Are you an attorney from the UK or US who chose to proceed with your long-standing ambition of moving to Israel? If yes, know that several questions may accompany that life-changing move, including questions about your future as an attorney in Israel. Besides at which place to live, you might wonder what to do next for your law career in the nation. Here, we will address some questions that newcomer lawyers in Israel often ask.
Is Israel’s Legal Market Competitive?
Locals describe it as a cut-throat market due to the fierce competition here. Israel’s people are intense even when they are not attorneys. Israel has a more saturated legal space as compared to other nations, with around one attorney per 139 Israelis.
What Should I Do To Practice Law Here?
As an overseas attorney, you will have to register yourself with the Bar Association in Israel to be put in the organization’s foreign lawyer directory. It will let you practice just foreign law. That means you could not appear before a court in Israel as an attorney. If you want to practice law in Israel, as a local attorney, you would need to learn more and take many tests, according to your seniority as an attorney.
What May Be Some Of My Challenges?
Some of the main challenges and difficulties for attorneys who make Aliyah are as follows.
- The aggressive nature of the Israeli market
- Bureaucracy
- The big difference in both hourly fees and salaries
- The difficulty in communicating with a native in their language
- The challenges related to Israel’s legal system being different from your nation’s system
After reviewing those challenges, consider what your fortes are, or your USP is to the market. The two main qualities for an attorney here are how experienced you are with global legal work, and whether you have been using English since childhood.
Relocating to this nation may be challenging, but do not let anything discourage you from doing so and practicing law here. Foreign attorneys have many different opportunities in the country. With the market becoming increasingly global yearly, the level of international legal work is increasing, which offers you numerous possible routes to take. One of those career paths is to work at an Israeli law firm that oversees global legal work. One such firm may be satisfied to have you on board as an international attorney. Otherwise, you may try to join an international law firm that operates in Israel.