Somita’s Purdue Global story: shaking up the legal field
Somita Basu changed the course of her life and has guided the paths of countless others after earning a law degree from Purdue Global. (Photo by Steve Cotton)
Purdue Global’s Concord Law School helped Somita make a midcareer pivot
I had a successful career as a management consultant in Singapore and India. When I got pregnant with my first child, I decided that I really needed some mental stimulation. Like a crazy person, I decided on law school.
So I looked for options that would work for me while I lived overseas. Purdue Global’s Concord Law School was one of the few places that was highly rated and had a robust program.
I had always wanted to go to law school, but there were a lot of barriers for me, including pressure from family. My dad wanted me to do something with science or engineering, so we compromised on math. I always liked math because I think math is a universal truth. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or where you’re from. Anywhere on the planet, 2 plus 2 equals 4.
It’s ironic that I went back to school for law, where there are almost no universal truths — everything can be argued on both sides. But I have a strong desire to stand up for people who can’t stand up for themselves. Nothing makes me angrier than people who are bullied or suffering due to no fault of their own, and law helps me help those people.
Law in general is not accommodating to women of color. There’s an old-guard mentality that says you have to have a certain amount of money and a certain kind of background to practice law efficiently. And that extends to going to law school online. It was looked down upon — until 2020. Suddenly, everyone was in the same boat going to class online, and people realized that it could work.
Now that I’m an employer and have my own law firm, I’ve seen that people who take nontraditional paths tend to be very resilient. If you went to school part time, at night, while you’re working, you tend to have skills that transfer well to the workplace because you’re used to figuring things out. The study and practice of law are two different things. Having some work and life experience really contributes to knowing the difference.
Now that I’m an employer and have my own law firm, I’ve seen that people who take nontraditional paths tend to be very resilient.
Somita Basu JD ’11, Concord Law School at Purdue Global
