Question From A Law Student: Is Legal Research Being Taught Or Simply Expected?

Whenever it is the internship season for law students, as soon as they start interning under an advocate, the first thing they are told is to read a file and brief them, no clue, no guide, no assistance, just a file and you.

Somehow you try to read the files, the bare look at the file discourages the students, it always seemed an unending task to retain all the information because at the very first day, first time reading a file left me a feeling that everything in this file is important and I need to remember everything.

Then comes an affirmative sound that yes, you did very well. Another thing every law student is eventually handed that may sound deceptively very simple is find the relevant cases, research the issue, prepare a note, tell me your opinion.

The expectation is very clear but the process involved in it is not.

As students, we have learnt legal principles, read the judgements, participated in moot courts and written research papers, we have been taught to be articulate, to defend our arguments and to express our opinions confidently, but there is one question that often goes unanswered in this whole process and that is How does a lawyer actually begin thinking?

When an advocate himself receives a fresh brief, what is the first thing that they tend to do? What do they look in a file? What areas do they look upon at the priority level? do they begin with the facts, the statutes, the precedent, or the client’s motive? How do they identify the real legal issue hidden within pages of the document? How do they decide which authorities matter and which do not? At what stage does legal research becomes the answerable legal reasoning?

These are not merely an academic curiosity rather the professional skills.

Many advocates and resource persons understandably expect their interns to know how to locate authorities, distinguish relevant precedents, and form preliminary legal opinions at the prima facie level. Yet for many students, this expectation exposes a real gap between the legal education and legal practice. We are asked to perform the research, but rarely show the methodology behind it.

The challenge is not learning how to use the legal research engines or any other database, those are just the tools but the more fundamental challenge is learning the mental process of legal research. How does an experienced lawyer approach an unfamiliar legal problem? How are the research questions framed? How are conflicting judgements reconciled? How does one know when the research has been done and it has to be reported to the client about their case responsibly?

Most of us (interns) learn these practical skills through the trial-and-error method, we observe seniors, we rely on helpful mentors, we make mistakes during the internships but should such an essential professional competency depend on just chance?

Law schools fairly teach us to think critically and express effectively but still there seems to be a gap in making the craft of legal research visible. The transition from knowing the law to researching is often assumed rather than being taught.

This is surely not a criticism of any particular institution or practitioner; it is an invitation to reflect on whether there is an important gap in the legal education system that deserves greater emphasis.

So, the question that finally rises is: Before we expect law students to research like advocates, should we first teach them how advocates actually think when they begin researching?

This question is not directed at any one institution or individual. It is addressed to the wider legal fraternity such as senior advocates, judges, law firm partners, senior associates, legal academics, and experienced resource persons who mentor and guide the next generation. Are we expecting law students to think like lawyers before teaching them how lawyers actually think? If this gap exists, how can legal education and professional mentoring work together to bridge it?

'Question From A Law Student' Vertical, steered by Himanshi Hans