The Appreciation of Uselessness

The Law School Brouhaha

This post is dedicated to Ramya and Sanjana, and their law school dream.
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Around two months back, I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about how her preparation for CLAT was going. She was a junior in school and was also with me in LST, where I attended coaching classes for the law school entrances while I had dropped a year to solely prepare for these examinations. Incidentally, she was doing the very same and out of obvious curiosity she asked me what was a rather simple question- what exactly is law school like? Now, this question isn’t as simple as people think it is. Being ‘in’ law school is something that can’t be put into proper words. With this note, I intend to look into the experience that is law school and what you may encounter there. This is totally based on personal experiences and I don’t want to go too much into what happens in the classroom, as that is a different thing altogether. I obviously did take some time to think about it and sadly, and quite expectedly, the answer is something which, at the very outset, is considerably incomplete as I am not exactly the right person to even comment on the place despite being a part of it. There clearly is a perception on the outside that would deem my opinion invalid despite which I shall share it.

I would like to begin by writing about the present position of law as a career and what exactly law schools in India are meant to do. Over the past few years, the public perception of law as a career option has undergone a major transformation, pioneered largely by the creation of the national law schools- a set of institutions designed to do justice to the career. Each law school is distinct but the academic curriculum is very similar. Most exams at the law schools involve analyzing problems rather than memorizing answers.

But then why would one actually want to study law? What makes the career something to look forward to? What about law school? How is it even different from colleges with other streams for graduate study? That is something which can only be answered by the person who wants to get into law school.

A year ago, getting into law school was the only major goal, a goal which looks extremely trivial when I look back at it now. That was a time when one looked at what they would do once they make it to law school, provided if they make it in the first place. While I was quite sure of making it to one, there, however, did linger a sense of doubt, doubt that can’t be explained at once but will probably be felt by most law school aspirants now.

Writing the first ever CLAT (Common Law Admission Test) was an experience that many found quite enriching as the paper set a considerably good standard. One of my friends felt that he knew most, if not all the answers. The problem, however, is that others somehow knew more.

After being subjected to what one can call a hilarious selection process, the candidates were on their way into the national law schools that they were allocated by virtue of their ranks (and that terrible thing called the preference list). I made it to Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), Gandhinagar.

After coming to law school, I experienced a feeling that is quite difficult to define as it is something of a mixture between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, or maybe even between calm and restlessness. As I joined a tad late, I missed the so-called “orientation,” which, at least from what I heard, was nothing but a farce. The classes, in my opinion, didn’t do much to make me feel that I was in a national law school. That, however, can be explained as the “major” legal subjects aren’t taught in the first few semesters as they are basically used for sharpening the student’s mental skills, along with his verbal and writing skills. A law student is expected to have sharp reasoning skills, which, quite obviously, is one of the reasons that there are questions on logical and analytical reasoning in the CLAT, questions whose standard is actually quite high.

Law school, for me, was a very bittersweet experience and for this I had my own personal reasons related to acclimatization and the like. It was made interesting by the people whom I met there. In my opinion, if there is a place where one can find like-mindedness at all levels, then it is law school. It is a place where you don’t have to explain yourself in too much detail, something which one often has to do on the outside as the supposed outsiders don’t usually understand what you are trying to say. The people that I found there range from the highly intellectual “gurus” who know ‘everything’ to the smartasses who don’t say a word about what they actually want and from the simple do-gooders to the loud “bajas”- ones who just know to use their mouth rashly and occasionally their hands and feet too, people who shouldn’t be in law school in the first place but ones who still form an integral part of it.

Then there are those who you had total respect for, because of their way of using their knowledge to get into a lively debate about any topic under the sun- be it football, the Government, the laws or even Adolf Hitler! I also found those whom you just couldn’t stop admiring because of the underlying sense of moral righteousness that in a way defines them. The finest people in law school were the ones who were a combination of the above two kinds. It would be wrong to miss out the ones who are least bothered about what is going on around them as they are in a world of their own; a world that many of them feel is the ‘real’ law school.

Then we have the schemers, the ones who always have an agenda at the back of their mind. These are the ones who one must look out for here because they are like vampires and saints, both at the same time. It is always a difficult task to understand what they are actually looking for whether it is something substantial or not. We also have the really nice people who will always be by your side and are always willing to listen and help you, no matter what. I, quite surprisingly, managed to get along with all these types but that doesn’t mean that I appreciated everything they did. After the initial phases of law school, one starts getting along fairly well with the seniors and this is an integral part of law school. They have faced the music for a little longer than you have and that is an achievement that no outsider could possibly understand.

Some people are under the opinion that law school gives you absolutely no scope for outside activity. That is all bogus. Not only do you get time for outside activity, you can also use the knowledge gained from the activity to get through the trials and travails of law school, and this isn’t only academic mind you. I don’t care what the reader’s interpretation may have been- positive or negative, purely comic or blasphemous; that is because that is what the limits can be, sometimes.

The bottom line is that law school is nothing but a long drama, one where anyone can get away with even the most outrageous bullshit, all they need to do is make sure that the bullshit is elaborate enough. The drama is governed by games where one gets to play around with logic- be it for good, or bad. There is an amazing essay called “How Not to Succeed at Law School” which, in my opinion is something that should be read by every law student or someone dying to get into law school. I would like to conclude by quoting from the essay,

“If you haven’t yet decided whether to go to law school, you should consider it carefully. If you are in law school now, you should also consider your options.”

I couldn’t agree more.