IABANY Tips for Irish Law Graduates on Making it as a Lawyer in New York

1. Do I need a U.S. Law degree ?

For most of you, the inexpensive answer to that question is no. Thanks to the efforts of the IABANY, (www.iabany.org) in order to get a job as a lawyer in New York, you do not need a U.S. law degree, whether a primary law degree (a Juris Doctorate or J.D.) or a Masters degree (an LL.M), as long as your law degree is based on at least three years of full-time or four years of part-time law study in Ireland. You do need to pass the New York Bar Exam, more of which below, but your three-year full-time or four-year part-time Irish law degree renders you eligible to sit that exam. This puts most of you in the enviable position of being able to embark on a New York legal career free of the staggering debt-load (often more then $100,000) carried by your American counterparts.

The picture, unfortunately, is not quite as rosy for those of you whose law degrees involved only two years of law study. You will need to complete a 20-credit program in professional law subjects, including basic courses in American law, in an approved law school in the United States. An LL.M degree from Ireland or another non-U.S. institution will not satisfy this 20-credit requirement.

2. Should I get a U.S. law degree anyway?

While most Irish law graduates do not need one, an option after passing the New York Bar Review exams the U.S. law degree can give you a considerable advantage in a very competitive market, as long as you have the money, scholarship or debt fearlessness to get one. A U.S. law degree (a Masters degree, which is cheaper and faster to get, will suffice) will give you a basic grounding in U.S. legal research and writing, often in a practical context through your school’s clinical program. Such grounding is a prerequisite for many legal employers even to consider interviewing you, and a major confidence booster for you. In addition, a U.S. law degree gives you access to the excellent career offices in every law school, and on campus interviewing by U.S. legal employers – the primary route used by American lawyers to their first job offer.

3. Do I need work experience prior to arriving?

Again, the simple answer to this question is no. Many of us arrived here with nothing more than our wits and our B.C.L. degree. But if you are a recent law graduate, you are most likely several years younger than your U.S. counterparts, all of whom completed at least four years of college education prior to doing their three-year law degree, and often took a couple of years off in between the two degrees. If your prospective U.S. employer realizes just how young you are (don’t tell them!), they may balk at giving you the opportunity to put “Esq.” after your name. Getting work experience before coming here will narrow this unhelpful age gap. More importantly, it will also give you the confidence and maturity that only comes with life experience. Keep in mind, the schedules (not to mention some of the personalities) of the New York legal world can be grueling, and you will be most effective if you are self-assured and a little worldly-wise.

4. Can I get work experience after arriving but before my first real job?

There are plenty of ways of getting some relevant work experience in New York before landing your first job as a lawyer. Many small firms, judges and non-profit organizations offer short internships, usually in the summer, to law students and recent law graduates. Some of these internships are paid, or perhaps you could secure funding through your law school or other Irish source. You can find out about these positions through your law school career office, word of mouth, or the Internet.

In addition, the major law firms offer “summer associate” positions – two or three month positions that are essentially extended wooing/interview sessions, whereby the law firms try to encourage the cream of law school talent to work with them upon graduation, and the students try to convince the firms that they are indeed the cream. These are highly paid and much sought after, and you will be very lucky if you secure one of them.

Failing any of the above, consider volunteering for an informal internship at an organization or small firm engaged in work that interests you. It will most likely offer you excellent work experience, and it may prove to be your first step on the road to a job offer.

5. How do I pass the New York bar exam?

The New York Bar Exam is the toughest exam you will ever have to sit, so we hope you only have to do so once. It is a two-day exam, held twice a year in February and July, testing practically every area of the law, in essay and multiple-choice question and answer format. In short, a nightmare exam for those of you who are used to cramming a small percentage of your law course a few days before finals. The following are the highlights of what you need to know from the New York Board of Bar Examiners.

•  First, the Board must evaluate your legal education to determine your eligibility to sit the exam. While this is a formality for Irish law graduates who have completed three years of full-time or four years of part-time legal study, it is a time-consuming process that can take several months. You must fill out a “Request for Evaluation of Foreign Academic Credentials,” contact Friarylaw for further details, and send it to the Board with all requested supporting materials, including an official transcript from your law school. An official transcript is one that contains an original seal or certification. The Board recommends that all requests for evaluation should be sent to the Board at least six months prior to the examination for which the applicant plans to apply.

