Hello everyone,

I am a recent South African law graduate and I have always wanted to pursue my legal career in New York. I am 23 years old and I hold a B.Comm. degree with accounting as my major. I have also completed my law (LLB) degree and I will graduate cum laude in April this year.

I have an opportunity to do a LLM in International Business Law and Globalization at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, starting September 2008. However, I also have the option of doing a LLM degree at certain law schools in the United States such as Duke Law School where I have recently been accepted for the 2008 class.

The specific questions that I have are the following:

Is it worthwhile to do a LLM in the first place? I mean, would it significantly increase my chances of being employed by a leading New York law firm?

How often are foreign lawyers employed by top New York law firms?

Doing the LLM in the United States would obviously be better considering that I want to work in New York, but would a LLM from the top university in the Netherlands be of at least some value even for American firms?

Lastly, I know of a couple of South African law graduates who have recently written the New York Bar Exam, without having any American education (because South Africa qualifies as an English common law based country). Assuming that I can write the NY Bar without doing any LLM, would it still be better to do a LLM or maybe a 2 year J.D degree, or would I be wasting my time with the extra education?

Thanks for your help,

Conrad