Hi,

I am writing this post to ask about the legal profession in Europe.

I have 4 years of attorney experience (civil law based). Mostly transaction, not litigation. I have done M&As, capital markets, banking and finance stuff. So, transaction-based consultancy.

I will be doing an LL.M this season in 2023-2024. I applied to UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium. I got acceptance from Leiden University (Netherlands) and Frankfurt (Institute for Law and Finance). I couldn't get admission into top tier law schools in the UK or Belgium such as King's or UCL or Leuven so gave up on UK and Belgium.

So I want to ask about the legal community in the Netherlands and Germany. My intention is to be able to stay in either of them. I am aware that the legal profession is unfortunately hard to practice in a foreign country, given that the native language is often required. The program in Frankfurt is closer to my practice but I am reluctant about Germany. The program in Leiden is more general in terms of course content (core areas of private law) compared to Frankfurt. I am more inclined towards Netherlands.

How are the two countries in terms of accommodation of the foreign lawyers? I read so far that Frankfurt has many expats but the requirement to learn German is somewhat more prominent than learning Dutch in the Netherlands. I think that the Netherlands is more international in terms of proficiency in English but I am not sure.

I wanted to hear about your opinions.

If I were you , I'll go for ILF Goethe if you like Finance and Corporate