Top Law Schools

I am an American who graduated from a decent state school in Virginia with an undergrad degree in business (CGPA: 3.2) and minor degree in Chinese business studies. I have been living and working in China for the past 2.5/3 years, am fluent in Mandarin and have been working for an American start-up company for the past year. I hope to practice law in HK in the future and would settle down there if I found the right job. Unfortunately, I just missed the application period for HKU's 2015 start JD program. I am not super confident in my chances to get in to HKU to begin with (GPA and undergrad school are not fantastic), although I have language and work experience in China.

I am debating applying to City University of Hong Kong's JD program (2015 start) or waiting until next December to apply to HKU's JD program (2016 start). I really want to begin school soon, but have read several negative posts about CityU and Chinese University Hong Kong's Law schools (not reputable/cash cows). I want to make sure I am challenged in school and have good job prospects. with big firms when I am done.

If I completed my JD at CityU, would I have good prospects for work in HK? Would I possibly be able to study for my PCLL at HKU after two years at CityU? If I wait an extra year, would I have a decent chance of getting into HKU's JD program? I would hate to wait an extra year only to be rejected by HKU and settle for another school.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most people here will not have good knowledge of Chinese law schools. You may be able to ask in the Spivey thread if he has any knowledge, but this is most American law schools.

RaiderRed wrote:I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most people here will not have good knowledge of Chinese law schools. You may be able to ask in the Spivey thread if he has any knowledge, but this is most American law schools.

I doubt Spivey would have any idea about Chinese schools either.

Dirigo wrote:

RaiderRed wrote:I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but most people here will not have good knowledge of Chinese law schools. You may be able to ask in the Spivey thread if he has any knowledge, but this is most American law schools.

I doubt Spivey would have any idea about Chinese schools either.

I know there wont be that many people with in depth knowledge of Chinese law schools in this forum, but I have read threads from several years back that went into quite some detail about the Hong Kong market.

I always thought JD was just an American thing. I have a few lawyer friends in London. Law school is just undergrad there. I think it's only in the US that law school is a graduate program.

PeanutsNJam wrote:I always thought JD was just an American thing. I have a few lawyer friends in London. Law school is just undergrad there. I think it's only in the US that law school is a graduate program.

I have heard that a JD program in HK is more similar to an LLM. Until a few years ago, all postgraduate law degrees in HK were LLMs (so I have been told). But, these new JD programs in HK are geared toward students who have not previously studied law.