Hi there,

I feel like my situation hasn't been discussed in the posts I've seen, so I'm looking for some guidance.

I am a dual US-French citizen, have a JD from an American law school, and am barred in New York state. I am pretty fluent in French but not as much in French legal terms. I am interested in getting an LLM in international law or EU law at an EU law school, either to practice in the EU (particularly France) or to help me do international law in the US. It seems like for France, I would need to either do the 5 years of study or be able to pass the 'bar' exam -- LLMs in France don't seem to actually help you work. As an EU citizen, however, will I have an easier time of practicing somewhere in the EU if I get an LLM from a European university? Thank you!

An LLM will help you towards an international or EU-focused role, but to work in France you must have full training in law or pass its bar exam, and just an LLM won't do, unfortunately.

Yes, that's basically what I put in my post. But I guess I'm wondering if getting one in Europe help me get a job back in the US? Could I practice in other countries?

I'm sorry, I misunderstood/misread the original question. An LLM from an EU school will help you meet the requirements for some jobs in specific areas such as International Business Law, EU Law and Compliance, IP and so on. For anything that's not an EU-regulated industry, of course, you'd need whatever local requirements are needed to get the full qualification.

So it certainly doesn't open all the doors but it opens lots of them.

In my experience, it really depends on the job. A lot of my network are people who work in international arbitration in France, and most of them are foreigners who did école de barreau and got admission to the French bar but did not do the French legal education.

The only people I know who have the full French legal education are people for whom it was the natural track from the start (they grew in France) and/or because they work on national projects, not doing EU or international work.

I'd research more closely the types of jobs you want to do, find people who already have them, reach out and talk to them.