Law Schools

Stepping Into The LL.M. Transfer Portal

Foreign attorneys who wish to earn a J.D. instead of an LL.M. should be thinking about added costs and employment issues.

By Nicholas Alexiou on March 29, 2019 3:44 pm

Much of the country, and indeed the sports watching world, is currently fixated on the Men’s and Women’s NCAA College Basketball Tournaments, aka March Madness, a multi-week single elimination tournament that paradoxically will tell us who was the best team for the six-month-long season.  But while people weep over their crumpled brackets, and I wonder if Auburn has made another three as I sit and write — the answer is probably yes, which is impressive considering they aren’t currently playing — the most popular exploitation of “student-athletes”/collegiate sport is starting its new season.  That’s right, it is football spring practice season.  Weeks of practice will culminate in a scrimmage that can draw upwards of 80,000 attendees.  Reminder, this is for practice.

And while the new class of freshman will not be able to participate in these practices, there will be some new faces for the college football obsessives to commit to memory.  Transfers have become an increasingly important part of recruiting in college football, a trend that is expanding throughout collegiate sports.  It has grown to such an extent that those seeking to transfer from one school to another can, if they dare, enter into the Transfer Portal.  Manny Diaz, the new head football coach at the University of Miami, has been dubbed the King of the Transfer Portal for his ability to quickly rebuild an average returning roster with players looking for a new start.

But while players like Justin Fields and Tate Martell get the bulk of the transfer attention, they are not the only ones who are making a change.  March also marks transfer season in law schools.

This is not the traditional law school transfer process, in which a currently enrolled J.D. student moves to a different law school for 2L and 3L.  That takes place in the summer and has been the subject of a previous column in this space.  Instead, at many law schools, including Vanderbilt, international attorneys enrolled in the LL.M. program can forego earning that diploma and, instead, join the J.D. program, needing only two additional years to graduate — and at some schools, those students who transfer will also be granted an LL.M.  As is the case with inter-school transfers, these intra-school transfers are overwhelmingly appealing on their face, but a slightly closer look reveals more nuanced concerns, especially in the employment realm.

As I have previously written, finding a job practicing law in the U.S. for an international attorney armed with an LL.M. can be difficult.  It can be hard to shine as candidate with a one-year degree from an American law school when the rest of the applicant pool have three-year degrees.  Even if this did not matter for the employer, it can matter greatly to clients.  So the first question LL.M.s considering a transfer into a J.D. program need to answer for themselves is what they want for their career, both in the long-term and the short-term.  For those who want to stay in the U.S., obtaining a J.D. can be beneficial.  But by “beneficial,” I mean it takes a remarkably difficult task and makes it slightly less difficult.  For those who wish to return to their home country, the value of a J.D. can vary.  In certain countries, such as China, a J.D. is the equivalent of a Ph.D.  By earning one, students can pursue employment options typically unavailable to attorneys, such as a professor.  This expansion of opportunities can be well worth the investment.

But while there can be employment advantages, both in the U.S. and abroad, foreign attorneys earning a J.D. instead of an LL.M. raises a number of concerns.  First and foremost is the cost.  Simply put, a year of law school is markedly cheaper than three years of law school.  In addition, many LL.M. students will receive a scholarship for their year-long program, but the chances of those scholarships being renewed, even at a lower figure, are tiny, at best.  So not only will the second and third year of a J.D. program be an additional cost, each year will likely be more expensive than the LL.M. year, possibly to a significant amount.

Cost is not the only potential downside of a transfer into a J.D. program.  When I previously wrote about inter-school transfers, I noted the potential employment issues that arise by an inability for students at some schools to take part in on-campus interviews.  LL.M. students should not have an issue with participating in the 2L Fall Recruiting Cycle, as admissions decisions are being made now.  What can be an even more acute problem is securing a job for the summer after 1L.  While not all 1Ls secure their summer jobs prior to April, a good number do.  By this point in the recruiting cycle, a number of opportunities have long been filled, including most of the Biglaw jobs.  Further complicating the situation are those students who lack U.S. citizenship, which makes many jobs with the U.S. government — a staple of the 1L summer experience for many students — off limits.  While there will still be some jobs available, LL.M. students transferring into J.D. programs need to make sure they act quickly to secure a summer job.

International attorneys who come to the U.S. to further their education with a one-year LL.M. will occasionally consider transferring into a J.D. program.  While the benefits are obvious, there are also some downsides, both real and possible, which should be fully considered before making such a momentous decision.

Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at [email protected].