WRITING STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR LAW STUDENTS: A DETAILED GUIDE

Growing up as a child, I often heard my parents, relatives and neighbours suggesting me different career options for my future. Inundated with different ideas, I had no clue as to what I should become in the early stages. Luckily, there was no force from my parents to choose a career path without proper conviction. As the time went by and I progressed in grades, the question of discerning a career path became more frequent in my thoughts and in our peer group discussions. As an industrious student, I was good at and liked all subjects alike and deciding on something based on my interest in subject wasn’t really easy.

In my 8th grade, our social science teacher introduced a new topic in the class and it was about law. To explain the topic better, she divided the class into several groups consisting of four to five members and asked us to prepare a role play to demonstrate how a court worked. As we all had some idea about how the court room works from some movie scenes, it wasn’t a hard task at all. I was given the role of an attorney in the role play. For the mock trial, we chose the case of someone accused of forging a false document to evade government tax and I was to represent the plaintiff in the court. The role play won our team the appreciation of the teacher and all students in the class. Though the incidence was to be taken casually, somehow it attracted me to learn more about law and found the subject to be really exciting. Later at many instances, I realized the importance of legal studies and the noble purpose it serves in assuring justice to the innocents.

During my formative years at school and college, I kept updating my knowledge about national as well as international laws. When a court related news article would pop up in the newspaper or television, I would try to understand what it was all about and who the plaintiff and defendant in the case were. Then, I would try to get a picture about the background of the case by analysing the statements presented by both parties and try to arrive at my own conclusions. This self-taught process of judging, I should admit, has helped me a lot in building my foundation for law and would help me extensively throughout my law schooling in the graduation level.

After completing my senior secondary education in XXXXX, I decided to pursue my graduation in Political Science. In India, graduation in any discipline is one of the basic requirements to do LLB (Legum Baccalaureus). As I found Political science a subject closely related to law than any other available graduation programs in my college, I opted it. During my graduation, I kept doing my researches in various legal concepts and law disciplines to be well prepared for the LLB program I would carry on thereafter. Finally, my time to enrol in the law college came and I was to choose one of the law specifications from four (company law, criminal law, business law and corporate law). I didn’t have to spend much time thinking about what to choose, as I had become convinced of pursuing criminal law. Much of my readings and law explorations during the graduation period were about various criminal cases and their trials in India and I was quite convinced that I should become a criminal lawyer. The much popular Blackstone’s ratio in criminal law that “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer,” has had a very strong influence on my thinking process and career discernment.

My formative years at the law college were quite fruitful and gave me ample chances to develop my social skills and confidence. There were frequent mock trials where students had to take up the role of judge, attorneys on behalf of plaintiff and defendants, the bench etc. During these mock trials, I realized the importance of having a strong persuasiveness, convincing presentational skills, good command over language and integrity and I spent several hours of my day to improve myself in these areas. One of our professors used to say that the ultimate aim of studying law was not to possess knowledge alone but to apply it wherever it was needed. He was insisting on the importance of the practical application of the law and I am quite content that I made use of every opportunity I got to horn my skills.

Towards the end of my LLB program, many of my colleagues were determined to call it day and take up jobs or internships. It wasn’t hard for me to find an internship program in the city. While interning there, I realized that I needed to learn more and pursuing a master program in Criminal law was essential. I started doing some researches about it and sooner than later, I came across a few institutions that offered masters in law in India and UK. As I was well aware of the limitations with higher education programs in India, I ruled out Indian institutions and focused on UK institutions. Moreover, I had heard from my friends, professors and mentors that higher education in the domain of law from UK was quite impressive for reasons like international recognition, quality of teaching and affordable budget when compared to other abroad options. My searches for the right law college in UK zeroed in on XXXXXX. It offered the program I wanted and met all my expectations.

University of XXXX offers the best breeding ground for a law student. Its master program in criminal law is par excellence. I am convinced that the method of teaching, exposure, programmatic orientation and multicultural ambience etc. of the institution would complement and fortify my skills.

The expenditure for my master program in UK would be financed partly by my father and the remaining through a loan I would obtain from a nationalized bank.

Upon the completion of my master program, I would return to my country and begin my career in the capacity of an independent criminal lawyer. India, being a country with world’s second largest population, has a growing demand for criminal lawyers with knowledge and integrity and my dream is to become one to serve the everyone alike.