If you want to be a legal eagle, you don’t always have to head for the courts. You could choose to negotiate cross-border transactions, fight for intellectual property rights or even work in legal outsourcing firms. The options are vast for those who don’t want to actually start a law practice.

You can become a corporate lawyer if mergers and acquisitions, the capital markets and securities and corporate law grip your attention, though the money, as lawyers warn, lies not so much in working in the legal departments of companies as in law firms. “Though corporates offer big bucks in the early stage of one’s career, one also hits the ceiling very fast there, professionally and personally,” says Sandeep Parekh, a partner at Parekh and Co., a Delhi-based law firm. Adds Ashwin Shankar, a partner at the Mumbai-based law firm George Rebello and Associates: “Companies have relatively small legal departments and consult specialised law firms for bigger matters. Though it is a fairly comfortable job and lawyers are paid a monthly salary of Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 for starters, it is not an option for the spectacularly ambitious,” he adds.

The more ambitious could cock an eye at the relatively fledgling but fast growing area of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). As a patent attorney, you could make your mark in the software, chemical, engineering and pharmaceutical industries. Here, besides a law degree, a specialisation in science or engineering carries weight especially in “understanding technicalities and chemical formulae,” says S.N. Talwar, a partner at the Mumbai-based Crawford Bailey and Co.

A career at a legal outsourcing firm is yet another option. “With only a handful of quality lawyers specialising in this area, one can make it big,” forecasts Rabindra Jhunjhunwalla, a partner at Khaitan and Co., the Mumbai-based law firm.

Loosening up the borders has opened another avenue for lawyers ? international law. However, as a career option in India, the scope is said to be limited “unless you deal in areas like the use of air space, etc,” says Talwar. International law has two components ? public and private. While the former would involve acts of aggression by states, the latter would encompass issues like disputes in trade and commerce, arrangements between individual parties (for instance, complications arising out of situations like “Indian couples married in India and seeking a divorce abroad,” says Rajni Iyer, a Mumbai- based lawyer and arbitrator).

In fact, opening the legal market to international clients has set the cash registers ringing. At the upper end are the senior partners who, in terms of wages by the hour, “could earn an average of $ 250-$350. While senior associates earn between $175 and $ 200, those in the lower range could take home $ 75-$125,” says Talwar.

If your calling is human rights, you could join either a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or a lawyers’ collective. While freshers start at regular NGO jobs with salaries of between Rs 3,000 and Rs 10,000, jobs on a project basis with bigger NGOs could offer as much as Rs 20,000 a month. And with two to three years’ experience “lawyers could either work full time with NGOs or take up private practice”, says Flavia Agnes, an activist lawyer who heads Majlis, a Mumbai-based organisation of lawyers that specialises in women’s rights.

But if you want to stick to the beaten path, you could work for a law firm. As a fresher, your salary would also depend on the strength (not to mention magnanimity) of the law firm you join. While a few reputed firms pay a monthly salary of as little as Rs 2,000, others offer between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. As a fresh National Law School graduate, you could even begin with Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000. And when it comes to determining the size of the annual bonus (which could easily run into a few lakh rupees), what counts is “timeliness, team spirit and the ability to retain and keep clients happy, in addition to good work,” says Jhunjhunwalla.

Still, you could consider private practice if you cherish your freedom and independence. In Mumbai, a junior assisting a senior criminal lawyer could begin with anything from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 a month. But then, “this low salary is compensated by the experience and exposure received through working on sensitive cases,” says Augustine, a lawyer in Mumbai who specialises in criminal law.

In Mumbai, as in London, lawyers can graduate to becoming solicitors (who don’t argue cases in court) by clearing an exam conducted by the Bombay Incorporated Law Society. This can be taken three years after articleship. And if you wish to be a solicitor who can practice in England and Wales, you could take the Qualified Lawyer’s Transfer Test (QLTT) after a couple of years’ work experience in London, recognised by England’s Law Society.