•  Once the Board has responded favorably to your request for evaluation, you can apply to sit the exam. Download and complete an application packet from the Board’s website, and send it to the Board at least 90 days and not more than 120 days before the exam, attaching all requested materials, including the letter you received from the Board confirming your eligibility to sit the exam, and the appropriate fee. The Board expressly forbids filing both a request for an evaluation and a separate application to sit the bar exam at the same time, as this can result in delay and confusion. The Board advises us, however, that if the applicant fails to send in the evaluation request six months in advance as recommended, the applicant can include the evaluation request with the application to sit the exam in the same envelope, and be prepared to assume the risk of being found ineligible to take the examination during the weeks prior to the date of the exam.

•  In the meantime, you need to study for the exam, and we mean mind-numbing, rote-learning study, seven or eight hours day for two to three months prior to the exam. We strongly recommend that you take a bar review course. While expensive, these courses will bring discipline to your study and provide you with everything you need to know, tips on how subjects are tested and which subjects should be emphasized, scores of sample questions, and simulated bar exams. i.e Friarylaw BAR/BRI Course. Several can be taken in different formats, including live lectures in New York State and home study courses. BAR/BRI is the most popular, and conveniently for you, is available in Ireland via Friarylaw New York Bar in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Belfast lectures.

•  Then, you have to sit the exam, which lasts for six hours each day on two consecutive days. The first day consists of the New York State specific questions, including five essay questions, 50 multiple-choice questions, and one 90-minute practical writing assignment, such as writing a client letter or drafting a legal document. The second day consists of the nationally administered Multistate Bar Exam, which is made up of 200 multiple-choice questions. Unless you work in New York State, you will have to take the exam in Albany. Remember to follow instructions regarding what you should, can and cannot bring with you to the exam site.

•  The results, which are available by phone and published in the New York Law Journal, are released approximately 8 to 10 weeks after the exam. Do not despair if you did not succeed the first time. You will not be the first! Your slate is wiped clean, and you can just sit it again and again…

•  Finally, the last requirement for admission to the New York Bar is that you pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE), more details of which can be found at www.ncbex.org. It is a relatively easy fifty-question multiple-choice exam focusing on questions of ethics. You can take it in March, August or November.

6. Should I pass it before or after arriving in New York?

The short answer is yes but does depend on your resources, and your eagerness to move to the Big Apple. Many of us couldn’t wait either, but you should be warned that your chances of securing a job in New York as a lawyer will be vastly improved if you already have the bar exam under your belt. It is rare for law firms to hire foreign graduates before they pass the bar, especially if the person in question has no other U.S. legal qualification. Passing the bar is not just a prerequisite to practicing law here. For U.S. employers, it is also an indication that the individual had the smarts to pass a tough exam, and (at least one hopes) some knowledge of the U.S. legal practices and principles drilled in throughout the bar review course. Since many Irish law graduates have finite resources and visa time for their New York job hunt, it might prove more practical to study for the bar exam in Ireland, so you can dedicate your time in New York to looking for a job.

7. What about my immigration status?

To state the obvious, you must have authorization to work in the U.S. If you were not lucky enough to win a lottery Green Card, there is an alphabet of immigration alternatives available to you. Be warned that the Immigration laws are a cross between a maze and a minefield. You are strongly advised to consult with an immigration lawyer, or, at the very least, to research your particular situation carefully.

•  J-1 Visa: Perhaps most easily acquired and most useful is a J-1 visa, available to “exchange visitors” or “exchange students” through certain approved programs, one of which is the Council on International Educational Exchange, www.CIEE.org. A CIEE-sponsored J-1 visa permits you to work for any employer anywhere in the U.S. for up to four months, or for one qualified employer in an internship program for up to 18 months. You should be able to learn about the CIEE program through your university. Just be sure to check that whichever J-1 program sponsors your visa, it is not one that requires you to return home for two years upon expiration (a stringent requirement in many J-1 programs). Also, keep in mind that your time post-graduation to apply for one of these programs is finite.

