Graduating in 2020 or ‘21? Here is what you have to do if you want to bag a job

According to my estimates, 1L new law graduates will hit the market in the next 1-2 months from around 1500 law schools approved by the BCI.

Like every year, the starry-eyed fresh law graduates will be looking for their first jobs and expecting the world out of their workplaces. 

However, as the new reality dawns upon all us, there are very few jobs in the market. 

Especially when it comes to freshers because so many experienced lawyers are looking for jobs and are ready to take steep pay cuts in a recession-hit job market.

There are no BigLaw hirings to look forward to, there are hardly any small firms hiring freshers in this tight year. No senior advocate is looking for juniors, no barristers on the lookout for some new raw talent. Compared to demand, the supply of jobs is minuscule.

Big law firms have delayed joining for their existing offers by 3-6 months. There could be further delays. Firms are not expected to hire freshers in FY20-21. Even unpaid internships are hard to come by.

There are rumours that BigLaw might even rescind offers that they have given out. 

When I saw the financial crisis of 2008 up close, I was a law student. Recruitment of the batch graduating in 2009 was severely hit even back then. But what is happening now is unprecedented. After all, India was largely isolated from the global financial crisis last time. This time, we have not been so lucky.

Rescinding of offers has been the norm even with the new MBA graduates of 2020. But news reports say that they are already up and about and are looking for new places to work.

The question of the hour is what are our law graduates doing? 

All is not bad when you come to see this as a window of opportunity and look for silver linings. I am going to suggest some ideas that you should consider seriously if you are graduating this month or will be graduating next April - June.

Times are tough, and you will have to toughen up. 

But here is what - most job seekers are clueless about what to do next. Most are doing nothing because what they thought would work has no chance of working anymore.

That means that there will be a small number of job seekers who will try out alternative approaches, that may work in the current environment, and get the success that was otherwise unachievable.

For instance, today lawyers from smaller cities have an unprecedented opportunity to compete for work from home jobs in big cities. And if they train themselves well, and focus on networking, they have a good shot. 

I am going to reveal below some of the job hunting approaches that we have seen to work well.  

1. There are jobs - but you need a different approach

Jobs are few and far between. But there are jobs. As courts become increasingly functional, and wheels of the economy start turning, there are legal openings to be found. 

However, for freshers to get these jobs is especially harder. The biggest problem is that nobody at this time wants to hire a greenhorn, for two primary reasons.

One is that teaching people how to do work when everyone is working from home is a huge challenge for most lawyers or organizations. They simply have no idea how to do this. So if they have to hire, they opt for lawyers with some experience, who can already do the work they need done, even if it costs them more to hire senior lawyers.

The second is that it is risky to hire freshers. It takes a long time to train them, and there is no guarantee that the hire will work out. If they do not learn, or if they do not like the work, all the time and resources invested in him will be wasted and we have to start from scratch. 

2. Upskill for jobs that will be created in months ahead

Nature of work for lawyers has been rapidly shifting since the pandemic. Some sectors which were very busy earlier suddenly fell silent - such as live entertainment, aviation, restaurant and pubs, tourism! On the other hand, some sectors got a new lease of life, such as Saas software, digital transformation, online media and news, online dispute resolution, medical manufacturing and import-export, and so on. 

Basically, economic resources have moved from some sectors to others. Priorities have been rapidly shifting as well, for governments, businesses, and individuals.

This means there is a different type of work on the desks of lawyers today. 

If you have the skill needed to do the work that is being generated and for which there are not enough skilled lawyers, then you are looking at a good opportunity. But if you say: give me a chance, I will work very hard and learn how to do this, that puts you at a disadvantage in this job market. 

The need of the hour is to upskill yourself as per what the market wants. 

People have started preparing for a year of LLM to get through this year and also get an additional degree. Students will be taking CLAT PG as a safe option to venture through tough waters. 

These are not very bad ideas. 

Only problem is that these degrees may not teach you the skills you need, and you may be just pushing your problems away by a year or two, because you have to face the harsh realities of a recessionary job market sooner or later.

My question is, how do you expect things to get better by the time you finish your LLM? 

Is your employer even looking for an LLM from you in the first place? In my personal opinion, the recruiters do not care about an LLM degree if it is not from a few top universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard etc. Even then, there is only limited utility for such a qualification when it comes to a law firm. It can get you a foot in the door, but the rest will again depend on your practical skills and ability to deliver results as a lawyer. 

How many corporate lawyers have you met who have an LLM degree from the top 3 NLUs, or any LLM at all? 

Further, getting an LLM is a much better idea when you have a few years of experience, as you can take advantage of the opportunity in a much better way. 

Doing your LLM right out of college often means you lose a career lifeline that could have been much more useful a few years down the line.

Employers are always on the lookout for talent who can help make their lives easier. 

You just have to showcase your skills in a manner that can convince them that you can do the work. 

And it has to start with you identifying the most important skills that are in short supply, or have high demand for, and then acquiring those skills without waiting for an employer to teach you.

1. Target startups

Startups are hungry for talent. 

And they are small entities, with massive headroom to grow. The recession does not affect them all that much if their product market fit is right. Of course, startups that are in the ocean because of COVID, such as travel or hospitality have not been so lucky, but many of them managed to turn things around by pivoting and catering to needs that can be catered to right now. 

So if you find a startup with 10-20 employees and over 1 cr per year turnover, you can be reasonably assured that they have a huge runway ahead to keep growing.

And such startups are always hungry for talent. 

