Multiple Internships - Boon or a Bane

The Pandemic forced us all to move our studies and work online. Overnight we were suddenly expected to shift to a platform, which was not going to happen at least until 5 years from today. Our Working style changed and working from home gave us an opportunity to connect with our workspace within the confines of our home. Online Internship was one new practice that Law Firms and Lawyers introduced during this pandemic. Most of the work given to the young law students included legal research.

It was during this period that I decided to expand my journey and start teaching Article Writing to law students, by offering them internships for a time duration of 3 months. In my first batch, I hired 10 students as Interns and they were given a task. A couple of students, in the first couple of months, dropped saying they can only work for one month because their health was affected or their colleges did not permit to work with one lawyer for more than a month. I do not believe in forcing someone to work. I used to conduct practical classes every weekend and barely any students attended slowly with time, I stopped doing the same.

The next few months were even more challenging because I could barely recruit students who would be ready to commit for 3 months. Ultimately, changed my duration and made it one month. The scope of work was legal research and article writing.

One of the reasons, why law students are supposed to do their internships is because they are expected to learn the practical aspects of the profession. Legal Research is the basic skillset that a law student should have. I stopped keeping any filters for the selection criteria. I accepted students, who did not write a covering letter, accepted students, who addressed me as Sir despite mentioning my gender, accepted students, who did not have prior experience or even proper CV because I found that some of the best students, who did not even have a proper CV were the best Interns. They just needed to be trained well.

My circle of Interns expanded and I started getting connected with them on WhatsApp and LinkedIn more frequently. That is where I was surprised to find that these students were working at multiple law firms online for the same duration and they were making excuses here that they had exams or health issues when I would ask them for submissions. I believe Article Writing is an Art and an Artist works the best when there is no pressure on him or her. That is why I used to give them time extensions even for more than a month. The multiple Internship scenario reduced my trust in young law students as Interns.

As a lawyer, you deal with the sensitive case of the clients, and the information that we handle is crucial. So, therefore we need to be very careful, in revealing the information even if they are our teammates. So, even when you are hired as an Intern you are expected to maintain a certain amount of privacy and secrecy. It is next to impossible to teach or even browse through the basics of law while working with an Advocate in a time duration of a month. Let me put it the other way, if an intern is going to stay with me for a month, why should I waste my time and energy in training that person. The students expect that the seniors should handhold them and they should be guided just the way their college teachers would do, but unfortunately, in a busy profession like ours that is impossible to do it.

I have had interns, who send emails from IPhones and go to colleges, which charge atleast a Lakh Rupees a month, and yet despite being in the final year do not know what is a Legal Commentary. These are the same students, who have multiple internships under their belt because it is the basic requirement of their college to have X number of Internships in a particular Year.

I once came across a student, who told me that his Law School had a requirement that they have to do 12 Internships in a year. One Internship every month with different lawyers. After that, I never took students, from that College. When a student is expected to do 12 Internships of one month each it means the student is mainly focusing on searching for an Internship instead of concentrating on the task given at hand.

It is a good thing to diversify and have varied experiences but then there are some students who have 12 different internship experiences in 12 different fields and yet they are not strong with their basics such as the difference between Bare Act and a Journal. They do not even know to search a case law.

So coming down to the important point:

1. Instead going for the number of Internships done, concentrate on sticking at one place for more than 3 months and work so hard that the law firm will repent on leaving you.
2. Use Social Media effectively to network, do not use it to bad mouth or for flattery. Use it to show your skill sets. If you are interested in Corporate law, write your thoughts about a particular section or an act and publish it instead of just bitching about people on your social media handle.
3. There are a lot of free webinars conducted on the latest topics, ensure that you attend those.

These are the things that one can learn while working as an online and offline intern with any organisation:

1. How to do research. Research does not mean that you copy-paste content from Wikipedia and then share it as your own article. Research means reading the entire case laws, searching for reference case laws on concepts, and finding a useful ratio for the same.
2. Read different types of Petitions that are filed by your office. Even if you do not get an opportunity to draft, just reading will help you learn a lot.
3. If your senior sends you to Court to keep a watch on the matter, try and observe the environment of the Court. Say hello to the Lawyer sitting next to you and have a simple chat. Going to the Courts is one of the best places to learn and network.
4. Instead of just joining an Internship for the sake of it, wait for some time, figure out what is your subject of preference and then join an Internship. For Example, if you plan to join Corporate in Future, do not keep on Joining an internship in Family Law or Property Law or any other law except a law firm or a corporate that will give you exposure in Corporate Law.
5. Learn Personal Communication, when you join an internship see how your seniors and colleagues interact with clients and other lawyers. Almost 90% of the communication that I get today is ridiculous. Students do not know the difference between usage of Full Stop, Apostrophe, and a Question Mark.
6. Ensure that you learn relevant things at your internship. Remember nobody is going to spoon-feed you there. There are certain basic aspects that you are supposed to know as a law student.

These were a few tips for law students, who go around with multiple internships.

Remember as Employers, it is easy for us to make out how much a student would have learned in a particular Duration. So a long Internship does not necessarily make a good impression on us.

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In case of any queries about Internship Opportunities, please email your CVs to secondinnings.hr@gmail.com.