•  H-1B Visa: If you already have a job lined up in New York, your employer can sponsor you for an H-1 visa, a non-immigrant “specialty worker” visa, available to various professionals, including lawyers. H-1B status can be granted for up to three years, renewable for another three years. Thus, your maximum allowable time in the U.S. on an H-1B visa is six years. The visa is “employer specific,” meaning you can only work with your sponsoring employer. The H-1B visa is “portable,” however, so if you wish to switch jobs, it is relatively easy to transfer your visa to your new employer. A new INS filing fee will apply.

•  Visa Waiver: This program permits travelers from certain countries, including Ireland, to travel to the U.S. as a visitor for 90 days without a visa. Although it might seem obvious, it is worth stating that work is prohibited while in the U.S. on a Visa Waiver. It is very important to observe the departure date, which will be stamped on your Departure Record (I-94 card) in your passport. It is best to take a long term view and keep yourself in good immigration status, as any periods of overstay will cause problems when you try to regularize your status at a later date.

•  B-1/B-2 Visa: In some circumstances, it may be preferable to travel on a B (Business) visa, rather than a Visa Waiver. The B-1 is for “business visitors” who seek to enter the United States for business reasons, without earning money, e.g., attending trade shows, business meetings, negotiating contracts. B-2 is available in other circumstances, e.g., to obtain medical treatment. Neither a B-1 nor a B-2 authorizes you to receive a salary while in the United States, but may be preferable to a Visa Waiver in certain circumstances (it allows you to stay in the U.S. for 6 months instead of 3 months; it is possible to change status from B-1 but not from the Visa Waiver; there is close scrutiny of multiple visits on Visa Waivers). It is necessary to apply at the U.S. Embassy abroad for a B visa.

•  F-1 Visa: An F-1 is the visa you will most likely have if you pursue a course of study in the United States. Your U.S. educational institution will arrange the paperwork for this visa. This visa may entitle you to work for 20 hours a week on or off campus while school is in session. Also, you may apply for employment authorization to participate in twelve months of off-campus practical training following completion of your studies. Since 9/11 there is extremely close scrutiny of F-1 visa holders to ensure they are in fact full-time students.

•  O Visa: “O” visas are for aliens of “extraordinary ability,” issued to highly talented professionals of high acclaim. The applicant must demonstrate sustained national or international acclaim, and be recognized in the field through extensive documentation. OK, a bit of a long shot, but we thought we would tell you about it anyway.

•  Green Card: A coveted Green Card, giving the foreign national “permanent resident” status in the U.S., may be obtained in several ways, including by winning the Green Card lottery, by marrying a U.S. citizen or through a complicated and time-consuming process called “Labor Certification.” The latter is the most common path to obtaining a Green Card for foreign nationals who are in the U.S. on an H-1B visa. The process requires the employer to prove that it was unsuccessful in recruiting an appropriately qualified U.S. citizen for the position. It typically takes two to three years to complete, and the services of an immigration lawyer will be required.

8. How do I go about looking for a job?

Without a U.S. law degree or U.S. legal experience, your best avenue to a job will be word of mouth. So, shed whatever Irish reticence you may have, and network shamelessly!

Start with relatives and family friends who know someone who knows someone… and move outwards, to friends, fellow graduates, professors, and alumni of your law school. Send polite cover letters with a U.S.-style resumé (more of which below) to Irish law graduates who have successfully followed your chosen career path. You’ll be surprised by their generosity and willingness to help out — after all, they were in your shoes once.

If you are looking from Ireland, consider making a reconnaissance visit to New York to explore opportunities (but see the caveat above in the immigration section about strictly adhering to your scheduled departure date so as to avoid immigration problems down the road), and make appointments to meet people in person. Attend gatherings at New York bar associations, including those of the IABANY. Some bar associations occasionally hold job fairs. Scour the classified sections of the New York legal journals, which are available on the web. Surf law-related websites.

If you have a work permit, consider working as a paralegal for a while to get your foot in the door. If you can afford to, consider volunteering with a solo practitioner, a judge or a non-profit organization — again to gain work experience and make contacts.

But most of all, never miss an opportunity to tell everyone you meet that you are eager to get started on your legal career in New York City. You never know who knows someone who knows the someone who will make you a job offer.

9. What does a U.S. Legal Resume look like?

A big issue faced when applying for jobs in the New York legal world was that of putting together an acceptable legal resumé. A U.S. legal resumé is similar to the typical Irish C.V., but with significant differences in style and format. Some pointers to keep in mind are:

•  Highlight your name at the top of the page. It’s the first thing someone sees when they read your resumé and you want them to remember it.

