ICFAI Law School: Educational , training a Cadre of Professionals

ICFAI Law School : The Educational Powerhouse, training a Cadre of Cultivated Professionals

Legal system is an indispensable part of a civilised society, the torchbearers of which are the lawyers. They are the legal architects who facilitate social and political justice. To realise this, the judiciary needs dedicated, knowledgeable lawyers and judges. This is possible only with a good legal education that not only helps one understand the framing of laws but also their effective implementation.

The Faculty of Law commonly known as ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad that has been at the forefront of legal education in the country, has been diligently producing competent lawyers and has irrefutably remained the leader in legal education.

The Glorious Law School

Excellent education with practical training and world class infrastructure defines the illustrious college.

The ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad, a constituent unit of the ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE), a deemed-to-be University (established under Section 3 of the UGC Act 1956) is a premier institute established in the lush-green campus admeasuring about 92 acres, near to the Outer Ring Road, in the vicinity of the well-known historical city Hyderabad.

It offers full-time, campus-based, integrated undergraduate law programs in two different streams – BBA LLB (Honours) and BA LLB (Honours); post-graduate program like one-year LLM in ‘corporate and commercial laws’, ‘tax laws’, ‘alternative dispute resolution’. It is planning to offer two-year LLM programs in ‘insolvency and bankruptcy law’, ‘criminal law’ from the next academic year. It also offers research programs such as Ph.D. in law in addition to the eight certificate programs in different areas of law for the benefit of the students.

The law school was established in the year 2010 to impart the BBA LLB (Hons.) and BA LLB (Hons.). The LLM and Ph.D. programs were introduced in the years 2015 and 2016. Its law programs are approved by the Bar Council of India and designed as per the guidelines of the BCI and UGC.

The Inspiring Infrastructure

The ICFAI Law School boasts of world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure. It has more than 40 classrooms equipped with LG digital screens, LCDs, audio systems connected with the network. The entire campus is Wi-Fi enabled and the students can access the library and other facilities from any place in the campus.

It has a well-designed moot court, mediation simulation centre, legal aid centre, library with a good collection of books from national and international publications, digital data bases, AIRs, law commission reports, national and international reporters etc. It has an exclusive space earmarked as reading room for the students along with terminals for use of their laptops and computers. It has a well-connected computer lab.

Along with a degree, possessing soft skills is one of the basic requirements. ICFAI is preparing its students thoroughly well in this regard as well.

The law school has a ‘Career Counselling Centre’ to train the students in soft skills and make them industry ready. It also has a conference room for conducting guest lectures and seminars, two auditoriums, facilities for sports and games, i.e., cricket, football, tennis, volleyball, basketball, swimming pool, walking track, gym (with coaches), music room and a clinic for medical emergencies with on-call doctor round-the-clock.

The institute has ATM facility, mess facility, single and dual sharing hostel rooms to accommodate more than 4000 students at a time, and canteens. The law school also provides transport facilities for the day scholars. The central library is equipped with more than one lakh books, digital data banks and information centres.

Vision

To emerge as an institution of excellence known for research, teaching and practice.

Mission

‘Learning for Leadership‘. It aims at developing a cadre of professionals possessing specialized skills having a sense of social and moral responsibility and the ability to address problems from a broader perspective.

Aligning with the vision and mission of the university, the law school is striving to emerge as the ‘Centre of academic excellence with a focus on legal research and preparing the new generation legal professionals embedded with professional ethics and service orientation.’

Aspiring to Make a Difference

The ICFAI Law School believes in 360-degree learning and has a road map to instil the 21^st century skillsets and encourage students to take part in academic, co-curricular and extracurricular activities as each activity provides opportunities for learning in interpersonal relationships, team management, stress management and time management.

Students are encouraged to learn through activities and simulations such as moot courts, mediation, and client counselling and by arranging competitions at intra-college and national level every year, through a law fest – LexKnot, which is represented by more than 350 students every year.

The law school also strives to instil communication and soft skills by organizing inter-collegiate and national-level competitions such as the ICFAI Conference of Nations (ICON), Asian Parliamentary Debate, Vaad-Vivad, and essay competitions. Around 250 students representing various law schools and Universities from all parts of the country participate in these events. It also organizes national level cultural fests and sports fests. All these programs are managed and organized by the students under the respective faculty guides.

The law school encourages the students to learn the art of legal profession through interactions with leading advocates and judges on a regular basis and it also motivates them to appear for competitive examinations such as of civil services, ‘Group I’ examinations of the state, Company Secretary examinations simultaneously. ICFAI Law School arranges special coaching classes free of cost for the interested students.

