Although the legal profession is esteemed, law isn't typically a top choice for international students. Why?
One reason is that law demands proficiency in English and logical thinking. Also, legal systems vary between countries, and if you intend to work back in your home country, a foreign legal degree may not be useful without further local qualifications.
However, with Asia’s rapid economic growth and booming international trade, pursuing a career in law through studying abroad can be promising. If your child is interested in law or becoming a lawyer, it's worth exploring. After all, lawyers usually make a lot of money! However, most students have a shallow knowledge of the legal field – besides litigating, most don’t know what lawyers really do on a daily basis.
So, what are the different types of lawyers? What career paths or fields can one choose? Is it better to study law in the UK or the US? Let’s dive in!
We will discuss:
What can you do with a law degree?
What career options are available for international students studying law?
Choosing between the US and the UK.
How are the course structures for law degrees in the UK and US?
1. What can you do with a law degree?
Criminal lawyers handling sensational cases typically grab the most public attention. However, there are numerous less high-profile, yet highly specialized fields: labor law, family law, child law, tax law, business law, human rights law, banking law, property law, employment and social security law...
A lawyer typically specializes in a specific legal field, and international students, unless they plan to immigrate permanently, generally don’t choose too narrow or localized a field. So, they normally specialize in areas like international business law, international trade law, international law, business law, intellectual property law, international cooperation law, maritime law, etc. After graduation, they typically join multinational corporations or law firms.
For example, many Chinese students studying at Harvard Law School choose to specialize in intellectual property law. Given the close economic ties between China and the US, intellectual property problems between both countries require US-trained professionals to provide advisory services.
2. Career Options for International Students Studying Law
For international students, studying law is an excellent way to understand international business, learn about the operations of global corporations, and acquire professional skills that lead to well-paid employment.
One should remember, though, that passing a law degree will not guarantee you a job as a lawyer. For most countries, after getting your degree, you will need to pass a specialized exam called the Bar exam to be registered as a lawyer there, and depending on the country, have several years of work experience.
Common career paths include:
a) Becoming a top lawyer in a specialized field in the US or UK, joining globally renowned large law firms, and serving large companies or organizations. Common areas include environmental law, business law, financial law, corporate law, tax law, or intellectual property law.
b) Joining UK or US multinational corporations as senior consultants responsible for corporate legal affairs, patent agents, tax consultants, or related advisory positions.
c) Returning to their home country or another country in Asia. Here, it's important to note the legal system back home. Commonwealth countries generally allow graduates from the UK to practice law, with some preconditions, because they share a similar legal system. For example, those who graduate in law from top universities in the UK can practice in Singapore as local lawyers, provided they pass the Singapore Bar exam.
It's a little different with US law schools, because the US legal system is quite different from that of many Asian countries. However, there are still options for international students studying law. For example, you may help companies in your home country understand US law or use your US law degree in China to advise Chinese companies that wish to expand in the US market – for instance, with mergers and acquisitions. You may also work for a US company or law firm that has a presence in China, ensuring that the company’s multinational operations conform to US law. Of course, it goes without saying that these companies tend to prefer graduates from top law schools with many years of experience in their fields.
3. Choosing between the US and the UK for studying law
The paths to becoming a lawyer in the US and UK are different. Generally speaking, for international students, studying law in the UK is the easier path, as obtaining a lawyer's qualification is quicker there than in the US.
Firstly, counting from the first year of undergraduate studies, it can take 5 or 6 years in the UK to become a fully-certified lawyer, compared to 7 years in the US. In the UK, you can study law at the undergraduate level. After graduation, you can then take the appropriate exams and standard internship experience to obtain professional certification as a lawyer. In the US, law does not exist as an undergraduate major; students need to attend law school for three years after graduating from college. They must then take the bar exam of a particular state to practice law there, but they can’t practice outside that state.
