Lokesh, a fifth year student from Institute of Law Nirma University, is interested in the area of intellectual property law especially copyright and traditional knowledge, open access, equality laws. Post-graduation, he wishes to further study in his areas of interest and pursue masters or work with somebody with similar interests.
You are currently in your final year of college. What has been your greatest learning experience in this period of 5 years?
In my college, I have spent a substantial amount of my time reading and writing. Researching and participating in writing competitions have been a crucial part of my law school journey. In the initial years of law school, I tried everything I could including debates, mooting, client counselling etc. However, it didn’t work out the way I wanted. But trust me, it gave me many beautiful learnings which were otherwise used e.g. case building of debating was useful in the drawing a narrative in essay competitions, memorial drafting taught me research and argument presentation for research papers. So it's a little difficult to provide a hierarchy of experience - great, greater and greatest experiences. I believe every experience I had in these years added some value and provided some perspectives to look at things.
The people that I met in this journey including my friends, mentors, teachers, juniors, seniors, even strangers (let’s not call it #StrangerThings) have given me wonderful experiences. I especially appreciate my association with IPRMENTLAW (an Indian IP, Media, Entertainment, and technology law blog) and the participation in the first Shamnad Basheer IP Essay Competition, 2020 which not only helped me question my extant ideas but also enabled me to reshape and nuance them. But when l look back and see the learnings these experiences gave. I would summarise it this way: an individual is a result of numerous social, cultural, and economic factors and everything he/she does is relevant for the overall development of his/her personality.
Hence, the greatest learning is the one that cannot be categorised but can be construed from all the above lines.
Do you believe students should participate in law courses offered online? How beneficial is the same?
Yes, I do believe they are helpful. There are many benefits of doing these courses but there are more important questions that one should ask while doing such courses such as-
-How do you do them (online/offline/hybrid)?
-Where do you do them from (the organisation/platform)?
-What is the organisation offering them (is the course free or paid)?
-How long is the course (the years/months/week)?
-What do you seek from the course (what’s your goal- doing LLM (India or abroad), applying for the corporate job, litigation, judiciary etc.)?
-What is your area of interest and what’s the course topic?
-How do you get admitted to the course (any selection procedure)?
Conceptually, these courses are important as they expand your theoretical base of a subject, build your CV, help you build a network and connect with people of your area, help you know the topic to write and research, and get you an opportunity to learn from the experts.
But expecting a job or getting LLM admission in some reputed college by doing these courses is a utopian idea. You might (are very likely to) get grilled by the interviewer if you don’t know the course except for its name and the place offering it. It might embellish the front page of a CV but won’t help much after that. You need to know what it offers and how it coincides with your area of interest. If you can do it, then feel free to harp on it like a hunky-dory, otherwise, don’t hesitate to backspace it from your CV draft.
You have dozens of publications in your name at International and National Platforms. What according to you is the best pattern of researching and writing?
That’s an interesting question but trust me, never weigh the numerical value of publications with the experience of a writer. The recent cult of creating blogs and journals has become a craving nowadays now. Resultantly, publications aren’t as difficult (praiseworthy) as they were some time ago. As far as I have written articles, I don’t follow a single approach. It (often) depends upon what I am writing on and who I am writing with. More often than not, I question the basic premise of a topic and try to break it as much as possible, sometimes to an extent where I don’t relate with the idea I intended to write. This is where I develop an interesting narrative.
Sometimes I write using comical characters, sometimes I use movie and cartoon dialogues to explain my point, there are times when I use philosophy, religion, or even spiritual ideas to explain my argument. Believe me, there are times when I don’t have any argument to start an article but when I sit and pen down my thoughts, I reach somewhere which you can easily call an argument. There are times when I have a lot of ideas and arguments about a topic, I categorize them and question them at their fundamental level. I think about their possible rebuttals. After doing this exercise (often mentally), I rethink whether I should write it or not. I have written articles where I have linked the topic with everything, ranging from Buddha to Beyoncé (though they are not extreme in every sense), but it’s not all.
As you can see how confused (or organised?) I am writing an article. So there is no single way to write. Everybody designs his methods and practices them until something else comes up and disturbs (or improves) the extant method.
LinkedIn is a social networking platform focusing on professional networking only. How can students use this platform effectively?
Students generally use this platform to market themselves but it's more than that. Connecting with (right) people can help you reach closer to your goal. However, only updating your profile and using LinkedIn for hours will not help you much. You need to have some substance for that, messaging random people and asking for collaboration and internships is not always appreciated. Remember, we need to have something to offer before asking someone to give us something. It's reciprocal. If you don’t have enough knowledge (also experience sometimes), asking for opportunities will not be of much help. Although this doesn't apply to a scenario where you ask for guidance only, in that case, please go ahead and ask for it. It is better to wait and get no reply than refraining yourself from asking and not waiting.
A word of advice to your fellow juniors?
I would only say develop perspectives and add value in every way you can. For that, read more, watch movies, observe more, converse more, write more, question more, answer more, think more, analogise more... (the list never ends but it won’t necessarily have ‘more’). The more you read, the more ideas you get, the more perspectives you develop, the more you learn, the more value you add, the happier you will be. And if it doesn't go as you want, don’t regret it because you’d surely be more confident than you are without doing them.
Please remember! It's not about winning every time, don’t let a win wane you. It’s the journey and the process which you remember at the end and it is high time to learn this.
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