Bilingual lawyers have competitive edge....

I read an interesting article online on the Lawyers Weekly website which discusses how "the globalisation of Australian Law Firms has increased the demand for lawyers with foreign language skills but multilingual lawyers are in short supply."    Felicity Nelson
I will quote below some excerpts from the article as it was very interesting in regard to the necessity for lawyers to be able to communicate in other languages.

“Any graduate who wants to get ahead and have a competitive advantage should be thinking about learning [a foreign language],” partner at Taylor Root David Buckley told Lawyers Weekly. “A graduate who comes out of university who has a second language may be a better prospect for an employer.”  Mr Buckley said it was hard to find lawyers who have the requisite language skills for offices in Hong Kong or mainland China in particular. Finding candidates that can not only speak fluently but can read and write at a level necessary to conduct business is a challenge.  

“Although there are more people every year who have Chinese language skills it is still very difficult to find people who can speak [Mandarin],” he said.  According to the 2011 Census, only around 23.2 per cent of Australians speak any language other than English at home. Less than two per cent speak Mandarin. Only 12 per cent of Year 12 students across Australia study a language other than English, down from 40 per cent in the 1960s. Mr Buckley said lawyers with Asian language skills tend to have Asian heritage and that it is unusual to find an Anglo-Celtic lawyer with these abilities.
“Foreign language skills can certainly be helpful … especially if a firm's business and client base extend outside of the country in which they are located.“

Contact VLLC to help you achieve your goal of bilingualism. Choose from 12 languages and improve your career prospects.
Michele Colledge
CEO VLLC Aust

http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/careers/16804-bilingual-lawyers-have-competitive-edge