National Law School of India University LLB Review By Abhimanyu

Being one of the top institutes in the country, NLS offers you the best professors and exposure to law as academics as well as career. The professors are very cordial and approachable when it comes to clearing your concepts, honing your arguments for projects or talking about life in general. In teaching, they follow this thing called dialectical method or Socratic discussions, which is very different from the traditional way of teaching, the learning experience at NLS is quite unique and it’s a collaborative effort from the professor, students and even your classmates who bring unique discussion points to the table. Because they follow a trimester system, almost all courses are jam packed and students will be running around discussing projects, doing University moots, Nego rounds and organizing a trilateral or Strawberry Fields festival. The NLS student community is also quite unique and vibrant. The campus comes to life post evening with many events and sports events. Though it’s a hectic life at NLSIU, the university is one of the best in the country and offers you the best of the best in terms of teaching, internships and career opportunities. It wouldn't be wrong to say it’s a huge sea of opportunities and one can take as much as one can hope for.

Each program has a public entrance exam and is quite challenging to clear. I can speak for the LLB (hons.) program, for which one has to clear NLSAT (LL. B) which will be conducted around the month of March – April and the academic year begins from July and ends in May with trimester system and after each trimester there is a month-long gap. Almost every student on the campus uses this break to gain internship / work experience from various forums. Starting from trial courts to the Supreme Court of India. Some students even go to top law firms and get a glimpse of corporate work culture. Academics at NLS are tailored in a way to meet almost all these requirements and one can learn as much as they are curious about that particular subject. The University does provide a safe space and there are no bounds to learning and to be collaborative in coming up with creative solutions for legal problems.

Simply the best you can find in the country. Many professors are authors of authoritative textbooks used in different fields of law. Some classes / lectures are pure joy to sit in and interact with the faculty. Everyone encourages discussions in classrooms and to participate, one must come prepared by reading necessary case laws, articles and textbooks. The learning experience is quite unique which follows a dialectical method and sometimes the law is learned in conjunction with sociology, technological developments, extensive examples from current affairs and critiques of judgments.

Placements at NLS are largely run by batch specific RCC (Recruitment Coordination Committee) which has elected student representatives. These reps will be in constant communication with HRs from top law firms and they bring in internship / placement offers to the students. Some students do get PPOs before stepping into final year and many sit for Day Zero placement drives. Overall, there is a plethora of placement and internship opportunities at NLS. One can find even magic circle law firms specifically hiring NLS students and several other reputed foreign firms conducting exclusive placement drives at NLS.

There are separate Men and Women residential hostels on campus. Some buildings are new, and some are old, but very well maintained. The administration recently increased intake from 2024 due to which the hostels are overburdened and many are not offered on campus residence. There is twin sharing, triple sharing rooms and two mess centers on campus (The food is decent).

There is OAB - Old Academic Block, one of the oldest buildings on campus where lectures happen, and the classrooms are retrofitted with modern facilities. OAB also has administrative blocks which handle admissions, scholarships, IT services and others. It has a small canteen at its base where one can find idli, vada, dosa and chaat. The NAB - New Academic Block is the new building with huge classrooms with almost cutting-edge modern technologies. I personally like NAB classrooms as the light, acoustics and design is modern and offers ample space to sit and discuss with peers. Both OAB and NAB have reading rooms, good bathrooms and last but not the least NLS has the best of the best libraries in the entire country. This is no exaggeration; the Melgeri Rao Library is funded by Mrs. Sudha Murty and has the best architecture, ample space, discussion rooms, conference halls and wide collection of books, papers and resources. It is open from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM at night.

There are literally so many clubs at NLS, there is one for each interest from providing academic support to other students (ASP) to negotiations (ADR), moot (MCS), one to manage events (EMS) and even sports committee which organizes Gully Cricket League (GCL) and Volleyball Premier League (VPL). All run by the students and for the students. These clubs also invite reputed authors, speakers, key personalities from cinema, technology and politics organize talks which give students a different perspective and exposure apart from academics.