what is an international trade lawyer

by Rodrick Corwin 3 min read

International trade lawyers may advise both U.S. companies doing business abroad and foreign businesses operating in the U.S. Companies hire international trade attorneys to counsel them on the relevant international trade rules, advise them on compliance with such rules, as well as to conduct internal investigations, prepare voluntary disclosures, and/or represent them in enforcement actions related to the violation of such rules.

Full Answer

What does an international trade lawyer do?

The Salary for an International Law Attorney

  • Definition. International lawyers are trained professionals that deal with all issues related to international law.
  • Salary. According to a report compiled by Simply Hired, entry-level international law attorneys made a salary of $68,000 a year as of January 25, 2011.
  • Location and Industry. ...
  • Outlook. ...

What is an international trade attorney?

International trade law is the set of laws and agreements that govern commerce between countries. International trade laws create the rules that countries and businesses must follow in order to do business across borders. Lawyers who work in the field help create international agreements. They also educate businesses about what they need to do in ]

What are international trade laws?

The Centre for Trade and Investment Law (CTIL) was established in the year 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). The Centre’s primary objective is to provide sound and rigorous analysis of legal issues pertaining to international trade and investment law to the ...

What is a trade lawyer?

We support companies involved in import/export with a unique set of skills:

  • We provide a consultative, customized approach to all clients, with fluency in several languages.
  • We have extensive experience working with the U.S. ...
  • We have versatile capabilities to support your company with import/export audits, compliance procedures, trade analysis, penalty mitigation, litigation and more.

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What does an international trade attorney do?

Generally, international trade law includes the rules and customs governing trade between countries. International trade lawyers may focus on applying domestic laws to international trade, and applying treaty-based international law governing trade.

Do international trade lawyers travel a lot?

Lawyers spend most of their working hours inside their firms' offices. Still, those who hold international law jobs abroad are often required to regularly travel to numerous places across countries, especially when they need to appear in court to represent clients.

What it means to be an international lawyer?

An international lawyer is trained in law to resolve legal issues in court focused on international disputes for businesses, trade, civil, and criminal cases. As an international lawyer, you can work for a firm and follow a standard legal pathway while assisting international clients.

What type of lawyers work internationally?

There are many different types of international lawyers, including business or corporate attorneys, government-based lawyers, and private practitioners specializing in human rights and immigration laws. The International Law Commission is an organ of the United Nations, which is headquartered in New York City.

Does international law pay well?

As an international lawyer, one's earning potential is quite good – with an average annual salary of between $110,000 – $131,000, international lawyers tend to earn just as much as most other high-profile attorneys, and are able to secure a steady stream of cases most of the time.

What is the highest paid lawyer?

Highest paid lawyers: salary by practice areaTax attorney (tax law): $122,000.Corporate lawyer: $115,000.Employment lawyer: $87,000.Real Estate attorney: $86,000.Divorce attorney: $84,000.Immigration attorney: $84,000.Estate attorney: $83,000.Public Defender: $63,000.More items...•

Is international law hard?

An International career is challenging but stimulating. In addition to your formal training, you will need skills in critical thinking, a comparative approach, analytical reasoning, research and writing. Here's the steps to follow if you want to do a career in international law.

What do international lawyers earn?

Salary Ranges for International Lawyers The salaries of International Lawyers in the US range from $95,000 to $160,000 , with a median salary of $160,000 . The middle 50% of International Lawyers makes $95,000, with the top 75% making $192,000.

Do international lawyers go to court?

On rare occasion, international lawyers also handle cases that go before international courts such as the United Nations' International Court of Justice. These cases involve more serious issues such as war crimes or genocide.

How do you become an international lawyer?

Eligibility criteria for LLM course in international law:Qualifying exam: A LLB degree or equivalent exam from a recognized university.Minimum marks: The NLUs require a minimum of 50% marks or its equivalent for general/PwD categories; SC/ST categories need 45% marks.

What type of lawyer gets to travel the most?

Corporate Lawyer Both careers, whether as a lawyer working for a firm, or a lawyer employed as in-house counsel tend to involve a lot of travel, particularly if you find work with a large national or multi-national corporation.

What can you do with a degree in international law?

