Knowledge

Ten Ways to Be an International Business Lawyer

1. Working in one jurisdiction, but for a wide range of international clients. (A Luxembourg attorney with a broad clientele of European, US and Japanese banks and investment funds);
2. Working in several jurisdictions (a Belgian lawyer, also admitted in the Check Republic, and working for nationals of one country doing business in the other);
3. Practicing law in a area that is international or supranational (a Brussels-based lawyer practising EU competition law);
4. Belonging to an international network (a Dutch lawyer, practising Dutch law in the Netherlands, but whose firm is a member of an international alliance);
5. Belonging to global, integrated firm (a US lawyer, moving to London to head the corporate finance practice group, then moving to Berlin to start a new office of the firm);
6. Working on international projects (a Paris-based in-house counsel coordinating a major investment with a German partner in Poland, with international financing arranged in London);
7. Working in the headquarters of an international company (the Lausanne-based general counsel of a worldwide company, responsible for legal matters in the EMEA region);
8. Getting the bar exam abroad (an Italian lawyer who passed the New York bar exam after her LL.M. and who then came back to Italy).
9. Becoming the local counsel of an exotic subsidiary (a Belgian lawyer working as local head of legal for the Thaï establishment of French group).
10. Being able to speak to clients in at least four different languages, and having clients who speak those languages (A French lawyer, with an Italian mother, educated in the US, married to a Swedish partner).

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 4 July 2007 |