Internship @ Legal Aid Services, West Bengal LASWEB, Kolkata : Work with Justice DK Basu, No Stipend, Rated 9/10

Name. College. Year of Study

Pooja Agarwal, 3rd Year, School of Law, Christ University.

Place of Internship, City

Legal Aid Services, West Bengal (LASWEB) under former Justice  D.K. Basu ,Kolkata.

Duration of the internship

Four Weeks, 24th April to 24th May.

Office and Team strength

The office is located on Kiran Shankar Roy Road, Kolkata. It’s extremely professional  with lots of books , journals and other resources.

There is a  reception with waiting seats and as one enters there’s the working area for interns beyond which there is the office of Justice DK Basu .

The staff was friendly and helpful and we’d often have lunch together. We’d also discuss cases and work over lunch. The team strength was approximately 10 people.

Application procedure and internship contact details

The application procedure is quite simple wherein you send your CV and cover letter to  lasweb_wb@rediffmail.com.

I got a reply in 15 days confirming my internship .It’s an out and out hassle free process.

Duration in weeks. No. of days/week. Timings 

Four weeks, 5 days a week, 10 am to around 6 pm. We’d get  a one hour lunch break in the afternoon. Also , with a few days notice , we could  leave early in case we had prior commitments . Since I am from Kolkata, accommodation wasn’t a problem.

Work 

We were given thirty cases during the period of internship and we  had to study and rewrite those cases.  Also, we went  to Calcutta High Court ,Family Court and Bankshall Court to watch the proceedings.

Except the High Court, local languages were used in the other Courts and thus it was a hindrance for people not knowing Bengali. However, this wasn’t much of a problem in the main office. We were quite familiar  with court proceedings by the end of the internship.

We also had a chance to observe techniques of cross examination and the like. Luckily , I also got a chance to work at Justice D.K. Basu’s office. There were a lot of interesting cases on family settlements, matrimonial disputes and so on.  We got a chance to interact with several lawyers.

Seniors and staff were extremely cooperative and friendly  and we could always approach them with our doubts. I met a lot of clients , took notes while cases were discussed and also attended counseling sessions .Sir would often advise us on cases and handling issues like confidentiality.

It was a brilliant first hand exposure regarding meeting clients and handling disputes.

Recreation:

There is no dearth of places to hang around and chill ,and as always, the amazing street food in Kolkata makes it even more awesome!

Stipend

There is no policy for payment of stipend .

Overall Experience 

It was a brilliant learning experience and I would highly recommend it for all aspiring Lawyers. It would be an amazing start up for all as the advice, first hand exposure and involvement was invaluable.

The healthy environment greatly promoted learning  and I would easily rate it as one of the best internships I’ve done so far.

Rating 

9/10