“One of my professors took a hundred photos of the textbook, and sent it to me!” recounts Bhavya Kandala, who did not initially have all her textbooks in the first semester of her LLM program at Seattle University’s School of Law.
“You read about how the professors [in the US] can be so helpful, but to experience this firsthand was something else.”
A second-generation lawyer from Hyderabad, Bhavya was drawn to Seattle University for several reasons. One of them was the law school’s location.
“I was looking for cities [in the US] that have a booming startup environment where organizations are going to require IP expertise. Seattle has hundreds of startups, there is a new one almost every day,” she said.
Another reason was the law school’s LLM in Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.
A few years into setting up her own practice in Hyderabad, Bhavya began receiving legal queries about Indian intellectual property law. As the city’s tech-startup base expanded, these queries only increased. Through subsequent research, Bhavya soon began identifying several grey areas in the country’s IP laws.
And then the pandemic struck. Bhavya viewed this difficult period as an opportunity to build her own knowledge base.
“It was exactly what I wanted," she said about Seattle U Law’s Tech LLM.
Apart from providing courses on privacy, digital commerce, and technology, Seattle U Law also conducts a summer institute dedicated to innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. “We got to visit business campuses and speak with industry leaders,” says Bhavya, “and the professors were great!”
Given Seattle’s geographic advantage, a number of faculty members have practiced in the IP industry, including with large technology companies like Microsoft . Another benefit is Seattle U Law’s large and widespread alumni base, which makes networking relatively easier.
“In the end, [the LLM] is about the experiences you have and the connections you make.”
Bhavya is currently working at Seattle U’s India Centre for Law and Justice, which was founded by Professor Sital Kalantry in 2019 at Cornell Law School. When Prof. Kalantry moved to Seattle U, so did the centre.
Explaining the reasons behind founding the centre, Prof. Kalantry says she hopes to, “Draw attention to Indian law from a comparative perspective to engage scholars and law students in the study of India. It is also a way to build community among students from India who are on Seattle University’s campus.”
So far, the centre has encouraged Indian academics to visit Seattle U for research, run a speakers series, and started a podcast to further build discussion around comparative analysis of U.S. and India jurisprudence.
“The judicial systems of both the U.S. and India are common law systems,” said Prof. Kalantry, “and the U.S. legal institutions have a lot to gain by learning from and studying Indian jurisprudence and institutions.”
With a host of activities and research being planned, both Bhavya and Prof. Kalantry are looking to build and expand the centre’s work. They also look forward to welcoming Indian law graduates who opt to study at Seattle University School of Law.
Asked for some final words of advice, Bhavya said, “Set aside the fear of exploring the unknown, step ahead, explore and you’ll be surprised by the opportunities you’ve been blinded to.”
(Priority will be given to LLM applications submitted by December 15)
(This is a sponsored post)