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How hard is it to establish a career in one of these practice areas?

Should I be looking for positions within boutique firms that specialize in this work or big firms with a strong record in these areas?

Any particular type of summer jobs I should heavily consider in order to start tilting my career path in this direction?

Im a soon to be 1L. Assume an international background and language skills for an in demand language.

A couple of quick things (I am writing as someone who practiced international arbitration at a big firm and now practice it at a boutique; I intended the former and not the latter):

--It is reasonably difficult to break into this. Both practices are generally prestigious and popular, meaning there is a a lot of competition. You have to have great grades and come from a good school (T14 generally), or have a very good command of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Korean, etc. There are exceptions to this (see, for instance, professor Susan Franck, who had a great career in international arbitration before teaching, http://law.wlu.edu/faculty/profiledetail.asp?id=267), but most international arbitration practitioners have fancy-pants degrees and are tre cosmopolitain.

--Note that International Trade (which is a specialized set of rules) is quite different from International Arbitration, which is mainly commercial litigation without many rules. I do not know much about international trade except as an American probably the best job you can have in trade is to work at the US Trade Representative's office as a lawyer.

--Most of the jobs in these areas are at big firms. Chambers & Partners lists most of the usual suspects: http://www.chambersandpartners.com/USA/Editorial/71007. But in short, the top of the game in the US include Debevoise, White & Case, Wilmer, Freshfields, King & Spaulding. Many good firms, but no guarantee you will get international arb work if you ask for it.

--I could point you to a couple of boutiques, but the prominent one is chaffetz lindsey llp and Astirraga Davis (I never could spell that right) at http://www.astidavis.com/.

--I think an interest in international work is important for your 1L summer. If you can afford to do something in the summer between your 1L and 2L years that is public interesty in another country and in another language, and/or some sort of job with the UN, human rights group, or a regional body (the EU, Organization of American States, etc.).

Mind if I ask what language you speak? Why assume it? The "in-demand" language can cut a couple of ways. A lot of people speak Spanish, and some people you are up against have native. Sometimes, however, it pays to know a slightly less in-demand language that is commercially useful (for me, I learned Portuguese, and that has helped immensely). But there may not be much you can do about this if you are starting law school in the fall. If you don't have a language already, you might wait until you are done with 1L year because it is intense enough.

Feel free to write me directly if you have more questions (or post them here); I'd be happy to help.

--Larry, the SPAMMY SPAM REMOVED BY MODS

Native spanish speaker...currently learning portuguese and plan on being close to fluent by the time I graduate law school (attending t14). Any more tips? Your reply was very helpful, thx.

Neatrends wrote:Native spanish speaker...currently learning portuguese and plan on being close to fluent by the time I graduate law school (attending t14). Any more tips? Your reply was very helpful, thx.

You're about to take advice from a person who thinks Texas and Penn are peers. Just FYI.

Neatrends, what other advice do you want? What else do you want to know? Native Spanish is good, didn't mean to suggest it wouldn't be, and obviously portuguese should be somewhat easy for you to acquire. I know a couple of people who have good arbitration practices because of their Spanish.

What year are you in law school and where are you summering (if you want to say -- is it one of the firms that I mentioned already?)

And rad lulz, do you have any specific international arbitration advice for Neatrends?

I'd really like to learn a bit more about what an associate's day-to-day is like in an international arbitration practice group? Let's say a junior or mid-level.
TYIA.

Look at firms that have international arbitration practices and email alumni from your school to ask for an informational interview over the phone or in-person if you're in the same city to talk about their practice. Or better yet, establish relationship with professors after you start law school and ask them to recommend people you can talk to; you won't need to start looking for 1L summer jobs until December, so that's plenty of time to "get to know" your professors. In any case, it's a very difficult field to get into, with only several hundred lawyers truly working in int'l arbitration world-wide, and you'd need an excellent background in litigation to break into the field.

If you're interested in pursuing international trade law, I'd recommend looking at freight forwarding companies and working in their compliance/in house counsel team. A law degree to them is very valuable and if you can pass the customs brokerage exam, it would make you even more marketable. Supply chain is a hot field right now and my brother in law works as a customs brokerage manager for expeditors international. He doesn't even have a law degree and didn't attend a prestigious undergraduate school. Let me know if you have any questions about this as I am currently studying for my customs broker license while being a law student. Remember that it's not the grades you make but the hands you shake. Work hard and get to know the right people and you will do well in this field. Caveat-- I'm also at a Tier 3 law school.

GULC is the place to go for international trade (outside top 3). Don't know about international arbitration.