Here are nine jobs you might consider if you have a degree in international law:Mediator. National average salary: $53,532 per year. ... Law professor. National average salary: $54,497 per year. ... Judge. National average salary: $75,442 per year. ... Policy analyst. ... Legal adviser. ... Attorney. ... Diplomat. ... Chief legal officer.More items...•

What type of lawyer gets to travel the most?

Corporate Lawyer Both careers, whether as a lawyer working for a firm, or a lawyer employed as in-house counsel tend to involve a lot of travel, particularly if you find work with a large national or multi-national corporation.

Do lawyers travel often?

Some lawyers travel the country, or even the world, to participate in trials, depositions, arbitrations, and business deals. Others rub shoulders with business leaders, politicians, sports figures, and even celebrities.

Do lawyers travel business?

The survey also discovered that 42% of legal professionals book their own business travel, while a further 34% have a personal assistant book their trips – the highest sector to do this. In addition, 12.7% have an in-house travel department and 11% use external travel companies.

Do international lawyers go to court?

On rare occasion, international lawyers also handle cases that go before international courts such as the United Nations' International Court of Justice. These cases involve more serious issues such as war crimes or genocide.

What is the World Trade Organization?

The World Trade Organization that regulates international trade among countries. A good international trade lawyer has to be familiar with the WTO in order to be successful. Some of the things that the WTO does is promote transparency, reduce barriers to trade, and ensure that countries are not discriminating against each other on a trade basis.

Import laws and Customs and Border Protection

One big thing that international trade lawyers do is represent their clients for disputes like imports and exports. A number of these possible violations could come from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They also go by just “customs” and can a source of legal trouble for businesses doing international trade.

Export law violations

International trade lawyers also help with exports and it’s very similar to imports. The rules that cover exports are the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). One issue of EAR is determining if a business needs an export license. A business needing a license is a bit rare but the punishment for violating this regulation is steep.

Conclusion

International trade can be seen as a business moving to the next level. It opens up a lot of opportunities for growth. This also opens up a lot of risk in the form of heavy fines for violations. Many of these violations come from guidelines set by the WTO and other trade regulations. Most of this is related to imports and exports.

What is international law?

Let’s start with the basics: International law is the set of rules, agreements and treaties that are binding between countries. That’s for the definition. As a practical matter, International Law covers three areas:

What is a lawyer's specialty?

Most attorneys specialize in one area , such as contract, corporate, customs, immigration, tax or human rights to name a few. They usually advise their clients on the domestic laws of their home country. These lawyers may be involved in negotiating contracts, resolving international dispute, handling mergers, etc.

Where is international trade done?

While a lot of the international trade work is done in the Washington, DC area, you don’t need to be here in order to practice international trade. There is a lot of work in Silicon Valley. The Department of Commerce has opened offices in both San Francisco/Silicon Valley.

Who is the primary arbitrator of trade disputes?

Trade lawyers on the international side handle a lot of disputes, for which the WTO is the primary arbitrator. Only sovereign states can bring disputes to the WTO , and the United States does not hire outside counsel to represent them in these matters, so international trade attorneys often represent other countries.

What are the two main areas of international trade?

Two main areas of international trade on the domestic side include trade remedy work and export controls/san ctions. Trade remedies are tools used by the government to take corrective action against imports that are causing material injury to a domestic industry because of unfair foreign pricing and/or foreign government subsidies.

What is an international lawyer?

As an international lawyer, you may be working for a law firm, an organization, or even a government entity, in which your tasks would differ. While researching and interpreting legal dilemmas there will be times when you will be meeting with individuals and business representatives one-on-one to advise them on a legal basis. The following table contains general facts about the law profession.

What are the specialties of international lawyers?

According to the International Lawyers Network, international lawyers can work in a variety of specialties that can include taxation, securities law, and intellectual property law.

What is international trade law?

International trade law includes a wide variety of issues such as export control, economic sanctions, customs and imports issues, immigration matters, trade agreement negotiations and subsidy cases. Maria Arboleda, associate: It’s a very wide area of regulatory law that centers on trade between different countries and parties, ...

What is Hogan Lovells' role in NAFTA?

Hogan Lovells has had a direct and substantial role in assisting clients with the renegotiation of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). We’ve also worked on discussions with Europe and we’ve undertaken some good work with respect to China, South Korea and other countries in Asia. We are fortunate to have a strong global position with more than 40 offices, so we can do this type of multinational work due to our size and global profile.

