JGLS and NALSAR ramp up faculty; JGLS gets new Vice Dean while NALSAR pulls in alumni, offers one-credit courses and 2year MBA

Two of the country’s better-known law schools are increasing their faculty count, and introducing new courses. Although it is too early to consider the impact of these courses on perceived rankings of the law schools, there are several indications that the market for legal education is undergoing a fair bit of change..NALSAR University, Hyderabad has appointed ten new full-time faculty members, including six alumni..In addition to the new faculty, the University shall be offering electives from “external experts” such as Prof. Ram Puniyani, a former Professor at IIT Bombay and a writer on communalism (his course will be “Religion, Violence and Indian Nationalism”). Some of the electives will be taken by NALSAR alumni such as Mihira Sood, (“Legal Reform and Social Justice”), Shreya Rao (“Around the world in search of “tax logic”: An introduction to income tax design”) and Roshan Santhalia (“Practical Aspects of Litigation Procedure in India”)..Speaking to Bar & Bench, Professor Mustafa said that he has been simply overwhelmed by the response from the alumni. “All I did was write to them.” The University shall also be offering a 2 year Masters In Business Administration from this year onwards, with a total intake of 60 students. As per the press release issued by the University, the MBA includes a specialization in “Court Management” as well as Corporate Governance. With respect to Court Managers, the former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar had recently stated that the Government had allocated Rs.300 crore for the creation of the posts of Court Manager. Kumar had also stated that there would be one Court Manager for every District, and two in every High Court..As for the other specializations on offer, the press release states that,.“The Business Managers need to know the legal environment in which they have to conduct their businesses and therefore NALSAR MBA (Corporate Governance) and MBA(Financial Services and Capital Markets)are going to be taken as a hot cake by the Corporates as MBA graduates of NALSAR in addition to requisite business skills would additionally have sufficient understanding of business and financial service laws.”.Meanwhile, the Jindal Global Law School at Sonipat (JGLS) has hired 18 new teachers, increasing the total count to 70 full-time faculty members. These faculty include alumni from various National Law Universities such as NLU Jodhpur and WBNUJS. The new appointments also include Professor Susan Lamb, the Vice Dean at JGLS, four new Associate Professors and eleven new Assistant Professors..Speaking to Bar & Bench, Prof. Lamb said that one of the reasons why she chose JGLS was the institution’s “strong commitment to the development of higher education within India” as well as its’ “international outlook and orientation”..Admitting that it was too early to comment on the utility of an undergraduate law program as compared to one aimed at the post-graduate level, Prof. Lamb did say that she had followed a similar program at Otago University in New Zealand..“It enabled me to combine my interest in international affairs with a vocational qualification,” said Prof. Lamb, “although of course it will not be the right choice for everyone.”