Today I am going to be speaking at Grinnell College, my undergraduate alma mater. I am going to be talking to students about what it takes to practice international law. I know this sounds geeky, but I love speaking before students because I enjoy talking with people who are excited/energized about what they will be doing. I also love their willingness to ask the tough questions.
I also enjoy how these talks force me to examine what I do and how that differs from other legal areas. When you get right down to it though, practicing international law is not so different from practicing domestic law and the attributes of a good lawyer in both arenas are pretty much the same: hard work, a competetive nature, good analytical skills, and an ability to connect with people. In both domestic and international matters, the goal is usually to analyze and structure a matter to best serve your client’s interests. International law is in many respects domestic law with additional issues that happen to be international.
I see the greatest differences between international lawyering and domestic lawyering on the psychological level. If you are going to practice international law well, it is absolutely crucial that you keep an open mind and not get too wedded to doing things “the American way.” When I was just starting out as a lawyer, I wrote an article on the basics of doing business in emerging market countries. In that article, I talked about how important it is to keep an open mind:
Doing business in an emerging market means taking nothing for granted. I have a mantra for my own legal work in these countries that translates well to the business world: “Assume nothing, but assume that you are assuming things without even realizing you are doing so.”
Things will be different. Very different. Things you take for granted in your home country might not exist in the emerging market country. Things you take for granted in your home country might be the exact opposite in the emerging market country. Things you think will be totally different in the emerging market country may be exactly the same. Things you thought you knew about emerging market countries based on what you know from another emerging market country may be completely different in a neighboring country, or even in another region within the same country.
Though it sounds like a cliché, I think keeping an open mind is maybe the biggest difference between the practice of international law and the practice of domestic law. Though keeping an open mind is obviously important in a domestic context, it is absolutely essential when operating internationally.
What do you think?
