The USLLS Frame team now brings to you, an interview of our alumni, Ms Padma Priya, who graduated in 2006. During the last two years of her law school, She worked actively with the National Commission for Women and also co-authored a book entitled "Meera Didi se Poocho" for the Commission along with another friend and batch-mate, Divya Chaturvedi. She practise mainly at the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India, apart from various statutory Boards, Commissions and Tribunals. She has worked as a law clerk with Hon’ble Ms. Justice Hima Kohli, at the Delhi High Court and has also been associated with AZB & Partners and M.V.Kini & Co. Along with regular practice, She also do legal aid matters and have an inclination towards academics. Here you go: Q.1) Tell us about your schooling and background. What inspired the law school decision? I did my schooling from DAV Public School, Shreshtha Vihar, Delhi. Until Class XI, I had no specific plans of doing law. When I started considering career options a little seriously, I had envisaged some diverse alternate choices for myself; theatre with an economic honors, journalism and law. Though my parents never imposed their choices on me, but my father was fascinated with law as a profession and motivated me to take up law as a career. Also, personally what inspired me to choose law was the omnipresent character of the subject and its limitless scope and reach. Q.2) Mooting. Unnecessarily glorified or a stepping stone? Well, it is neither of the two. Mooting is an ‘opportunity’; an opportunity to get out of the mould, to challenge ones limits, to learn and unlearn, and most importantly, to meet people and make friends. Mooting helps us understand and develop the two most crucial skills of advocacy; to think on ones feet and to survive and excel in an uncontrolled environment with unpredictable variables; viz. the judges and the opposite side. I have experienced ‘mooting’ from both sides, during the law school days as a participant, and now as a judge and I very strongly recommend that one must not let this opportunity go. Q.3) What made you opt for litigation? What are the challenges that lie ahead in this field? Honestly, I don’t know what made me opt for litigation, just that I always knew I wanted to be a counsel. I could never see myself being restricted to a cubicle, glued on to the laptop. When I joined litigation, I started with 6k as remuneration as against peers who were earning about 30-45k p.m. in corporate firms and LPOs. But, I must say that litigation is addictive. One challenging matter, a good order, a few words of appreciation from a Judge or seniors or colleagues at the bar, a good discussion over a cup of coffee at the cafeteria, they can actually makes up for the initial difference in remuneration. The challenges are known to all. In the beginning it is difficult to get the briefs. I was blessed to start practising with a mid-size law firm, where I got opportunities to argue matters, and could therefore get some visibility despite being a first generation lawyer with no briefs of my own. The gestation period is long, but I must say with all humility that the Bench and the senior members of the bar, especially in the High Court and Supreme Court are extremely encouraging and helpful, thus making the environment very conducive for even a young first generation lawyer to start practicing. There may be some negatives and many challenges, but with honest hard work and sincerity, one can leave them behind and there is space for everyone. Q.4) Your entire USLLS experience. Any special person(s) you would like to mention? ‘Good times fly’. This is how I can summarize my experience at USLLS. When we joined law school, five years seemed like a long period, but before we realized, five years had vanished. We were the first batch and faced all challenges that the first batch of any institution would face. Most of the times we were experimenting with things, and as is true of any experiment, the results were always a surprise, unknown and unpredictable. However, this also made us a confident batch, with good managerial skills and great bonding. Besides academics, the extra-curriculars were always great fun, the annual university fest was the most awaited event of our academic calendars. This is also something that is unique to USSLS unlike other five-year law schools, where the chance to have inter-disciplinary interaction is limited. It is difficult to mention any one name in particular when it comes to persons who made law school days so special for us. The credit goes to the entire faculty and staff, and of course my batch mates and juniors. Q.5) The world beyond the race for “who-wants-to-be-the-next-amarchand-partner”. Your take. In other words, please elaborate on the alternative career choices that a person graduating from a Law School today would have, other than “placements”. Jobs with Corporate law firms have become the “in thing” for law graduates now. So much so that even the most traditional and obvious options like litigation, judiciary, teaching etc. have now become alternate. There are also many other exciting choices like legal journalism, research assistance with specialized Tribunals and forums, consultancy, cause based advocacy etc. Like I have already said, law is omnipresent and it permeates all facets of life and society from sports to politics to entertainment. One only needs to be creative and intelligent to spot and even create opportunities. Q.6) Your interests in the world beyond law Beyond the world of law, there is theatre, music, books and movies for me. However, as a first generation lawyer still trying to find my feet in the profession, works remains first priority. Q.7) Considering that the students studying in National law universities and the students studying in USLLS have a different learning environment altogether, any piece of advice for them? My advice would be to understand and accept that whatever happens, happens for a reason. The best thing is that we know our weakness. We know exactly where we lack as compared to the National Law Schools. There are only two ways to deal with weakness, we can either crib about it and give up or we can simply accept it and turn our weakness into our strength with hard work and sincerity. Having said that, I would also like to add that we must understand what makes some of the national law school better than us. from what I have observed during my visits to some of these law schools is that most of their achievements whether in terms of winning moot courts or organizing seminars and conferences and even placements, is a result of the initiative taken by students themselves, with facilitation and encouragement from the faculty. We also need to develop this culture more aggressively.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 15:23:39 +0000
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