Focusing solely on placements hampers value of holistic growth of students

A myopic approach to careers focusing solely on job placements tends to ignore the value of holistic professional growth of students, legal experts said Thursday.

They also said that as Artificial Intelligence (AI) redefines the work of lawyers educators must provide a skill-based education. Founding Vice Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University C Raj Kumar said that legal education at JGLS enables its graduates to setup their own practice of law, or join a senior and start practising in the courts.

"A myopic approach to careers focusing solely on job placements of its graduates tends to ignore the value of holistic professional growth of the students along with providing the broadest possible horizon of professional opportunities to its students," he said in a statement. Assistant Dean of Careers at JGLS, Professor Anuranjan Sethi said: "As AI redefines the work of lawyers in an ever more complex business and social world, legal educators' approach to its graduates' careers must provide a diverse skill-based and experiential education than a mere theoretical one.

"The outgoing batch of Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) has secured jobs with leading law firms, top corporate recruiters and major think tanks of the country, among others, the JGLS statement said. Kumar said JGLS has developed over 200 structured internship relationships across classical and emerging segments of legal sector and has also institutionalised on-campus professional training programme for preparation of civil services examination.

Besides 57 corporate law firms, JGU students have received offers from 30 higher education institutions from world class universities, offers of judicial clerkships and positions at in-house legal departments, the statement said. Over 60 organizations across the legal industry have already recruited from JGLS this year, it said. Vice-Dean of JGLS, SG Sreejith said the JGLS curriculum factors a robust internship programme and it supplements classroom learning of principles of law with an understanding of their application in practice.