National scheme for internships and placements, uniform curriculum: Read 14-point agenda proposed by Dr. AM Singhvi to reform legal education

There are a small number of dynamic and outstanding law schools in India, but they remain islands of excellence amidst a sea of institutionalised mediocrity, Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on Saturday, calling for uplifting the “average standards” of legal education in India..While there is a need to create more islands of excellence, the need to uplift the average standard of the struggling 1,500 law schools in the country is far greater, Dr. Singhvi opined..“May more and more Mercedes Benzes and even Rolls Royces be created, but the strengthening of our backbone—the Maruti and the Ambassador— should never be neglected. We have to spread distributive equity over inclusive legal education,” he said..Dr. Singhvi was speaking at the Valedictory Session of the Global Virtual Conference on Reimagining & Transforming the Future of Law Schools and Legal Education, recently held under the aegis of Jindal Global Law School. Dr. Singhvi was joined by Supreme Court judge, Justice UU Lalit, who delivered the presidential address..May more and more Mercedes Benzs and even Rolls Royces be created, but Maruti and the Ambassador should never be neglected.Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi.Dr. Singhvi also put forth a 14-point reform agenda for democratising and uplifting legal education across the country. Given below are some of the important points suggested by the Parliamentarian and senior lawyer..Curriculum and teaching methods.Legal curricula should be made multidisciplinary, creative and flexible. Largely, it is (currently) the antithesis of this: rigid, stereotyped and pedantic. To overcome this, various areas like ethics in the profession, reforms in justice delivery system, beating the backlog, clinical legal education, alternative dispute resolution, and refugees' rights should be incorporated into the curriculum and a uniform course module should be evolved..Likewise, teaching methods should be reformed since no radical changes have taken place after the case study method introduced in India in the 1970s. “Indeed, the curriculum of law colleges and law schools in India do not differ fundamentally from the curricula of law schools in Anglo-Saxon countries about fifty years ago. A typical Indian law student may have about 9-10 optional subjects to choose from. A student at a leading US law school will be able to choose from amongst 200-300 offerings”, he said. .Lack of law teachers.The "very serious problem" of law teachers - or lack thereof - a vexed problem of numbers, quality, diversity and depth, should be addressed urgently, he said.The first step towards this end should be to provide more uniform and better salaries with considerably improved terms of services. The large gap between those in the legal profession and legal academia should be bridged, Singhvi suggested..Provide better salaries and improve terms of service of law teachers.Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi.Reciprocally, those under special remunerative schemes have to be bound by valid legal instruments - bonds with appropriate legalese - to teach for a minimum duration without straying into the greener pastures of corporate lawyering and litigation.“But the start of this initiative, at least as a pilot, is to create an alternative remuneration scheme not hidebound by the present shackles of a bureaucratic system. This can happen only by ushering in more and more public-private partnership institutions, where greater autonomy and special financial terms must be reciprocally subjected to the strictest standards of scholarship”, Dr. Singhvi said..Law libraries.Law libraries in India, Dr. Singhvi noted, are too few and woefully stocked. They should be provided the latest technological tools of research by linking each law school with the best sources of knowledge globally, he said.“If necessary, a library cess levied only on senior advocates across the country must be designed for maximum ground impact in the urban and rural hinterland of India with respect to libraries.”.National scheme for internships.His fourth suggestion was to formulate a national scheme for internships and placements. In this regard, he adverted to the problems faced by those students who do not have contacts in the legal industry..“Internships and post degree placements should be sewn up into a National Scheme to give it an organised impetus. Today, placements are ad hoc with no institutionalised system of matching applicants and recipients. Some students, especially with contacts, have the luxury of plenty, while several of their talented but less resourceful colleagues go a-begging for placement. There is no objective evaluation system by the chamber head, uninfluenced by “contacts” in the profession.”.Impose library cess on Senior Advocates, draw up national scheme for internships and placementsDr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi.To address this issue, an organised, computerized national plan with a systematic and objective evaluation scheme is needed, he said..Senior Advocates should compulsorily teach at law schools.Dr. Singhvi also batted for a compulsory national scheme whereby senior advocates and established practitioners with expertise in particular areas, on invitation, compulsorily take a minimum number of hours of classes in different, lesser endowed law institutions..Those lectures should be a part of the students’ evaluation.“I have no doubt that practitioners will not grudge this minimal giving back, but a methodical scheme has to be devised. The legal educational sector, the Bar, the Bench, the corporate legal sector, law firms and the profession in general, continue to function in silos, resplendent in isolated splendor! The exact opposite— close, continuous, coordinated alignment — is the need of the hour.”.Stratification of law colleges.He highlighted how laws relating to universities and higher education institutions remain complex and multi-layered, and mostly overlap with multiple regulatory bodies overseeing the same set of institutions.“Law colleges are located in public universities set up by both Parliament and State legislatures. Central universities set up by Parliament, like Delhi or Aligarh, have their Law Faculty operating as the law school of that university. State universities like Calcutta or Mumbai are mostly affiliating universities, where private law colleges set up by private trusts and societies are affiliated”, he noted..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.The major problem facing Indian legal education today is this affiliated law college system of State government universities, he said, stating that there is institutionalised mediocrity and dilution of academic standards in a. majority of these affiliated law colleges.“Such stratification of law colleges with varying legal, regulatory, institutional and governance structures have undermined the development of quality standards, academic ecosystem and the pursuit of excellence in most law schools in India”, he said..Strengthen 3-year LL.B programme.While there have been talks about scrapping the 3-year LL.B course, Dr. Singhvi said that the 3-year course should be strengthened..“In our starry-eyed view of five year courses, we must not forget to strengthen the LL.B 3- year program. On par with the JD or Juris Doctor program of American and Canadian Law Schools, the Indian LL.B 3-year programme must be made more rigorous and full-time. NLUs must consider starting a 3-year LL.B degree on their campuses and open their doors to the graduates of the best degree colleges in India and abroad to spend 3 years on their campuses”, he said..NLUs must consider starting a 3-year LL.B degree on their campuses and open their doors to the graduates of the best degree colleges in India and abroad.Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi.Elephant in the room: BCI.The role of the Bar Council of India (BCI) in legal education, Dr. Singhvi said, has to be reimagined and restructured.“It has too many functions - law reform, disciplining lawyers, setting standards - to do justice to a full-time job like legal education. The vicissitudes of electoral politics - sometimes too purple and vicious - also, willy nilly, compromises its independence and objectivity”, he said..He, therefore, called for implementing a recommendation made by the Law Commission of India in 2002.“It recommended that the statute be amended to mandate that the Bar Council of India must consult a legal education committee constituted by the University Grants Commission which is diverse and broad-based, including 5 members from the Bar Council of India, one retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India, one retired Chief Justice/Judge of a High Court (both to be nominated by the Chief Justice of India), and three academicians in law to be nominated by the UGC.”He also urged the BCI to establish the National Council for Legal Education & Research..Prof (Dr.) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice-Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University and Founding Dean of Jindal Global Law School, also spoke on the occasion. He said that many of the issues faced by legal education and the legal profession in India resonate with the issues and concerns all over the world.“The future of the legal profession including the quality of lawyers and judges will depend on the foundations of learning that will be established by law schools. All of us need to have a strong stake in ensuring the quality of legal education, which will shape the future of the legal profession", he said..[Read full text of Dr. AM Singhvi's speech here]