golfguylsu

I know that there are some attorneys on this site. How much travel is involved in your profession? I realize that there are some attorneys that travel quite abit and there are those that hardly ever travel. I would like to find out more about the profession. What practice areas travel the most and to where? Individual stories would be great. I am a junior at LSU and intend on going to law school. I will most likely go to LSU or Tulane Law school. Will the fact that Louisiana Law is civil based as opposed to the common law basis of the rest of the USA help land a job in International Law (I am also interested in aviation law [big surprise])? Louisiana Law schools train students in both civil and common law. Will the fact that parts of Europe are civil law based help me land a job that will require me to practice in both Europe and the United States, provided my grades from law school are adequate?

767-322ETOPS

I work for a large finl services firm in the LegalCompliance dept. I have responsibility for covering our international branch offices. This means I'm in either Europe or Asia about once per quarter. My "specialty" is securities law, more particularly investment advisory. I think with the proliferation of hedge funds and private equity and other US type "products", this area will continue to grow.

I don't think attending law at LSU will convey any particular advantage, or disadvantage for that matter. While civil law is prominent in some European jurisdictions, my experience has been that common law is, well, pretty common. In my particular area, I've noticed that a lot of foreign jurisdictions actually look to US practice when formulating rules and regs for their capital markets, etc. In Europe, there's a good amount of momentum towards harmonication (do a google search on MiFid), so I think that barriers to practice will continue to recede.

I took a course in aviation law when I went to law school. It was pretty interesting, and much of aviation law precedent comes from shipping law. As I recall property right issues are huge, and liability under the Geneva convention too. I went to school pre 9/11, so I can't comment on how things have changed since then.

In order to land the best law job possible, your priorities should be, in order:

1) Getting into the law school of your choice. I.e., keep your grades up and prep well for the LSAT.

2) When you get into law school, do everything you can to keep your grades up. Also participate in law reviews, journals, etc should the opportunity present itself. I'm not familiar with LSU, but if they publish some sort of transportation law journal, that would be a good one to shoot for.

Finally, one piece of insight I would pass on to any person considering a career in law: be prepared to work like a dog. Long hours are expected, and you won't have much time to do much of anything else. You'll make decent money, especially if you land a position at a large law firm, but it's really blood money that they're paying you. That said, law can be a rewarding career - but go into it eyes open so you don't get disillusioned like a lot of young attorneys do.

Good luck !

lvnvflyer

If you have a really strong interest in international law, you probably want to think about law firms that have international practices (at least as a first step). Those will primarily be large national law firms, often based in NYC, and they concentrate their hiring on the very top law students, so the advice on grades was good advice. I have had an opportunity to travel on behalf of clients on a few international trips, and if you want to TRAVEL overseas (as opposed to becoming an Expat, which is different), I think you would want to look at doing some type of corporate practice, as opposed to a litigation practice. I can only echo the previous poster's comments on the workload that is the norm for associates (and partners, for that matter) at the large law firms; you can pretty much expect no vacations and very few uncluttered weekends for years on end at certain large firms. You make great $$$ but at a high price.

davidcalgary29

God, yes, and the #1 reason cited by my friends who are leaving the practice of law after 5-6 years at the bar. People are surprisingly resilient, and can put up with anything for short periods of time, but 12-16 workdays will simply wear you down after three or four years.

Unless you're brave enough to work in criminal or family law, where your salary will be comparable to police officers and teachers. I laughed merrily at the horrified expression on one American real estate lawyer's face when I advised that, in Alberta, Crown Prosecutors with less than five years of experience can expect to receive a maximum salary of $65,000/yr (about the same for defence counsel).

If you do want to travel, I'd suggest that you consider a career in oil & gas / natural resources law. It's not the most exciting work, but a number of my friends who specialize in this area have made quite a bit of money doing contract work in the Gulf states.

PresRDC

I am an attorney for a large aerospace company. I provide legal support to our sales force for customers (airlines) based in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. I negotiate sales contracts, contract amendments/close-outs and resolve disputes with customers prior to them becoming litigation.

