Varun Deval

Great opportunity for young lawyers!

If you are serious about building a career in litigation, this is exactly the kind of support system most young lawyers wish they had at the start. It gives you financial stability, mentorship, and a network all at once. Definitely worth applying!

Eligibility:
• 3 year or 5 year law graduate with minimum 55 percent or equivalent CGPA
• Enrolled with State Bar Council and must have cleared the All India Bar Examination
• Final year students graduating in 2026 can apply (subject to meeting the above before joining)
• Must be 30 years or below at the time of application
• Not more than 5 years since graduation
• Should have secured a position with a practising lawyer or law office
• Statement of purpose required on how your work will contribute to rule of law and constitutional values

Preference:
• First generation lawyers and candidates from marginalised backgrounds
• Women litigators are specifically encouraged to apply

What you get:
• Rs. 30,000 per month stipend
• 2 year structured fellowship
• Mentorship and continuous learning support
• Strong peer network

Supporting lawyers in cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata

Deadline: April 15, 2026 (5 PM IST)

Link: https://www.nls.ac.in/news-events/call-for-applications-nlsiu-litigation-fellowships/

List of recommended laptops

Buying a laptop for college could be an exciting decision, but at the same time, with so many options present in the market, it could be confusing as well. You have to ensure that the laptop you choose lasts you a good number of years and works smoothly for your everyday tasks. While you are at your college, you will have to take your laptop to classes to take notes and deliver presentations. In this case, it becomes extremely crucial that the laptop you choose is lightweight and has a good battery life. Moreover, most of the workload involves accessing multiple Word files, PDFs and internet tabs at once. For this, a good RAM and an SSD becomes important to handle all the tasks smoothly.

Taking these factors into consideration, I have prepared a list of decent laptop options present in different price categories.

Category 1: Rs. 35-45,000
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 (i3 13th, 8GB/512GB SSD) – https://amzn.to/4bvkKY7
ASUS Vivobook 16 (i3 13th, 16GB/512GB SSD) – https://amzn.to/4eNGuRY
Acer Aspire 3 (Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB/512GB SSD) - https://amzn.to/3VUbgQm (RAM can also be externally increased)

Category 2: Rs. 50-60,000
Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3 (i5 13th, 16GB/512GB SSD) – https://amzn.to/45U1mmk
Asus Vivobook 15 (i5 13th, 16GB/512GB SSD) – https://amzn.to/3VNsKhv

Category 3
Apple MacBook Air https://www.flipkart.com/apple-2022-macbook-air-m2-8-gb-256-gb-ssd-mac-os-monterey-mly33hn-a/p/itm0946c05e6335c
Apple MacBook Air M4 (Student Offer with free AirPods) – https://www.apple.com/in-edu/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air

[laptop, college, back to college, macbook]

__________

Paid Internship opportunities below:

NHRC
NHRC offers around Rs. 12,000 for both their winter and summer internship opportunities.
https://nhrc.nic.in/training-and-research/training-programmes/summer-intership-programmes

National Commission of Women
NCW also offers two sets of internships – Scheme A and Scheme B. Scheme A is an unpaid internship for 30 days for students in their first year of LLB or third year of BALLB. On the other hand, Scheme B offers paid internships for 60 days to the second year of LLB and 4th/ 5th year of BALLB students.
https://ncwapps.nic.in/ncwinternship/frmInstructions.aspx

NITI Aayog
This organisation opens applications for internships from 1-10 of every month. It allows interns to interact with government verticals.
https://www.niti.gov.in/internship

Ministry of Law
The Ministry offers internships for law students who have passed the second year of LLB or the third year of BALLB degree. A written exam is conducted for this internship and a stipend of Rs. 1000 is provided upon completion of this internship.
https://legalaffairs.gov.in/internship/

DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry
The Department offers internships to students across fields with a stipend of Rs. 10000. The duration of internship is to be between one to three months.
https://dpiit.gov.in/internship-scheme-0

To apply, visit the websites of these organisations.

[legal internships, law school, law students]

________

If you are joining a law school next month, here are a few things you can do, and a few things you do not have to worry about.

1. Improving your reading and typing speed - Out of the many skills you’ll need at a law school, these two may be the most crucial. You will be required to ready lengthy and dense course material regularly for class and other assignments and a good reading speed comes in very handy. Moreover, taking digital notes in class and writing projects requires you to have a fast typing speed to get the work done quickly.

2. Learning a new skill or hobby - While you wait for your college to start, you can use this free time to learn some new skill or work on your hobby. It is difficult to find such free time otherwise and it will be beneficial to put this one to good use. This will also help you develop your personality and stand out in law school.

3. Take rest and give yourself time - Give yourself some rest as entrance exams like CLAT could be very exhausting.

4. Internships and Publishing Papers - While you must be seeing some of your batchmates already doing law internships and publishing research papers, I suggest you not to worry about it at this stage. While these activities are crucial as a law student, it is too early to delve into it at this stage. Since you have not studied the law, you will not be able to appreciate these activities fully and take complete advantage of the same.

5. Reading Course Material in Advance - There is no need to be intimidated by law school and you can let the process flow naturally. Reading course material and discussing it in class will allow you to comprehend and learn in a better way. Classes and lectures at law schools enable you to understand the complex topics in these texts.

___________

I’m back in my hometown and my trimester break has started. It is going to be a fun month and I’m so glad I’ll be in my hometown 🏃😮‍💨

____________

Students are often confused if they should start their CLAT preparation in Class XI or XII. While starting in Class XI is ideal, you do not need to go all intensive with your preparation before you burn yourself out when the actual time comes. Preparing yourself with the basics is what you can do and the first thing to work on here is your reading and comprehension speed. This is the most bugging issue which you will be faced with when giving mock tests later. If you already have a good reading and comprehension speed, you will be at an edge over other aspirants. To conquer this successfully, build a habit of reading newspapers every day.

You can also start solving basic questions or brushing up your math before you start your full-fledged preparation.

Lastly, it is always a good idea to start keeping track of GK and legal news during this time. Since all the news is interconnected, it keeps you at an edge if you are aware of more than one year of GK. The CLAT exam is not just about mugging-up GK for the exam day, try to build an inquisitiveness and a curious mind - question and connect the news which you read which helps you understand the context and remember better.

__________