Hi all,
I am an Australian law student (graduating in 2020), who hopes to one day work in Switzerland (realistically at least 3 years away after I have qualified here).
I know I am projecting very far into the future, but I like to do my research and see what the options are.
I know that foreign qualified lawyers are most likely to find a role in-house in Switzerland, and that German skills are highly regarded (I will work on this the next couple years).
Here are some questions I have:
Are there particular practice areas in demand? (I hope to practice in more globally applicable areas like M&A, finance etc)
At what level PQE should I consider making the move?
If I could gain overseas experience, which would be looked upon more favourably - London or Hong Kong? (I can speak Chinese Mandarin and Japanese)
Thank you everyone, any insight would be highly appreciated!!
Do you hold a EU/EEA/CH passport? If is no, then that is where this ends. Even if qualified, you don’t meet the minimum criteria to even motivate a prospective employer to offer you an interview because they will not be able to get you a work permit.
I work with lawyers (legal) - daily. They are “corporate” lawyers - contracts etc. they share in common quiet a few years of experience in thier home countries AFTER a law degree and some what specialized. If you want to work in “Global” then no language requirement but as the prior poster note without deep on-job experience, you are not worth anything here. And that goes for any degree - most expats here have come here with a lot of experience and usually with a help of a company via an internal move. So my recommendation - put it in your 10 year plan, include finding an internal company moving option, learn one the languages of CH while you’re at it (since you now have some time) and go for it!! You want a company to pay for your move and get you a visa - then you ave to earn it. Good luck and maybe see you in 10 years?
Actually no - I’ll be gone ....maybe to Australia!
Hello parkadam,
Thank you for your reply.
I anticipated as such that mostly very experienced lawyers would be able to make the move to Switzerland. From your experience, how many years post-qualification were the lawyers you met at? I've looked at other posts on the forum and some people with UK backgrounds have as little as ~3PQE?
Also, were the lawyers you met mostly UK/US qualified?
Thanks for your good wishes, good luck to you to! Australia is a fine country
For an Australian lawyer to be employed in Switzerland, a Swiss employer would have to demonstrate that no other suitable candidate could be found in the EU/EEA/CH. Which would indicate that you would have to have a good level of experience or have skills which could not be found in this region.
UK lawyers can claim their common law backgound to be something that sets them apart from other European lawyers, which can be advantageous in the current Brexit environment.
But in general, it is not that easy to find work as a foreign lawyer in Switzerland. Many Swiss lawyers also have foreign qualifications and can speak fluent English.
You could try applying for work here with 3 PQE, but you would have more luck with 5-10 PQE.
International Regulatory Affairs?
The Chinese market is big, but regulated and protected by various special regulations and standards.
Except it does not! Irish lawyers also have a common law background and unlike UK lawyers they will have the right of hearing in EU courts after BREXIT and no permit issues.