Law - what areas allow you to work abroad?

[Porfori]

Dd is interested in becoming a lawyer. (She’s at Cambridge doing English)

She is interested in living overseas for a while and working in another English speaking jurisdiction or as an English lawyer in another country.

Loads of law firms say all over their websites that they are “international” etc. Some seem to sponsor you for 6 months to live in Brussels or Abu Dhabi.

I am interested in hearing which areas or practices are most likely to allow for an English lawyer to live abroad.

For example, I had a friend who worked in the Cayman Islands in asset finance. But what do lawyers in say the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda do? And then, what about in places like Singapore or Hong Kong. How easy is it to work there as an English qualified lawyer.

I’m a commercial barrister (KC) practising in London, and over the course of my career I have also litigated in Singapore, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the BVI. That hasn’t involved living in any of them, but some of the overseas cases have lasted months or (in one case) years, so for a huge case like that we would be provided with rented accommodation for the duration. That’s the perspective from which I’m answering your question (I have always been at the Bar and never worked for a law firm).

From what I have seen, the international firms are generally now truly international (they used to be more regional e.g. Channel Islands or Bermuda & Caribbean or Hong Kong, China, Singapore etc). In such a firm there will be a mix of corporate work - facilitating transactions by drawing up documents etc - trustee work and litigation. Sometimes the litigation in offshore jurisdictions will be conducted by members of firms in the jurisdiction and at other times barristers will be brought over from (usually) the UK. This will be only for the most complex cases and is much less a thing than it was when I started out, as these jurisdictions increasingly want to protect opportunities for those working locally.

In addition to those traditional offshore jurisdictions, there are new commercial jurisdictions being set up on an English model but in places like Dubai and Kazakhstan. There are real emerging opportunities in these places as they develop. They aim, essentially, to attract cases which otherwise would be litigated in London which is a pre-eminent forum for commercial litigation. They often employ retired English judges to inject the right level of gravitas.

It’s not particularly hard to join the international firms as an English-qualified lawyer - though some jurisdictions are easier for an English lawyer to practise in than others (e.g. Jersey and Guernsey not easy; Bermuda less easy than it used to be; BVI and Cayman last I heard were still pretty easy as there isn’t a deep local pool of lawyers to compete with). Salaries (and social lives) are good and there are often attractively low tax rates. It does tend to be a bit of a young person’s thing though - although some people will settle in another jurisdiction, many ultimately come back to England to put down roots. Having said that, I do know people from my former (Bar school) peer group still happily working in China, Hong Kong, BVI and doing very well.

I hope at least something in there is useful!

Bermuda is insurance and reinsurance

Cayman is banking

Middle East is shipping, banking, insurance, oil & gas