Editor's weekly: Leaving England
We imagine many are feeling quite proud to be British this week, following a jam-packed Jubilee weekend that saw thousands go a little bit nuts for Union Flags and afternoon teas.
But with the news that Hogan Lovells has launched yet another opportunity for trainees to jet far away from England, L2B wonders whether the bunting was perhaps a bit wasted on our readers.
As L2B revealed this morning, the top 10 law firm has launched a full two-year training contract in Moscow, sending its first trainee out to find her feet on Russian soil last month. The news comes less than a month after the firm revealed the launch of a brand new international secondment to the Big Apple.
But HogLove is not the first firm to push its UK-based future trainees off the training contract beaten track, with Eversheds and Herbert Smith recently changing their application criteria to include key language skills in a bid to encourage trainees to work abroad.
Meanwhile, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer announced its intention to target UK students for China traineeships.
Indeed law firms are not the only members of the profession looking to boost their international footprint, with a number of law schools forming special relationships with foreign higher education institutions.
Last week we saw Nottingham Law School look to create a Vietnamese LLM in legal practice a couple of months after it formed a partnership with Ghana School of Lawto work together on curriculum development.
This followed Northumbria Law School offering its students the chance to qualify in India, while Bangor University in Wales rolled out an LLB in law and Mandarin.
So whether you’re ready to swap the Pimms for Russian vodka or not, in light of a bubbling trend we would advise any ambitious aspiring lawyer to ensure they at the very least have a valid passport - and probably an understanding other half.
laura.manning@thelawyer.com
