Top Law Schools

This seems like the ideal solution

Unfortunately, employers don’t view an LLM from a top school as remotely equivalent. Admissions are comparatively lax. Outside of tax, top school LLMs are targeted at foreign lawyers.

That's an awful idea.

Law school is not like undergrad.

nealric wrote:Unfortunately, employers don’t view an LLM from a top school as remotely equivalent. Admissions are comparatively lax. Outside of tax, top school LLMs are targeted at foreign lawyers.

this. Plus, any respectable state school is still going to cost a lot of money (the state school I attended currently charges $31,836/yr tuition in-state (total COA estimate = $54,120), LLMs themselves are pretty expensive, and then you have the opportunity cost of losing 1 year of income/job experience/progression (the latter isn't so big a deal - if someone is deciding whether to apply now or a year later to get better scores I'd always say apply a year later - but it matters to some people, especially since you will have incurred law school debt by then and be running up interest).

gokira2012 wrote:This seems like the ideal solution

In what way?

I think this used to be a common thing. Justice Powell went to W&L and then Harvard for an LLM for the prestige boost. But yes, I agree with others, this is a bad plan if your goal is gainful employment.

VirginiaFan wrote:I think this used to be a common thing. Justice Powell went to W&L and then Harvard for an LLM for the prestige boost. But yes, I agree with others, this is a bad plan if your goal is gainful employment.

Law degrees used to be considered bachelor’s degrees until around the 1960s. LLMs were a way to show advance study at the time. Likely had nothing to do with his desire for a prestige boost.