Foreign-educated lawyers and law school graduates enroll in U.S. LL.M. programs, in part, to attend law school in the United States. Although the F-1 visa process can be stressful, residential LL.M. students do enjoy many benefits.
- They engage in post-LL.M. legal work through Optional Practical Training (OPT).
- They meet eligibility for state bar exams that require residential LL.M. coursework.
- They partake in experiential programming.
- They attend events with lawyers and alumni from their schools as they strategize for their post-LL.M. U.S. job searches.
- And they form in-person connections with classmates, professors, and others outside the classroom. Add to that traveling across the U.S., experiencing another culture, and a year full of memories, and it can be easy to see why residential LL.M. programs are appealing.
But affordability is also an important consideration. Sticker tuition, living expenses and all those other costs can now lead to a $100,000+ USD experience. Even with deep tuition discounts in the form of scholarships, most LL.M. students are looking at a very expensive year, certainly by worldwide education standards.
Given the expenses and the fact that the LL.M. degree does not guarantee a high-paying legal job in the U.S., foreign-educated lawyers have to carefully evaluate their options across jurisdictions for their legal studies. And this is why I spend so much time working with lawyers abroad to ensure that the LL.M. degree aligns with their goals. The U.S. loses great students because of education costs each year, and it is not limited to law by any means.
Given this tension, I’m not surprised that online LL.M. programs are growing and that they are targeting foreign-educated lawyers living abroad as they scale. I have even seen advertisements on my international travels this year (I guess my posts and searches make the algorithms think I am a lawyer abroad)! I welcome the growth of these programs and hope schools compete in ways that create more benefits for the students in these programs. While some may be worried about market cannibalization, I generally view these programs as targeting a separate group of people abroad: those would not have otherwise studied in a U.S. LL.M. program.
If you are looking to study in an online LL.M. program from outside the U.S., especially if you are not authorized to work in the U.S., I share advice that I would provide to my students if they considered such programs. Ultimately, it is important that your expectations match the type of program on offer and align with your post-LL.M. goals. Ideally, this provides law schools with a growing international alumni base and will provide you with the type of career enhancement you seek from your study. In addition to the advice below, I urge readers to also read my colleague Juliette Brunette’s piece on online legal education in the latest issue of the International Jurist!
The Right Fit?
For me, choosing an online LL.M. over an in-person LL.M. for a lawyer living abroad is about maximizing benefits while minimizing costs. Being able to maintain a full-time job and not spending money to travel or on rent and expenses in the United States sounds appealing. Ideal students for these programs, in my opinion, are experienced attorneys looking at the education and credential as a mid-career or later-career booster, particularly for those who are unable to spend a year or more living in the United States. If I was building an Online LL.M. program for foreign lawyers living abroad, I’d look for those who are not seeking post-LL.M. employment in the U.S. and who are not as focused on the “study abroad” experience. Instead, I would seek lawyers looking to enhance their careers at home through the U.S. LL.M. credential, extensive knowledge in a subject area that will help complement their existing practice, and entry into an alumni network with a good reputation within that jurisdiction already that can lead to additional professional opportunities.
Cost
Finances play an important role in LL.M. programs. Is an online LL.M. less expensive, tuition-wise, than a residential program? That would likely depend on available scholarships. You will be saving tens of thousands of U.S. dollars on costs, and you are continuing to earn a salary, therefore the types of cost-adjusting LL.M. scholarships U.S. law schools provide residential LL.M. students with may be different. If the reason for the Online LL.M. is within the parameters above, you’ll want to evaluate the financial aspects at the schools you have shortlisted. Even if you do not see anything about scholarships on the application or on the website, you can certainly ask schools if they provide merit-based scholarship opportunities for their Online LL.M. students.
Have Conversations with Law Schools About What Online Means
Before 2020, my experience with online law school experiences came from the commercial bar course preparation I completed after my 3L year. That was way back in 2013. The pandemic has shifted thinking, as U.S. law schools went virtual in March 2020 and all schools learned how to engage students in this new normal. These adjustments should mean that schools are thinking more intentionally about online experiences, especially after the lessons learned from online and hybrid J.D. and LL.M. programs in 2021-22. I would focus on how the online modality is “baked” into the experience. If I was paying for an online LL.M. program, I would look to maximize the experience, not just watching the synchronous or asynchronous videos. So I would personally look at how the courses are designed, if they’re interactive, and what support students are provided with. How much are you interacting with your professors? How much personalized feedback are you getting? What community-building is the school offering? How does the school bring together the online students as a group and how does the school bring the online and residential students together?
Benefits Abroad
Learning about the alumni network in your home jurisdiction is a crucial part of the online LL.M. for a number of reasons. If your degree is more credential-focused, you will want to know how that law school’s degree is perceived in that jurisdiction. Are the alumni leading members of the profession? Are they active in local bar associations, specialized programming, and the legal education in that jurisdiction? This is also a good way to assess how they will view your online LL.M., especially if they studied in the residential program. If they are proud alumni but caution you about your choice of modality, that may be a factor as you decide what to do. Asking the school to connect you with alumni in your jurisdiction is a good way to start to assess the school’s network. And ideally, the alumni network from your LL.M. experience will help you with your own career progression as part of the value in your investment.
Balancing Demands
One of the reasons I like the online LL.M. is because you can continue earning money from your current job. But it can be hard to make time for community-building activities and other add-ons in your online LL.M. program. But if you are not just focused on securing an LL.M. degree, you will want to determine what activities the school offers online that will be most valuable for your overall experience. I recommend front-loading activities when you start so you get to know members of your class and community. I would want to ensure that I was not just a face on a screen or an e-mail address to people at the school. Given the number of time zones and demands, asynchronous learning models require you to be more proactive. In thinking through the programming, I would probably want to stretch out the number of semesters I enrolled in a program to lighten my course load and have more semesters of being involved with my online LL.M. program.
Connections for Your School
As an online LL.M. student, you may have an interest in your law school growing its profile in your home jurisdiction in positive ways. This is where you may want to schedule a meeting at some point with someone from the team about opportunities for the law school there. Many law schools recruit worldwide and you can learn if your school will be at a fair in your jurisdiction where you can meet someone from the office in-person. You can also ask about whether any J.D. students are studying in your jurisdiction through exchanges or if any faculty will be there for a course. Schools also have varying appetites for courses abroad, and to the extent your school would consider a short course in your jurisdiction, this is another nice way to help your school, while at the same time benefiting you.
What Is Your Post-LL.M. Plan?
Part of the reason I think fit is important is because I want to ensure that the online program aligns with your goals. So before enrolling in any LL.M. program (residential or online), I think it is important to think about your goals and how the LL.M. assists with them. But I think that is even more crucial for international students seeking an online LL.M., since U.S. jobs and bar exams may be even more difficult climbs. The former since you would need to be directly hired without OPT, the latter because bar exams through LL.M. degrees generally require residential programs. Online should not mean less access or service, and so I highly recommend reaching out directly to the admissions team or program director to discuss the LL.M. program.
