Most major law firms are structured so as to take full advantage of their attorneys' specialized skills. This means, for example, that some attorneys will specialize in tax matters, others in corporate law and still others in litigation. International lawyers, however, typically do not specialize to the same degree because transnational business transactions usually involve numerous fields of law. A typical transnational business deal, for example, will include legal issues that bear upon the law of corporations, tax, banking, secured transactions and contracts, not to mention a working knowledge of the foreign law that may be part of the transaction.
Of the 250 largest law firms in the United States, 48 have foreign offices and the number is growing, according to the September 30, 1985, issue of National Law Journal. American law firms have discovered over the last 20 years that not only American business overseas, but also European, Asian and Latin American companies and banks look to American lawyers for their drafting skills, their extensive network of offices and correspondent attorneys around the world and their efficiency. Also, since so much transnational business is transacted with American entities (in particular U.S. banks), a lot of contracts and loan agreements are governed by New York law, which is recognized for its international commercial application.
Law firms with foreign offices typically send mid-level associates overseas for two- or three-year periods. Unless the foreign country is predominantly English speaking, law firms will look for language skills in the attorneys that they send overseas. It is not possible to represent effectively a client in Beijing without speaking Mandarin. Many of these mid-level associates never return to the U.S. to work. They recognize, as do their firms, that their expertise and client contacts are overseas. Many eventually become partners of their firms and, even as partner, they remain overseas.
If you have an opportunity to move overseas to a firm's foreign office, it can be a truly challenging and exhilarating experience. I will never forget first flying into Jakarta, Indonesia, to negotiate an oil contract for a client and saying to myself, "If this is international law, sign me up."
Returning to the U.S. after an overseas assignment can be an adjustment professionally. You may have to catch up with American legal developments and develop a new client base within the firm. You may have to re-introduce yourself to partners who have forgotten you. But you can also bring to the U.S. office invaluable skills and foreign contacts, which, in the long run, should work to your advantage.
Some law firms' foreign offices are staffed almost entirely by American lawyers practicing American law, and attorneys working in the domestic office may find little opportunity to travel overseas. Other law firms run a quasi-franchise operation: they lend their name to a foreign office staffed primarily with foreign lawyers. Another category of law firms purports to have foreign offices, but in fact the firms have simply placed one or two attorneys in a foreign law firm's offices.
Some international law firms' client rosters include many of the companies on the Fortune 500 list, but the work being done for those companies is exclusively overseas work. General Motors may use one large firm in the U.S. for its domestic work but numerous international law firms to conduct its business overseas. Likewise, major American banks often split their international work among numerous international law firms, depending upon the geographical region in which business is being conducted.
Federal Government
The largest single employer of international lawyers in the U.S. is the Federal government. Many of its lawyers work full-time on international legal problems. The departments of State and Defense handle the greatest degree of public international law work on a daily basis. Other agencies actively involved in transnational matters include the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve system, the Agency for International Development, the Office of the U.S Trade Representative, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. and the U.S Information Agency. The Department of Justice handles a lot of private international law matters, especially in the Foreign Litigation Section of the Civil Division. Recently the Office of International Affairs in the Criminal Division of the justice Department has increased its work on such public international law subjects as extradition, mutual international assistance in law enforcement, prisoner exchanges and foreign corrupt practices.
The State Department's Legal Adviser's Office is perhaps the best known enclave of public international lawyers in the Federal government. The work undertaken there can be most challenging, including the drafting and negotiation of treaties and representation of the U.S. before the International Court of justice at The Hague and at other international tribunals and diplomatic conferences. State Department attorneys can find themselves on the cutting edge of policymaking, especially during a foreign crisis, when legal advice is quickly sought by the White House and quickly rendered by 24-hour teams of lawyers in the Legal Adviser's Office. Attorneys should be prepared to represent their client, the U.S. Government, and, in particular, the administration of the day, without much opportunity to challenge basic policy. Once a decision is made in the White House, the Legal Adviser's Office typically will be asked to provide legal justification for it.
