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Law school and bar exam in different states?

Hi. I went to law school in south america and I´ve been a lawyer for 9 years?

  • I´m planning to move to the united states (I´m a LEGAL alien), but since law is differente in every country, I can´t practice as a lawyer. Do you think if I want to get a job as a legal secretary, I would have an advantage? what other kind of jobs I can have? I want to move to the san francisco bay area. I don´t want to go to school and start all over again, and I can´t take the bar exam and be ready to practice. Thanks...

  • Answer:

    Being bilingual and having a law degree will definitely improve your chances of finding employment though right now SF is suffering from 12%+ unemployment so it won't be a snap to find any kind of job. If you want to practice law you will have to pass the CA bar, laws in the US vary by state anyway so you would have to be certified to practice law in each state. As to general ideas as to how to apply your skills to find a new career you might have better luck on the Business and Careers boards.

Adriana9... at Yahoo! Answers Visit the source

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The problem is going to be that your expertise is with the laws of South America, not the US and definitely not California. If you can type and take orders and basically step'n'fetch'it for lawyers without getting crazy or nasty, you might be able to get a legal secretarial job although the more you know about local law requirements (there is a specific "style" to legal papers and the court and reject the ones that do not meet those standards--you'd have to know about these) the more likely you are to get a legal secretarial job. Law degrees from other countries are not all that useful unless you get into international law and the firm does "business" with your country. If you speak Spanish, you might be able to get a job with the ACLU or one of the other non-profit organizations (La Raza?) who have a high percentage of Spanish speaking clients who will need Spanish speakers to get through interviews and other things. Depending on what other skills you have, you might be able to get a job (maybe not a permanent one) through an employment agency which will at least bring in a paycheck, and you can then see if you can sign up with a community college or one of the night schools to learn the US and California laws and requirements. You might not be able to practice law here and if you aren't interested in studying and going through the Bar exam to be allowed to practice law here, you might be able to get a job as a paralegal--but you will have to know US laws and California law to a certain degree (most legal employment agencies and many law firms will test any applicants to make sure you do know enough about law). And as the other person stated, law firms in N. Calif. are not doing really well, many have closed, and right now not many are hiring anyone--not staff, not attorneys (they will sometimes hire laterally). I hear that Southern California (Los Angeles, maybe San Diego) have less of a hiring freeze although they too are feeling the pinch.

Inundated in SF

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