Another difference is that in the UK, there are two categories of lawyer: solicitors and barristers, with different training. "Solicitors" mainly provide legal services for companies as well as individual clients for personal matters. They are responsible for directly dealing with clients' legal affairs, evidence collection, and preparing legal documents but cannot represent clients in court. "Barristers" mainly represent clients in court. In practice, most international students become "solicitors" because it's easier to find employment. In the US, though, there is no such distinction: lawyers do it all.
So, whom do we still recommend going to the US to study law?
• Firstly, students planning to stay in the US after graduation.
• Secondly, those who are already undergraduates in the US, with the academic ability to be admitted to a top-ten law school, and aiming to specialize in corporate law. Holding a Harvard or Yale Law School degree opens doors to extremely highly-paid jobs in internationally renowned law firms or corporations.
• Thirdly, students with an undergraduate law degree from their home country, who wish to go to the US for a master's degree in law and pass the Bar exam in a US state. Holding both a local and US legal license will provide excellent future opportunities.
4. Course Structures of Law Degrees in the UK and US
The US
Since there's no undergraduate major in law, most students planning to go to law school major in a social science or humanities discipline, such as political science, sociology, English, or philosophy. Some students may join a "pre-law" program, which isn't a major but rather helps students prepare for law school based on their current majors, guiding them on course selection, research projects, and extracurricular activities to better prepare them for entering law school.
The next step is taking the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), which primarily assesses students' reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and analytical reasoning. This is a very difficult test, and to have a chance of entering a top-20 law school, one needs to be in the top 10% of test takers.
Once in law school, the first-year curriculum consists of compulsory courses. For example, at Harvard Law School, all first-year students study civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, criminal law, legislation and regulation, property, and torts. The next two years focus on a specific field, such as criminal justice, law and business, or law and government. During this time, students take internships at law firms, hoping to secure a job offer from the firm by graduation. After graduation, one must complete the final step to become a lawyer, which is taking the Bar exam in their state, before officially qualifying as a lawyer.
Most international students choose to take the exam in New York or California because these two states have many large companies and law firms. Competition for top law schools is extremely fierce, as top law firms only recruit from top schools. So, students from higher-ranked law schools have an advantage in job opportunities and salaries.
The UK
In the UK, you can study law at the undergraduate level. As with the US, being a lawyer is one of the highest-paying professions in the UK, with top lawyers earning up to £1 million annually. Compared to the US, the admission rate in the UK is slightly higher, with law schools at top universities like Cambridge and LSE having admission rates at around 20%. The course structure of UK law schools is also quite similar to the US.
Using the UCL (University College London) law program as an example: The first two years of courses are compulsory. The first year comprises five courses: law in context, contract law, criminal law, property law (part one), and public law. The second year has four courses: EU law, jurisprudence and legal theory, property law (part two), and tort law. The third year consists entirely of elective courses. Students choose four from over twenty available options, depending on their interests. Options include commercial law, company law, criminal litigation, criminology, environmental law, family law, intellectual property law, competition law, tax law, international public law, and more. Exams are conducted each year, and students must pass them to progress to the next year.
Some universities offer specialized courses to meet the needs of certain professions. For example, UCL offers a course called "Law and Another Legal System" where students can study abroad for a year. The University of Bristol provides a course called "Law and French/Spanish/German," catering to students planning to practice in Europe.
However, you can’t just call yourself a lawyer after graduation. To obtain a solicitor’s license, after your undergraduate degree, you must undertake two years of internship at a law firm, followed by an exam. Likewise, to be certified as a barrister, after university, you must both pass the Bar exam and gain work experience. As in the US, the better the law school, the more advantages you have in finding internships and jobs.
In summary, since there's no undergraduate major in law in the US, and given the highly competitive nature of top US law schools, going to the UK to study law is generally an easier option. Furthermore, compared to domestic graduates, international students studying law abroad have an advantage in entering renowned international law firms or multinational companies due to their international education background.
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