How to Apply for a Law Firm Internship in India

Most law firm internships in India are arranged by email, several months before you want to intern, and not through any central application system. You find the firm, you find the right email address, and you send a short message with your CV attached. That is the whole mechanism, and the reason most applications fail is not the CV but the timing and the address.

Start earlier than feels sensible

Large firms fill their slots long in advance. Published guidance on AZB and Partners, for instance, suggests applying six to seven months before the period you want. Research organisations run shorter cycles: Project 39A at NLU Delhi has asked for applications eight to twelve weeks ahead, and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has suggested two to six months. Smaller chambers and single advocates often decide a few weeks out, sometimes a few days.

The practical rule is to apply for a summer internship in January or February, and for a winter internship around September. If you are reading this a fortnight before your vacation, apply anyway, but concentrate on individual advocates and small firms rather than the large ones.

Where internships are actually advertised

A minority are advertised at all. The ones that are tend to appear on Lawctopus, Internshala, LiveLaw, LawLex, HelloIntern and LawMantra, and on the careers pages of the larger firms. Some organisations use a form rather than email: PRS Legislative Research, the Centre for Public Policy Research, Project 39A and Vidhi have all used online forms, and those forms sometimes have their own quirks, such as PRS requiring the whole application in one sitting.

The majority of internships, particularly in litigation, are never advertised. You get them by writing to the advocate directly, or by being introduced. This is why the email itself matters so much, and why a list of fifty firms you have never heard of is less useful than ten you have researched.

Build a sensible list

Work out what you actually want from the internship before you apply. A student who wants to see courtrooms should be writing to advocates in the district court and the High Court, not to corporate firms. A student who wants transactional work should be writing to firms with a corporate practice.

For each target, find out three things: the correct email address for internship applications, whether they have a stated period or process, and the name of a partner or advocate if you can get it. The firm’s website, LinkedIn and recent reported judgments are all reasonable sources. If a firm publishes an internship email such as careers or internships at their domain, use it, because applications sent to a general enquiries address usually disappear.

What to send

A single email with a short body and two attachments: your CV, and a cover letter if the firm asks for one. Keep the CV to one page while you are a student. Name the files properly, because a file called cv_final2.pdf tells the reader something about you.

Some organisations want more. PRS has asked for a statement of purpose of up to 500 words, a PDF resume and a policy writing sample. Project 39A has asked for a CV, a cover letter naming your programme, year, university and exact dates, and a statement of purpose. Human Rights Law Network has asked for a form, a recommendation letter, a writing sample and a CV. Read the instruction and follow it exactly, since the first filter is usually whether you did.

Always state your exact dates. “I am available from 2 June to 27 June” is useful. “I am available during the summer” makes you someone else’s problem to sort out.

Apply during your vacation, not during term

In 2014 the Bar Council of India told universities and colleges to send students on internships only during vacations, not during the academic session. That circular was challenged and upheld: the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissed the petition in Abhishek Sharma v. Bar Council of India, reported as 2022 LiveLaw (MP) 263, with the bench reasoning that the restriction protects students from having to give up teaching weeks.

So build your plan around your college calendar. An internship your university will not count is an expensive way to spend a month.

Following up

Firms do not usually reply to say no. A single polite follow up after about a week is normal and is widely advised. A second follow up a week after that is the limit. Beyond that you are not being persistent, you are being remembered for the wrong reason.

Keep a simple spreadsheet: firm, address written to, date sent, date followed up, outcome. You will apply to more places than you expect, and by April you will not remember who you have written to.

What usually goes wrong

• Applying too late. The commonest single reason, and the easiest to fix.
• One email sent to forty firms in the Bcc field. It is obvious, and it is ignored.
• No dates. The reader cannot match you to a slot.
• A CV that opens with a career objective. It says nothing and costs you the top of the page.
• Writing to the wrong address. A general contact form is where applications go to die.

If nothing comes back

Widen the list rather than rewriting the email for the tenth time. District court advocates, legal aid clinics, NGOs with legal departments, in house teams at local companies and university legal cells all take interns and are all far less contested than a tier one firm. The work is often better for a first or second year student, because you are given real tasks instead of being one of thirty interns in a room.

Online programmes are another route while you wait, though you should check whether your university counts them. Lexfolio runs a free virtual internship where students research and write legal content that is published under their own name, which at least gives you something to put on the CV and a writing sample to send with the next application.