The LL.M. program is a small and extremely selective program. Each year we receive approximately 250 applications for the 35–40 places in the LL.M. class. In 2007–2008, our LL.M. class included 38 students from 16 countries.
The Law School's LL.M. program is designed to allow each student to design an individual course of study tailored to his or her own academic and professional interests. Most of a student's program will be drawn from the J.D. curriculum. In general, students do most of their coursework in a traditional classroom setting, learning side-by-side with U.S. law students enrolled in the J.D. program. However, it is possible to design a program that is more focused on research and writing, filling their schedules primarily with seminars and individual research projects. Still others choose to complement their law school classes with course offerings from other parts of the University, subject to the approval of their law school faculty advisor.
The LL.M. program offers two different courses of study. The U.S. Law for Foreign Lawyers program is designed to provide a basic understanding of the U.S. legal system to legal professionals who received their first law degree at foreign law schools. Students may choose to focus on a particular area of U.S. law, such as commercial law, intellectual property law, or environmental law. Others choose to obtain a broad overview, sampling courses in a wide variety of subjects.
The Law School has also joined together with the country's preeminent center for the study of Latin America, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS), to offer a unique and innovative program in Latin American and International Law. The program is designed to provide legal practitioners and scholars from both the United States and abroad with an increased understanding of the transnational legal environment in the Americas. Students in this program typically take courses in international trade and investment, international human rights, international environmental law, NAFTA, and the legal regimes of Mexico and other Latin American states. Students may also choose to add an interdisciplinary perspective to their studies by enrolling in LLILAS courses in areas such as art history, anthropology, economics, history, public policy, literature, politics, sociology and zoology. Students who take a sufficient number of LLILAS courses may obtain a Certificate in Latin American Studies along with their LL.M. degree.
For more information about the program, please visit the Master of Laws Program website.
