Know your Campus Ambassador: K J Chendhil Kumar, NALSAR University

Over the last two years, we have built a network of Campus Ambassadors across more than fifty law schools all over India. These law students have been providing us with information on campus events and activities, and also sharing legal articles.

This series of interviews is meant to turn the spotlight on these hardworking and dedicated individuals.

In this edition, we speak with K J Chendhil Kumar, a fourth-year student at NALSAR University.

Why did you choose to study law?

The foundations of this response dates back to my tenth class. I used to study in Kendriya Vidyalaya (due to my dad’s transferable job) which did not offer much of options/combination of subjects post class 10 except for pre-set science, commerce and arts combinations in my school.

I hated physics and mathematics (though I used to score quite well in those). I assumed even the accounts would have mathematics so I decided to run away from it as well. I was left with only arts to pursue in class 11. Here comes the first ever wager that I played with my life. The deal that I had with my dad was, if I take science, then I need to get into NDA and if I choose to take arts, I will have to study law from a National Law University.

I was quite happy with the deal since this option only came from my dad’s side. My mom was still hell bent with science as the only option (Classic brown mom). I also did not want to do a lot of physical hard work which NDA would naturally bring into my life, so the only option I was left out with was to study law. So even though there was not much of a “choice”, I ended up doing law.

What made you apply for the Campus Ambassador post at Bar & Bench?

Being in the fourth year of law school, I have explored some of the very clichéd paths that a law student would have to take up as a career option post law school. However, legal journalism was something that I did not even have the faintest idea about. This was the time I came across an advertisement from lawctopus that Bar & Bench has opened applications for Campus Ambassador.

So, I started to read up on it and came across many articles written by students under the “Know Your Campus Ambassador” section. I found it so cool that I wanted to see my post amongst them as well.

So, I ended up applying for the post. Even though that was one of the driving reasons, there are many others as well.

Be it during my internships or projects or even when a teacher asks a question in the class, one of my quick go to was Bar & Bench and its articles. I have taken so much from it so I felt that it is the time for me to give back something.

What are your plans after completing law?

I plan to enter a corporate law firm after completing law. Albeit, my intentions may sound very cliché from a NLU student, trust me, if there is something that COVID-19 has taught me is the importance of getting a good job with a decent package.

Keeping this in mind as the focus, I planned out all my internships to be law firm oriented.

I started with small firms, moving up to tier two firms and then to the tier one firms at the moment. After gaining some practical exposure of the commercial world, I plan to pursue higher studies from abroad (mostly as a break and chill time hopefully) and return to India to hone my knowledge and skills in commercial law.

If everything goes well, hopefully I could make a partner someday in a tier one firm and print currency notes at home.