<p>I'd like to someday become a human rights lawyer at the United Nations but I'm a bit unfamiliar with this career path. Anyone want to help me with these questions?</p>
<p>1) what are the best schools?</p>
<p>2) VERY IMPORTANT: what are the best undergrad majors?</p>
<p>3) This isn't too important but I guess it could always help, but what is the salary for an international lawyer?</p>
<p>4) If I were to become a human rights lawyer would I work only through organizations like the UN or would your normal american law firm have different branches of this?</p>
<p>Very ambitious...Do you want to work for a member nation at the UN (ie.. The U.S.)? </p>
<p>These are just suggestions: </p>
<p>1) Obviously any of the top 15. But I would be thinking about something close to the UN headquarters like NYU or Columbia - both great schools. Otherwise DC has some great and well connected schools as well: Georgetown, American, GW. </p>
<p>2) I would think about Political Science with a concentration in International relations. </p>
<p>3) Not much. If this is what you want to do then you know you're not doing it for the $. However, an idea - start out as a lawyer. Make some $ for about five years, pay off loans and then go follow the dream. NOTE: Problem with this is that you become accustom to the "good" life, you get married and then so does your spouse. You go from $150k - $200k to $52k - $71k. Owning to renting, BMW to Yugo, the beach to the bario, armani to Kenneth Cole, hot chick to no chick! </p>
<p>4) Good question and I know there's someone out there that can answer this better than I can. However, there are NFP organizations dedicated to this sort of thing: Human Rights Watch. Most are fiercely political - FYI. You could work for them. But I don't think there are firms, per se that would employ a lawyer to do this type of work. I think your best bet would be to go through a member nation after you graduate. </p>
<p>In spite of most people's notions and ideas about Int'l Law, it deals primarly with corporations and business law -- not the humanitarian fight that most people assume. Sure, you could try to get a job with an international agency (e.g. UN, OAS, etc). But those jobs are very hard to get. Furthermore, for most of them you might not even need a law degree -- a master's degree in Economics or IR would do just fine. As far as salaries, well, let's just say you'd make more in corporate law. And, if you are seriously considering law school, simply go to the best school you can -- your undergrad school will not be as important if you have an elite advanced (law or master's degree). Hope this helps.</p>
<p>One last thing: if you truly want to make a difference at the intenational level, consider a career in politics; it will give you more power. the UN is way too bureaucratic and consequently inefficient -- it'd still look great on your resume, though:D.</p>
<p>that's my high school anatomy teacher's son. Anyway, he works for the UN now, he had some trouble though -- he ended up having to learn Croation (I guess they lacked croation speaking legal types) but he's a kid that's very good with languages and can learn them extremely quickly and has loads of international experience. He's extremely bright, he was even admitted to HLS but chose UT for money reasons.</p>
<p>I'd imagine you would need to do some of the same things, a lot of work that is international, try to do things relating to human rights (i.e.: how he went to cambodia to check on the working conditions) that sort of thing.</p>