Thanks must be passed on to the beautifully-named ‘uwan*ers’ on Greedyassociates.com for the following advice to a US lawyer looking to come over here: “As for requalifying, don’t worry about that… it only takes around three months to sit the QLTT (qualified lawyers transfer test). You’re eligible to sit the exam since you’re coming from a ‘common law’ jurisdiction.
“Get in touch with the Law Society and register to obtain what is described as the certificate of eligibility – that is, you complete a form, show copies of your degree and licence. Then you can register for the exams. If you take the exams with the College of Law, London, they will let you see the questions for the first two papers weeks before you sit them… that way you can get an English associate to answer it all… so you have less hassle.”
The kindly adviser went on to offer some targeted careers advice: “In general, once you’re qualified and have practised in a ‘common law’ country, firms are quite flexible to take you on… perhaps because the time it takes to requalify is not that long… in this sense you may also write to top English firms like Slaughter and May, Linklaters, Herbert Smith and Clifford Chance (they have a good reputation here if not in NYC).”