Can you work as a corporate attorney for a U.S. company while living overseas?

Politically Correct

Yes, America multi-nationals employ corporate attorneys in their overseas offices. These will typically be locally qualified because the objective will be to navigate local legal issues, not those of the US. They may have in-house counsel too but again, these will be locally qualified. HQ will navigate US issues. They may also employ cross border specialists to draw up import-export contracts. Pay is relative. It costs a great deal less to live in Athens than to live in NYC. An in-house counsel is always less well paid than someone working for a law firm. You do not say on what grounds you are going to be able to try to work in Greece. If you have Greek citizenship and are bilingual, why not go there for university? You can study law as an undergraduate everywhere in Europe, no need to fart around for four years first. If you do not have the right to live and work in Greece, forget it. Get rich and buy a holiday home there.

Anonymous

It's unlikely. I won't say a flat-out no, but telecommuting is usually limited to employees who have proven their mettle, who do not need to interact with others but work entirely independently, and who have no objection to coming in regularly (i.e., every Friday or the 15th and last day of every month, like that). My guess would be that you will have to choose between living where you hope to live and working where you hope to work.

RICK

Maybe if the US company has a presence in that country, otherwise no

Tavy

Do you expect to just move there and live ? What about their immigration laws ? Do you realise that Greece is on the verge of bankrupcy?

DEBS

It's always possible, but typically you would have to have proven yourself at a company prior to moving abroad or be good enough at what you do to get such consideration. You might get lucky and find a company who needs US contract law expertise while working with customers in Europe. They for sure exist. Your options are more limited it doing this, but if you have backup plans then there is no reason not to try.

Casey Y

Attorneys don't get to work from home. If you want to be an attorney working on US issues for a US company...you need to be in the US. If you want to work for a US company in another country, you need to become a lawyer in that country and you'll get paid the going rate. So, a corporate attorney working for a US company living and practicing law in Greece would get Greek wages...not US wages. Let me give you a comparison. Take any major international hotel chain. They pay their workers based on the local demand; sure the higher up corporate folks make more, but they're all out of the corporate headquarters. So, those local workers in Singapore and making Singapore wages...not Manhattan wages...

Steve D

Extremely doubtful. Associates work directly under the supervision of a partner - which would be impossible if the partner was in America and the associate in Greece - even if you worked for a corporation, most large corporations farm out most of their work to private law firms who specialize in corporate law (these corporations get their lawyers from these law firms, usually not right out of college). Next, as has been said, for the first 6 - 8 years, you need to be heavily supervised and no company is going to fly you back from Greece to spend 3 weeks of every month as a new lawyer at the home office. Plan on either getting a Greek law license or spending the next 6 or more years working in the states and getting enough experience and trust to convince a supervisor to allow you to work out of country.

Judy

Not really. Nobody's going to pay to fly you back and forth every time you need to be at their office just so you can live where you want to And lots of American companies have a substantial presence overseas needing legal work there, but would hire local lawyers who know the law of that country...and pay wages of locals.

Taylor

Greece is horrible, no economy.