Has anyone heard of Bucerius Law School in Hamburg? What do you think about their new Master in Law and Business (MLB) program offered jointly with WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, which will be starting this year?

Bucerius Law School is the only private law school here in Germany. It is considered to be an elite insitutution. Generally, the differences in academic quality at are quite small in Germany. However, Bucerius, which was founded only a couple of years ago, has been succesful in attracting high performing students. The results of Bucerius students in the state exams turned out to be far above the average. WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management also has a great reputation in Europe, so the chances are good that the MLB program will also be of high quality.

Thanks for this information, it sounds quite promising!

This is what another helpful board member wrote to me -- I thought anyone else may be interested:

"Exams at Bucerius had an average of 11.2 points last year which is higher than that of any other university and a lot higher than the German average of 6 points. As far as differences between universities are concerned I don't think they are especially small in Germany compared to the rest of Europe. It's just that they are generally smaller in Europe than they are in the USA. You should also consider what kind of LLM you want. The Bucerius-WHU LLM is actually a "Master of Law and Business". I think it is excellent if you want to combine international law and business matters. However, if you want to gain a deeper insight into German law, I'd recommend the LLM offered by the university of Heidelberg which is more focussed on German law."

Good morning. I would like to add a few words about BLS.

I used to be a student at BLS (graduated last year), thus I consider myself a person with some inside knowledge and I might be able to contribute some details to the discussion:

Since the Masterprogramm is in its first year, there is no experience whatsoever concering the quality of its programm. They have started to construct the new building for the programm, but it won't be finished until the next year.
Those are - in my mind - the most obvious disadvantages.

But I am quite certain that the programm will be successful, due to these points:
1. Bucerius and WHU, both have an excellent reputation in Germany - maybe even worldwide. (They have exchange programms with Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Penn, LSE, Cambridge etc.)
2. Bucerius has hired an american law professor (I think from Virginia but I am not sure), who is in charge for the programm, and who supervised the LLM at Virgina (?). So there is experience.
3. I think the the Law and Business parts of the programm are well connected - e.g. you are taking securities law (law side), which is complemented by corporate finance (business). Or IP law and marketing. This concept sounds interesting to me.
4. People interested in maritime law: Hamburg is the place to be.
5. It a small school and a small programm, so it is easy to get to know other students.
6. And last but ot least - Hamburg is the most beatiful city in Europe ... ok. never mind the weather.

Okay, I hope this might be helpful. If there are any qusetions left, just post them here, I will check back later in the week.

yours, 123

I have one question: Is Bucerius in any way connected to the University of Hamburg, e.g. can you use the library or take courses there? I would also like to know how many students will enrol in the MLE and whether there are also students among them with a business background.

As regards your statement that Hamburg is the most beatiful city in Europe: I guess this may be disputed by people from cities like Rome, Paris, Prague etc. However, I have been there and I have to say it really is a nice city with the Hafen, the Speicherstadt and the Binnenalster.