Hello, I am dying to do ANY legal course in the US/UK just to help me get access to the US/UK legal market. I am a lawyer in Greece, a holder of an LLB from my country (Greece) and of an LLM from Queen Mary University in London ( Commercial Law). I had never searched for any legal jobs while I had been studying in London, and now I feel I am trapped, as I have absolutely nothing on my CV except for my LLB and LLM. Not even a summer school, moot courts, internships, absolutely nothing(!). I really want to work either in the UK or the US or an English-speaking country, but unfortunately my poor cv wouldn't help me at all. So I am currently thinking of furthering/continuing my legal education. The idea is to move to a new country and search for legal jobs while I am furthering my studies. My ideal studies would be something like a summer/winter school in the US, but my budget is extremely limited (I cannot afford any program either in the UK or the US of more than 5000 dollars or 5000 pounds-I have to pay extra for accomodation, so it would have to be 5000 tops). Other than that, I simply don't know. Of course, I wouldn't afford an LLM on this budget. Any ideas? Any type of education with a considerable duration that the market might count- like more than 3 weeks? The larger the duration the better for me of course. Thanks alot, I am very confused!

[Edited by Kitten25 on Sep 11, 2018]

To 'gain access' to the legal market in the US - if you want to work as a lawyer - you'll need to take a bar exam.

Bar exams vary by state and have prerequisites, and at least in some cases you may need to take an LLM program from an ABA-accredited school. It's not *too* expensive to take the bar exam, but the real issue will be finding a job. Law firms favor domestic candidates and typically recruit new associates out of JD programs at schools they're familiar with. Not having permission to work in the country through citizenship or permanent residency will not help.

Quite frankly, it would be far easier to find a job in a firm in your own country which also has offices in the US and then position yourself to move after several years.

In the UK, to practice law, the procedure is more complicated. You need to do a Legal Practice Course (LPC), which takes at least one year. Then you'll need to do a training course which is I think two years.

So, to answer your question, no, there's no cheap or easy way for you to do what you're looking to do.