Hello everyone,

I was wondering what the employment opportunities are in Europe after a LLM from Leiden. I was hoping to apply for Air and space law or Civil and commercial law. I would prefer to work there for a while after my LLM.

I have a bachelors degree in law from India and 2 years of experience.

Thanks a lot!

Hi! Having studied air and space law a lot i will refer to this llm. Firstly, you must have noticed that within the program's curriculum there is an internship included in organisations etc that Leiden cooperates with. This will be perfect for a first contact and for forming an opinion on where you would like to work.
In any case, you will be able to work for ESA (European Space Agency) and respectively for the french space agency or the italian space agency that have a strong presence at the moment in space activities among the European countries. There are also lots of private companies launching space objects and technology, f.e. Swiss space systems. Of course, you can work at any big airplane company, i dont know how they are called, like Lufthansa or Airfrance, that has a legal department.
I strongly suggest this field, legal services in air amd space law, as it still remains a small community that shows fast progress and development.

Best of luck!!

[Edited by Sophia St on Feb 19, 2019]

This is my personal opinion, I think ICCL will open more jobs opportunities to the non-EU citizen. I took Civil and Commercial Law at Leiden University. A friend of mine is Indonesian, he graduated from Air and Space Law at same Uni and has work experience in a big airline company, he said that most of the jobs of air and space law in NL are for EU citizens, among other, ESA (European Space Agency) - I couldn't recall all of the names of institutions or companies that he has been applying to, but he said it is very difficult when you don't speak the Dutch, German, France or other European countries languages.

Of course, I couldn't generalize that. It may be different for everyone. The rule of thumb is that it will be so much easier if you have acquaintances or connection who work for certain institutions or companies so that they can at least help you get a job interview. Or try to find a company that has a subsidiary in your country so at least you got an added value to compete with other candidates who apply for the same job.

In my case, before I got my current job, I have some interviews with multinational companies compared to my friend who took the air and space law. Because based on my observations, quite a lot of multinational companies seek a legal counsel who has an international background, they don't really mind if you're non-EU or don't speak Dutch.

I have 3 years' working experience as a lawyer in an international law firm, and my current employer is my ex-client whom I know from my previous job.

I am planning to study Business Law Master Program. I am a non-EU citizen as well. Do you think I can have job opportunities? Sorry for side question.