Attorney at law... Employability aspects

conmo

Considering partaking in friary law in october in order to sit NY Bar. Has people done this before? Is it tough?

Also, JOB PROSPECTS IN AMERICA? How realistic is it to get a decent job in NY? Anyone have a decent job in US after taking this path? Or have they came back to Ireland and landed on their feet? Thanks!!

conmo

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valleyoftheunos

conmo wrote: »

Considering partaking in friary law in october in order to sit NY Bar. Has people done this before? Is it tough?

Also, JOB PROSPECTS IN AMERICA? How realistic is it to get a decent job in NY? Anyone have a decent job in US after taking this path? Or have they came back to Ireland and landed on their feet? Thanks!!

I'm not overly familiar with the Legal jobs market in the US but it would be very difficult to get a job with a decent US law Firm without having been to an American Law School and having done some Summer Associate Programs with US law firms.

All of your competition in the Jobs market will have these so you will be at a disadvantage in the Job Hunt.

With respect to the coming back here with it, some people are impressed by it on a CV but I fail to see what practical benefit it would be to you.

LowKeyReturn

I know of one guy who did it. His attitude was it's great for a while and the money is fantastic but you've no life. He's back a number of years at this point. More recently I was chatting to someone who has interned in the States (won through some debating or mooting competition) who was told; why would we hire an Irish graduate when we've a hundred American graduates applying for the job?

Not to say it can't be done just go into it with your eyes open.

godtabh

LowKeyReturn wrote: »

More recently I was chatting to someone who has interned in the States (won through some debating or mooting competition) who was told; why would we hire an Irish graduate when we've a hundred American graduates applying for the job?

Maybe not comparable but I was offered a full time position after my J1 finished in 3rd year as my degree was more focused than the equivalent american and was more useful the the firm I was working for compared to a recently graduated american. This was in engineering

LowKeyReturn

godtabh wrote: »

Maybe not comparable but I was offered a full time position after my J1 finished in 3rd year as my degree was more focused than the equivalent american and was more useful the the firm I was working for compared to a recently graduated american. This was in engineering

It wouldn't really be comparable unfortunately. US Law degrees are post graduate degrees rather than primary undergraduate degrees as they are here. The other issue is that, although I'm probably oversimplifying this, a bridge is a bridge where as the the law can be quite different.

The other issue, that baffles me to this day, is there are still people who think (perhaps rightly in the states) that there is uber money in law and they'll chose law as a career rather than something like engineering.

Blackrockcomet

You would need luck/contacts to land an associate position with just the attorney at law qualification and no internships/ law school on your cv. That said, you might be able to get paralegal work which could make a big difference.
In relation to the comment that there are thousands of US law graduates so why would they hire an Irish one, that's a valid point but in smaller NYC firms if you can show them that you can do the job (paralegal experience etc) you're likely to be able to work for much less than your US equivalent who has huge amounts of debt

XxMCRxBabyxX

Out of curiosity would internships and a traineeship in a top 5 firm here help at all if I then decided to look for jobs in NY or other parts of the US. I'm thinking after qualification here

valleyoftheunos

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Out of curiosity would internships and a traineeship in a top 5 firm here help at all if I then decided to look for jobs in NY or other parts of the US. I'm thinking after qualification here

The only non American person I know who worked for a US law Firm in NY went to Harvard Law so he was top of their list anyway.

I do have a friend who worked for a big US firm after qualifying with one of the big 5 here but he was working in France not the US.

Law school in the US takes 4 years, its like your time in Blackhall or Kings Inns not, an undergrad. All of that means you are really up against it. Qualifying here and getting 2 or 3 years PQE and then doing the NY bar would put you in a much better position to find employment in the US.

Blackrockcomet

XxMCRxBabyxX wrote: »

Out of curiosity would internships and a traineeship in a top 5 firm here help at all if I then decided to look for jobs in NY or other parts of the US. I'm thinking after qualification here

Training with a top 5 Irish firm would be unlikely to impress US firms for a position as an attorney on a CV. I'm not sure with hundreds of CVs that they'd take the time to understand what that a traineeship is and they wouldn't know the name. That said, if you are competing for paralegal work with those pre-law school and you have experience with massive discovery for example that's a different story.

Thevalleyoftheunos is correct in that if you qualify here and have PQE in a particular area, you'd have a better chance. In the top 5 you'll probably deal with the same large multinationals that American firms deal with, as well as acting opposite American firms and potentially working in the American office. The contacts that you'd establish from this would be your best bet. I know that you might work for the same multinationals as a trainee but this wouldn't carry the same weight.

Another route would be to move in house. It might be easier to qualify here, move in house and look to move to the US subsidiaries of the company that you work for (obviously not immediately)

XxMCRxBabyxX

Thanks both. I reckoned it would be something like that alright. I've got years to go anyway! I still have to get round to finishing that pesky degree! :-)