Things mentioned in this Blog are given below;
- Introduction
- Importance of Academic Competitions
- Why are competitions worth your time?
- Different types of Competitions;
- Debates
- Legal Writing and Drafting
- Essay Competition
- Moot Competition
- Benefits of academic competitions;
- Practising
- Networking
- Practical Knowledge
- Financial Rewards
- Conclusion
Introduction: Apart from theoretical knowledge and practical learning, academic competitions and extracurricular activities play an important role in a law aspirant's life. This is an undeniable fact that every law learner should accept and give equal importance to these competitions and extracurricular activities. It is well known that best learning occurs outside the classroom. Many legal students even after their studies, internships, and many other responsibilities took part in such competitions, as not only does this refresh their minds but it has many other advantages also. This competition teaches the practical application of the concept law aspirants has learned in a Book or heard from someone else. These competitions provide the law aspirants opportunity to learn from situations that they will face later on in their legal careers.
Importance of Academic Competitions: Academic competition is a very important part of law students' life, since the start of education, students are often encouraged to participate in different competitions. The reason behind it is very easy, these competitions teach different skills but the first most important in them is the spirit of honesty, through these competitions students learn to accept the result whether they won or not. Academic competitions make a learner more inquisitive and also build the skill of independent thinking and research. These competitions make one curious about current affairs, especially in the legal field, many acts and laws are introduced periodically, and competitions incite a law learner to gain complete knowledge about such enactments.
Competition helps learners develop skills like resilience, perseverance and tenacity. These academic competitions hold a very important place in a legal aspirant’s life as these competitions teach them so many thighs such as teamwork, critical thinking, creativity, how to do case studies, and many more. This helps them get the required exposure to the legal world. Often law schools hold legal events to carry out such competitions and many platforms provisioning online legal certification course organise such competitions to give the learners a chance to show their talent and follow their passion.
Why are competitions worth your time? For every law aspirant, time is the most crucial thing, among all the other things, what is the reason that makes these competitions worthy of their time and also why they are considered so important. Participating in such competitions has many benefits such as teaching how to conduct an interview with a client, how to cross-question, how to put forward an opinion in the most presentable way, how to draft error-free legal documents and many more. But the most important thing that these competitions provide is a certificate, just like a certificate of the online law certification course is important and mentioning one’s CV increases the potential of the candidate in the recruitment process and in the recruiter’s eyes, the certificate of participation in these competitions are counted as an important qualification. The experience from these competitions assist a learner throughout their legal career and also helps them in their real-time practice in the courtroom.
Different types of Competitions: There are a number of academic competitions which can help legal learners to show their hidden talent, usually, these competitions are open to all so that a student can explore new things also. Along with these, there is much competition which requires the participation of more than one person, this leads to a participant learning the importance of teamwork and eventually they learn the art of team playing. Here are mentioned some of the academic competitions, which are organised by law schools and nowadays platforms offering online legal certification courses in India are also organising such competitions to help students, some of the names of such competitions are given below;
Debates: It is a very well-known fact that having the art of debate is very essential in a legal career, not only for those aspirants who aim to make a career in litigation but also for other fields of Law that require lawyers with this skill. The perks of Participating in debate competitions are many but the first that is very significant is it enhances the art of Public speaking, often many capable lawyers face the problem of lack of confidence, so participating in debates can boost their confidence and prepare them for becoming an excellent interpersonal communicator and an exceptional lawyer.
Legal Writing and Drafting: Many competitions which are based on the concept of legal writing help the aspirants to polish the art of legal drafting as in any field of law, whether it be a legal advisor or advocate or AoR, one of the most basic requirements for them is they should be an expert in legal writing. These competitions are mainly based on case studies on special landmark judgements and opinions on them.
Essay Competition: A legal aspirant should be exceptional in written and verbal communication skills, and the proof of this can be the certification of such essay writing competitions. These competitions can gain recognition from top legal experts and enhance one’s analytical & critical thinking skills.
Moot Competition: A moot competition is the closest feel to a courtroom a student can experience without going to an actual courtroom. Mooting is similar to a court proceeding where the student team is presented with a legal problem that they are required to argue before a judge or a panel of judges. With the enhancement of technology, in present times this moot court is also held virtually, in which an aspirant has to fight the case just like an advocate would have.
Benefits of academic competitions: As mentioned in the above Blog there are numerous benefits of different academic competitions in a law student's life, here are mentioned some of them;
Practising: Through these competitions, one gained a lot of experience and training. It also increases the interest of students in different fields, furthermore, the practice makes them fully prepared for different situations they will be facing in the future. One of the great examples of this is the Moot competition, as it provides the fully-fledged working of a courtroom.
Networking: One of the easiest and most accessible ways to start networking in the legal field is participating in such competitions. The coach and judges of such competitions are well-known personalities in the legal field, and getting recognition from them is beneficial for law aspirants in the long run.
Practical Knowledge: Participating in such competitions leads to grasping the real-life application of different concepts and theories, and also teaches the art of client counselling, mediation, arbitration and negotiation, those skills which require practice to master, not just theories that can explain them.
Financial Rewards: The winner of the competition not only gets certification, and recognition from top industry experts but also receives financial rewards, which are given to them in order to encourage them. These rewards not only boost their confidence but also help them financially.
Conclusion: All law aspirants need to understand the importance of these competitions in their professional life and how it proves their credibility to their recruiters, the certification of this competition looks very good and appealing to the recruiters. The main objective of these competitions is to help learners find out what interests them the most and what they are most passionate about, then they easily find the field of specialisation they want to follow. Many legal learning platforms along with the best online law certification courses, organise various competitions for law learners. These competitions have financial rewards, as well as the candidate gets recognition from the top legal experts. So every law student should make sure to take part in such competitions.