international student wanting US career Forum

[Anonymous User]

I graduated with a law degree from another country. I want to move to the US market. I have to decide whether to get a JD or LLM from a US law school. Any insight on whether a JD has significant advantages in job placement or if the LLM would be fine?

[s1m4]

I have seen LLMs get good jobs (biglaw and good boutiques) but its much more difficult than for JDs. I would say about 5-10% of LLMs are able to get good jobs, but only by being very sociable, presentable, and with excellent grades from their LLM programs. It is an uphill battle and often you need to start off at a smaller firm and lateral up to big law / boutiques. Most of the LLMs I have seen that are successful are in corporate law. You will also need to pass the BAR, which is much more difficult for LLMs (looking at bar passage exam rates). If you have financial support (to support yourself to move to a new country, study for the bar, and potentially spend a long time unemployed while you are looking for work), have good language skills, are able to network, and are confident, it can be done and you can get great outcomes (I've seen LLMs attain major market biglaw).

[Lancair]

I graduated with a law degree from another country. I want to move to the US market. I have to decide whether to get a JD or LLM from a US law school. Any insight on whether a JD has significant advantages in job placement or if the LLM would be fine?

]

The answer depends on what jurisdiction you are qualified in (ie whether you can qualify to sit a bar exam without further study) and what citizenship you hold (i.e. if you have access to a preferential working visa - basically Canada, Australia, Singapore and Chile). If you can answer those questions it is easier to advise on what path is the most feasible.

[icansortofmath]

It's extremely competitive for LLM students gunning for BigLaw (there aren't a lot of lower tier option).

Relatively few LLM candidates score biglaw positions and a significant portion that do (maybe majority) had biglaw experience in their home jurisdictions (ending up in Skadden NYC with Skadden HK experience for example). There is quite a number of LLM candidates that proceed to get a JD.

It's actually a pretty smart thing to do. LLM for 1 shot then you go in JD with the advantage of having taken a lot of the 1L classes.

Not really making a recommendation. Just saying it's what some people do.

[deference]

If you’re starting from the bottom, JD has the significant advantage. The admission rates would reflect that reality. Even if you’re a practicing foreign attorney, unless you have a well established and substantive experience (by that point you’d probably not think about JD or LLM anyways), the JD has the advantage.

[Anonymous User]

I graduated with a law degree from another country. I want to move to the US market. I have to decide whether to get a JD or LLM from a US law school. Any insight on whether a JD has significant advantages in job placement or if the LLM would be fine?

]

The answer depends on what jurisdiction you are qualified in (ie whether you can qualify to sit a bar exam without further study) and what citizenship you hold (i.e. if you have access to a preferential working visa - basically Canada, Australia, Singapore and Chile). If you can answer those questions it is easier to advise on what path is the most feasible.

What recruiter did you use to make the move from Australia, looking to make an international lateral move? Thanks

[Lancair]

I graduated with a law degree from another country. I want to move to the US market. I have to decide whether to get a JD or LLM from a US law school. Any insight on whether a JD has significant advantages in job placement or if the LLM would be fine?

]

The answer depends on what jurisdiction you are qualified in (ie whether you can qualify to sit a bar exam without further study) and what citizenship you hold (i.e. if you have access to a preferential working visa - basically Canada, Australia, Singapore and Chile). If you can answer those questions it is easier to advise on what path is the most feasible.

What recruiter did you use to make the move from Australia, looking to make an international lateral move? Thanks

I didn't use one - connections from current firm.

Marsden and Major Lindsay and Africa are the recruiting firms which seem to come up in Aus-US placements. I spoke to both, neither really blew me away, but I know people who have had good experience moving with AU to NY using them.

Feel free to drop me a PM if you have any Qs.