So, you think you may want to be an international trade lawyer? Sounds great, doesn’t it? Fancy travel to scenic locations. Stimulating discussions over good cuisine with people from all over the globe. Intellectual appreciation of cultural differences and comparison of legal structures. A way to contribute to job creation and national and international economic strength. Also, the entire world economy for a subject, from goods and services to investment, intellectual property and competition policy.

On the other hand, distant travel is a hassle; you can miss kids’ birthdays and ball games or concerts, parents’ illness, anniversaries. Jet lag accumulates. Cases can be long on facts and short on law, and the laws seem nonsensical. Clients may call at all hours of the day and night, especially night for clients many time zones away. Translation slows progress, language differences hinder communication, and deadlines are short and hard to meet. Government decision-makers may seem more concerned with their own convenience than yours. Also, for most trade practitioners, home is the Washington, D.C. area; say goodbye to options for moving your practice and expertise back to Kentucky, Montana or New Hampshire.

Are you still with me? If so, here‘s how most trade lawyers actually spend their time. U.S. trade lawyers practice, for the most part, U.S. law. Some of the U.S. trade remedies have a foundation in international agreements, but it U.S. law that controls antidumping, countervailing duty, escape clause, unfair import competition, section 301, national security and trade preferences cases. While some trade lawyers represent clients in genuinely international proceedings [e.g., before dispute settlement panels established under the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva or the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)], most spend the majority of their time interpreting U.S. law and regulations.

The heart of this practice for most U.S. lawyers is the antidumping law, involving parallel investigations by the Commerce Department, which decides whether imports are sold in the U.S. at unfairly low prices; and the International Trade Commission which decides whether such imports cause or threaten injury to a U.S. industry. The dumping investigations are substantially accounting exercises, and involve hundreds of thousands of facts about prices; general selling and administrative expenses; profits; and the physical attributes of the merchandise concerned. Information must be provided to the Commerce Department in computerized format. Sensitive business information is made available only under an administrative protective order, requiring its handling in a way that reduces the flexibility of your work habits. (The information can not be taken home, must be logged in and out, cannot be left unattended but rather must be literally locked up, etc.) Information provided by foreign producers and exporters is verified by Commerce officials through on-site inspection of books and records of the companies.

The International Trade Commission’s investigation also is fact intensive. The relevant facts in these proceedings concern the volume and prices and imports and their impact on domestic producers of like products. Any economic criteria relevant to whether imports may be causing or threatening injury to a U.S. industry is considered by the Commission. As in Commerce investigations, the Commission makes preliminary and final determinations, providing an opportunity for a hearing as well as for the submission of written facts and arguments.

In these as well as other trade proceedings, language fluency is useful if you are representing clients from the country where it is spoken. In all proceedings, familiarity with economics, accounting and statistics is especially helpful, along with general quantitative skills. International trade law is not for those who love ideas but loathe numbers.

Many international trade practitioners obtain formative experience in government service. Entry level positions are available (though heavily sought after) in the International Trade Administration at the Commerce Department (at least pending proposed government reorganization), the International Trade Commission and, to a lesser extent, at various other executive branch agencies (e.g., State, Treasury, Agriculture, Justice). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means trade subcommittees also provide excellent experience, but seldom hire lawyers without significant prior trade experience. Also, there are clerkships at the U.S. Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; however, to date there has been relatively little movement from those clerkships into the executive or legislative trade positions.

In the integrated, intertwined world economy, there will always be conflicts between U.S. and foreign producers, importers and consumers. Consequently, the practice of international trade regulatory law is likely to remain an area of opportunity, but not necessarily a growing field. This area expanded dramatically between the end of the Tokyo Round negotiations in 1979, and the conclusion of the following Uruguay Round negotiations in 1993. Representations tend to be rather cyclical, rising as economic conditions deteriorate, breeding litigiousness and improving the chances for affirmative injury determinations; and declining as conditions improve. Whereas the trade bar used to be quite small and consist largely of boutique firms, today most firms that are based in and many with offices in Washington, D.C. have a trade practice.

A potentially increasing source of opportunity may be the advice to (if not representation of) governments involved in dispute settlement proceedings under the WTO or regional trade agreements. The WTO rules for settling disputes are dramatically improved and more legalistic than prior General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) rules. While governments are likely to continue to be represented by government lawyers, some countries retain private trade counsel for assistance in preparing their submissions and oral presentations to panels established to make recommendations aimed to resolve such disputes.

It is worth noting that international trade regulation has relatively little in common with any transborder transactional practice. Corporate transactions, albeit across borders, largely involve corporate law, whereas an international trade regulatory practice is largely administrative law. In either case, there generally is more national or state than international law involved.

Finally, the WTO does employ legal advisers. Many other international trade organizations, however, such as the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and NAFTA, rely on participating national governments and various lawyers employed by them for necessary legal advice and analysis.

So, you’re still reading, you still think a career in international trade law is worth considering, and what you want to know is: How do you break in? The key to success in international trade regulatory law is about the same as in most other areas of law practice. You need to perform well in a good law school and in summer internships, demonstrating the usual sought-after skills: sound analysis, clear writing, focused and well-delivered speaking, a gift for identifying and solving problems, an ability to juggle competing demands for your time and efforts, common sense, stamina and strong people skills. If you add to those traits strong quantitative skills, you have a strong background that should enable you, if you persevere, to secure a position in this field whose subject ranges widely throughout the world, but most of whose practitioners call Washington, D.C., home.

* Sidley & Austin, Washington, D.C. Ms. Bello formerly served as General Counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative and in legal or policy trade positions at the Commerce and State Departments. She has taught international trade law courses at Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center, and lectures and is published widely.

Published with permission from Careers in International Law by the American Society of International Law, Washington, D.C. This publication, which includes many other essays on a variety of practices in international law, is available in the NYLS Law Library's first floor reference area JX 1291.I58 1996 Ref.