The law school has 10 student-run active clubs in different areas to widen their theory and practical knowledge base such as the IRA Club for cultural programs, Literary Club, GAIA Club for environmental issues, Moot-Court Club, Vaad-Vivad Club for debates, ADR Club for mediation and client counselling, Photography Club, Student Magazine Club, Legal Aid Club, and Sports-Club.

Through these clubs, the senior students train their juniors and undertake various community works in providing legal aid and advising the people living in nearby villages. Through the school, the faculty and students, are regularly connected with the community. They organise many programs like the awareness camps through street plays and songs and training the school children and housewives on various social and legal issues such as health and hygiene, afforestation, domestic solid waste management, Swachhata Abhiyan (cleanliness drives), child abuse, child rights and consumer rights.

Some of the USPs of the law school are:

‘Packaged program’ which is the blend of theory and practice – theory learning through class lectures and practice through project works, case analysis, internships, interaction with the experts and professionals.
Strong, in-depth, dynamic, and quality curriculum which is regularly modified to suit the demands of the industry and profession.
Thought leadership and teamwork irrespective of cadres.
Strong, experienced, and highly resourceful teachers from academia, industry, and profession.
Organizing and participation in national and international level conferences, seminars, works, symposiums, and conclaves.
Strong networking with industry professionals, law firms and national level institutions.
Networking with various national and international institutions through MoUs for sharing of the expertise, experiences and exchange of students and faculty.
Use of audio-visual tools and flipped classrooms.

The Astute Leader

Professor (Dr) A V Narsimha Rao, Director of the law school and his faculty work hard for the success of the school. The director has strategized and designed action plans which include the enrichment of curriculum by adding new courses in law program which are of contemporary importance and introducing new programs such as LLM in different laws and disciplines.

He has constantly strived to bring about paradigm shifts in the legal education. The urge to make a difference in the legal education system and moulding students with the knowledge and skills required to tackle social and moral problems, has made him the astute leader that he is. His perseverance went a long way in establishing the institute as arguably the best in the country.

The law school, under the stewardship of the Director Rao has organized national and international conferences, seminars, workshops by inviting speakers from various universities from US, UK, Australia, and Dubai.

The strategic decisions of the Prof Rao, with the support of the management and faculty, have yielded successful results in reaching the roots and all corners of the society in India and abroad.

Being Globally Revered

After establishing a stronghold in the country, ICFAI Law School spread its wings across the globe.

The law school has considerable networking with international academic institutions. Some of the active MoUs the law school has are with institutes such as Delaware Law School, Business Law Department of New Castle University, School of Law Pittsburgh University, and Asian Institute of Law (Singapore).

The law school is a member of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS), US, and takes part in the annual meetings and global deans’ meetings, interacting with the deans of global law schools. The faculty also attended international conferences and seminars organized in Singapore, Indonesia, US, and Brazil and presented their papers.

Some of the achievements of the ICFAI Law School Hyderabad are:

The Higher Education Review has ranked the ICFAI Law School as No. 1 among the best law schools of India in the years 2018 and 2019.
Career 360 has ranked the law school as the 7^th among the ‘Best Private Law Schools/Colleges of India’ for the year 2021 and rated the law school as ‘AAAA’ in Telangana (South Zone) during the best law colleges survey in India.
CSR GHRDC has ranked the law school as 3^rd among the ‘Top Leading Schools of Super Excellence in India’ during the year 2021 and First among the top law schools in Telangana.
India Today has ranked the Law School as Top 4^th among the Emerging Law Schools in India during 2020.

The Pandemic Times and the EdTech Solution

The Covid-19 pandemic has opened opportunities to blend technology with the 360-degree process of learning. ICFAI Law School has hired three different platforms such as Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams and Flexiquiz for the purpose of organizing the seminars, conferences, discussions, class lectures, and examinations. Initially, the law school used Google meet to conduct classes.

During the pandemic period, the law school facilitated amenities to its students to maintain their learning zeal, mental engagement, and IQ levels. The mentors conducted meetings with their mentees every Saturday to gauge their emotional intelligence levels, morale, and challenges they face regarding online learning. All such difficulties pointed out by the students are resolved as soon as possible.

The students were allowed flexibility to pay fees in instalments before the end of the semester, which otherwise was to be paid in advance at the time of taking admissions. Scholarships were given to the eligible students. Additionally, the law school waived the entire fee payable by the students who lost their parents who were responsible for the family’s livelihood, as a result of Covid-19.

Dream Destination of the Future

The ICFAI Law School, Hyderabad, within a short time of one decade has achieved great laurels and is standing as one of the most sought-after law colleges in India. With the increased facilities, wide range of choice-based credit system subjects, increased opportunities of selecting the honours programs from good number of focused areas, regular updating of curriculum by including the novel areas of legal arena, like: