Anyone go to law school in israel?

amother

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 9:50 am

Has anyone either been to law school or work as a lawyer in israel? My husband is thinking about law school in israel (we want to make aliyah) and I was wondering if anyone can give me info about it. does the government pay for law school if someone makes aliyah (the way they pay for either a bachelor's or masters degree if u are under a certain age and made aliyah)? how much does a lawyer get paid in israel? how hard is it to find a job there? I'd rather not reveal who I am b/c its not public that we want to make aliyah so I'm anon. But I need any advice I can get.
Thanx

Tamiri

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 9:57 am

amother wrote:

My brother got a joint Law/Mba at Bar Ilan quite a few years ago. AFAIK, the government pays for 3 years of school for an Oleh, at a recognized University (Bar Ilan, Tel Aviv, Hebre U, Haifa etc.). I think that it's very hard to get into the Law departments at these schools. Competition is fierce and my understanding is that there are too many lawyers as it is. There are lesser-known colleges where people can get a law degree, but AFAIK those won't be covered by the Aliya stipend.
Beginning lawyers, same as the U.S., make bupkis and work long, hard hours.

Tamiri

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 11:26 am

amother wrote:

Actually tamiri, a first year lawyer in a big firm in the US makes around 170k. In Israel it's the equivalent of 20-25k aiui.

really? are you sure about that? This isn't the holy grail, but....
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_....._earn

Tamiri

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 11:32 am

From googling beginner lawyers salaries in Israel, I came up with a span of 4500-7000 nis/month. Starvation wages, and sometimes less than a clerk/secretary. OTOH, you don't have massive student loans to repay here. So the high end is just around $21k/annum. Before taxes shock

chanchy123

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 12:43 pm

DH is a lawyer.
In Israel law is really a BA program (sometimes they get an LLB).
DH studied at Bar Ilan there it is a three and a half year program, other places you can only do three years (maybe less in some colleges also if you already have a BA you may get credit). Then you do two years (this is new policy not yet implemented but would be relevant for you) of paid internship (low pay usually). After that you go for the bar. Law is not as lucrative in Israel as it is in the US, although, if you're good and work in a nice big firm you can do pretty well (really well). English speaking lawyers, are saught for business with US.

chanchy123

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 3:38 pm

Tamiri wrote:

Again DH is a lawyer looking for a starting position.The figures you are talking about are for the internship year/s I know DH's friends who went into big firms make more than that (I think we're talking roughly 10K maybe more as a starting salary in the big firms -which you need to get in to and work your tuches off - but it is rewarding). In the government sector starting take home salaries are about 8 K depends on how work you put in etc.
The only thing is that there is an overload of lawyers you need to be good, get good grades, from a good school (the small collages are not all the prestiges) have a good internship, and even then it may take a while to find a job.
As for the joint MBA law degree in BA I understood you can't practice law with this degree but I may be wrong.

amother

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 5:49 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

The schooling is in Hebrew, right? How is OP's husband going to be able to do that ?

OP here- thanx for bringing it up. actually my husband speaks almost fluent hebrew so with a little brush up, he would be fine in an all hebrew speaking school.

mimimom

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 6:04 pm

VERY few law students graduate and get jobs with white shoe law firms and make 170,000 a year. For one thing, you have to have gone to a top ten school and be in the top 10% of your class. Much more common is a starting salary in the region of $40,000-$50,000 (in a small regional firm or in legal aid or other government work), that is if you land a job. Otherwise it's document review making $20/hour with no benefits. Or work another job and practice part time while trying to build a practice and keep a roof over your head.
I'm in my last semester of law school, so I know the situation very well.

Peanut2

Sun, Aug 01 2010, 6:19 pm

If your dh is smart, does well, and especially if he's interested in more business-type law, it's very worthwhile.

It is in fact easier to get into law school in Israel than into a psych program for BA, not even talking about graduate school. It does require high SATS/psychometry, but not as bad as for psych or medicine. If he wants to/can afford to study at smaller/more expensive "colleges", SATs don't need to be as high. AFAIK even if he has a BA getting accepted is still mostly based on SATs.

Lawyers starting out in the US who went to decent-good-excellent schools make lots more than $100K first year out of law school. If they can get a job, that is. I happen to know lots of people who went to Harvard Law School, and bunches of those who graduated a year ago had their job offers rescinded or postponed to a January start because of the economy. Not sure what's happening with the new crop of grads.

Tamiri

Mon, Aug 02 2010, 12:17 am

chanchy123 wrote:

As for the joint MBA law degree in BA I understood you can't practice law with this degree but I may be wrong.

Totally wrong. My brother finished with an MBA and that law degree and actually was interning at a good place (Veinrot) when he decided that being a lawyer was going to bring him to the loony bin so he retrained for computers and is doing well there BH. The point is: the degree, when he got it, allowed him to practice law. He finished ~10 years ago so things may have changed.

chanchy123

Mon, Aug 02 2010, 1:41 am

Tamiri wrote:

chanchy123 wrote:

As for the joint MBA law degree in BA I understood you can't practice law with this degree but I may be wrong.

Good to know, I guess I was confusing another law/business type degree that you can't practice with.