It is easy for you to make your way into a startup, relatively. Also, it is not necessary that a startup will not have money to pay you. Many startups, as per their financial condition, pay well once you become a trusted asset.

Of course, they will not roll out PPOs or come to your campus to hire. And you will have to find good startups in your city with growth potential and spend some time working for them, maybe even for free. Once you prove your mettle and usefulness, they will be more than happy to pay you market salary so you do not go to another employer.

In my experience, startups are meritocracies which look at your quality of work and give you more opportunities accordingly. They care far less about your educational pedigree and more about how much you can help. 

And this is definitely an option you should explore during this recession.

Look for startups that are cash-flow positive, or growing month on month. Startups that have recently raised money are also good options, just make sure it is not a startup that is running out of money as raising follow up rounds right now can be quite hard. 

3. Get experience

Sure you are not getting a job immediately. 

Does that mean you should sit and wait? 

Terrible idea. Make yourself useful. 

There are other options - through which you can get some work and start building a track record:

a. Freelance

You should try freelancing for lawyers and businesses. 

As businesses, advocates and law firms are more uncertain about their cash flows, they are opting more for freelancers rather than hiring people full time. 

If you know how to do the work, it is not very difficult to find freelance work. It requires extensive networking, profile building, cultivating a set of regular clients, but it is doable. Definitely an option you want to explore until you can find a stable job if that is what you want. 

Your ability to work for lower price points, reliability of the quality of work and turn around time will matter a lot. So make sure you are doing things that you can actually deliver value on. Contract drafting, compliance support, anti-sexual harassment compliances, GDPR audit or compliance, even business development and sales are great options. 

b. Do free work and build a track record

What if you can’t find freelance work? Then do some pro bono, free work. Who may need legal help at this time? Can you provide free services to them?

Help startups, industry associations, artists and comedians, even bloggers and NGOs, all of these can help you to build a track record, much needed experience and develop a professional network. 

Another way to build a track record in any practice area is to create content around that.

Maybe you can write blog posts, newspaper articles, make youtube videos or even podcasts around the practice area of your choice, where you want to be employed in the future.

You can even reach out to professors and researchers to work with them. 

There would be jobs, there would be opportunities, but there will be a mad rush for a few opportunities. Those with better networks, proven track records, history of doing good work will be preferred over those who didn’t build these things.

4. Build relationships in the workplaces where you want to work

As many lawyers have experienced slow down in their work, they are utilizing this time for business development if they are smart.

They are writing articles, doing a lot of webinars, starting their own blogs, engaging their existing clients by sending newsletter. They are even beefing up their social media presence. 

It is not easy to produce legal content, the person with good writing skills, who is preferably a lawyer will have an advantage over someone who has just good writing skills. 

Making videos or organizing webinars or producing a podcast is totally alien to most lawyers although they know the power of these things and can see some of their colleagues do wonder with these avenues.

However, you as a young lawyer may be really good with these things, or can figure it out. 

Can you step up and help partners and principal associates (would be partners, usually have a lot of say in hiring) law firms, in-house counsels or senior advocates with these things?

If you start doing this now, you will be quite indispensable in the months to come. 

5. Work on the cutting edge of things

Covid19 has catalysed the growth of what was supposed to happen in the distant future. And there is a lot of growth potential hidden in there.

Telemedicine is in. Online education is in. Even next level surveillance is here and many people are willingly subjecting themselves to it because they want to save themselves from contracting coronavirus. 

E-commerce is growing at a breakneck speed. Internet penetration is going up too. 

After India banned 59 chinese apps, there are many startups rapidly building alternatives to take over that market share.

India has been quietly doing massive structural reforms - such as opening up contract farming, making way for private capital into agriculture and allowing farmers to bypass the mandi system.

Richard Susskind’s dream of Online Courts is finally here. Harish Salve recently appeared for Arnab Goswami from London in the Supreme Court of India. 

Courts are going to be virtual until the end of this pandemic.

Who is building next generation online arbitration or mediation softwares? What help do they need?

What if you could work on things like these as a lawyer, administrator, operations manager or even in any other capacity for that matter? You could even start as an intern or with pro bono work!

Just note that these opportunities are unstoppable, there is just too much growth on the cards. 

If you are smart, you will not want to miss on these opportunities.

Go meet startups working in these areas, help them in any way you can. Call up companies, NGOs, think tanks working in these areas and ask them how you can be of help. Make lots of calls, be willing to work for free to prove your usefulness for a few weeks, and you will get absorbed into some role that you can help with. 

More than that, when law firms start hiring again and companies need junior in-house counsels, your involvement with these businesses, your understanding and experience will prove to be your trump card.

6. How can we help you?

The key is to realise that we need to adopt. What worked last year for your seniors, or have continued to work for the last 10 years, is unlikely to work for you.

That means you need to adjust your sails. You need to change your plans. You need to see where things are headed and act accordingly.

We have been helping our students to land jobs even at the height of the lockdown, using exactly the above methods. Our placement committee managed to help 7 of our students to bag various jobs across India. 

We can help you too. 

It is one thing to conceptually understand these ideas. But when you try to execute it, depending on your level of preparations and skill level, you may stumble at various points. We are here to help you if you ever need it!

First of all, you need top level skills that nobody taught you in law school to start with. We can help there.

Second, when you reach out to people for freelance work, or some other opportunity, if you are not hearing back from them, you may be doing it wrong. We are here to help to fix your approach and make sure you get it right, and the work comes your way.

Third, when you land job interviews or assessment internships, your every step is important. Our team will be here to prepare you and guide through every step.