Department (Australia), Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers (China), Hawaii State Supreme Court (the US), among several others.
The JGLS has organized key industry events for promoting jurisprudence in emerging areas of law and providing networking platforms to its students with professionals from across practice verticals in law, including Lex Concursus, Jindal Initiative for Advocacy & Litigation (JiAL), and General Counsels (GC) Roundtable. It has also imparted professional skills training, including résumé and cover letter writing, interviewing, strategizing career promoting conversations and career counselling for students through the professional staff at its Office of Career Services (OCS) and its faculty.
The JGLS has also leveraged its alumni relations for providing career mentorship, mock interview sessions, industry insights, and personalised career counselling sessions to its current students.
The Assistant Dean of Careers at JGLS, Professor Anuranjan Sethi commented: “As Artificial Intelligence (AI) redefines the work of lawyers in an ever more complex business and social world, legal educators’ approach to its graduates’ careers must provide a diverse skill-based and experiential education than a mere theoretical one. This is what we do at JGLS and the benefits of it for our students are visible already.”
