Going Abroad After Law School (Curious) Forum

[kx121]

Are job prospects better in lets say Europe for Lawyers than in the US (The Bad State That It Is In)? Would it make sense to get an LLM instead of a JD?

[Danteshek]

Well, how many european languages do you speak, besides English? Do you have EU-citizenship?

[thesealocust]

Are job prospects better in lets say Europe for Lawyers than in the US (The Bad State That It Is In)? Would it make sense to get an LLM instead of a JD?

You can't get an LLM without a JD unless you have an equivalent foreign degree (usually an LLB). Whatever the market for lawyers is abroad, the JD - teaching the laws, processes and school of thought local to the United States - is unlikely to equip you for a successful job hunt elsewhere. The exceptions tend to be those who get jobs with satellite offices of U.S. firms abroad, but those tend to be highly competitive and hire from only a narrow segment of the population.

[kx121]

no EU citizenship...would it be better to go abroad after finishing undergrad in the US and getting an LLM from lets say Europe? What is the legal market like there

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

Most EU economies are considerably worse off than the U.S. It's fairly typical for law graduates to take on multi-year, unpaid internships in hopes of eventually getting hired on permanently in countries like Italy. There was a nice NY Times article about it a while back which I'm too lazy to dig up.

Things miiiiiight be better off in Germany, a few Scandinavian countries, and the odd second world nation in the eastern half.