Mr. Harsh Vardhan Tiwari is a dedicated law graduate who did not get carried away by the handsome packages he could easily get belonging to a Tier-2 NLU. He instead decided to chase his passion to mentor hundreds of students in their journey to one of the most prestigious law entrance examinations in India.
Q. How has your alma-mater, Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, helped in what you are today?
A. RGNUL has given me the opportunity to delve into various other areas of my interest apart from regular studies. I was fascinated by the idea of getting to interact with people from different parts of the country in the land of rich Punjabi culture itself.
I had made up my mind in the first year of law school to venture into offering mentorship to CLAT aspirants, I got the opportunity to intern with premier coaching institutes like Achievers Guild, LegalEdge under their Content Wing and Toprankers along with contributing to college committees like Literary and Debate Committee and research centres like Centre for Labour Law, Centre for Labour Studies and Centre for Energy simultaneously. During my fifth year I was working as Eecutive Editor of RGNUL Student Research Review. The work experience gradually enabled me to learn the art of Drafting, framing questions inclined with the pattern of law entrances and finally what I needed to shape up my career- the art of teaching.
Q. When did the idea of mentoring CLAT aspirants occur to you? How did you turn this idea into reality?
A. I am from Kanpur. Way back in 2013, I used to think about students who were preparing for CLAT but clueless about preparation methodology. Furthermore, the skyrocketing fees charged by various CLAT coachings were also a point of concern for meritorious but underprivileged aspirants.
In my second year, I started my own Youtube channel by the name of Clat Manthan with my roommate to work out the above issues. The test series got an excellent response wherein one video has now crossed 25 thousand views. I also started a Clat Magazine while I was interning with Achievers Guild. These initiatives truly gave me an impetus and made me realise that Clat mentoring can be a viable career option if one likes engaging with law school aspirants.
By my fifth year, I was already working with Clat Path in Patna and there has been no looking back since then. After graduation, for a while I worked as Head, CLAT wing at Pahuja Law Academy, Delhi. Then, worked with CLAT Possible teaching across the country and then finally returning to the place where it started CLAT Path as Head of Operations.
Q. Your internships have been both under litigation and non-litigation fields. How were the non-litigation ones beneficial for you?
A. I believe that associating with people who can help you enhance you soft skills, shape up your career is bliss and is equally necessary.
My internships at various organizations have fulfilled this purpose. They have taught me that it is all about the number of lives you can bring a change in. This is what I am passionate about and this is what I think should be important when one thinks about non-litigation based internships.
Q. As a Faculty of Legal Aptitude, what strengths of your students do you focus on?
A. Legal Aptitude has always been one of the make-or-break sections for the CLAT. First things first, the change in the exam pattern which was released by the CLAT Consortium on 1st January 2020 will invariably have an impact on how the aspirants will comprehend this section.
The amended pattern aims to test the candidate on the basis or his/her reading and comprehensive skills so as to assimilate the knowledge derived from the given passage and apply it to the question.
The previous pattern mainly focused on the facts and a snippet of the relevant provisions which were to be applied to a problem. The focus now is to make a candidate gain knowledge of certain kinds of laws. As a Faculty, I take up passages of legal relevance from appropriate sources like The Hindu or Indian Express and shed some light on how different questions can be framed from that one passage. This really helps students to evaluate each and every aspect of law and brace themselves for any kind of question they might encounter in the paper.
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