People not acquainted with the legal profession get the impression that law is a very glamorous profession. They infer that all lawyers are rogues and they poach on innocent naive clients to juice out a quick buck, sometimes to wipe them off of all their moneys. While there is a lot of truth in this statement, painting all with the same paintbrush is highly inappropriate, willful abstention from the truth and therefore misplaced.
These views do get rubbed off sometimes on a novice to law. That’s right on innocent law students. People can be extremely condescending to us and to our profession. The best of the worst lies in the 3 or 5 years of law school. You have to learn to tango with all jibes, barbs, diatribes, insinuations from non-legal and sometimes even the legal fraternity with a warm smile. This seems to be a necessary ritual in becoming a complete lawyer. Cause after one clears the bar exam and becomes a full - fledged lawyer, the tables turn. It can so–be called the “
Lawkshman Rekha” For Law Students - The Coming of age.
http://i46.tinypic.com/1572c8i.png So the best a law student can do is dust himself and move on consciously being oblivious to the fact that he is the victim of changes. But before crossing over, the golden days of a lawyer are always his law school innings. The opportunity that one gets is immeasurable anywhere. Even so many humorous episodes are often foretold long after one gets out of college and establishes himself as an “advocate”. Having said that the life of a law student is also mundane, not very exciting as it is made out to be. Do not for a moment take my word for it. This is the view expressed by a former principal of a well established law school in my residential vicinity (would have given that chaps name but I am conscious of committing of libel) but there are some fables that stand apart from the rest that obligatorily need to be elucidated.
http://i46.tinypic.com/depxqg.png A lovely female advocate whom I had the liberty to chat with did recount to me her days in law school. Adv Meena Menon (name changed on purpose please do not associate this incident to any person you may know or even if you do leave me out of It :8): )stated that on the orientation day in the grand hall of her college her principal was flanked by a criminal teacher (pun intended) on one side and a teacher for taxation matters on the other. The bespectacled principal grinned cheerfully at the 500 plus students seated before him. He walked onto the podium cleared his throat and started talking into the jarring mike. He went on for 45 minutes. Any more time spent and he might have beaten Fidel Castro’s record at the UN. His speech contained random maxims, some case comments a story about some random student who got into Yale and how he was adamant with that student that he got into Yale only because of his erstwhile law school’s teachers effort. Her principal then ended with this sentence: “
At our law college, we look to a student as our colleagues. We are all friends here. We always welcome our students with open arms. So please do not hesitate to approach us.”
http://i49.tinypic.com/2n653c0.jpg These last words really caught our protagonist’s attention. A few days into the first semester and Meena was fully charged up to enter into an essay competition on “Judicial Activism”. The Principal being the “expert” on this subject, she naturally decided to seek his help. She entered The Principal’s Office and spoke freely what she had in mind. After listening intently to her (or so she thought) The Principal retorted: Is This Part Of Your Syllabus? Our Miss Menon explained it to him that this was an extracurricular activity, hence not part of the curriculum. The Principal chortled: Please do not take part in these distractions, these won’t help you become a lawyer, study hard, ace your exams and that’s all that matters. That would have shocked any law student let alone “she who then sat there rooted to the spot”. She mustered courage and expressed he firm desire to participate in it and coaxed with the principal to help her with it. Once again, he dismissed her and eschewed her from indulging in these activities. He also went on to say that he was very busy and could not find time to help her. Adv Meena Menon eventually did participate without the Principal’s assistance and came in 3
rd at that competition. She then told me that after the win when The Principal again had the opportunity of addressing the law students. There he proclaimed that ‘he had encouraged her to write the essay and extended all possible help to her’. “I vividly remember get wild with anger then”, she would later narrate to me. “But I learnt my lesson and realized that a law student one must fend for herself”. She even mentioned that the library were stocked with lesser known authors in spite of the Principal speech clearly announcing the arrival of some famous known author’s that academic year. What was worse was that students were only allowed to borrow books that were the subjects of their semester. This particularly disturbed her immensely. She nevertheless got access to the books not part of the syllabus by getting a teacher’s signature (she got a teacher on her side).
http://i48.tinypic.com/17zddd.jpg Adv Meena is now an established advocate and that’s all that is there to it. She firmly maintains that few blemishes do not tarnish her entire law school experience .She had a lot of positives too. She made friends, went on excursions, visited the Supreme Court and Parliament, mooted in inter colleges competitions and also took part in cultural activities. She also mentions the pranks pulled out by her but made me swear solemnly not to disclose it. Advocate- Law Student confidentiality? I guessed the same. So she advises me that school of law need not be a drudgery affair. I shall second to that view. Having said pretty much everything, I shall now leave you readers with the tweaked Forrest Gump quote: “
Law School Life is like a box of candies. You never know what flavor you're going to get.” 
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