Choosing a Law School

How does one decide which law school to apply to? Is it the academic standards or the performance in moot court competitions? Is it the reputation of the law school in the industry or the reputation amongst other law schools? Rankings are always harbingers of controversy. Rankings released by different sources often conflict resulting in a fair bit of confusion, to say the least.

Here are the most important ingredients to decide which law school to pick:

1) Industry Reputation
2) Reputation amongst Foreign Law Schools
3) Peer Reputation
4) Academic Standards / Quality of Faculty
5) Recruitment Statistics
6) Location
7) Student Community / Campus Life
8) Hostel Quality
9) IT Infrastructure / Library
10) Quality of Entrance Process

It is on the basis of these criteria that we recognized NLSIU, NUJS, NALSAR and NLU (not in ranking order) as being the top four colleges in the country. The 'National Law School' label, excellent infrastructure, strong peer and industry reputation are the pillars on which these colleges stand.

NLIU, GLC Mumbai, ILS Pune and Symbiosis Pune form a part of the second tier. Even in this tier the first three are a notch better than Symbiosis where academic standards, recruitment and industry reputation leave scope for improvement. ILS and GLC boast of solid industry reputation and even reputation amongst foreign law schools. NLIU is a national law school that could make it to the top tier by restructuring its entrance process to take more merit category students. Despite not offering a five year course as yet Faculty of Law, Delhi would come within this second tier.

The two new national law schools i.e. GNLU Gandhinagar and HNLU Raipur, though in their infancy, are climbing on the strength of the national law school brand and the entrance process. GNLU is the one that's climbing quicker.

A detailed ranking of all major law schools in the country (on a national and regional level) is on our agenda and we hope to have them ready in time for applications to the 2006 programmes.