Recent transactions have included:

More mundane tasks include drafting letters, non-disclosure agreements and giving training on various legal matters. I also teach a class on airliner identification as part of the training we give to new employees in our legal department.

My total amount of travel depends on the deals we have in the pipeline. Last year I spent 12 weeks in Shanghai, 1 week in Haikou and 1 week in Seoul. So far this year I have spent one week in Shanghai. Travel is in paid business class (upgraded to First by me) and hotels are Westins and St. Regis properties. Since the value of the deals we work on are so large, our company has a high tolerance for travel expenses. Since I mostly travel with sales guys, I live quite well on the road, but traveling to low cost of living countries helps that.

uncertaintraveler

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

uncertaintraveler

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

PresRDC

Same hold true in aerospace. We push for CT law, with NY as a fallback. In worst case scenarios we will go to England and, in one case I recall, Singapore, but that requires very high level approval.

That said, we do arbitrate outside the United States. My colleague recently completed a two week arbitration hearing in Singapore as that is where the dispute resolution clause specified (even though the contract was governed by CT law).

Bunchie

Just to add to the fine advice already proffered:

1. Don't choose LSU unless you're certain you want to practice in Louisiana. Tulane will give you more options.

2. Traveling for business is not the same as traveling for pleasure. You may very well find that there is nothing you dislike more than traveling for business. You rarely have time to see any sights, and especially as an attorney, you'll resent how it becomes that much harder to make your billable hours when you're on the road.

3. A firm with a broad base of multinational clients is the one that will offer the most opportunities for (international) travel. Multinational clients tend to cluster at big name firms.

PresRDC

Unless one goes in-house.

Ocn Vw 1K

golfguylsu, welcome to FT! Given that law practice is most demanding, as others have noted, I'd recommend choosing the practice subject and type that you enjoy and not focus on which type of practice generates a lot of travel. If the practice doesn't offer travel, then, as suggested, handle the travel as a personal recreation.

haywiresf

Funny you should mention this...

My brother went to Tulane and did their MBA/JD joint degree program. He's been part of the working world for... maybe eight years now. If I remember right he was there for five years, maybe six. He did his undergrad in marketing at SF State. He's barred in Louisiana and as of three years ago, Texas. He deals with oil/gas/minerals and travels to China/Taiwan a few times a year. He travels from LA to TX a lot, for a few days at a time. He doesn't litigate though, I guess the company he works for retains "real" lawyers for that. He just negotiates, drafts letters and manages a team of lower level negotiators. From what he's said he apparently he relies more on the MBA portion of his education (managing, projecting etc) than on the JD.

If it's something you're seriously interested I can pass along any specific questions you have about the Tulane program you have to him, or put you in contact with him.

If it's between the two, I'd go with Tulane for the reasons people have already listed.

joejones

Tulane is a workable option for an international business law job, but not the best one. You will need to be in the top 5% of your class, or have some other eye-popping credentials, to get your foot into the door at most serious employers.

If you have good undergrad grades and LSAT scores, consider big-name schools. NYU, Berkeley, Stanford or any place in the Ivy League will get you into this sort of job lickety-split. Yes, you'll have to go into debt, but the degree will pay for itself when you're making $145k plus bonuses in your first year out, whereas if you stay in-state, you could EASILY end up settling with a crappy $50k job at a no-name firm in Shreveport, wondering where you went wrong.

Disclaimers that should be on every law school application:

1) Your class rank in law school will probably be much worse than you expect it to be (everyone is an overachiever, even in the middle-tier schools, and you're graded on a curve).

2) The average starting salaries which most schools publish are highly inflated.

An MBA is a good choice if you're staying in-state, since it will make you more qualified for quasi-lawyering jobs like the one described above.

WHBM

Apart from this being a topic that a number of us on FT could give in our sleep I have to say it's a real surprise that at a large aerospace company, of all organisations, they had to get a lawyer to teach a formal class on this topic.

Mr. Roboto

The A students go to Tulane to become senior partners.
The B students go to Tulane and become judges.
The C students go to LSU and work for the A students.