I had a chance this morning to reflect on my 18 year journey in the world of law.
What fundamental changes have taken place in the Indian legal industry since I decided to study law in 2005? Let me share 10 – 6 not so good for lawyers, and 4 amazing trends that are turning out to be game changers:
1. In 2005 there were hardly 30,000-50,000 seats pan India to study law, if my memory serves me right. By the time I graduated, there were more than 1 lakh seats per year. It appears the number of approved seats for law colleges has crossed 2 lakhs lakhs per year as per UGC data. I could not find BCI data. This means competition at the entry level is rapidly growing.
2. Back then, there were 7 NLUs only. There were less than 500 seats in these NLUs. Graduating from an NLU was a sure shot guarantee to getting a good job. Today, the number of NLUs is close to 30, and getting a seat at NLU is no guarantee of success or even landing a decently paid job at the time of graduation.
3. In 2005, legal practice was a great deal about information arbitrage. Lawyers knew the law, clients could not hope to figure out the law for themselves. Today information is ubiquitous. In 2005, you needed access to expensive case law reports to know the latest law. Today, you can find it online in 5 minutes. Lawyers are explaining the law and every aspect of issues on social media. Lawyers cannot hope to survive on information arbitrage, they have to build a practice based on trust, relationships & results delivered to clients. It is way harder to do this.
4. Back then, it was easy to get an internship or apprenticeship role, as the ratio of newcomers versus experienced lawyers was very good. Today, there are way more newcomers, making it very difficult for bulk of the people to get a senior who can spare time to teach them the ropes.
5. While there has been a surge in the number of new lawyers in traditional practice areas like criminal law and civil litigation, the number of cases filed has been either flat or in some cases even reduced.
6. As some of the courts are getting overcrowded more and more by the day, clients do not get relief in a reasonable time or budget, making them reluctant to approach lawyers. Nothing short of structural changes in how courts function or how many judges get appointed will change this scenario.
But there are some very positive changes as well that have created new opportunities for lawyers:
1. Businesses had an unprecedented growth in India during this period, which led to massive growth of disputes (corporate litigation, arbitration) as well as non-dispute work (think IP, Contracts, Corporate) for lawyers. This is reflected in an ever growing number of law firms doing such work as well as growth of legal expenses reported by listed companies in their stock exchange filings.
2. After UPI, there is a huge trend towards formalization of businesses. For the most part, Indian businesses except listed companies or MNCs tended to operate informally, especially MSME companies who also employed 80% of the workforce. However, now they have compelling reasons to formalise and seek help from professionals like CA, CS and lawyers. So business law services are no longer restricted to just the larger companies. This has created a massive opportunity for young lawyers.
3. Phenomenon of FDI, which fuelled both MNC expansion in India as well as startups being born, requiring multitudes of legal services, has been another blessing for Indian lawyers.
4. Last but not the least, the pandemic opened the doors for Indian lawyers to go international and they started to work with law firms and clients in US, UK, Canada, Dubai and many other advanced economies, benefiting from cost arbitrage as people have learned to work with professionals remotely during the pandemic. You can see the tip of the iceberg from platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, where Indian lawyers are drafting contracts, providing IP services, and even doing litigation drafting for foreign clients and earning in USD.
Am I optimistic about the legal profession?
I am. Incredible opportunities have presented themselves.
Only thing that worries me is that the profession has been very slow to adapt to these fundamental changes – both in terms of dealing with threats as well as seizing the opportunities.
But that only means that those individuals who decide to buck the trend and decide to go their own ways based on the tailwind, are going very far very fast.