It may be easier to become a lawyer than a translator in Brazil, judging from this Guardian article:
Brazil’s lawyers have been shocked to find that a boy aged eight has managed to pass the entrance exam to law school.
The Bar Association said the achievement of Joao Victor Portellinha should be taken as a warning about the low standards of some of Brazil’s law schools.
Since he hasn’t completed high school yet, he can’t actually study.
“My dream is to be a federal judge,” the boy said, according to Globo TV’s Web site. “So I decided to take the test to see how I would do … it was easy. I studied a week before the test.”
I don’t know whether this test is the only criterion used.
Apparently the Guardian had some space left, so the article concludes as follows:
As a former colony, Brazilian civil law is largely based on that of Portugal with statutes derived from the Romano-Germanic legal tradition, but has been amended to include some precedent-based common law.
Exactly what the oddly-express last clause means I have no idea. Presumably, like most civil-law systems, Brazil now takes account of case law.
Trevor asks: Why do we hear so much about the civil/French tradition, and rarely anything about the Romano-German? Readers, this is a question for a future entry. Watch this space.