Dear all,

I am thinking about applying for the 2016-2017 LLM program, and I was hoping to get some advice or hear some of your experiences.

A little background: I graduated with a J.D. in the U.S in 2012. While in law school, I had the opportunity to intern at the OHCHR. I loved that internship, and I want to pursue a career in international human rights or humanitarian law. Since then, I've practiced in the areas of civil litigation, family law, humanitarian-based immigration law, and a little international human rights law (mainly advising U.S. NGOs on the UN Human Rights System and possible HRC UPR submissions). Work these last few years has been very diverse.

My main motivation for attending ADH Geneve would be to transition from practicing mainly U.S. civil litigation to going for a career in international human rights law, hopefully at an IGO, NGO, or international court. My biggest concern in pursuing the degree is whether or not the LLM would help my career goals. Does anyone know of what type and caliber of career support ADH provides (in terms of internships/externships, career counseling, etc), what employment rates post-LLM are like, and where alumni are usually employed following graduation?

Thanks,

Noir

My guess is that most of the career support probably happens through the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. You might want to try to contact both the Academy and IHEID and ask them about the provided support. On their websites, they are not really clear about how their career services operate, nor about the success rate of grads finding jobs in Geneva or beyond.

My sense is that the program is probably a decent pathway into one of the partner orgs, like the Red Cross and OHCHR. This I found on the Academy's website:

A significant number of the Academys LL.M. graduates work for the ICRC, on the field as well as at the Geneva headquarters. Others pursue their studies and become university professors in their home country, thus allowing the diffusion of knowledge in this essential field.