How can law universities enable entrepreneurship
With a dearth of employment opportunities, discomfort in the current working environment and a desire to create their own way – Lawyers are leaving the courtroom behind to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Lawyers have traditionally been attributed to have skills unfavorable for entrepreneurship. However, this view is rapidly changing with a sharp rise in lawyer entrepreneurs.
Lawyer entrepreneurs typically launch ventures either inside or outside the realm of legal services. For example, the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has led to a surge of legal-tech startup. Some lawyers leave their law firm or litigation jobs to start ventures based on combination of AI and law in order to ease the legal process or help expand access to legal services. Lawyers may also end up in changing their career options and go beyond the legal profession to be the founders of creative service solution companies, investment firms or even product centric firms.
One integral question that warrants investigation is whether these entrepreneurship traits are inherent or whether they were learned during law school. Some students pick up entrepreneurial skills by observing someone in their family while others develop them through education. In either situation, law schools play an important role in inculcating entrepreneurial skills in law students. Some of the skills taught in law school are critical thinking, client counselling, self-discipline, decisiveness, integrity and persistence. Interestingly, these are also some of the skills which are necessary for entrepreneurial ventures.
Law schools can serve as a springboard to entrepreneurship ventures in India. Law students are already well versed with the laws required to operate a business smoothly as part of their education. The only need is to train them on skills like risk taking, creative thinking and being innovative rather than being reactive. Lawyers are required to think of creative solutions when they enter the profession and during their work tenure. Law universities can create stimulating environment relating to finance, marketing, management and human resource elements of business to give them a glimpse into the business operations. This activity can serve as an informational activity for law students who want to undertake a business venture or who wish to deal with legal aspects of business. A fair understanding of business will help them provide relevant solutions to their clients without hampering or undermining growth.
The private universities in India provide a great platform for supporting legal entrepreneurs as they usually have other schools such as Business, Finance and Human resources, operating along with their law school.
The knowledge and training provided by specialized professionals working in these Business or other schools helps young lawyers develop the relevant entrepreneurial skills. Interaction with fellow students from other schools also helps generate interest and kindle creative business ideas. The exchange of information and the environment stimulate both personal and professional growth. One of the most progressive steps taken by these law schools is the formulation of the integrated Bachelor of Business Administration and
Law course. Many law schools have also introduced several other courses relating to business management and professional skills.
A traditional lawyer has attributes that tie them with rules and thereby not provide the ability to take risks. However, at the same time the ability of lawyers to assist their clients under any circumstance and taking up difficult cases that may even affect their reputation, exhibit their risk-taking abilities. These might not be ideal examples of risk-taking abilities, but this skill may spur rapid growth for their
ventures. This skill can be developed by inspiring students through case studies and guest lectures where legal entrepreneurs or lawyers who have turned entrepreneurs, inspire students through their journey. Law students are biased towards rationale and an understanding of risk taking through examples of others, aided with long term planning will serve as steppingstone towards growth.
Another common skill among successful entrepreneurs is constant growth and evolution. Law students are fairly aware about the new laws and changing status of the existing laws as the fear of redundancy is looming upon any precedent cases. Just a bit of push towards having the same awareness and responsiveness to the business environment would make them reach greater heights.
The other skills common in lawyers and entrepreneurs are tenaciousness and resourcefulness. Law students are trained in providing solutions to their clients which help their clients achieve their objective rather than refusing to counsel them. This training helps them have the right attitude of never giving up in their venture. The rigorous training provided by law schools in becoming detail-oriented and looking things from all perspectives also helps develop a perfectionist attitude and thereby helps these legal entrepreneurs consider the minutest things in their business with great detail.
To encourage students to have a holistic view, law schools can mandate internships with business organization rather than restricting it only to law firms or litigation. As the career paths that can be taken after studying law have increased, so has the need for law students to explore them through internships. In addition to internships, business culture in the family orients the students to build business instincts and skills, which can be developed by experience for those who do not have business backgrounds.
Lastly, the ability to have clear mind in the most difficult situation and decisiveness is a shared attribute between lawyers and successful entrepreneurs. Lawyers are trained to be patient and represent different cases to sharpen their skills. They also receive training in judgment and rationale building. These skills maybe missed out in business school but in law school they are absolutely compulsory.
The emerging trends in globalization and technology will lay a foundation for budding lawyer entrepreneurs and law schools will have to refine their curriculum to meet the growing demand of the market. These budding lawyer entrepreneurs will bring in a new spectrum of products and services thus aiding economic growth in the country.