- Career Counsel
Law Goes Global
by Christine Willard
by Christine Willard
For American students looking for a job in another country, an international LL.M. is a valuable - and sometimes critical - resource. Dozens of U.S. law schools have programs that can help you reach that goal. The University of Miami faces south, toward the Caribbean and Latin America. "We are a multi-lingual university in a multilingual city," said Janet Stearns, director of international and foreign programs at Miami's School of Law. In addition to the comparative law program for attorneys trained outside the United States, Miami offers three programs for U.S.-educated J.D.s: International Law, Ocean and Coastal Law and Inter-American law. The international curriculum gives a broad base for international practice. The others provide specialty education. Students should be bilingual in Spanish or Portuguese. "We are looking for people who already evidence some work or personal experience in the region and want to focus their practice there," Stearns said. Several courses are taught in Spanish. "They allow students to demonstrate a professional competence in Spanish legal terms and concepts," she said. Although economic and political problems, particularly in Venezuela and Argentina, create barriers in those countries, opportunities are opening in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. Informal alumni relationships provide connections for employment. In-house counsel positions are a natural fit for graduates of the program. The Regional Council offers internships and entry-level positions, and frequently sends their lawyers to further their education by studying part-time at Miami. Pick a practice area JD programs prepare students to pass the bar, but don't always include material relating to international law. That's where Golden Gate University's International LL.M. program can help students. "The only advantage to having international courses before entering our program is that you can start off running with a destination in mind," said Christopher Jones, assistant director for the LL.M. in International Legal Studies. "We have an array of core courses that teach the fundamental international laws and how they apply." Golden Gate's program focuses on five areas: public law, private law, international economic law, comparative systems and international dispute resolution. The curriculum emphasizes practical application of law and offers several moot court competitions, including the Jessup Moot Court. The competition requires students to brief and argue a hypothetical case on timely issues of international law as if they were appearing in front of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, The Netherlands. In some countries, issues such as cultural heritage are finding their way into intellectual property (IP) practices. "People who need IP lawyers are not necessarily the ones who were employed in the past," Jones said. Chicago-Kent Law School has organized the nation's first International Intellectual Property LL.M. "It's the natural evolution of where IP law is going," said Graham Dinwoodie, director of the program. Most of that program's participants are Chinese, and the law school has an active faculty exchange program with China as well. Intellectual property politics The most politicized IP issue in the international arena is access to essential medicine, such as drugs for AIDS and tuberculosis. The conflict comes between the companies that hold the patents and the poor countries that want cheaper generic versions for their suffering populations. Cybersquatting and copyright piracy are also attracting a lot of attention across borders. "Fake ball bearings and fake drugs affect the reliability of the brand," Dinwoodie said. Poor countries with low rates of literacy want more freedom to copy books that they can't afford to buy. Dinwoodie taught in Poland last year, where textbooks were not available. "These are real issues in a lot of countries," he said. Dinwoodie, a Scottish native who has lived in the U.S. for 16 years, expects most students taking the International IP LL.M. to be foreign nationals who return to practice in their own countries. Students from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and India are already studying at the law school. That mix of international students and faculty adds substance to the entire law school, beyond the LL.M. program itself. "Being in class with trademark lawyers from China really brings home to students the cultural impact of these issues," Dinwoodie said. The slave trade, colonialism and cold wars pose challenges to the legal profession and lively discussion among students. "The level of competition in the various fields of human endeavor, including economic, political and technological, during this era of globalization, is enormous," said Christian N. Okeke, professor of international and comparative law at Golden Gate. For U.S. JDs, the U.S. government is a major employer. State governments and international agencies need lawyers with high-level training and experience. Immigration and political asylum need legal minds to work in those areas. Two recent GGU graduates are working on the island of Palau, rewriting its constitution. "Students are placed in international bodies such as UNESCO, UNICEF and WTO for their professional internships," Okeke said. Defense south of the border An LL.M. in Inter-American Law three years ago from the University of Miami School Law opened a career door that was stuck for Edson Briggs. He's not a native Spanish speaker, learning the language in high school and college. Fluency came with a summer he spent in Spain in 1985. He joined the Army after getting his JD from the University of Florida and was stationed in Panama with the Army Intelligence Corps. Living off the base in Panama City, he used his Spanish skills daily. Briggs returned to the U.S. in 1997 after four years of active duty. His experience in Central America turned out not to be enough to get him in the door at a big firm working in Latin America. "I was telling what I thought was a convincing story about being familiar with the area, but it's hard to land a job with a big firm," he said. Instead he took a position with an insurance defense firm. "It was a very intensive experience, even if it didn't have anything to do with Latin America," he said. "I was in court twice a week." The LL.M. got him in the door at Ferrell Schultz Zumpano & Fertel, which then expanded its international offices in 2001-2002. Since he joined the firm as an associate in 2000, he has been promoted to senior counsel, a rank between associate and partner. He handles international and domestic commercial litigation and participates in the growing white-collar criminal defense practice. Briggs recently defended some professionals in Panama who were being prosecuted under U.S. money-laundering laws. "Getting an LL.M. was a great career move for me," Briggs said. "The degree got me the look, and behind that are all the ingredients." A new focus on cyberlaw Melinda Lord has lived overseas much of her life. But she still decided that she needed an LL.M. in International Law even after practicing law abroad for six years. She's currently residing in Grenoble, France, where she's working on her French language skills and looking for work. Two invitations from international groups to go to Iraq to help build the judiciary and create local self-governance are on hold following the bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad. Growing up in the Saudi Arabia where her father worked for TWA, Lord's interest in human rights was kindled during her high school years in Beirut, Lebanon. The country was in turmoil, preceding civil war. "This experience helped forge my interest in human rights and a just world," she said. Lord returned to the U.S. for a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She went back to the Middle East as a Peace Corps volunteer in North Yemen but later came back to earn her JD at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego. Following graduation, she headed for the Middle East again and opened a private practice in Yemen and Egypt for the next two years. A 90-day contract with the United Nations Organization for Security and Cooperation in the Balkans led to an offer from the State Department. She also worked for the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations there for a year. "My four years in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Kosovo working with human rights and the rule of law in post-conflict Yugoslav republics would have been enhanced by the courses I subsequently took while getting my LL.M.," she said. "Understanding how organizations such as the UN function is essential to a career in public international law." Lord recently added an LL.M. in intellectual property from Golden Gate to her credentials, turning her career toward international cyberlaw issues. "Now that I am in Grenoble, close to Geneva, perhaps I can put my skills to use with another UN agency," she said. She described Grenoble as the Silicon Valley of Europe. "Working on the rule of law and human rights in the field is a dream come true for me," Lord said. "The isolation from family, slow progress and steep learning curve make it emotionally difficult, but it is invigorating, at least to me." This story appeared in the November 2003 edition of The National Jurist, www.nationaljurist.com |
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