National Law University, Jodhpur (NLU-J) has concluded its placements for the graduating batch of 2011. The placement process began on July 18, 2010 and was concluded on May 5, 2011. The highest pay package from the Indian recruiters went up to around 12 - 13 lakh ($26,600 – 28,800) and for foreign recruiters it went up to around 27-30 lakh ($60,000 - $66,600). Average pay package was around 8-9 lakh ($17,700 – 20,000). Out of a batch of 87 students only 66 students sat for placements and 56 students have been placed so far; as confirmed by reliable sources from NLU Jodhpur (No official confirmation has been received).

Luthra and Luthra were the highest recruiter; hiring 14 followed by Trilegal hiring 5.  International law firm Allen and Overy also recruited one student. Other prominent law firm recruiters include Amarchand and Mangaldas, Lakshmi Kumaran and Sridharan, JSA, Trilegal, NDA, Khaitan & Poovayya.

Several Companies and LPO's joined the recruitment bandwagon. Pangea3, Infosys, Lexis Nexis, Reliance Infrastructure were some of the big names that offered exciting salary packages. 

Six students are going for LL.M. abroad in Universities like Berkley, Cornell University, King’s College, London and National University of Singapore. Six students are preparing for the UPSC exam and the judicial service exam. Nine students would be for litigation in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka. Six students have also been shortlisted for the judicial clerkship programme by the Supreme Court.

Bar & Bench spoke to a student of the graduating batch on the placement process and the problems they faced (Name cannot be disclosed to protect privacy)

Functioning of the Placement Bureau: The Placement Bureau of National Law University is chaired by Prof. U.R. Daga (also a faculty for management studies). Apart from him, the Assistant Registrar, Gaurav Mathur controls the operations of the Bureau. The Bureau looks after internships of students in the other batches and the recruitment of the Final Batch. The Bureau appoints student members representing each batch by accepting applications from every batch and the students so appointed, assist in the functioning of the Placement Bureau. However, the decision making power unlike other Universities is vested with the Chairperson and the Assistant Registrar and the students have no say or influence over the same. The Recruitment Process in the final year started off by the Placement Bureau fixing dates with most of the regular recruiters over email and telephone. The students are sent mails as and when the recruiter shows interest in visiting the campus, for giving their consent for participating in the recruitment process. The short listing is done as per the firm’s policy and the recruitment process takes place. Till the last year, the University policy allowed each candidate to reject at least one offer made by a firm without being disqualified from the placement process. However, this rule is likely to be scrapped from the next year.

Problems Faced: Though the final placement figures of the Batch of 2011 are quite impressive, there were a couple of difficulties that were faced before arriving at the present figures. A student body like the RCC of NALSAR, NLS or the CRC of NUJS which gives greater power to the students like direct communication with the recruiters via mails and telephones, and fixing up of dates, allows better distribution and execution of work and better management of the whole process. The efforts of the student members of the Placement Bureau at National Law University, Jodhpur gets restricted due to the limited powers given to them. However, the present structure of the Placement Bureau is justified to some extent by the fact that an independent student body may amount to students favouring their friends in matters related to placements and hence faculty control ensures an unbiased approach. Hence a fine balance needs to be maintained.

Secondly, the one rejection rule has amounted to several seats and opportunities being wasted. The Authorities are strongly considering the removal of this rule.

Thirdly, mass scale campus recruitment by Luthra and Luthra this year (14 people) resulted in most of the other competitor firms like Amarchand Mumbai backing out of the campus recruitment process thinking that the cream of the batch had already been taken away.

However, these problems were gradually overcome, some of the newer, non –regular recruiters were approached and students were placed through PPOs granted at internships fixed by the college and by the students themselves. So the situation was finally turned into a favourable one by the combined efforts of the Placement Bureau Members and the students who were meritorious enough to get selected through PPOs.