Can  any  one  comment  on the  job  propsects  for  LL.M.  Candidates  after  wrting  the  New  York  Bar  Exam ?  Does  it  really  brighten  your  job  prospects ? 

As far as I know -- not at all. You are supposed to be working or at least get an offer from a law firm (if any) by the time of bar exam. Please correct me if I am wrong.

V

I agree although it depends when you sit the bar. If you sit it in February I think you have a good shot at a job as the law firms probably haven't filled all their positions yet. If you sit it in July most firms will have recruited everyone they need. I recommend starting to look for work in December - interviews are usually around January - March.

well, I'm a LL.M grad and have passed the July 2006 NY bar exam. Also, I have about 9 years of legal experience in my home country...no job prospects yet. I mean acceptable job prospects, of course. There were job offers for $40K per year like for a newly admitted attorney without any US experience. One can't survive in NY on this salary with $50K debt for LL.M program.

If, however, you're a Spanish, German, Japanese or Chinese speaking attorney, your job prospects can be much better. So, the answer depends where you've got your legal education and what experience you've had to offer. Big law firms are also interested in high GPA from a great law school. Top 20 law school isn't enough.

Hi, Shumelka!
Just wondering what is your native country, were you working for an ILF in your home country. When you say "Spanish, German...speaking" -- do you mean "speaking" or native-speaking? What school did you graduate from? What was acceptance rate within you class?

thanks v-much,
V

One other thing I just remembered - if you can speak Portuguese or Korean that helps a lot. I went for an interview at Cleary Gottleib and those are the languages they told me are in hot demand at the moment.

I'm from Russia, graduated from USC. What do you mean "acceptance rate"? Where to?

As to "speaking" in contrast to "native speaking", I think it depends on how concersant you're in the language. Big law firms expect you to be able to work with legal documents in the language they're interested in. I guess it means you should be pretty conversant.

Also, I participated in NYU job fair in Jan. 2006. There was a high demand for German, Spanish and Japanese speaking attorneys. The trend may have changed.

Hi, Shumelka!
Just wondering what is your native country, were you working for an ILF in your home country. When you say "Spanish, German...speaking" -- do you mean "speaking" or native-speaking? What school did you graduate from? What was acceptance rate within you class?

thanks v-much,
V

P.S. Don't get me wrong. I'm talking about job prospects in the US. I live here and am not going to leave.

As to other countries, I received really good job offers from law firms/companies in Moscow, London, Zheneva. So it did improve my employability. There are also great jobs with the US Government, but you have to be a US citizen.