This is advice which I recently gave a friend who wants to work in continental Europe. 

It is applicable to any English-only speaking lawyer above age of 25, who wants to work in continental Europe as a lawyer. I have done this, so I can give this advice from personal experience.

I studied law in Perth, Australia, and I used to think that it would be impossible for me to live in a non-English speaking country and work as a lawyer. It’s not. I have worked as an in-house legal counsel for two multinational companies, living in Switzerland for a total of 8 years (after London and Australia). I work in English only (my French is improving ... slowly).

Here’s the advice:

1. The first thing to know is that provided you wish to work mainly in general commercial law, it’s possible to live in continental Europe and work as a lawyer, even if you are mono-lingual and your grades are not outstanding, and you’ve never worked for a large law firm. That’s because all medium to large-multinational companies do a lot of business in English, and they need commercial law advice and support. Native local lawyers with the necessary English language skills for international commercial law are sometimes hard to find.

2. If you’ve recently graduated, you should get some experience in your home country first – your CV should be grounded with at least 3 years in private practice or a good in-house role. This proves you can actually work as a lawyer.

3. It will be wise to aim for the following countries, first and foremost, because these are more flexible when it comes to accommodating English-only speakers, and they are used to dealing with non-local jurisdictions in their businesses and contracts: Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Not necessarily only these, but these are the most likely.

5. Decide if you want in-house or private practice – in-house will probably be easier (unless you already work for a large firm that has overseas offices with vacancies).

6. You will maximise your chances of obtaining a permanent role if you are ready to temp first – ie. a temporary 3, 6, 9 or 12 month position. If you can do the job in a temp role, you have a good chance of being kept on. You will need to be patient and wait for a decent temp legal role to come up, and when it does, you should ideally be ready to start on 2 week’s notice. Most lawyers cannot do this, so if you can, you’ll have a strong advantage. If you live far away from Europe, the 2-week-start issue can be tough – living in London makes the “fast start” easier.

7. Get a decent, honest recruitment consultant looking for temp & permanent roles for you, who has experience in placing candidates around Europe.

8. Of course, if you are flexible and without dependents it’s easier to take the risk inherent in a temp role. If you have a family to support, the moves are harder, and the risks of temping are therefore greater. The employer may also be concerned about bringing a family to a new country for only a short temp role.

9. If you are not already, get qualified in England & Wales. 

10. Don’t expect an “expat package”. If you do what I did, you’ll be hired first as a temp, and then as a “local” under a permanent contract – you’ll be lucky to get some financial assistance to ship over your stuff when you sign the permanent contract.

11. But you can expect some other good things living in continental Europe, like 5 weeks annual holiday, start time at 9.30am, very reasonable prices for things like healthcare, transport and utilities.

If I can do it, you can do it too. Good luck!