Human Rights/ International public law firms? Forum

[eagletww]

Hi !

I am a 1L in a T14

I wondered if there is any way to practice human rights or international public law upon graduation while making nearly as much as in big law?

What are the top firms in the practice of Human rights and/or International public law?

My question might seem naive, but as an international law student, I am not very familiar with the job prospects in the US in this field.

Thank you so much!

[cavalier1138]

If you want a practice where you are generally defending human rights... no.

If you're just interested in the field and don't mind representing a few war criminals, then there are some firms with niche practices in this area.

[crazywafflez]

I'm not really sure what you're interested in, but there won't be a public interest type job that pays a lot for the "good guys".
It seems like you might enjoy doing some work with the UN, or working for a think tank- like protect democracy- here are some bios of those folks-
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/jessica-marsden/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/ben-berwick/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/corey-dukes/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/rachel-homer/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/christine-kwon/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/john-langford/
https://protectdemocracy.org/our-staff/ ... -williams/

Mostly YH, but saw a couple NYUs and Stanfords in there, I think?
But yeah, a lot of international advocacy "law" is policy type work- with groups akin to this. A lot of times it'll be more niche groups that really focus on a smaller issue- i.e. Zimbabwe aftermath from Rwanda, helping Nambia set up a decanting Trusts system similar to Canada's, things like that. That's at the very high end though and these gigs are tough to get and usually low paying.
If you're more interested in international business law, which is just folks doing business/corporate work in NYC/London/Hong Kong etc., there are a lot of firms that do stuff like that that can be fairly interesting.
I don't do any of this stuff, used to work for a thinktank long ago that specialized in mideast, but honestly, you're much better off finding some professors at your law school (or even the undergrad) who have interesting bios/career paths and asking them how they got there- or emailing/ trying to chat with someone at one of these firms and/or think tanks. I don't think your CDO will be equipped to help unless you're at NYU or HYS, but I've been wrong many times before.