<p>I'm currently a freshman at Wes and I was wondering if anyone could give me any insight or advice on what I should consider as majors if I'm interested in corporate/commercial international law (specifically and exclusively dealing with Japanese corporations as I plan to take the language all 4 years and study abroad my junior year). Academically, I'm really interested in philosophy, but I won't be able to get a certificate in international relations if I major in it. Because of this I was considering majoring in government with a concentration in international politics then try to minor in philosophy or something. My biggest concern, however, is that going into international politics won't be as relevant to international law as i would like. There is an international law class for the concentration, but I'm not really interested in the political/economic classes that I may have to take along the way. Ideally, I would like a career where I'm employed by a firm or corporation and my job entails writing up and translating legal contracts and negotiations regarding trade between corporations of Japan and America (so that only the laws of each country are really relavant to my work). Any advice on how I might approach this goal in terms of a major?</p>
<p>Your specific undergrad degree really doesn’t matter in terms of what you do in law school and thereafter.</p>
<p>Translating documents is not something a lawyer would do in the ordinary course of their work, even in a firm with a large international clientele; most developed countries are extremely adept at negotiating in English. Speaking fluent Japanese may have lots of collateral benefits like, knowing the culture and accessing local media, but, not necessarily as a work requirement.</p>
<p>Furthermore, you have a long ways to go before your expertise in Japan even begins to pay off: the first year of law school is composed of all required courses. By second and third year, the number of electives having anything to do with international law will be very limited. And, at the end of three years, even if you are lucky enough to be hired by an international firm, it could be years before you are allowed to do anything interesting. At this point, it sounds like you may want to consider obtaining an LLM. But, do you have the patience for all that schooling?</p>
<p>johnwesley,</p>
<p>Although I appreciate your attempt to collapse my aspirations, you didn’t really answer my question. I know what law school entails. I have 3 lawyers in my family – one of which is the dean of a law school. When I asked her what to major in she instructed me to major in something I’m passionate about and not to worry as much about its pertinence to law school. In spite of this, I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask the opinions of others on how to proceed considering my options, but so far I’ve been wrong.</p>
<p>^^Wow. too bad they couldn’t give you better advice regarding comportrment. If someone’s trying their best to help you, you don’t bite their head off.</p>
<p>Why don’t you design your own major! I talked to a student today that did it and it sounded pretty interesting because the melded two different majors together. I don’t really know how it works at Wes but I’m sure there is a way to work that out</p>