The purpose of this guide

This guide is designed as a resource for lawyers who are considering an international move. Each move and each location is different but we hope you find it a useful overview. We would encourage you to get in touch directly if you have further questions or if you would like a more detailed discussion around any specific location.

Can I move internationally?

In the face of a relatively flat and arguably over-lawyered domestic market, international expansion is now firmly established as a key contributor to current and future growth in a large majority of major UK law firms. This is reflected in the demand for high quality lawyers. You need only read the legal press and look at the firms’ career pages to see that international hiring is high on the agenda. The question is how you capitalise on it. As a rule, a firm making an international hire will be looking for some combination of the following:

• A minimum of one years’ relevant experience (although opportunities exist for top class NQ’s)
• A strong track record in a good, well-known commercial law firm (City, international or top regional)
• Relevant specialisms – transactional expertise, international disputes, cross-border sectors
• Language skills – Mandarin/Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, major European languages
• Cultural knowledge of the country, perhaps through family or time spent there
• Ability to demonstrate the personal traits to fit into a different working environment/culture
• If senior, evidence of portable clients or at least relevant contacts and experience in that market, whether gained on the ground there or remotely from another location

If you have some of these attributes you will have a strong application; without any, it is likely to be tough.