As more and more international companies come to Alabama, the Section's members have been at the forefront of providing the necessary legal services required to make their transition to Alabama as easy as possible. Alabama family and criminal lawyers have come to find that, increasingly, there are international aspects to their cases that did not exist a scant 10 to 15 years ago. Families are sometimes split apart geographically not only by states, but by oceans and countries. Child support becomes hinged to international treaties. Admiralty lawyers are finding that their practices now involve much more than shipments, Customs, and insurance.
Some nations divide their legal professions into an array of categories and branches.
The legal traditions of some countries differ substantially from others. The legal professions have widely divergent requirements for education and training, as well as for entrance examinations, around the world. For example, the United Kingdom requires law students to successfully complete three years of university training, while Spain and Portugal each require five. The United Kingdom, for example, requires different educational backgrounds for each branch of the legal profession. Germany requires at least two years of practical experience working for a prosecutor, a family lawyer, a court, etc.