<p>Let's say I would like to get a law degree and specialize in international law. I am well aware of how much of a trap law school can be and how the market is over-saturated, so I will only go into law school if I absolutely rock the LSAT and have sufficient enough a GPA to get into a Top 8 law school. Otherwise I will just pursue a master's elsewhere.</p>
<p>But let me ask, let's assume I just rock the LSAT and get accepted into a top(hopefully Ivy, shoot for the stars I say) law school. If I want to get into international law(foreign service, international business etc.) what would be the best bachelor's for that? And would it be possible for me to go from a university like Loyola at Chicago as an undergrad to a top 8 with a good GPA and a great LSAT score?</p>
<p>Currently I am considering econ as my bachelor's, and as a safe route to get a master's if I can't get into a top law school. </p>
<p>If you want to do foreign service or business, why are you interested in going to law school?</p>
<p>As someone who also wanted a career in international law and had spent a lot of time overseas, and then practiced overseas and with a UK firm…please remember that you practice only the law of the jurisdiction where you’re admitted. For US lawyers, that’s usually a US state. Even if you get an overseas job (usually with a UK firm in London or US firm abroad, usually in London or Hong Kong), it’s still law- sitting in an office or a conference room for hours and hours reading through complex documents, almost always in English no matter where the deal is. There’s little that’s exotic about it. Law is pretty un-international.</p>
<p>Sorry this took so long for my reply. Thanks for the info, I had wanted to go into int law to potentially become a Foreign Service officer or join international business. I’ll still consider law school if my LSAT is knocked out of the park though, as anyone should. </p>
<p>I’m not sure I agree that anyone with a high LSAT score should consider law school. The primary reason to go to law school is to become a lawyer. True, people with law degrees do other things too, but if you want to be a Foreign Service officer, I’m pretty sure there are better paths than going to law school. Similarly, if you want to work in finance or management, it seems like business school is the path to that.</p>
<p>As an observation: lots of college students, and some law students, express an interest in “international law.” I’ve been a lawyer for years, and I don’t know what they really think they’re interested in. If you want to work for White & Case or Cleary Gottlieb or their ilk in one (or several) of their far-flung non-US offices, you need to get hired by one of those firms the same way anyone does, then angle for the assignment once you’re there. When you finally wind up sitting in Djakarta or London, the actual work you do - as already mentioned - won’t be remarkably different from what your cohorts in New York are up to.</p>
<p>There are some lawyers who have particular expertise in things like the tax aspects of cross-border transactions or the like. That would really be something you’d develop in the course of actually working; conceivably you might get something from a law school course; hard to see how your college experience would be particularly relevant.There’s some miniscule number who actually appear in the international criminal court or something like that, but that’s a tiny field.</p>
<p>I suppose the one suggestion for a person who wants to be an “international lawyer” would be to learn some languages. You won’t work in them, at least not much, but at least it’ll make the process of asking for directions and the like easier.</p>
<p>If you end up in Jakarta or London with a US law degree there’s only one thing you’ll be doing: capital markets transactional work. I guess that’ll be “international law” because your deals will start in one country and run in another? Otherwise I have no idea what 0Ls think “international law” is.</p>
<p>Foreign Service =/= Law School. The Foreign Service exam supposes 1° expertise in a foreign language (bonus if it’s a critical language such as Arabic, Urdu, etc.) + 2° having lived/worked outside the US + 3° actual specific skills in a field of interest to the Foreign Service + 4° passing a difficult written test + 5° passing a very very difficult oral examination that can’t be passed unless you’ve trained for it after living abroad.
The best thing to do if you want to work in the Foreign Service is:
Do a gap year abroad, preferably a year in a foreign high school (for course rigor) but you can also volunteer abroad.
Then, attend Princeton Woodrow Wilson, Georgetown, Tufts, GWU, Middlebury, American or a Critical Language Flagship program (there are a couple more schools but all are quite selective) and increase your language skills, learning a critical language, and/or a critical skill, study abroad and/or work abroad.</p>
<p>Don’t forget about SAIS:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sais-jhu.edu”>http://www.sais-jhu.edu</a></p>
<p>I think the OP meant international law, as a subject, not ‘international law’ like oh my transaction/contract is from X country and going to Y. All of you seem to have assumed the OP meant ‘work in a law firm’ type of law, but law firms don’t generally handle what is actually international law. OP, I believe, meant more like ICJ, ICC, ECHR, Pan-American court, etc. Law as between states or international human rights law; not transnational transactions and whatnot.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in international law, I believe Leiden University offers an undergraduate LLB and LLM program that you may want to look into. Leiden is by far the most represented school for international lawyers at the ICC and working within the various European international bodies. </p>
<p>Will that get you into foreign service? Not necessarily. </p>
<p>Also, as a side note to those saying international law requires knowledge of languages, it doesn’t. All international law is conducted in English and/or French. Most international law judges on the ECJ and ECtHR only speak one of the two. Language knowledge isn’t a necessary aspect of international law.</p>
<p>@NYU2013: A lot of 0Ls really do think “international law” is some kind of nebulous big firm practice. Spend some time on TLS looking through the 0L threads and you’ll see plenty of that. Admittedly the ICC, ECHR, etc., also exist and there are lawyers working for them, but those jobs are supremely rare. With law school as expensive as it is, I couldn’t in good conscience recommend it for someone chasing a unicorn job. That’s not even getting into points about immigration and citizenship.</p>