I'm a non-EU citizen considering pursuing an LLM in Criminal Law in Groningen. What are the employment prospects for someone who's coming as a total outsider? Will an LLM help to bridge that gap and provide good job opportunities, or is it not really the solution?

I'd also like to know if Groningen itself is a solid option in terms of education and how highly regarded it is for someone who's making to make this jump.

Thank you in advance!

Criminal Law can be a bit of a niche field so networking and language skills are bound to be very important. You might want to consider a broader legal role, particularly in the international/EU field, as the chasm is much easier to bridge there for internationals.

Hi natiki!
Generally, Groningen has a good reputation but you'll need to do a lot of networking, especially in The Hague, to secure a job afterwards.
I worked for the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a lot of my network are people who worked for the ICC, ICTR, ICTY, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal etc. A lot of them had their LLMs from Leiden or another prestigious university like Harvard.
I'd aim for those first and if it doesn't work out, go for Groningen.
Leiden can be especially impactful as it provides direct links to the ecosystem of public international and criminal law.

Hope this helps!

P.S. I've created a library of resources for LLM applicants on all major aspects of the applications, available on my website (link in the bio), please feel free to check them out.

Thank you Daria! I'll take a deeper look at Leiden.