‘Huge’ opportunities for dual qualified lawyers

Ted Burke says this increasing globalisation will increase transactional activity and that English and US law would remain the law of choice for most of these transactions.  He says it will create a clear advantage in being dual-qualified in both UK and US law.  He was speaking in the second of a series of College of Law podcasts which presents the views of leaders from across the legal profession on what the legal services market might look like in five years time.

Burke says: “How can this sort of dramatic change in relative economic size not also have a dramatic change on the legal sector - the way lawyers work, where the clients come from, the nature of the transactions and how lawyers are valued.  All of those things will change in a very profound way over the careers of [students] and it’s really something that is going to be incredible to observe.

“If you are open minded about where you might work and perhaps some day you might find yourself not in London but in the US, Hong Kong, India or China or somewhere else, then there’s a clear advantage to being dual-qualified,” he says. “The demand might, from office to office, be a bit different for a US lawyer or a UK lawyer. Those are the two dominant choice of laws and if you’re a fluent English speaker and you can do both then your job opportunities will necessarily be greater.” 

To access the podcast visit http://www.college-of-law.co.uk/about-the-college/podcasts/series-2-episode-2.html