How to Write a Cold Email for a Law Internship

Most internships with advocates and smaller firms in India are not advertised anywhere. You get them by writing directly to someone who has never heard of you. A good cold email is short, says exactly who you are and what you want, and makes it easy to say yes. Below is the structure, then two complete samples.

Before you write anything

Find out who you are writing to. An email addressed to a chamber, with no name, reads like a mass mailing, because it usually is one. Look up the advocate’s practice area, the court they appear in, or the firm’s recent work. One accurate sentence showing you looked is worth more than a paragraph of praise.

Decide your dates before you write. “I am available whenever convenient” puts the work of planning on the person you are asking for a favour. Give a window: a fortnight, a month, the period between your exams and the next semester.

Check your university’s requirement too. Under Rule 25 of the Bar Council of India’s legal education rules, a five year course requires twenty weeks of internship across the degree and a three year course requires twelve, and no single internship in a year is to run continuously for more than four weeks. At least one internship has to be with trial and appellate advocates. That rule shapes what you should be asking for.

The structure that works

1. Subject line. State the request plainly: “Internship application: [your name], [year], [college]”. Not “Seeking an opportunity” and not “Request”.
2. One line on who you are. Year, course, college. Nothing else.
3. One line on why this person. Specific. Their practice area, a matter you read about, the court they appear in.
4. Your dates. Exact, and flexible within reason.
5. What you can do. Research, drafting, note preparation, case summaries. Be honest about your level.
6. What is attached. CV, and a writing sample if you have one worth sending.
7. A short close. No “eagerly awaiting your positive response”.

The whole thing should fit on a phone screen without scrolling. If it does not, cut it.

Sample 1: to a senior advocate’s chamber

Subject: Internship application: Ananya Rao, third year, NLU Jodhpur

Respected Sir,

I am a third year student of the five year B.A. LL.B. programme at National Law University, Jodhpur.

I am writing to ask whether you would consider taking an intern in your chamber for four weeks between 2 and 30 June. I have been reading the recent criminal appeals before the High Court and I am particularly interested in bail jurisprudence after the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita came into force, which is an area your chamber appears before the court on regularly.

I can help with case research, preparing briefs and summaries of judgments, and proofreading drafts. I have completed one previous internship with a litigation chamber at the district court, where I mostly prepared case notes.

My CV is attached, along with a short case comment I wrote on a recent High Court judgment.

I would be grateful for the opportunity. If the dates do not suit, I am happy to work around your convenience.

Thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,

Ananya Rao, third year, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.), National Law University, Jodhpur, +91 XXXXXXXXXX

Sample 2: to a law firm

Subject: Internship application: Rohit Menon, fourth year, Symbiosis Pune, Nov to Dec 2026

Dear Ms Iyer,

I am a fourth year student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune, applying for a four week internship with the firm’s general corporate team between 17 November and 12 December.

I am interested in transaction work rather than disputes. In my last internship I assisted on due diligence for a share purchase, mostly reviewing and summarising contracts and flagging change of control clauses, so I have some sense of what the work involves and how a data room is organised.

I have attached my CV and a redacted sample of a contract summary I prepared during that internship.

If the team is not taking interns for those weeks, I would be glad to be considered for a later period.

Thank you for considering this.

Kind regards,

Rohit Menon, fourth year, B.B.A. LL.B., Symbiosis Law School, Pune, +91 XXXXXXXXXX

Attachments

Send a PDF, never a Word file, and name it properly: Rohit-Menon-CV.pdf, not cv final final (2).pdf. Keep the CV to one page until you have enough to justify two.

A writing sample helps more than most students expect, because it is the only evidence in the whole application of what you can actually produce. A case comment, a research note or a published piece all work. If you have nothing, write something. Lexfolio’s guest article programme publishes student writing free, and a published piece with your byline is a stronger attachment than a certificate.

Following up

Wait a week, then send one short reply on the same thread. Two lines is enough: “I wrote last week about an internship between 2 and 30 June. I understand you may not be taking interns, and I would be grateful to know either way.”

Then stop. A second follow up irritates people and a third gets you remembered for the wrong reason. Silence is an answer in Indian legal practice, and a disappointing number of applications simply go unanswered.

How many to send

More than you think, and each one written separately. Students who send forty identical emails get fewer replies than students who send twelve tailored ones, because the identical ones are obvious. The giveaway is usually the opening: a sentence that could be addressed to anyone was addressed to everyone.

Keep a simple list of who you wrote to, on what date, and whether you followed up. You will lose track otherwise, and writing twice to the same person with the same email is a bad look.

Things that sink an otherwise good email

• Addressing a woman advocate as “Sir”. It happens constantly and it is noticed.
• “Respected Sir/Madam” with no name, when the name is on the firm’s website.
• Asking what the stipend is in the first email. Ask once you have an offer.
• Attaching five documents. CV and one sample.
• Writing from an email address you invented in school.
• Claiming an interest in a practice area you cannot say two sentences about if asked.

None of this is complicated. The students who get internships are mostly the ones who wrote a clear, specific, unembarrassing email to the right person at the right time of year, and then wrote to twenty more.