One reason LL.M. degrees are attractive to foreign-educated lawyers is the ability to take a state bar exam. The reality is that based on the jurisdiction of your prior legal education or prior legal experience, you may not even need to enroll in an LL.M. program to qualify for a state bar exam.
Check the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ most recent Bar Admission Guide first. But even those who already qualify to sit for a state bar exam may still find value in the LL.M. degree for post-grad job hiring, bar exam preparation and alumni networks.
If you are a lawyer in a civil law jurisdiction and want to take the Uniform Bar Exam in New York, for example, an LL.M. degree will be an important part of the qualification process.
It can be challenging to find information about LL.M. students and bar exams, even if you know where to look. For example, schools do not need to share the bar passage rates for their LL.M. students as they do for their J.D. students. Articles and press releases that compare school pass rates often only do so for J.D. graduates. Thank you to Georgia as an example of a jurisdiction that breaks out foreign-educated LL.M. pass rates by school. My hope is that LL.M. students and graduates will advocate for more information to be shared about LL.M. bar passage rates and that more jurisdictions will follow Georgia in sharing this information.
Choosing which state bar exam to take can be as important as the decision of whether to take a state bar exam in the first place. Especially for foreign-educated lawyers who are using bar exam eligibility to look for post-grad legal jobs in the United States. Many U.S. law schools are regional or local when it comes to post-grad employment outcomes, and will place most of their students in the region or state where they are located.
If you are planning to take the bar exam in New York because you want to work in New York City, for example, you’ll want to know whether you’ll have an established path at your school for jobs for foreign LL.M.’s in New York City or whether you’ll be expected to mostly “network” and “apply broadly.” In some instances, this is where choosing a school in the city you want to practice in will be far more important than choosing a school based on rankings that place few students in the city or region you want to work in.
When my students and prospective LL.M. students ask me about LL.M. degrees with bar exams and post-grad jobs in the U.S. in mind, here is some of the information I share.
Preparing for a bar exam may cost upwards of $10,000 on top of your LL.M. tuition and cost of living.
This comes as a big surprise to some. When I was a J.D., I took a commercial bar prep company, as did my classmates. These run from a couple of thousand USD to specialized ones for LL.M. students that reach into the $6,000 range (BARBRI’s Extended U.S. Bar Prep is $5,999). But the other cost for bar prep is the 2-3 extra months you’ll need to pay rent and living expenses (and maybe move) while you’re studying and not working, as U.S. law school cost estimates are generally for 10-month programs. Factor in the test registration, MPRE, and the costs to actually fly or drive and stay near the bar exam test site and it’s not a stretch to see how this can add $10,000 (or more!) to your overall cost of attendance.
Decisions, decisions.
The bar exam is a full-time commitment over the summer, and perhaps even earlier. My friends and I did not work from mid-May until early August at the earliest. I generally categorize LL.M. programs into those where the primary marketing focus is subject-matter expertise, those where the primary focus is passing the bar exam, and those that are designed for an American legal education experience and credential.
The difference is that some of the courses that will most help you for a bar exam are the 1L curriculum, Evidence, and Criminal Procedure. This mix of courses may not line up with the hiring needs of the firms and other employers that sponsor visas most easily.
No participation trophies.
One of the lines I often share is that “being eligible for a bar exam, taking a bar exam, and passing a bar exam are three different things.” Spending all the time and money on a bar exam, and making course decisions with a bar exam in mind can feel frustrating if you fail. In addition to the extra costs of re-taking, there may be challenges on the employment front with firms expecting you to be licensed. The stakes are so high that the bar exam experience after the LL.M. really is designed for those who are fully committed to studying for and passing on the first try. One need only look to the pass rates for repeat takers to see the uphill climb for repeated attempts.
Speak with schools.
Schools will vary considerably in their LL.M. bar prep support. This may be an important question when you are choosing between schools with similar profiles to those who are focused on the LL.M. as a path to a state bar exam. Some schools will provide comprehensive and specialized support for foreign-educated LL.M. students. Some schools may integrate bar prep with the existing J.D. infrastructure. And some schools will leave it primarily up to the student to study, generally with a commercial bar prep course. You will need to know how important bar support is in your overall decision for which law school to attend, and other considerations (e.g., specialized degree, LL.M. employment rates, cost, rank, etc.) may trump LL.M. bar prep support.
I generally prefer specialized LL.M. programs over general LL.M. programs, including if you can get a good deal on a 3-semester program that combines subject-matter expertise with bar eligibility and summer legal work experience. I still generally prefer two-semester specialized LL.M. programs over general LL.M. programs if you can still secure eligibility for a state bar exam. In that case, I’d recommend spending the extra money for the extended bar prep program for foreign-educated LL.M. students to begin early. It’s easy for people who pass to say that they didn’t need the extra time, but survivor bias plays an important role in that decision.
Build your budget for your LL.M. year with conservative estimates for the true cost of expenses from May through July or December through February.
Speak with your school during the onboarding process to determine realistic expenses, and think about how this affects whether you will live in campus housing or off-campus and the length of your lease (e.g., if you go to school in the city/state where you will sit for the bar exam and work).
Work hard to finalize your post-grad job before graduation (admittedly this is easier said than done!).
The bar exam preparation schedule is challenging, and continuing to search for a job, while counting down your visa timing for OPT, can add layers of stress that will affect your bar prep planning.
Including needing to know where you will live after you graduate. This is why where you choose to attend your LL.M. program and how well you can network often play important roles in whether you are “lucky.” Putting yourself in the best position to get hired can make a world of a difference when you’re at graduation already confident in knowing you begin work after your bar prep.
Ensure that you understand what you are getting and not getting at the school you attend for your LL.M. degree.
Will there be summer programming for bar prep for all students? Will there be specialized prep for foreign-educated lawyers? You may want to choose a school that offers less bar prep support, but knowing what comes with your LL.M. degree will be important. Even things like free meals each day while you study can help build a sense of community with your J.D. and LL.M. classmates, not to mention save some money during the study period.
If your school does not have programming around state bar exams, ask!
A panel of alumni who passed bar exams can offer a great early understanding of the process for other foreign-educated lawyers and help you build your network with your school’s successful LL.M. alumni. A faculty, staff, or alumnus mentor over the summer can also prove helpful as you go through the ups and downs of bar prep. And some specialized workshops or courses during the LL.M. to introduce concepts and topics can help when you take your commercial course over the summer or winter.
