Advice on Diverse PS (Brazilian, attended Law School in France, back to Brazil) - All feedback appreciated! Forum

[nathjf]

Hi everyone,

It's my first time posting here and I was wondering if I could get some advice on my PS. I have a feeling my PS lacks in "drama", since I am simply reporting the experiences I've been through in the past 11 years. It's not romanticized like the PS samples I've been reading so far.

In summary: I am Brazilian but decided to attend Law School in Paris (I went to Panthéon-Assas, one of France's top law schools). After that I pursued a Master's degree in Business and Tax Law at Université de Versailles. I was determined to work at an international firm. But during that time, my dad's small pharmaceutical company was being the victim of malicious prosecution pursued by a french multinational, and he has facing bankruptcy. My mom (a lawyer) was working alone (and for free) since the company couldn't afford any extra legal aid. So in 2011 my husband and I decided to leave everything in France and move to Brazil to help my parents. Since then we've been working to rebuild the company my dad had built from the ground and I've been working on several cases involving patent law. During my first year back in Brazil I obtained the Brazilian equivalence of my French Law degree and passed the Brazilian bar exam. Now that things are (slightly) better, I want to resume my career in Law by pursuing a JD in order to practice in the USA (I'm now 31).

A few questions:

1) I worry the committee might think that I come from a very privileged background when they read the words "pharmaceutical company". The thing is, it's a tiny company of 11 employees created by a retired researcher. My father developed a stable version of a cancer drug that was patented in several countries, but so far he didn't make a dime yet. Does it matter? Does it have an impact on scholarship decisions?

2) During these 5 years in Brazil, the company was in such a bad shape that my family and I were literally working for free and living off our savings for 3 years. Should this be mentioned?

3) Should I mention in detail the cases the company has been involved in? They are all very interesting, involving patent law, corruption from Brazilian public officers, etc. It's very "David vs. Goliath" and could bring a little drama to my PS!

4) I'm thinking about starting my PS with this phrase: "For the past decade, I have been pursuing my dream of becoming a lawyer at an international level, but also fulfilling my responsibility towards my family by never letting them struggle alone". Any advice on that?


Please, any feedback will be extremely appreciated.

Thank you!

[Mr. Archer]

Your parents' jobs won't affect anything. Lots of law students come from privileged families and still get scholarships. I think you can mention everything in 2 and 3, although you probably would be giving general details about the cases, instead of going in depth on them. The opening in 4 would probably work.

Also, you talk about pursuing a JD. Do you actually mean an LLM? I'm not sure why you would be getting a JD when you already have a law degree.

[nathjf]

Your parents' jobs won't affect anything. Lots of law students come from privileged families and still get scholarships. I think you can mention everything in 2 and 3, although you probably would be giving general details about the cases, instead of going in depth on them. The opening in 4 would probably work.

Also, you take about pursuing a JD. Do you actually mean an LLM? I'm not sure why you would be getting a JD when you already have a law degree.

Thank you for your help! I know it seems strange to get a JD when I already have a law degree, but I intend to practice in the USA, so an LLM can't really help me with that... also I want to move to Atlanta, and an LLM degree wouldn't allow me to sit for the bar exam in GA.