As part of its Beat the Curve program, ICICI Bank is organizing interactive sessions and a national level competition across various law schools.
The law schools where the sessions will be conducted are NLSIU Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, NUJS Kolkata, NLIU Bhopal, NUALS Kochi, CNLU Patna, NLU Delhi, NLU Jodhpur, ILS Pune, and Symbiosis Law School Pune.
The competition involves the analysis of case studies provided by ICICI. Students are provided with three case studies covering different work areas within banking and finance law, of which they are expected to submit a written solution for at least one case study by February 15, 2019. Students in their fourth year are eligible to participate.
The top 20 students will be selected for an oral round to be held in Mumbai, on the basis of which the top 3 winners will be selected. The prizes on offer include consideration for pre-placement offers (PPOs), and interaction with the senior leadership at ICICI, among others.
The Beat the Curve program was officially launched on January 7, 2018 with the case studies for the competition being circulated to law schools, and the first interactive session being held at NLSIU. Additionally, interactive sessions at NALSAR and NUJS were also launched, and several more are scheduled to be conducted in other campuses in the forthcoming weeks.
The objective behind the program is to engage more students in the practicalities of commercial law. As stated by ICICI Group General Counsel Pramod Rao,
“Through Beat the Curve program, we want to encourage students to think about commercial laws in a more practical application oriented manner.
Beat The Curve program has three fold objectives for us: firstly, to showcase the commercial and practical aspects of law, with special focus on banking and finance law; secondly, to demystify and/or enhance awareness on the role of in-house counsels among law students, enabling them to consider an in-house role as a primary career choice; and finally, to discern the analytic abilities of law students at various law schools in solving real-life business transactions thus helping us establish an objective process for talent identification.
The interactive sessions should serve to give the students a sense of work undertaken by banking lawyers and what law students can expect as legal professionals in banking and finance transactions, especially as in-house counsels.
Post that through the competition, we will provide students with an opportunity to put their learning to practical use and compete with some of the brightest minds from premier law schools in India.
We look forward to active participation and in encouraging law students to apply themselves and to also consider in-house opportunities as they embark on their professional journey.”
A vast majority of the legal group within ICICI Bank comprises lawyers from premier law schools, including NLSIU, NALSAR, NUJS, NLIU, NUALS, CNLU, NLU Delhi, NLU Jodhpur, ILS Pune, and Symbiosis Law School Pune. Over 20 lawyers are hired from these law schools every year.