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LL.M. Programs


Their goal may be to secure a 12-month job at a Wall Street law firm, a teaching position at a U.S. or overseas law school, a job with a non-govern- mental organization, or employment in another legal or non-legal opportunity.


All those goals could be reasonable and attain- able. It is reasonable for LL.M. students to ex- pect U.S. law schools to provide assistance in attaining those goals, at least at a level in equity with assistance provided to J.D. students. Many schools do a fine job in this regard, however, some do not.


Reasonable or Unreasonable Expectations


Problems arise when students have reasonable expectations of a school but the school is un- able to meet those expectations. Furthermore, it is problematic if a student has unreasonable expectations, in which case the schools also will not meet those goals. In both instances, there is no meeting of the minds between the students and schools; they are out of sync.


Let’s say that an international student has a goal of working at a law firm in the U.S. for one year post-LL.M. On its face, that goal is reasonable since U.S. government policy allows internation- al students to engage in post-LL.M. “practical training” work,8


and various states, such as New


York, permit international LL.M. students to sit for their bar exam.9


But to secure the job, the


LL.M. student may need the assistance of the school. To be successful at the job once hired, the school must have provided the LL.M. stu- dent with appropriate, adequate training.


The student will need to be well-versed in as- pects of U.S. law, and must be able to commu- nicate effectively with colleagues at the firm and with clients. Thus, U.S. law schools have an ob- ligation to help ensure that the student receives training necessary to be able to conduct legal research, write legal memoranda, and communi- cate legal opinions orally. Schools should provide legal communication training that specifically tar-


gets LL.M. students, that takes into account that LL.M. students hail from many different legal systems, were trained in different legal educa- tion systems, and may not speak English as their native language. Teaching legal communication to international LL.M. students requires special skills and training, and is significantly different from teaching legal communication to U.S. law students.


Meeting of the Minds: LL.M. Students and U.S. Law Schools Seeing Eye-to-Eye


The services and attention a school supplies must correlate with the students’ expectations. Students base those expectations in great part on information obtained from various sources, including from LL.M. students and graduates, from websites and blogs, from publications about LL.M. programs (such as LL.M. Roadmap) and from law schools themselves.10


Some infor-


mation sources are more reliable than others. If the information is comprehensive and accurate, it may be more likely that students’ expectations will be more reasonable.


Law schools must ensure that they provide pro- spective and current students with reliable, ac- curate, complete, and transparent information about their programs and their offerings. For example, if a law school announces on its web page that it does not have the resources to help LL.M. students find short-term or permanent jobs in the U.S. post-graduation, and will not of- fer guidance to LL.M. students as to how to pre- pare for a U.S. bar exam, it follows that a student should not expect such assistance. Otherwise, it is reasonable for LL.M. students to expect the school to help them find jobs and provide guidance about bar exams, since every U.S. law school knows that international LL.M. students may wish to work in the U.S. The students may not decide to pursue that work opportunity until after they enroll in the LL.M. program, and may only then decide to sit for the bar exam in a U.S.


ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 1 » October 2011 43


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