Fierce competition in the legal job market has lawyers scrambling for ways to stand out to recruiters and employers.
Experts say that some lawyers try to distinguish themselves from others with a J.D. by attending a master of law program and earning an LL.M. degree. A full-time LL.M. program typically lasts a year and allows people already licensed to practice law to develop expertise in a particular type , such as intellectual property law, securities law, tax law or entertainment law. But experts urge prospective LL.M. students to figure out whether an LL.M. program will advance their career before investing in it.
Key factors to consider, experts say, are an LL.M. program’s job placement rates and whether its recent graduates advanced in their careers after receiving their LL.M. degree.
“The most important thing is to talk to the school and find out what’s happening to the graduates,” says Harrison Barnes, CEO of BCG Attorney Search, a legal recruiting firm that caters to big law firms.
Barnes says he is skeptical about the value of the LL.M. for any legal specialties besides tax law and health care law, which are highly technical and complex, and says that most attorneys only need a J.D.
[Discover how, though controversial, LL.M.’s can lead to specialized legal jobs.]
Clara Solomon, director of counseling and career development with the School of Law at New York University, says one way to decide whether an LL.M. is right for you is to talk to people with a job you would like to have and ask them for their opinion about the value of an LL.M. in their field.
She says these people can also offer guidance on what courses to study in an LL.M. program and how to maximize your marketability after graduation.
Joseph DePaulo, CEO and Co-Founder of College Ave Student Loans, says since LL.M. students typically have considerable debt after law school and college, and it’s critical for them to consider whether they can take on any additional debt.
One helpful way to figure out whether the cost of an LL.M. program is manageable, DePaulo says, is to figure out what the monthly cost would be to pay off the debt borrowed during an LL.M program. Annual tuition costs for LL.M. programs at prestigious law schools, like Harvard Law School and NYU Law School, are nearly $60,000 per year, without accounting for living costs.
[Sharpen law skills with a master of legal studies.]
Austen Parrish, dean of Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, says prospective LL.M. students should do a cost-benefit analysis, weighing the cost of the program versus its long-term payoff, before enrolling.
Parrish says that while an LL.M. serves a clear purpose for international lawyers who want to practice law in the U.S., the argument for an LL.M. for a domestic student is harder to make, unless the LL.M. focuses on a highly technical specialty.
“It’s just that the J.D. in the U.S. is the coin of the realm, with the exception being tax,” he says.
[Decide as an international lawyer which LL.M. program is the best fit.]
Christopher Harris, a practicing tax attorney who received his LL.M. in tax from the Levin College of Law at University of Florida, says anyone interested in tax law should get an LL.M. if they can.
“I found my LL.M. to be one of the best things I ever did,” he says. “It was an absolutely rewarding experience. I learned more in a single year than in any other aspect of my educational experience.”
Harris, a senior attorney at a midsized Texas law firm, says that when he considers job candidates for tax attorney positions, he has a strong preference for candidates with an LL.M.
“I probably wouldn’t consider a candidate unless they had an LL.M. in tax,” he says.
Harris says that the benefit of an LL.M. in tax is that it teaches students how to analyze the intricacies of the tax code and understand how various parts of the code fit together.
Experts say that occasionally law students choose an LL.M. based on the specialty they think is most marketable without considering their own talents and interests.
Mary Maher, associate director for legal careers with the Pritzker School of Law at Northwestern University where she advises students in the tax LL.M. program, says it is important for prospective LL.M. students to assess whether an LL.M. will lead to a job that is both financially rewarding and personally fulfilling.
For instance, she says, although an LL.M. in tax can be lucrative, pursu ing an LL.M. in tax is foolish if you are not detail-oriented, because you are unlikely to succeed as a tax lawyer without a technical mindset.
“You really have to be sure that this is what you want to do to study it for a year, to really delve into it and to make your career in this area,” Maher says.
Nevertheless, she says, for those who are interested in tax law, an LL.M. can result in big financial rewards, and it can serve as a career accelerator.
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Decide Whether an LL.M. Is Right for You originally appeared on usnews.com
