JD/LLM or JD/PhD?

[Humbert Humbert]

International Law

Is Not: Anything approximating going to the Hague and becoming intimately familiar with the UN Charter so you can prosecute rogue African dictators for not following established conventions of jus ad bellum.

Is: A lot of becoming familiar with British foreign financial regulations and having angsty Wall Street folks ask you if they incur liability as a third-party transactor to a trade happening halfway across the world. Or something that's equally unsexy but gives a reason for the Clearys of the world to exist.

Off topic, but I'd argue that the second scenario here is "sexier" than the first, but I do work in that area so I could be biased. Cross-border financial regulation (and the lack of harmony between various regimes) is a big issue at the moment within the industry, thanks to Dodd-Frank in general and the CFTC in particular.

[worldtraveler]

What do you mean by "spent time" in those countries? Did you live there for extended periods of time? If not, no one cares.

I have a job doing human rights litigation in international courts and addressing access to justice problems in impoverished countries. If this kind of thing is what you want to do, then you need to put in a ton of work.

1. Take time off after undergrad and spend time living in a foreign country, the more remote and difficult the better. Learn the language (a useful one). At least 2-3 years is best. Make some connections in the human rights field, even if you're not working in the field. Avoid being a self-righteous douchebag/losing your mind. Train yourself to eat anything, live anywhere, sleep anywhere, and live in shitty/stressful conditions and get over it.
2. Make yourself a linguistic/political expert in some kind of area. Pick a region, pick a topic, or both. Start thinking about how you can know some place and some problem better than anywhere else on earth. Just don't make it too obscure.
3. Study for the LSAT and get yourself into HYS or at minimum a T14. You MUST attend school either on a full ride or a school with a good LRAP. Don't go to a school that does not fund post-graduate public interest fellowships. If you don't get this, don't go.
4. Get summer jobs in law school that will allow you to meet people in the human rights/development field. It matters far more who you meet than what you do.
5. Get to know your international law/PI professors and beg them to call in favors for you to get you internships and network. Have no shame in this endeavor.
6. Take your school's post grad funding and work for an NGO or government (assuming you don't get a job before you graduate, which you likely won't). While working for the NGO apply for grants to fund some kind of new project that you volunteered to work on, and in doing so, create a job for yourself.
7. Keep your family obligations to a minimum. This is not a career that is family friendly.

Realize that even if you do these things, this field is still incredibly hard to get into and the chances for failure are pretty high.

[blsingindisguise]

What do you mean by "spent time" in those countries? Did you live there for extended periods of time? If not, no one cares.

I have a job doing human rights litigation in international courts and addressing access to justice problems in impoverished countries. If this kind of thing is what you want to do, then you need to put in a ton of work.

1. Take time off after undergrad and spend time living in a foreign country, the more remote and difficult the better. Learn the language (a useful one). At least 2-3 years is best. Make some connections in the human rights field, even if you're not working in the field. Avoid being a self-righteous douchebag/losing your mind. Train yourself to eat anything, live anywhere, sleep anywhere, and live in shitty/stressful conditions and get over it.
2. Make yourself a linguistic/political expert in some kind of area. Pick a region, pick a topic, or both. Start thinking about how you can know some place and some problem better than anywhere else on earth. Just don't make it too obscure.
3. Study for the LSAT and get yourself into HYS or at minimum a T14. You MUST attend school either on a full ride or a school with a good LRAP. Don't go to a school that does not fund post-graduate public interest fellowships. If you don't get this, don't go.
4. Get summer jobs in law school that will allow you to meet people in the human rights/development field. It matters far more who you meet than what you do.
5. Get to know your international law/PI professors and beg them to call in favors for you to get you internships and network. Have no shame in this endeavor.
6. Take your school's post grad funding and work for an NGO or government (assuming you don't get a job before you graduate, which you likely won't). While working for the NGO apply for grants to fund some kind of new project that you volunteered to work on, and in doing so, create a job for yourself.
7. Keep your family obligations to a minimum. This is not a career that is family friendly.

Realize that even if you do these things, this field is still incredibly hard to get into and the chances for failure are pretty high.

Possibly the most useful post I have ever read on TLS.