•  Highlight your most relevant academic and professional qualifications. Sadly, most employers only look at a resumé for a few seconds. They see hundreds of resumés that are virtually identical. This means your resumé must stand out in some way and be a tailored reflection of your achievements. People do remember what they read first, so, while ranking your educational and professional achievements in chronological order, putting the most recent first, do be sure also to highlight the most relevant ones, with an extra sentence or two describing the experience. You might, for example, want to highlight your summer job in a solicitor’s office rather than part-time work at a legal aid organization if you are applying for a position in a corporate law firm.

•  Be brief and concise. Do not ramble on about everything you did when you worked at A & B solicitors. Use action words and avoid long boring sentences. Also, try to make all the information fit on one page. It makes it easier for interviewers to pass it around to other partners in the firm without any of it getting lost.

•  Make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes! New York lawyers have allergic reactions to typos.

•  Make sure all the information is accurate. You do not want to explain something you have never actually done. Very embarrassing!

•  Note also that most legal employers will usually want a writing sample, of about 5 to 10 pages in length. This can be a paper you wrote at university. Again make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. After all, their primary purpose in looking at this is to see how well you write!

•  Finally, read over your resumé a few times before your interview, and prepare a series of answers to potential questions about your studies and experiences. You do not want to be faced with a question about something that the interviewer found in your resumé that you do not remember putting down.

10. What is it like to work as an in-house lawyer in a corporation?

IABANY President Sean Campbell writes: I have been an in-house lawyer in the Litigation Department of Merrill Lynch since 1989.

Corporate life in New York begins early — Singapore in the morning and California at night. With never a dearth of work or responsibility, the corporate counsel’s work is a mixture of the routine and the adrenalin-producing. Priorities change moment by moment. Organizational skills are therefore, a must. Versatility is perhaps the most important quality one must have.

One of the never ending challenges is to continue to understand the constantly evolving nature of varied financial transactions. In any transaction where there is the potential for significant profit or loss, there is a potential for litigation. So, it is not unusual to get an urgent call asking for “real time” advice about the ramifications of some detail of a transaction. The lawyer who takes the call must grasp the nature of the transaction, the issue and applicable law, and render advice. The right advice at that critical moment can avert protracted and expensive litigation down the road.

Life in an international financial services firm provides an opportunity to encounter many different peoples — from different countries, with different cultures with varied assorted languages. Interactions are high speed exchanges over fax and phone. In-person meetings fall within no more than a discrete fragment of time, and all throughout the encounter you quiz yourself: “Have I forgotten anything?”

New York City is an opportunity to plot your own course no matter how small or seaworthy your vessel. It provides opportunity, but requires careful navigation. It has many balmy coves, but approaches that are filled with dangerous straits. And for some strange reason this makes it all the more attractive to the Irish.

11. What is it like to work in a small litigation firm specialising in plaintiffs’ work?

Treasurer and former President of IABANY Janet Walsh writes: Eight years after immigrating to New York, I find myself working contentedly as a trial attorney representing plaintiffs in various litigations, including complex toxic tort, products liability and employment discrimination.

Whether plaintiffs’ work, much like criminal defense work, is a good fit for a particular lawyer depends largely on one’s beliefs regarding the role of the legal system in society. Representing plaintiffs gives me direct insight into the often devastating effects of large corporations on individuals, and, more importantly, an opportunity to redress the balance. I enjoy the “David and Goliath” challenge of the small individual taking on corporate America.

Beyond the dimension of principle, there are many practical benefits to this kind of work. Most plaintiffs’ firms, like mine, are small, and so I get a lot of hands-on experience. Shortly after I started working at my firm, I was handling small cases on my own and dealing with clients directly on a daily basis. Now, I go to court regularly, where I advocate personally on behalf of my clients before a judge or jury. Another major advantage of working for a plaintiff’s firm is that the hours can be considerably shorter than those at large corporate firms (although preparing for a large trial can require pulling a few “all-nighters!”), and one typically does not have to bill or keep track of time. The lifestyle in smaller firms thus tends to be more balanced and accommodating to individual needs. In my firm, for example, there is a great sense of camaraderie and family, and an understanding of the fact that fulfillment in your personal life is essential to your well-being. Finally, while early on in the career of a plaintiff’s lawyer, the salaries do not mirror those of larger firms, this field can be very lucrative.

