Deepa T.M. walked into her first class at law school with the dream of graduating as the next Mike Ross. The thrill of corporate law so coolly captured in Suits, the American legal drama series, has caught the fancy of many starry-eyed youngsters. Yet each passing year of the five-year B.A. LL.B. programme at O.P. Jindal Global University taught her something new and opened her up to fresh possibilities. In the multidisciplinary university, Deepa was able to explore the study of arts. She began to realise the diversity of her interests beyond corporate law. Deepa went on to club her passion for innovation, arts and law into a career in Intellectual Property Rights.
At Jindal Global Law School, you can cross-register for electives across all schools of the university. Discipline-focussed yet interdisciplinary subjects or electives are also offered, combining elements of law and other areas. This multidisciplinary modality has been deeply rooted at the best of law schools worldwide. Top universities like Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UC Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, etc. are classic examples. JGLS adopted this model in India and the success is clearly showing, leading the charts of the best law colleges in India. The QS World University Subject Rankings 2020 featured Jindal Global Law School among the top 150 law schools across the globe alongside these prestigious institutions. JGLS is also ranked as the best law school in India.
Going by the gold standard of law schools internationally, it looks like multidisciplinarity is the best way to study law. Here’s why:
- Employers are looking for lawyers with dynamic skills who bring something ‘extra’
When Deepa first enrolled at Jindal Global Law School, she was prepared with a strategy to achieve her initial goal of becoming a corporate lawyer—keep her grades up, intern at the best of corporate law firms and eventually bag a good placement. Had she continued on that path single-mindedly at any other law school, she may well have become a good corporate lawyer.
But a multidisciplinary education can be the difference between a good lawyer and a great lawyer.
Considering the competitive legal job market, employers today are not looking for just a good lawyer, but a great lawyer. You might pursue higher studies out of pure interest and intellectual curiosity, or you might be career-oriented and aspire for professional success. Whatever your personal motivator is, at the end of the day, your law school degree, be it an LLB or LLM, should prepare you for opportunities and challenges in the working world.
So who is a great lawyer? Qualities like ‘analytical’, ‘logical’, ‘compassionate’, ‘creative’, ‘persistent’, ‘patient’, ‘empathetic’, and ‘hard-working’ come to mind. Yet a great lawyer, just like his or her practice, cannot be characterised so simply and categorically. Besides these virtues good legal training clearly imparts, a multidisciplinary approach lends a certain dynamism apt for the ever-changing job market. It examines the complexity of law viz-a-viz the rest of the world; it merges disciplines; transcends the limitations of a singularly focussed study; expands the boundaries of thought; and exceeds the capacity of an individual outlook to encompass many perspectives.
Graduates of Jindal Global Law School will have a serious advantage in employability with this multidisciplinary training. It’s the rare combination of exploring different subjects outside of typical legal coursework, the ability it ingrains to draw from diverse perspectives and synthesise problems in a holistic sense and the multi-faceted approach to the study of law itself that allows budding young lawyers like Deepa to broaden their horizons and go even beyond their wildest dreams.
2. You will learn to evaluate legal issues from non-legal perspectives
Knowing the law in and out is one thing. Yet the application or interpretation of the law needs to consider a gamut of non-legal scenarios, facts and perspectives. So how does one handle this? Well, legal professionals may usually evaluate non-legal facts based on their experience, knowledge or research.
Studying the legal framework is incomplete without understanding the socio-cultural, political and economic context within which laws evolve and function. To give students that dimension of expertise, typical B.A. LL.B. programme includes courses on economics, history, political science and sociology. At Jindal Global Law School, however, there is the additional scope to study electives from different schools. This is where multidisciplinary legal training has an upper hand.
For instance, students who want to specialise in environmental law can take up electives from the Jindal School of Environment & Sustainability; human rights lawyers in-the-making can explore the breadth of subjects at the School of Liberal Arts & Humanities; or those aspiring for jobs in the niche practice of taxation law can benefit from the resources at Jindal School of Banking & Finance or Jindal Global Business School.
From discipline-focussed electives at the law school to a wide array of intriguing courses across other schools, the number one law school in India helps students explore the many facets of law and other disciplines at the same time. Students will gain a diversity of insights for a truly broad-based legal education befitting today’s diverse professional needs.
This level of ‘customisation’ gives students a rare opportunity. Each student at Jindal Global Law School can tailor their legal training to fit their unique interests and future plans, beyond the mandated legal coursework.
3. A multidisciplinary background will boost problem-solving to the tune of the multi-faceted modern world
The complexity of modern day problems requires equally sophisticated responses. Solving today’s problems, legal or otherwise, calls for thinking out of the box. Does the typical legal degree meet these contemporary needs with its laser-like focus on the study of law? Or can multidisciplinarity equip law students to move beyond the singular focus to a more nuanced realm of problem-solving? Finally, can this method lead to better learning and higher order thinking?
You will discover that when you are exposed to a variety of subjects besides law, you can assimilate and interpret a diversity of perspectives. Simply put, you will have a wider spectrum of knowledge in your arsenal. Ultimately, the broader your working knowledge is, the better equipped you will be to solve problems.
A broad-based multidisciplinary learning helps navigate a world that’s multifaceted in itself. That in mind, Jindal Global Law School will guide you to be not only well-versed with the law, but also privy to the nuances of other disciplines so you can combine different perspectives to arrive at more holistic legal solutions in your professional capacities.