Why do international lawyers help?

International lawyers are legal professionals that help resolve these disputes. They also help clients navigate the complex areas of international law. Keep reading to learn more about the international lawyer.

What degree do lawyers need to become an international lawyer?

To widen their career opportunities in the field of international law, some lawyers choose to earn a Master of Laws (L.L.M) degree. This degree gives degree allows for more advanced studies on international law. It also gives lawyers global credibility.

How much will the number of lawyers increase in 2026?

The BLS predicts that the employment rate for lawyers will increase by around 8% by 2026. This growth is average for jobs in the U.S. The market in the field of law continues to remain competitive as more students graduate from law school than jobs become available.

How long does it take to become an international lawyer?

The requirements to become an international lawyer involve seven years of full-time study. Students spend the working towards a bachelor’s (B.S.) degree. Law schools do not require specific fields of undergraduate study, though many aspiring attorneys choose to major in government or history.

How does international law affect the outcome of a case?

The attorney you hire should have expertise in the relevant field in order to effectively represent you. Additionally, he or she should also communicate openly with you. This includes keeping you up-to-date as the case develops. You in turn, should feel comfortable discussing important aspects of the case with the lawyer.

What is international law?

International Lawyer. International law refers to the rules and regulations that govern relationships between nations. The law promotes common interests, advancement of peace, and respect for human rights. Unfortunately, disputes arise between entities due to legal, language, and cultural differences between nations.

When do lawyers charge contingency fees?

When a client expects the court to award money damages, a lawyer may charge a contingency fee. The attorney receives the fee only if they win the case. Many lawyers require a retainer fee. The client pays the retainer fee up front, and the lawyer places it into a special account to use as he or she works on the case.

What is Curtis International Trade?

The Curtis International Trade group provides clients with practical solutions to the global trade, international investment, market access and export control issues that have become increasingly critical to business operations. Our clients include government entities as well as domestic and international companies in an array of industries.

What is Regulatory Advice?

Regulatory advice for both import and export transactions, including customs regulations on valuation and classification, and export controls on certain products and technologies;

Why are international trade laws important?

International trade laws set out the parameters for how these trades take place. Most of the time, the laws are designed to ensure fairness to all parties, as well as to create something of a globally uniform and predictable set of rules. ...

Which country has its own internal rules about how trade will be conducted with other countries?

The first is national: any country that makes its own internal rules about how trade will be conducted with other countries, or regulates how much of a certain resource can be exported, has created an international trade law. Second is bilateral.

What is multilateral trade?

Multilateral trade agreements are what most people think of when they think of trade law. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations (UN) are the two foremost organizations involved in the creation of multilateral agreements. Each group is made up of representatives from around the world who attend meetings, brainstorm ideas, ...

Why is there no end point to trade laws?

There is no certain end point to when trade laws will be completed, in large part because trade customs have a tendency to shift with time. Much of trade law involves international economic law, which requires careful attention to fluctuations in currency and power dynamics between world leaders. As international markets change, new leaders come ...

Which countries are the most active traders?

The United States, Canada, most of the European Union, China, and Japan are among the most active participants.

How long does it take for a trade agreement to be ratified?

Ratification often requires a lot of legal drafting and amendments, and can take years to finalize. The process of international trade law can accordingly be quite slow, but it is continuous.

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What Is The World Trade Organization?

Import Laws and Customs and Border Protection

  • One big thing that international trade lawyers do is represent their clients for disputes like imports and exports. A number of these possible violations could come from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They also go by just “customs” and can a source of legal trouble for businesses doing international trade. Not every violation is made on purpo...
See more on alvarezdemalde.com

Export Law Violations

  • International trade lawyers also help with exports and it’s very similar to imports. The rules that cover exports are the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). One issue of EAR is determining if a business needs an export license. A business needing a license is a bit rare but the punishment for violating this regulation is steep. This is another job for international trade lawyers. They wou…
See more on alvarezdemalde.com

Conclusion

  • International trade can be seen as a business moving to the next level. It opens up a lot of opportunities for growth. This also opens up a lot of risk in the form of heavy fines for violations. Many of these violations come from guidelines set by the WTO and other trade regulations. Most of this is related to imports and exports. The CBP often catches many businesses unaware and t…
See more on alvarezdemalde.com