5 career prospects after LL.M. in Criminal Law

With the rise in white-collar crimes, the prospects look bright for students wanting to pursue a degree in Criminal Law

In recent times, many practicing lawyers are enrolling themselves in LL.M. programs to enhance their professional skills and gain specialised knowledge. The fast-growing pace of the legal profession makes it one of the most lucrative and respected careers in India today. There are many options to consider when it comes to choosing a specialisation for your LLM degree. However, an LLM in Criminal Law is much sought after for a promising career.
 

Roles and responsibilities of a criminal lawyer:

Criminal Law can be generally defined as the branch of law that majorly classifies crimes and provides effective ways or approaches that can be followed for their punishment. A criminal lawyer is expected to defend clients charged with criminal offenses. This can cover a wide range of criminal offenses such as domestic violence, sex offences, drug crimes, violent crimes, theft, fraud, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). A criminal lawyer can, of course, specialise in one area and become a drug offence solicitor, traffic lawyer, or sex offence lawyer, but in general, he must be able to handle a diverse spectrum of criminal offenses. A criminal lawyer will be required to handle bail bond hearings, trial hearings, parole and probation hearings, and present plea bargains. He must be skilled at building a case strategy and negotiate a plea bargain with the prosecution to lessen the charges.

There are ample job profiles available for criminal lawyers that one can opt for based on one’s interests and skillsets. Some of the job roles for criminal lawyers are given in detail below:

Parole and Probation officer: Both parole and probation officers have very similar jobs. The main difference between the two is that probation officers work with convicted criminals who are on probation (which means they don’t have to go to prison), while parole officers work with criminals who have already been to prison. Some common tasks performed by the two involves working with criminals and creating a plan to reintegrate them in our society, helping them find a place to live, employment or treatment for mental health issues if necessary, meet the lawbreakers and administer drug tests, monitor and evaluate their overall progress.

Private Investigator: The job of a private investigator is to conduct interviews with people to collect information and identify patterns, research information (on the internet or other resources) to learn more about the suspect, perform surveillance, i.e. follow suspects, record them and their daily activities, make reports and keep clients up to date with the progress of the investigation.

Government Advocate: Government advocates are hired by the state or central government to represent them in court cases. To become a Government Advocate, one has to take the recruitment exams conducted by UPSC and State Level Public Commission. Government Advocates are selected based on the same to represent the government.

Criminal Psychologist: Criminal psychologists study criminals and crimes to understand why they break the law. They evaluate offenders and establish what is the risk of recidivism. Working with law enforcement, making psychological assessments of suspects or criminals; counselling criminal offenders is often a part of their job.

Lecturer: A lecturer who specialises in criminal law will be responsible for teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Criminal Law and its practices. A criminal law lecturer will be responsible for undertaking and developing high-quality research and scholarly publishing. Lawyers who have an advanced qualification, relevant experience and research in criminal law usually become lecturers in the respective specialisation.