If you need good lawyers, you would have a need for good teachers: Profs C Raj Kumar, Mehraj-ud-din and Ved Kumari at session on Legal Education

At a discussion hosted on Saturday, Professors C Raj Kumar, Mehraj ud-din and Ved Kumari spoke of the importance of having good teachers for a robust legal system..Interestingly, none of the lawyers confined their addresses on Legal Education to teaching alone. However, the three emphasized that teaching was to a great extent necessary because if the system needed good lawyers, it would "have need of good teachers”..On October 24, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Jammu & Kashmir Judicial Academy organised a webinar on "Career in Legal Education"..The webinar is the latest in a lecture series the High Court has been organising in conjunction with the Judicial Academy for newly-inducted law interns at the Court..We represent causes that may be unpalatable to many: Sidharth Luthra, Rebecca John, Mohit Mathur speak on Career in Criminal Law Practice.Chief Justice of the High Court Gita Mittal presided over the meeting..OP Jindal Global Law School Vice-Chancellor Professor C Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Central University, Kashmir, Professor Mehraj-ud-din, and Professor Ved Kumari of the Faculty of Law, Delhi University spoke to the interns as part of the webinar last Saturday..The three were in conversation with Professor Aparna Chandra of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru..Good teachers make good lawyers.During the webinar, Professor Raj Kumar opined that the of all the options available in the field of law, there was nothing better than being a legal academic. ."I, for one, strongly believe that there is nothing better in the field of law then being a law academic", he said. .Drawing from his life, he categorised it as comprising three significant elements:The life of a law academic as a teacher,Their duty to remain engaged in critical thinking, which could lead up to research and publication, and,Engaging with civil society, non-government organizations and research institutions to effectively reform law..“For having good lawyers, we must have the best teachers who have the talent of teaching as well as of doing research in the legal education", Professor Raj Kumar went on to remark..Professor Mehraj-ud-din Mir, while speaking on the topic remarked that there was no profession parallel to teaching, echoing Professor Raj Kumar's thoughts on the subject..“For having good lawyers, we must have the good and best teachers who have the talent of teaching as well as of doing research in the legal education”, he said. .On the avenues the field of law presents.Professor Ved Kumari suggested various avenues that those interested in careers in legal education could explore. She spoke of the many options the field of law presented and of successful politicians, bureaucrats, Judges and others to illustrate the vastness of the profession to her audience..The session ended with Rajeev Gupta, Director of the J&K Judicial Academy and Coordinator of the event thanking the audience and the panellists..The lecture series has been conceived as an aid to law students to help them make reasoned career choices, especially in the wake of anxiety about the future heightened by the pandemic..The objective of the series is to provide the High Court's interns with exposure to seasoned professionals and compensate for the loss of clinical workshops and face-to-face interactions with eminent persons in the field.