Hello there,
I am a Civil Law graduate.

I was wondering if I do a masters in Comon Law (LLM) then will I be able to practice in a common law jurisdiction or would I have to go back and do a bachelors in Law (LLB) ?
Thank you

It depends on the particular jurisdiction.

My general impression would be that the answer is no for most jurisdictions - that you can't practice with just an LLM.

Hi Marko,

Since you've asked the same question in a number of different contexts, I think it might be worth giving a bit of an overview.

The only country I know of that allows you to qualify for the bar exam based on "just" an LLM (and a prior law degree) is the US. Not sure if the various States have different rules, but I vaguely remember that something like this applies in NY.

Others may have further jurisdictions to add to this?

On a more ontological level, the one-year LLM generally might be said to be a common law innovation - in civil law jurisdictions the law degree tends to be a 5 year course of study so it already allows for some degree of specialisation in the final year. In the first few years, you study all the subjets that really matter such as contract, tort and civil procedure.

In common law jurisdictions, the law degree tends to just cover the bare minimum and the philosophy seems to be that you become a lawyer by practising law, not by studying it. The process of becoming a lawyer is instead focused on the LPC (which requires you to have done an LLB or a GDL as I've said elsewhere) and the training contract (in the UK but my impression is that this is analogous elsewhere).

For that reason the LLM is more of an opportunity for specialisation and further study, sometimes as a prelude to an academic career or sometimes as a means of specialisation and CV-enhancement. Indeed, the majority of LLM students at the Uni where I work are already qualified or in the process of qualification in whatever their home jurisdictions may be.

For these reasons, I don't think you will have much success with finding a jurisdiction that will let you qualify as a lawyer with merely an LLM from the country. There are of course many other ways to work with the law than to be a qualified lawyer, however my first advice to any young lawyer who wants an international career would always be to first qualify in their home jurisdiction, if at all possible. It gives you a profession and allows people you encounter professionally to "place" you, even if that qualification cannot strictly be transferred.

For instance, if you were to seek work as a specialist in a law firm abroad advising on Canadian law (for instance if that law firm had a lot of important Canada-related transactional work or needed linguistic support), they would almost certainly want you to be qualified in Canada.

Alternatively, the best strategy may be to drop the idea of qualification and go for an LLM in a highly specialised and enigmatic field of commercial law such as banking/finance, international trade or maritime law, and aim to work inhouse in a bank, trading house or shipping company. That is a realistic strategy and since commerce is international, it would probably allow you to move around quite a bit if you wanted.

I hope this helps, you seem wonderfully enthusiastic and keen about going abroad so I hope you are not discouraged!

@johannahj

Just read your reply, thank you very much,
Indeed representing international clients is a goal.
I think being qualified at home makes sense in the long term too.

It would mean 1 more year of studies to obtain my LLB here in Canada.
I thought about getting a GDL in UK instead but my concern is wether the GDL would be recognised in Canada and UsA as much as the LLB.
I know you talked about this elsewhere so I understand that as a sollicitor LLB or GDL doesnt make a big difference in Europe.but what about being a barrister?
Anyways, thank you a lot
Cheers

In England, you become a barrister by completing the BVC instead of the LPC and of you want to practise also a pupillage instead of the training contract. It is almost impossible to obtain a pupillage. I don't know how it works in Ireland. In civil law Europe, there is not this split, there is only one qualification which is 'advocate'. There is also notaries but from what I understand notary practises are passed on exclusively in the family so that's a closed avenue.

I have no idea of the relative merits of the GDL and the LLB from a Canadian perspective, but the bar associations' web sites and various career web sites must provide plenty of info about this so you should be able to find out with a small amount of digging!