The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS) recently held the convocation ceremony for the Graduating Class of 2013. In this interview with Bar & Bench, gold-medalist from the undergraduate Class of ‘13 Anisha Keyal spoke about the five years at NUJS, keeping motivation levels high and her decision to study law.

Bar & Bench: Eight gold medals – How did you keep the motivation levels up for five years?

Anisha Keyal: I was always a good student, even in my school days. Since law was a very new career option considering I have no family background in it at all, I wanted to make sure that I was very confident of it from the very beginning. Hence most of the hard work was really in the first 3 years, after which the 4th and 5th years were far more relaxed.

The obvious motivation was getting a good job at a prestigious law firm in the first few years which later changed into working with a senior counsel for litigation practice.

B&B:  What do you think was the best part about NUJS? And the not so good?

AK: When I entered NUJS, the competition was fierce. There was a great spirit to moot, debate, study well and participate in extra-curricular activities. Hence, that environment drove me a lot towards working hard. The not so good part was maybe towards the end where I felt that this entire spirit watered down a bit.

B&B: Looking back, if there was one thing you could have done differently through the 5 years, what would it have been?

AK: The main thing would be staying on campus so that I could participate in a lot more college events that were non-academic.

B&B: Clichéd yes, but why did you choose to study law?

AK: I come from a very traditional Marwari family where Commerce and Accounts was the natural choice. I just wanted to be different and since I was blessed with average memory and speaking skills, I thought law would be the best thing to pursue.

B&B: Lastly, any advice for those students who are undecided about entering the 5-year programme?

AK: The advise would be to research carefully and precisely on what career options law has after 5 years—in terms of the pros and cons of working in this field.

I feel that the working hours, the pattern of working in law firms or with lawyers or research is quite tedious and maybe it does make sense to actually think about what happens after 5 years rather than thinking of what will happen in law school itself.