Legal News

Report from Iraq: U.S. Lawyers Wanted

By Ashby Jones

Just another option for job-searching lawyers, courtesy of the American Lawyer’s Ben Hallman:

Surging isn’t just for soldiers anymore. In an effort to increase the number of civilian lawyers working on legal programs in Iraq, the U.S. Department of State is hiring 40 civilian attorneys as part of a lawyer “surge.” The attorneys will work for one of the eight Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq, as liaisons to local judges, lawyers, and other community leaders. Job tip: Wilson Myers, head of the Baghdad rule of law team, says interpersonal skills are more important than work experience. So if you are tired of your desk job (and, ideally, your friends and family), visit usajobs.com and search under “rule of law.”

Hallman should know: He’s currently embedded with the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team, reporting on the restoration of Iraq’s civil justice system. He’s sending several-daily dispatches from the front lines. We’ve been keeping up with the dispatches, which are now getting into real meaty law-and-Iraq territory.

Hallman on Thursday, for instance, had a take on Iraqi legal education and training. He writes: “There’s no bar exam, and according to an Iraqi lawyer I spoke with today, virtually no practical training. The lawyer told me that Iraqi law students, for example, don’t read cases. There are also no law firms or law partnerships as in the United States. And there are no corporate lawyers, or specialist lawyers, really, of any kind.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).