By Tanuj Kalia

Lawyers read a lot, perhaps, more than any other professional. Here are the must-read books for a law student in India (and I have shamelessly included my book ‘Law as a Career’ here).

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20 Books every law student must read

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1. Before Memory Fades: An Autobiography by Fali S Nariman

Fali S. Nariman is a well known name as he has been involved in many high profile cases. In Before Memory Fades: An Autobiography, he tells his own story, from his childhood to his days in the Bombay High Court and continues to present his experiences as he rose to higher positions.

2. Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future by Richard Susskind

Tomorrow’s Lawyers predicts fundamental and irreversible changes in the world of law. For Richard Susskind, best-selling author of The End of Lawyers?, the future of legal service will be neither Grisham nor Rumpole. Instead, it will be a world of virtual courts, Internet-based global legal businesses, online document production, commoditized service, legal process outsourcing, and web-based simulated practice.

Legal markets will be liberalized, with new jobs for lawyers and new employers too. This book is a definitive guide to this future – for young and aspiring lawyers, and for all who want to modernize our legal and justice systems. It introduces the new legal landscape and offers practical guidance for those who intend to build careers and businesses in law.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl.

4. Nani Palkhivala: The Courtroom Genius by Soli J Sorabjee and Arvind P Datar

5. Learning the Law by Glanville Williams 

6. Landmark Judgments that Changed India by Ashok K. Ganguly

The executive, the legislature and the judiciary are the three branches of government, both state and central, in India. Of these, it is the judiciary’s task to uphold constitutional values and ensure justice for all. The interpretation and application of constitutional values by the judicial system has had far-reaching impact, often even altering provisions of the Constitution itself.

7. Court and Their Judgments by Arun Shourie 

‘An outstanding effort’ – Chief Justice Venkatachaliah ‘An extraordinary book’ – Fali S. Nariman ‘Unputdownable’ – Ashok Desai First published in 2001, Courts and Their Judgments soon became a pioneering work on the subject. It raised important questions on the functioning of our judiciary – questions that continue to be as relevant today.

8. Letters to a Law Student by Nicholas J. McBride

What does it take to succeed as a law student? This book will show you how. Voted one of the top 6 books that all future law students should read by The Guardian’s studying law website*, Letters to a Law Student is packed full of practical advice and helpful answers to the most common questions about studying law at University across every stage of taking, or thinking about taking, a law degree.

9. Roses in December: An Auto-Biography by MC Chagla

Roses in December, the autobiography of M. C. Chagla (1900-81), is one of Bhavan’s landmark publications.
Chagla distinguished himself not only as a lawyer and judge but stood out in a few other fields of public activity. Rightly, he chose to record his aspirations and achievements, ideals and convictions, thoughts and experiences, for the benefit of posterity (as he himself has said). The book turned out to be a casket of wisdom, not to speak of the racy style of writing that made it gripping.

10. Law As A Career by Tanuj Kalia

11. Legal Eagles: Stories of the Top Seven Indian Lawyers by Indu Bhan

Indian judicial system has garnered worldwide fame through its historical and remarkable judgements and the hard work of its judges and lawyers rarely catches the glaze of common public. Legal Eagle tries to bridge this gap. Indu Bhan?s ‘Legal Eagles: Stories of top seven Indian lawyers? traces the story of the top seven lawyers in India. Lawyers, as we commonly perceive, are not just shrewd intellectuals but much more.

12. 10 Judgements That Changed India by Zia Mody

This book presents a compilation of 10 essays on some of the most influential judgments’ that were passed by the Supreme Court of India and proved to be life-altering for the common man and the democracy of the nation.

13. We, the People by Nani A. Palkhivala

Nani A. Palkhivala’s name is a byword in India’s legal world. A man of many and varied parts, he has crossed with ease the law’s narrow confines and has gone beyond into numerous other fields. Palkhivala discusses many subjects – education and democracy; economic growth and social justice; socialism and taxation; crucial constitutional issues and memorable judgements; personalities and the law; nuclear proliferation and apartheid; and his experiences as the Ambassador of India to the U.S.A.

14. We, the Nation: the Lost Decades by Nani A. Palkhivala

India, the sleeping giant of an economy – in the words of Lee Kuan Yew – is, at last, slowly stirring from its long night of slumber, drugged as it has been for decades with the opiate of socialism. This amazing subcontinent with its mosaic of colours, cultures, contrasts and maddening contradictions, always has, thanks to vast quantities of its own indigenously manufactured red tape and venal politicians, been held in thrall for so long.

15. One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School by Scott Turow

One L, Scott Turow’s journal of his first year at law school was a bestseller when it was first published in 1977, and has gone on to become a virtual bible for prospective law students. Not only does it introduce with remarkable clarity the ideas and issues that are the stuff of legal education; it brings alive the anxiety and competitiveness – with others and, even more, with oneself – that set the tone in this crucible of character building.

16. Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Widely regarded as Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which “whole families have inherited legendary hatreds.” Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther’s romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limns the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.

17. The Trial by Franz Kafka

A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K, an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released but must report to court on a regular basis, an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life, including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door, becomes increasingly unpredictable. As Joseph tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.

18. The Firm by John Grisham

The Firm is a legal thriller by John Grisham. It follows the story of Mitchell McDeere, a successful lawyer who was raised in the coal-mining region of rural Kentucky, and worked hard to pave his way out of menial labour and poverty. After graduating third in his class at Harvard Law, he marries his college sweetheart, Abby Sutherland.

19. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of A Nation by Granville Austin

20. Working in a Democratic Constitution: A History of the Indian Experience by Granville Austin

Request: Lets make this list bigger and better. If you want to add a review of the book that you’ve read (on this list or not), please leave a comment below.

Note: This article was first published on 26 November 2023. We have updated and republished it on 4 September 2025.