I'm a lawyer in the US who has practiced for about 4 years, and I'm interested in relocating to Central America. I've been looking for info on LLM programs that cover this region and am finding very little. Do they just not exist?? What I have found is also only for specific areas of law (e.g., Intl Environmental Law LLM in Costa Rica) - I'd like to find a program similar to the US LLM courses for foreign lawyers that want an overview of the local legal system(s).

Any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Hi jen100, Im lawyer in Costa Rica and also I have a business degree with concentration in finance. I have read a lot about LLM programs in USA, and I can tell you that you are not going to find any program that give you an overview of the local legal system. Here in Costa Rica, we have to study 5 years to become a lawyer, is not previous degree needed. After that you can find graduate programs of specific areas like: Tax Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Environmental Law. Lots of costaricans go overseas to study for masters and doctoral degrees. The majority of lawyers go to Spain, and others go to USA, LLMs from ivey league universities are very demanding for the big firms. Jen100 please let me know what kind of job you want a do here in Central America, and maybe I can give it to you a better advice. Some US lawyers living in Costa Rica give some tax services to US citizens living here. Bye, if you have more questions please write me at scastro12@gmail.com