Law Students who have just completed their graduation or are even studying law find many challenges before them during their internship period. Finding a good internship at a law firm or under a senior advocate or judge is challenging, to find your desired Internship visit Lawvs.com and find an internship of your interest near you.
After getting an internship the student gets new learning experience which would eventually help them in shaping their future and know about their strengths and weaknesses. Getting a Law internship is a defying experience which helps the intern to get ready for their career ahead. It helps them in exploring the professional field. Internships may excite law students while also scaring some.
The difficult challenges are faced by law students during their Internship Period, as a law student learns about the theoretical knowledge of law in Law Schools and gets the Practical knowledge in Internships.
Some of the Challenges are-:
- Internship gives different experience than Law Schools
Law Students do not have an idea of what they will experience in Internships. They mistakenly believe that in Internships they will be learning more theoretical knowledge which they get from the law schools but in internships they get more practical knowledge. The law students have only given exams and submitted assignments in their law schools and do not know what work would be given to them by their seniors or supervisors or what to expect from the internship.
- Idleness
The Law Students might be sitting idle during their internship for some time as either their seniors don’t have much time to look out for them and give them any important work or it could be a possibility that the law firm doesn’t have much work to do and only have a few clients. Because of this, the law student at the end of their internship doesn’t get enough practical knowledge and does not get the required practical skills to land a job for themselves in the legal field.
- Lack of Practical Knowledge
The Law students may be given works to do which they have not done earlier and have no idea about how to do those works which might include drafting, dealing with the clients or filing any documents in the court. Since they haven't done all that before, they can spend the majority of their time unsure of what to do and feeling anxious since they have no idea about the process and where to start.
When given work to research on legal aspects by their seniors, law students might not know from where they should do the research and would take more time than required or make mistakes which would make their confidence level go down affecting their performance.
- Lack of Professionalism
The law students might lack the aspects of being a professional as they are fresh and have only experienced the life of school and college. They lack the skills necessary for professional behavior. Due to their youth and recent graduation from law school or studying in the law school, they are still in a relaxed and carefree mindset. They find it tough to blend with their seniors or the other staff in a professional manner which could affect their performance.
- The Approach of Law Students
They are unsure of the proper strategy. Some of them misjudge their own abilities, while others exaggerate their significance. As a result, some are avoided by those in charge while others offend them.
Many Law Students also find it difficult to approach their senior/mentor about the problems they are facing with the work assigned to them. This makes them struggle a lot during their internship period and would restrict them from getting the most out of their internship.
- Internship Tasks
The Law students think that just like law schools they will be getting full information about their work in internships but it is not true. In internships students would be given a work with little information about it and they would have to do most of the work on their own as many law firms have a lot of work to do and might not have enough time to explain the work to the interns which results in the intern to get the work done with his own understandings and learnings. This usually helps them in getting more practical knowledge but is challenging and might get the intern confused. The Law Firms also expect the interns to contribute to the works of the firm and showcase their skills.
How to Overcome the challenges during Internship
• Law Students should be ready to learn the practical aspects of law as they are already gaining theoretical knowledge from the Law Schools.
• They should always be eager to learn anything which their mentor/supervisor makes them to do or teaches them, even the non-important things.
• They should not hesitate in taking instructions of their seniors or mentors/supervisors before doing any work which they have not done earlier and have an open communication with their mentor/superwisor.
• Maintain a Professional behavior in front of the staff and other members of the firm.
• Build strong relationships with other members of the firm to work in a friendly and suitable environment.
Blog Made On Law students, law interns, internships, legal internships, challenges
By: Deepak Singh Rajput ( BA.LLB Sem - 4)
