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I grew up in the midwest, went to undergrad in the midwest, I'm going to law school in the midwest, worked my 1L Summer at Midwest F100, and I will be going to a midwest 2L SA position. The firm I am going to has no offices outside the midwest and I potentially would be interested in working abroad for a couple years. What would be the best path to getting there?

A little more background, I have decent grades at a Midwest T30, a pretty strong finance background, and I will be graduating debt free.

Your best bet would probably be to attempt to get hired by a NY based firm as a 3L that has a large US law practice in Europe (probably London) and then try to swing a rotation there (probably in Capital Markets, MAYBE m&a but certainly corporate). Without actual fluency in Spanish/French/Portuguese/Mandarin it will be damn near impossible to go anywhere else.

I'd put your odds at pulling the above off as not great.

2014 wrote:Your best bet would probably be to attempt to get hired by a NY based firm as a 3L that has a large US law practice in Europe (probably London) and then try to swing a rotation there (probably in Capital Markets, MAYBE m&a but certainly corporate). Without actual fluency in Spanish/French/Portuguese/Mandarin it will be damn near impossible to go anywhere else.

I'd put your odds at pulling the above off as not great.

If you don't have a recognizable firm on your resume, is 3L OCI very similar to having no firm at all? My firm is a top of the market secondary but has little to no New York presence.

That's good -- you can spin it as a "I realized I want to get out of the midwest" and that can be your story for looking for a NY-based firm. It'd be tougher probably if you were at a NY firm trying to 3L OCI to another.

But yeah, you want to be doing Cap Markets.

Yeah I mean I'm sure it would be BETTER to be at like Kirkland Chi trying to jump to Skadden NY or whatever but just play the cards you are dealt. If you are serious about it make sure you have a good CapM narrative from classes, your finance background, and your Midwest firm. Grades may matter more for you too.

NoLongerALurker wrote:That's good -- you can spin it as a "I realized I want to get out of the midwest" and that can be your story for looking for a NY-based firm. It'd be tougher probably if you were at a NY firm trying to 3L OCI to another.

But yeah, you want to be doing Cap Markets.

I do not think this is accurate at all. I think it's probably much harder to go from a midwest firm, especially a more regional firm with no NY office, to a NY firm than to go from a NY firm to another.

I'm also interested in this. I'll be summering at a V20 in Chicago this summer, but someday I'd love to move to London. How can I best position myself, now/this summer, to get there?

Best practice area? best people to talk to?

edwardt1988 wrote:

NoLongerALurker wrote:That's good -- you can spin it as a "I realized I want to get out of the midwest" and that can be your story for looking for a NY-based firm. It'd be tougher probably if you were at a NY firm trying to 3L OCI to another.

But yeah, you want to be doing Cap Markets.

I do not think this is accurate at all. I think it's probably much harder to go from a midwest firm, especially a more regional firm with no NY office, to a NY firm than to go from a NY firm to another.

I defer to Ed on this. I had nothing to base this on other than my uninformed gut instinct.

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Figure out where you might want to go, and then figure out what it would take to get there. If you aren't going to work for a US firm with an office in your country of interest and hope to get transferred, you may have to prove your interest: an employer may be reluctant to bring someone in (at great expense) who may have a hard time adjusting or will run off in a year or so. Have you traveled? Studied abroad? Done an internship abroad? Picked up a second language? The vast majority of the attorneys I know currently working abroad have done one or more of those things. Some markets have more barriers to entry than others, and that may limit what you can do or who you can work for.

Try to get in contact with US attorneys already working where you want to go and see what path they took. I've found that most people are willing to talk to you as long as you don't come off as "hey can you get me a job???"