Importance of Internship for Law Students

Introduction

The 21st generation is not all about academic records to secure a well-established career. Today your professional career depends upon the skills acquired from your work experience. Students need to be acquainted with leadership qualities, soft skills, computer operations, team management, and other required skills for development. States and corporations are reluctant to employ a naive who reflects a lack of experience, interest, wisdom, and judgment while working. States and corporations organize internship programs to mitigate the effect of the unprofessional behavior of candidates in the workplace.

Internship plays a vital role in professional courses such as law and medicine. Professional courses ensure practical solutions to a given problem. These professional courses encourage students to discover practical situations associated with their profession and bring pragmatic solutions to break the deadlock. Today’s article is primarily for students who are in dilemma of joining internships and willing to know about the internship.

What is Internship?

An internship is a professional learning program that offers experience and practical knowledge. It enhances soft skills integrated with a person’s field of study or career interest. Internship opportunities allow students to explore various dimensions related to one’s academics and career choices. It also gives opportunities to learn and develop one’s skills in the paradigm of a respective subject in academics or career building. It is a short-term working experience offered by the state and companies to individuals, especially students, to get some exposure to a particular industry or field. It provides a basic level of exposure to practical working experience to an individual who is opted for an internship.

Advantages of Doing Internships

You Can Stand Apart From The Rat Race

Internship records are as important as academic records. It plays a significant role in securing a good employment opportunity or beginning one’s career as an entrepreneur. The candidate’s internship records left remarkable expressions on the panel members during the job interview. A person’s internship record also assists in ensuring the trust of an investor and securing a good amount of investment in a business venture by presenting prior working experience in the subjects related to the business venture.

Building Up Your Curriculum Vitae (CV)

A candidate’s CV plays a significant role in securing the desired job. Internships build on the feather in one’s cap and increase the chances of securing one’s dream job.

Receive Financial Rewards

Internships are paid or unpaid depending on one’s experience in the respective field of work. Candidates can secure a stipend-based internship and finance their expenses. Before applying for a paid internship, make sure to qualify for the required working experience in the required field.

Learning Opportunities From The Industry Experts

During the internship program, candidates interact with professionals working in the industry for decades. One of the reasons to participate in an internship program is to learn from professionals engaged in the industry and working in a particular domain for decades. Professionals or industrial experts give you an insight into the practical reality of the working environment in the industry.

Building Your Network

Internships allow you to create your network among Industrial experts. Networking helps you to secure good opportunities in your career. When you establish relations with professionals, they will recommend you to their network. It enables you to get better internships and job opportunities using their reference.

Gaining Valuable Experience

Internships offer a valuable practical working experience to candidates, especially students. Internships provide a different dimension of working realities faced by working professionals. An internship is the appropriate training to gain practical experience working at the workstation.

Gain Professional Fees back

While working with professionals you will get to know about your skills. They help you to mark your best skills as well as your worst skills. They recommend different methods to improve your necessary skills to survive in the workplace.

Discover Your Interest

Internships allow candidates to discover their interest in a particular field. There are many subjects in a profession. It is a hard nut to crack to choose a subject of your interest among a large variety of choices. Internships provide you the way out by offering you real-world working experience. It allows candidates to eliminate those subjects which do not make sense to them.

Enhance Your Skills

Internships enhance your communication skills, leadership quality, confidence, work-life management, critical analysis, Team management, etc. It improves your soft skills to secure better opportunities and build a successful career.

Recognition

Interns get recognition for their exceptional performance through a Letter of Recommendation (LoR) or promotion to a well-paid occupation in the corporation. Interns are also promoted to the official team members of the company and allowed permanent positions in the company.

Conclusion

It is a fact that maintaining studies and internships at the same time is not a cakewalk. However, it will surely give you advantages over other candidates engaged only in studies. It is generally a conception that an internship should be either paid or unpaid. In my opinion, it is a subjective question to be answered. A stipend-based internship is an offer to candidates who have acquired the required working experience in a particular industry. I would suggest you first work to gain experience and then move ahead to work for financial independence.

Law students are supposed to research their respective organizations or corporations on the internet before joining them for an internship. You can consult with former interns of the organization to acquaint yourself with their work experience as an intern. We have often noticed that students are inclined to join internships and apply simultaneously for every vacant position. Random internships might result in a waste of time and energy. I advised you to be cautious while applying for internships and ensure that you will qualify for the required position.

Research and writing are skills in law that will secure better opportunities for law students. Unfortunately, many law schools failed to add legal writing to the course curriculum. These skills require intense practice and mentorship to deliver extraordinary results and good-quality papers. We at Law Corner invite law students for virtual internships, especially for legal research and writing work. We believe in consistency and assign topics of different subjects of law to our legal interns. We publish articles written by interns on our official website after a detailed review from our editorial board. We invite law students to submit their original papers for publication apart from interning on the Law Corner’s website. We encourage law students, academicians, advocates, lawyers, and other professionals in the legal fraternity to publish their writing work on genuine legal portals to have their voice in the public domain and promote legal awareness among the people through their writing.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is it compulsory to do internships in professional courses?

No, it is not mandatory to do internships in professional courses. However, it will give you an edge over other candidates in terms of overall personality development and gaining practical experience.

How can we manage internships and studies at the same time?

In the majority opinion, the better you manage your time, the better you can manage your studies and internships. Manage your time, prioritize your skill development, learn new skills and keep upgrading your skills. 

I have applied for several internships in tier-one law firms. But did not receive any response from the other side. How can I secure an internship?

Firstly, be patient and wait for the right opportunity. There are times when students are rejected or failed secure an internship. We advise you not to apply for tier-one firms or corporations in the first instance. Try to learn the basics of the law, master your basics and then apply to your dream firm or corporation for an internship. There are qualifications required to secure an internship in tier-one law firms. You can apply for internships on professional social media platforms such as LinkedIn. You can apply for an internship by visiting the company’s official website.  

Is working remotely as an intern worthy of it?  

It depends on the nature of the work you were doing. You can opt for remote working in research and writing internships. 

In which year of law do law students start working on legal research and writing?

It depends on the individual law student. However, it would be best for law students to focus on legal research and writing from the first year of their law course, either a five-year or a three-year law course.

Do we have any scope in the profession of legal writing?

I have often observed that people have a general notion about legal writing. They generally believed that legal writing should pursue as a curriculum activity but not as a professional career. As of now, law students are still exploring the profession of legal writing. Legal writing is one of the prominent professions in law. It promotes legal awareness among the people and holds individual voices in the public domain.

Prashant Sharma

Prashant Sharma is a law student at Government Law College, Mumbai. He secured AIR 46 in MHCET 2021. He used to write content based on legal issues, social issues, economic aspects, current issues, maritime industries, technology and other related topics.