Law is an exciting career option for youth as it offers satisfaction, intellectual exercise and recognition, said Aditya Sondhi, senior advocate and former additional advocate general, on the third day of The Hindu EducationPlus Career Counselling Digital conclave.
Dr. Sondhi, who is an alumnus of National Law School of India University, stressed on the fact that being a lawyer is one of the best ways to help those who have suffered injustice. It also offers an opportunity to build and reshape the socio-political fabric of the country, using the legal system.
“Law provides a voice to the one who has been treated unfairly by the system.... Lawyers are also leaders who are at the interface of the legal system with other sections of society and governance,” said Dr. Sondhi. He said that being a lawyer is more than a job. “There is a romance to law,” he said.
He advised young students not to be fixated on a particular institution while choosing law. “You should realise that you are choosing a profession and a field of study related to that. You are not choosing a particular institute,” he advised.
He informed that of the 800 alumni of law schools, only around 4% had joined the Bar in Karnataka. This figure would not be higher in other places, he said. He said the best juniors in his office were of non-law school backgrounds.
Taking a range of questions from students, he said that young lawyers, including those from law schools, were in various professions, including social activism, corporate law, in-house legal counsel, and civil services. Some had become entrepreneurs and even authors.
He agreed that success was easy for young lawyers with a Godfather or those from families with lawyers. However, there are a large number of first-generation lawyers, he said, citing his own example. “You can do that by converting your disadvantage into an advantage of experiencing everything first hand and developing courage and confidence,” he said.
