When foreign-educated law students and lawyers reach out to discuss U.S. legal education, I usually encourage them to first research and decide whether a J.D. or LL.M. degree is a better fit for their goals.
For those who decide the J.D. is the better choice, the next step is to determine whether a traditional J.D. (“three-year degree”) or an advanced J.D. for foreign-educated lawyers (“two-year J.D.”) makes the most sense.
At their best, two-year J.D. programs for foreign-educated lawyers seem like a great deal. Save a year of time and expenses, start earning income as a lawyer (again) one year earlier, have more options for bar exams and have more access to jobs that hire J.D. students over LL.M. students. Indeed, the articles I have seen online (including one from the National Jurist in 2019 titled “Two-year J.D. programs for foreign lawyers are spiking”!) focus on the very real benefits of such programs.
But are there trade-offs in choosing the two-year J.D. over the three-year J.D. degree? And if so, how should you evaluate which choice is best for you?
I think there are important trade-offs that all lawyers and LL.B. students should consider in determining which option is better for their goals.
What advice do I share with the students I teach in my Legal English for American Law Schools (LEALS) courses? They should think about why they are choosing the J.D. over the LL.M. and determine whether those goals better align with a three-year J.D. or a two-year J.D. And given that not every school offers a two-year J.D., they’ll also have to factor into their consideration the schools they’re targeting when making the decision. For my students, who are just finishing their LL.B. programs and are often looking to work in the U.S. upon graduation, the three-year J.D. often makes much more sense.
Here are some things to consider:
1. Tuition Costs
Saving a year of tuition is great. But if financial concerns are the most important consideration, you may actually be better off with a three-year J.D. degree. Why? The answer, to a degree, involves the way U.S. law schools are ranked.
Bypassing the LSAT or GRE can be a good idea for some applicants, but securing a score above a school’s median can mean a substantial scholarship. Looking at ABA 509 Reports can help you find schools that offer the most full-tuition scholarships and full-tuition scholarships plus stipends for entering J.D. students in traditional programs. If part of the allure of the two-year J.D. is that you get a one-year scholarship in time saved, then it’s important to compare that to other options.
Since two-year J.D. students enroll with Advanced Standing, they are not captured in the entering class profiles the same way and you’ll need to ask schools what sort of scholarships are available. “Sticker price” for a two-year J.D. can be more than a major tuition discount through scholarships for a three-year J.D. degree. But remember, tuition costs are just one part of the overall cost of attendance (more on that below).
2. The J.D. Hiring Cycle
Although there are differences between schools, there is a familiar rhythm to the J.D. experience more generally. There is case briefing, Getting to Maybe, first-year final exams, writing competitions, curves, the Bluebook, office hours, first-year summer internship applications and more. The two-year J.D. has a noticeable difference in the hiring cycle process. For traditional J.D. students at many schools, On-Campus Interviews (OCI) between first and second years is an important step towards securing the important second-year summer positions that lead to post-graduate employment.
At schools with strong large law firm hiring, the second-year SA positions lead to “BigLaw” positions after graduation. And the second-year summer positions in all law schools can lead to post-graduate positions or strengthen your credentials for post-graduate hiring. A two-year J.D. will offer one summer to work, which means you may need to begin the job search as you begin your law school experience and apply for those jobs without any J.D. grades. Asking schools about their two-year J.D. summer positions and post-graduate employment outcomes is important to get a sense of the type of jobs, compensation and locations of those jobs.
3. Sacrificing Experiences
With the first-year curriculum set (or mostly set) at most schools, two-year J.D. students only have one year instead of two for upper-level coursework. With upper-level requirements, it can be hard to squeeze in the coursework and experiences you’re interested in and that may best lead to post-graduate employment. For example, getting into a popular clinic or taking an advanced course that has multiple prerequisites.
While J.D. students cannot take every class (I certainly couldn’t have in my program), the decision for a two-year J.D. will require more tradeoffs than many J.D. students have to face. This is where the plan for post-graduate employment becomes even more important, as the most common way outside of OCI that I’ve seen J.D. students secure jobs has been repeated experiential activities like externships and clinics, 2L summer experience and repeated exposure to networking over time. The two-year J.D. is not just a race to the finish line and the types of experiences in law school and jobs available at the end are factors that deserve consideration when making the initial choice.
4. My Verdict?
These words of caution should not detract from the very real advantages a two-year J.D. can have over a General LL.M. or a three-year J.D. for those seeking to work in the U.S. or as a J.D.-qualified lawyer in another jurisdiction.
Against the LL.M., the J.D. hiring path may be easier for a foreign lawyer to navigate. The extra year provides more time to take coursework, prepare for a bar exam, take part in a summer internship or associate experience, network and secure the J.D. degree. And against the three-year J.D., it offers a year of saved time, costs and earning income (again) a year earlier. This can offer significant savings, especially if you were able to negotiate scholarships when accepting your offer for the two-year J.D. program.
As you will learn when you start your J.D. program, a common answer to hard questions is “it depends.” You need to know what your goals are and speak with schools about how their two-year J.D. programs operate to really make the right decision.
Going into the program understanding the tradeoffs and ensuring they work in your favor is important to avoid mismatched expectations. You don’t want to finish your two-year J.D. and wonder what could have been had you enrolled in a three-year J.D. program. With that said:
· Ask the schools for specific employment outcomes for the two-year J.D. students. It would be great if the ABA would do this for you in the Employment Outcomes report. My understanding is that these “outputs” (jobs and bar passage) merge into the J.D. program more generally and you’ll want to know how similar or different the two-year outcomes are from the overall outcomes, both in terms of types of jobs and entry-level compensation.
· Ask the school for specific information on scholarship consideration. Does the school offer scholarships to two-year J.D. students and how do those compare to the distribution on the ABA 509 Reports for three-year J.D. students more generally?
· What resources at the beginning of the first year does the school offer as you are navigating the start of law school and the search for the type of positions for your summer that can go a long way towards post-graduate employment? What types of summer positions can you expect and when can you expect to secure those positions?
So where do I think the two-year J.D. makes the most sense?
I think the year saved in terms of living expenses and the time value of money as you earn for another year cannot be overstated. So, securing a great summer job and post-graduate employment drives my evaluation of these programs. Experienced attorneys with strong connections to U.S. employers, those with a summer position (and hopefully post-graduate position) already secured, those with strong pre-existing networks and language skills and those who are comfortable navigating a little more uncertainty can come out ahead with a two-year J.D. degree.
