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Currently a 2L and will be a summer associate at a V15 in a secondary market this summer. My wife and I have always been interested in living in Germany (we both speak German) and I came across an LLM in finance at the Institute for Law and Finance in Frankfurt (https://www.ilf-frankfurt.de/llm-progra ... highlights). My long term plan is to practice corporate before going in house. I also plan on staying in the secondary market I will be working in this summer since my wife and I own a house there.

Would spending a year after law school doing this LLM just be a complete waste of time career-wise? It sounds great in theory and would allow my wife and I to live in Germany for a year, but I'm just trying to figure out if there's any value in doing it.

Will be graduating with between $45K-55K in student debt (if that matters).

I don't know if learning more information in life can ever be considered a real waste, but I don't think it'll help your law career very much. You probably wouldn't get class credit or a clerkship-type bonus for it, so realize from a cost perspective that you'd be giving up a year's salary (not to mention the cost of the program). The information likely won't affect your work as a lawyer on corporate deals, though it's always helpful to understand the underlying financing a little better. It's a nice line for the resume if you go in-house (in a finance-related job), and may be a small bump above an equally well-qualified and connected applicant. That being said, if your firm will defer your offer (in writing, with you only asking after you've received an offer), and you're not worried about the short-term impact of the money loss, you won' get many other chances in your life to live in another country. So, tldr; it probably won't help tons, and you'll lose money, but life is short, so it's up to you.

Caveat: I work in corporate, but not in finance directly, so maybe someone with more direct experience can chime in.

Yes it will be pointless. There are many cheaper ways to live in Germany - like taking a gap year after you burn out from biglaw.

edit: i'm just a junior, so take this with a grain of salt, but if you interviewed for a job in America, and I saw that you did a random LLM in a non-common law country, I would wonder why you did it in the first place.

LLMs in general are not worth the time or debt, except for tax. I have a colleague with a random LLM from a school with a prestigious JD program, and his LLM hasn't helped him a bit. He had to struggle to get a permanent job after that. He ended up working in a JD preferred job before bouncing around on short term contract attorney jobs. Probably also didn't help that he had minimal practice experience between graduating from law school and starting his LLM program though.The gap year thing sounds like a safer idea.

Why not do a few years in corporate then move in-house to a group with ties to Germany or is actually in German?

I would look up what those folks have as a background and try to emulate some of that along the way. I don’t think an LLM is one of them, but I would bet a NY bar license is.

ubermensch12 wrote:Currently a 2L and will be a summer associate at a V15 in a secondary market this summer. My wife and I have always been interested in living in Germany (we both speak German) and I came across an LLM in finance at the Institute for Law and Finance in Frankfurt (https://www.ilf-frankfurt.de/llm-progra ... highlights). My long term plan is to practice corporate before going in house. I also plan on staying in the secondary market I will be working in this summer since my wife and I own a house there.

Would spending a year after law school doing this LLM just be a complete waste of time career-wise? It sounds great in theory and would allow my wife and I to live in Germany for a year, but I'm just trying to figure out if there's any value in doing it.

Will be graduating with between $45K-55K in student debt (if that matters).

Yeah, that's one way. You could pick up extra education and go deeper into debt. To be fair, rent in most German cities is quite low. I'm not sure why you would pick Frankfurt over other cities - cities with higher living quality and better law schools. (Have you looked at LMU in Munich, Humboldt in Berlin, or Heidelberg? Those are the top schools, and would get better recognition.)

Another route would be to try to get work experience in Germany. You don't need a LLM for that. American lawyers with JD's (no other degree) can get admitted to the local bar in some jurisdictions. Frankfurt is one of them. ( https://www.rak-ffm.de/zulassung/aufnah ... -anwaelte/ ) Nearly all V15 have offices in Germany, so have you considered spending a year earning your BigLaw salary abroad?

Finally, research if your law school has partner schools in Europe/Germany and, if so, whether you can spend a term abroad during 3L.