<p>My goal is to be an international lawyer. Can anyone describe what their daily life is like as an international lawyer? Can anyone also tell me how they prepared for that kind of career?</p>
<p>By the way, I am a senior in highschool.</p>
<p>Your question is way too broad. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all "international lawyer." International law encompasses everything from mergers and acquisitions between multinationals to working in embassies and everything in between. What are you specifically interested in?</p>
<p>Not to hijack but I'd like to know about working in embassies.</p>
<p>BUMP 10char</p>
<p>But Yale Law School has an International Law Program...I am really confused about the fictional part of international law...</p>
<p>Ratatouille, are you an international lawyer or lawyer yourself?</p>
<p>I thought I posted this earlier but it's not here so I'll repeat. International law is a real practice area. There is international transactional law and international trade law. The transactional law speaks for itself - deals that are international in scope. Often international tax law is also involved. International trade lawyers deal more with regulatory law and investigations involving import/export law, antidumping and countervailing duty issues, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,the Foreign Agents Registration Act and other regulatory schemes. This site can give you info on what is involved in international trade law. </p>
<p>International law usually ties in very closely with commercial law.</p>
<p>I met this woman who specialized in anti-dumping cases and Asian-Pacific immigration.</p>
<p>China's now a large market - I bet knowing a second language probably helps loads in international law =D</p>
<p>Working at a BIGLAW firm as a corporate lawyer (and working as in house counsel) often requires involvement in international law in terms of working on multinational transactions including securities issuances, listings and de-listings in foreign countries, as well as U.S. securities transactions for foreign companies, mergers and acquisitions, buying/selling goods and services internationally, as well as import/export compliance, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance, working within the parameters of government regulations on embargoed countries (for example, Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Iran), companies and persons, currency transactions and translation, taxation (including bi-lateral and multinational tax treaties) and labor issues, among a multitude of other potential areas.</p>
<p>Significant foreign travel can be part of the equation, but in this era of contrained financial resources, I imagine that a lot more work will be done via phone and video conferencing in the coming years than ever before. From personal experience, I can assure you that foreign travel on business is hardly a vacation, and the inside of a conference room in Paris looks remarkably like the inside of a conference room in Cleveland, expecially when you're working 18-20 hours a day (which is often what happens to maximize your time when you're on international business travel -- heck, it's often what happens when you're back in the home office while working for BIGLAW anyway . . . ). </p>
<p>If your goal is to work for an embassy or at the U.N., you might be a lot better off getting a degree in foreign/international relations than in getting a law degree. If your interest lies in foreign policy, again, a foreign/international relations degree perhaps coupled with a J.D. may be best. If you think that some kind of "international relations" career is what you want, I would highly recommend working for a year or two post-college in the field to figure out what you are really looking for. It would be a huge waste of time and money to go to law school for three years only to find out later that you would have been better off taking a different path to reach your goals.</p>
<p>Do lawyers travel or do practically live in the office?</p>
<p>Well, if living in the office means that an attorney works all of the time, travelling certainly doesn't mean less hours for that attorney. In fact, I've always found that when I'm travelling on business, I am pretty much working 24/7, including time in the air, getting to and from airports, getting through airport security, etc.</p>