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Visas, Permits, Passports and Naturalization
1
Hi everyone

I am a Law Student from Kosovo, and i am planning to continue a LLM in University of Lucerne after graduating.My question is if i marry a Swiss girl (actually my gf is Swiss) would i be able to work at Switzerland in legal industry?And next question is how hard is to find a job in this area at Switzerland ?

Thanks in Advance

2
You're a law student and you're looking for legal advice from an anonymous internet forum?

3
But i do not have enough knowledge about Swiss Law

4
There you go, answered your own question, well done

The burning questions you need to ask are :

1) Can i and how will i communicate

2) What can i bring to the party to make a law firm want to hire me ?

For the second one, i would imagine a lawyer who can speak to your fellow country people maybe an advantage in certain areas, but the first question is the most important as without this you are as good as useless.

5

To study there you’ll need C1 German language proficiency as stated on their website. This is near fluency in the language and certainly what you’d need for studying Swiss law. Law is confusing enough no matter what language it’s written in without adding in not knowing the relevant language.

Yes, if you marry your Swiss girlfriend and IF you learn the language enough to study and qualify as a lawyer you might be able to work here. You would have a dependent’s permit via your wife which would mean you simply have to have an employment contract and not have the non-EU hiring hassle to go through. But your girlfriend/wife would have to show she can support you financially as her dependent to get that permit.

6
And you want to work in Swiss Law.

I may have spotted a small flaw in your plan.

7
I have a cunning plan...

Tom

8
To be fair, studying law at University of Lucerne should help with that.

9
The thing with law is - what ever you studied abroad is useless/not accepted here as it is not applicable. Your studies in Lucerne ofcourse will be useful. And if you - for example - want to work with clients who do business in both countries (transport/import/export what ever) you'll be in a good position! And to be honest, this idea is good as there are many imaginative people from Kosova who know how to work hard but don't know the rules/laws and don't speak the language here well enough to dig through the laws themselves.

And yes, if you're married to a Swiss you can work in any profession - provided you find a job/the education is accepted.

Good luck, and welcome to the fourm

10
It could, but what puzzles me is how it would truly help to practice law in Switzerland. The school's own website says that most courses for the master's program are taught in English.

Every English version of a law you find here says it's for information purposes only and not official. The official versions are in French, German and Italian. How could one possibly expect to practice Swiss law without knowing one of the official languages inside out? Also the degree is for "legal theory" - not sure if that actually qualifies one as a full attorney?

Still - it's a start if OP wants to practice law here, so don't let me rain on the parade too much!

11

Not sure the Luzern masters will be enough to then get a role at a Swiss law firm (no matter how small and how boonies it is) - to then get the time required to sit the bar.

12
Switzerland is fairly "closed" for Swiss "stuff". International law will be competitive or more so, but working at a firm that manages juat Swiss law clients has always appeared to be full of Swiss lawyers (from my experience).

Language and connections seem to be key here.

13
What do you actually study? Kosovo law, patent law, international? What you are studying will determine whether you have a chance to find something in Switzerland. And as mentioned before, being able to speak one of the Swiss languages fluently is almost a must, unless you are so lucky to find an international company that will hire you here without that

14
Well, if you tried to work in a law-related area such as compliance in a bank, you might (and that is "MIGHT") be lucky, as you would apply principles that are internationally applicable, and the Swiss twist can be learned. Of course, you would have to specialize with your LLM accordingly. I know people who have done that, but that was some years ago, and the market has become tougher since. When my company searched someone for the legal department, last year, they had to take the ad off the internet, after a week, because they were flooded with applications.

But your French/German, whichever part of Switzerland you decide on, must be absolutely perfect, because in everyday life, people you work with on a daily basis do not ask for your law certificate, but they will sense that you simply cannot be qualified if you do not even speak the language perfectly.

15
Well now, just to be pedantic - A Masters of Law from the University of Lucerne would indeed qualify an individual to get an internship required to pass the Swiss bar exam. HOWEVER, the LLM does not. While also referred to as a masters it is not "the" masters required for the bar exam. This is because (as someone has already pointed out) it doesn't actually teach much (if any) Swiss law. It is a Legal Theory LLM and hence a course full of philosophical musings about the law in general. Highly academic, great fun if that's your thing, but won't get you working in a job requiring knowledge of Swiss law.

Consider specialising in something like international trademark law or other international field in your home university. That may make you employable in the legal industry over here. But don't hold your breath.

16
Hi, please don't be discouraged!

It is truly not easy to practice law in Switzerland if you have taken your basic law studies abroad, but it is not impossible (I have experienced it myself long time ago) and you might be able to find your place in a "niche" (such as the one suggested supra where you might be able to provide advise to other Kosovars in Switzerland, or in an international organisation or entity).

Definitely important is the language element, so at least one (if not two) local languages should be spoken +/- fluently.

Different options might exist to work as a jurist in the private sector (companies with contacts/business in Kosovo who might apreciate your specific skills) and you might also want to find out about the possibilities to do the bar training and take the bar exam which depend on federal and on cantonal law (e.g., in Vaud, the LPAv provides that " Tout titulaire d’une licence ou d'un bachelor universitaire en droit suisse délivré par une université suisse ou tout titulaire d'un diplôme équivalent, délivré par une université de l'un des Etats qui ont conclu avec la Suisse un accord de reconnaissance mutuelle de diplômes, peut requérir son inscription au tableau des stagiaires, s'il satisfait aux conditions prescrites à l'article 8, alinéa 1 de la loi fédérale du 23 juin 2000 sur la libre circulation des avocats (ci-après : loi fédérale) et s'il produit la déclaration d'un avocat habilité à former des stagiaires, certifiant son entrée en stage ", http://www.rsv.vd.ch/dire-cocoon/rsv...difiante=false ).

The local bar associations are able to provide further advise and they might even be able to help you find a fellow Kosovar lawyer whom you could contact for first-hand advise.

For the general legal framework for attorneys to work in Switzerland, cf. also the Anwaltsgesetz (BGFA, https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classifi...700/index.html ).

Bon courage.

17
There are a lot of in-house jobs at banks, asset managers etc. that do not require a Swiss law degree. But your degree should bear some relevance to your functions. For example, a German law degree might be useful for someone in the wealth management industry with German resident clients. Or a UK law degree can be useful for someone in the fund management industry with funds located in the UK (or Cayman, Guernsey), etc.

So your courses should be targeted for the industry you want to work in. If you want to do compliance work, for example, try to take as many relevant courses as possible.

Note that the in-house job market is very competitive and it will be tough for a newly-minted lawyer to beat the local competition. Tough, but not impossible.