Amicus Partners

Opinionated. Unreasonable. Impractical. Impervious.

While parents might be one or all these things, and more, the fact of the matter is that they tend to play a very important role in one’s educational choices. This is particularly true when it comes to law students who are in their penultimate or final year of studies.

Of course, this segment is a relatively new one for us at Amicus Partners; barring the first year or two of our existence,  clients have been those with a few years of work experience. But with the deeply discounted counselling session just for law students, this has changed a bit. 

So, why do I think parents should be encouraged to attend LLM counselling sessions? Well, for at least three reasons.

One, they are your parents. It may seem like stating the obvious, but parents play a crucial role in your educational choices. Their say might lessen as you move through the grades, but at the end of the day, their thoughts and perspectives are important. Many of the students I have spoken to in the past have said that the decision to pursue higher studies, or even law, was made after subtle nudges from their parents.  

Two, they are the money. At least what I have seen, family assistance is the most common source of funding for higher studies abroad. And this can play out in different ways – right from being part of the decision-making process, to understanding what their child is going to get out of the education, to getting into the gritty nitty of financial planning. It is crucial, in my opinion, to have them at the table from the very start.

Three, they can be wrong. Let me clarify – I have often seen is that the student may have one view and the parent a diametrically opposite one. Each one believing they are right – leading to a stalemate of sorts. Once a third party comes in though, conflict resolution becomes a lot easier. There may be some deeper psychological reasons for this, but heated discussions are easier to resolve by a neutral outsider. 

So, my advice to law students signing up for the counselling sessions – get your parents along. It is a good thing. I promise.