Joshua Alter is working his way around the world. The 2013 graduate of St. John’s University School of Law has already taught at University of Florida, St. John’s, East China University of Political Science and Law, Southwest University of Political Science and Law in China, Northwest University of Political Science and Law in China, Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, Soochow University, Beijing Jiaotong and Universidad Iberoamericana in the Dominican Republic.
Now, he plans to spend nine months in nine different countries for the 2022-2023 term. He will be in Indonesia, Vietnam, and India for the rest of this year and is open to coordinating with schools in these countries to help with advice, setting up partnerships, or hosting educational sessions.
In addition to his academic career pursuits, Alter created a blog, Beyond Non-JD to share information with LL.M. students. He will soon write a quarterly blog for this site.
Alter feels LL.M. programs have an “asymmetrical information problem, especially for foreign-educated lawyers and law students.”
In his blog, he covers topics that are relevant to prospective students, applicants, current students and alumni. This is to help those audiences with applying to, choosing and doing well in law schools.
While in law school, Alter spent his second-year summer completing an internship in the Netherlands, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. At the time, his goal was to work in international criminal law.
His path took a turn at the start of his third year, where he worked as a teaching assistant for a new LL.M. program and took a student role in his law school’s Center for International and Comparative Law.
As he neared graduation he was given the opportunity to stay at St. John’s University School of Law in a short-term legal writing teaching position. This turned into a permanent position a year later, and he has worked in law schools ever since.
In his first job, he was based in China from December 2015 to June 2018 teaching at his school’s partner school. He has worked in roles dealing with global engagement and law school partnerships, specialized LL.M. career advising for international LL.M. students, international student recruitment, and J.D.-LL.M. community building.
One of his main career goals has been to create a space to talk about topics that are important to foreign-educated lawyers who want to study LL.M. programs in the United States.
“I often think about the first time I arrive in each country and use those experiences to cater to the international students that I work with,” Alter said. “Lessons on my own adjustment to new countries and new experiences, both as a student and in my career, really help me think about the needs of the students that I’ve been fortunate to work with.”
Alter strives to advocate and highlight LL.M. students. He is the voice for them at orientations, events and in colleague discussions.
“Whenever I can, I ask colleagues to think about how any discussions or decisions involve LL.M. students,” Alter said. “I want to make sure LL.M. students are included in the language and are not viewed as an afterthought. The law school default can be thinking in J.D. terms, but LL.M. students play an important role in the larger law school community.”