Lawyers for plaintiffs are not always public favorites. Unsavory advertising by attorneys and highly publicized lawsuits with seemingly no rational basis have fed the frenzy of anti-trial lawyer sentiment in the US. The reality in practice is that if you represent your client ably and act professionally, you will earn the respect of your colleagues on both sides of the bar.

12. What is it like to work as a public defender?

IABANY Board Member JaneAnne Murray writes: My years as a Legal Aid lawyer in state court in New York City were among the most rewarding of my career. They were also the most demanding. Nicknamed “Murray in a hurry” by the court-officers, I scurried from courtroom to courtroom, hoping to cover in person the ten cases I had on the calendar that day. I sat in a roach-infested cell trying to convince a strung-out addict that pleading away the next five years of his life was better than the alternative. I broke the news to a disbelieving father that his honor-student son was about to plead guilty to robbery. I was ordered to pick a jury in the trial of a client I had only met once, scrambling to analyze evidence just turned over by the prosecutor. And all of that could happen in one morning…

If I got a dollar every time someone asked me “how can you defend those people?” I might have been able to pay the rent. My answer would go something like this: First of all, some of my clients were actually innocent of any wrongdoing, and many of them were innocent of the most serious charges leveled against them. Yes, a lot of my clients were bad people or they did bad things. But during my dealings with the poorest of the poor, I came to realize that so much of what was criminalized and prosecuted had less to do with morality than poverty. And however bad my clients’ crimes were, they were still individuals who did not deserve to be conveyed without protection or resistance to lengthy prison sentences that often far outweighed the gravity of their offense. For me, finding humanity in my often vilified clientele helped me find my own.

At least once a week, a client would ask me, in all sincerity, “should I get myself a real lawyer?” The irony was that as a public defender — in complete charge of my large caseload, from the client’s first court appearance to trial verdict — I was a real lawyer. As were my colleagues, who trained and supported me. They were among the smartest lawyers and most generous human beings you’ll ever meet. And I cannot deny, there was something especially sweet, after months of courtroom battles, insecurities and endurance, occasionally, just occasionally, to hear the words: “Not Guilty!”

13. What is it like to work as a solo practitioner?

IABANY Member Deridre O’Brien writes: I practiced as a solicitor in both Ireland and London before I came to New York and took the bar exam in 1996. In searching for work, I was struck by two main factors at that time: (1) Americans were generally very positive and helpful in a way I had not experienced on the other side of the Atlantic; and (2) the bigger firms did not necessarily rate experience gained outside the U.S., or perhaps even outside NY.

So having “served my time” in Ireland and having worked as a solicitor for several years post-qualification, I found myself unwilling to begin again as an intern in a NYC firm. I came to the conclusion that my best bet was to work for myself.

The practice has undergone a number of incarnations over the past seven years. I originally intended to dictate the direction, but soon discovered that it would be dictated by the economic climate of the day and clients’ needs. Hence, during the dot-com era, I found myself very busy with intellectual property matters, mostly trademark registration and disputes, but as the bubble began to burst, budgets (and companies!) disappeared, and so did much of this work.

In the meantime, clients also leased commercial space, bought and sold residential real estate, entered partnership agreements, brought foreign workers to the U.S., sued and were sued, so with the exception of divorce and crime (not my bag!), I was required to wear many hats for a while.

Today, the majority of my work consists of business immigration law — as much a surprise to me as anyone! Sometimes the work chooses you, and I decided to go with the flow when word-of-mouth referrals in this practice area became significant in number, and because I found the work challenging and rewarding.

With the caveat that there’s no room for complacency or satisfaction in this game, I am happy with how things have worked out so far and am very glad I persevered on those occasions in the early days when I questioned my decision to go it alone. The hardest part is the uncertainty of income (especially in the early years), but the rewards are great. The independence, the interesting colleagues you work with, whether as outside counsel or in-house associate, and the flexibility — let’s face it, America is not generous with time off! — are all facets of my current experience that I wouldn’t trade.

For further information, please contact the Friarylaw office.

Dee Khuwais - dkhuwais@thefriary.ie / admin@thefriary.ie

01-872-8405