A Lot of New Opportunities Are Coming Up in Indian Legal Domain: Dr. Avinash Dadhich

Considering the technological development and all the changes in the society, what type of education you want to impart in your students?

According to a recent study conducted by Harvard for certain careers IQ is not as important as EQ and I feel that our Indian legal education system focuses a lot on IQ but what I have seen in my career is for a lawyer besides legal principles the EQ part is important. The new emerging technologies are replacing few jobs and we have few AI related softwares which are already replacing the associate level jobs in top law firms so things are changing. So first thing considering the goal is how IFIM law school is very clear about the need of the society and the need of the market and also about what they want to do. We are focussing on EQ development like leadership, critical thinking, analytical abilities all these things are very important and I think this law school is already focussing on it. The next five years our main strength will be how our graduates will be EQ equipped and second they must be industry ready graduates. Somehow if we introduce more practical education in law schools like working with law firms, startups and solving real problems because according to my observations after law degree the graduates can't even write a simple bail application so this is a fundamental problem that nobody wants to disclose or admit this fact thus after taking the degree they have to start from zero in the practical point of view and that we don't want,  they must be able to do the basic legal job that consists of argumentation, legal research, drafting, negotiation and understanding the system so our graduates have to be relevant and useful for the society. This law school in terms of goals wants that our graduates can be emotionally strong, socially responsible and third thing they can be employable. The best career in law is to have your own practice but somehow in the legal education field nobody is really talking about it. According to me when the law schools promise 100% placement in Indian market there are 30,000 graduates every year and the legal sector is a small sector and cannot incorporate more than 1000 graduates. Because in a company for example Infosys or TCS they need 25,000 engineers but they don't need more than 5 or 10 lawyers every year. The vision is to create entrepreneurship instead of just creating jobs because ultimately they need to be equipped to start their own practice and legal sector private practice is less competitive it looks very competitive but it is not. If a lawyer is well trained, there is a great demand and unfortunately law schools are unable to produce that type of graduates and as lawyers they need to have empathy, skills and capabilities to work for the society and at the same time they need to be able to make their own money and this I don't find in any law school in India.

What advice/inspiring message you want to share with the students who are studying in any law college?

I don't want to inspire them because inspiring is a big goal but I want to tell them the reality because I have seen the reality so I can share that see law field is very challenging and demanding so If you think if its an easy area then don't  join this field. Second thing is it requires many intellectual inputs so until and unless you are not fundamentally strong it's not for you and other thing it requires great emotional strength because in a day you see so many changes in your behaviour in your mood, you lose, you win, you're happy, sad so I think this is the psychological problem with the lawyers because after a few years they face lot of psychological issues so for the young lawyers they need to focus on their  emotional well being, if they’re emotionally strong, intellectually strong and technically skilled this is a great area. Lawyers can contribute to the society and lot of new opportunities are coming up now.

Any major tie up which IFIM Law School has made this year?

We do have international collaborations we have tied up with Brooklyn Law School. The students will get to interact with their faculty, we are planning to bring in experts in tech and law field to participate in the conference. Also as a part of the startup law clinic we are looking at how they advice the clients who want to set up their law firm in India from abroad. Its an opportunity for students to network right here and we promote the entrepreneurship spirit here so if a student has an idea we offer them all the support they need. 

How many students are there on campus?

We have about 1500 students on campus overall.

How has the student responses been so far in the last years?

Student responses, great, I am very happy with how students have responded to everything we have for them. We basically keep the students engaged not only through academics but otherwise as well. We also make sure students are participating in different competitions.

Apart from the traditional academic course, what type of training are you giving to the students?

In addition to this we have set up various centres on campus, like centre on consumer laws, women and child laws, International rights and human rights. So each and every centre is headed by faculty and they organise conferences, seminars etc where the student gets opportunities to interact with experts. Our faculty also gets to identify their own research interest and do something in the field. For example one of our faculty organised a conference on Uniform Civil Code, on campus and then we have conducted a certificate course on consumer laws and recently we also conducted a mediation workshop in collaboration with BSE.

What has been the placement record here?

Still in the fourth year, so our students will take one year more to grab it. As of now I can give you internship data that is 100% internships. They have worked with top NGOs top law firms, they have worked with very good corporate law departments in International and National law firms.

Is there any special initiative to spot the entrepreneurship here if students want to start their own venture?

To give them a skill set of how the law firm is run or how the law firm work is done by associates etc. we have created a startup law clinic which is a very unique idea because no one in India is doing it. How it works for us is that we have a business school, in that business school we have an incubation centre in that all these new startups are working in the business domain. So these startups approach the startup law clinic to gain legal advice. So we help them with their incorporation, investors etc. We provide the legal services, we draft legal documents for them. Students as such are not only getting academic knowledge but also getting practical skill set. In addition to this we do the personality enhancement programme, we do it because our students come from various backgrounds so we ensure every student gets an opportunity to enhance their personality which includes writing skills, communication skills, presentation skills etc. in addition we also make sure that they are mentally and physically fit for which we have fitness programs and we focus on holistic development and also on social responsibility. We conduct Kanyathon is basically we run 5 kms for the girl child. We have 6-7000 participants from various corporates etc. and everyone is running for the charity cause. On top of this we make sure they’re employable, we participate in moot courses as well and the focus is on developing skill set for students that can be used in different scenarios so the moment they graduate from the fifth year and we ensure they do an internship every semester, so they are really equipped with the skills to be employed the moment they graduate. We do a lot of social mission projects specially the business school, now we are introducing it in law school as well. So in the first year we ask our students to do NGO internships so they definitely have to work with an NGO and understand what are the social issues, now we are revising it, what we are doing is that these people will now have to contact an NGO, identify a social cause and find a solution to it so mission should lead to either a publication or some change in the legislation. So you know we are trying to make changemakers besides we also have a mentorship programme in place. 

All the students are from India or from other countries as well?

There are a couple of students from Dubai, Zambia so we are open to International students, brings diversity in class. Moreover we don't hire all Kannadigas or Bangaloreans.

What goals have you decided for the coming years?

We are absolutely transparent in all our processes, we believe in unity and belonging to IFIM and we are in a pursuit to perfection, there is unstoppable dynamism so even the teams that are created here we ensure they’re dynamic. So in the next five years I am sure we will reach number 1 there is no doubt but how we do that is there to think but as I said, there is social immersion project, industry internship placement, mentorship and research incubation centre. For the research incubation centre we tied up with Achint Ray where in students are guided and hand held to do research and this is a very unique point, no other law school is doing this most of the law schools provide research support and mainly focus on moot courts etc but we are not only focusing on that, our focus is on holistic development of a child. Our doing is student centric, student develops so we also develop.