I am two years out of law school, admitted to the NY bar, have been working on a temporary basis (not an associate) on a litigation matter at a firm in NYC. I graduated top 25% from a lower tier school, did an int'l moot court competition (and won significant writing awards for it). Most of my background, both before and during law school is in the area of NGOs/human rights. I am seeking to transition to a career in international comercial law. While I have taken several courses in public international law, I lack the background in the commercial side of things. I've looked into the LLM program at Instituto de Empresas and it seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. I speak both Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese rather fluently and I like that IE has an optional exchange program with Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo. I also like IE's case method approach and MBA-oriented courses for the LLM participants. I've been told that American JDs are welcome to apply, but is there anyone (in particular an American law graduate) who can give me insight into the benefits of having an LLM from IE? I feel that American attorneys frequently find LLMs to be a waste of time, unless it's in tax. Will getting an LLM make me a viable candidate for an associate position at a US firm?

Hello, curious if you made a decision about whether to pursue this course. I have the same interests and questions. Let me know, thanks.

If you want to do international transactional work you are talking "Big Law" firms. There are a lot of firms interested in transactional assiociates with your language skills to work on international deals.

I am not familiar with the schools you mentioned and would recommend that you attend a prestigious US LLM program instead. But wherever you go for your LLM you will need to do very well.