Hi all,

I am looking to go into entertainment law (particularly music law as I used to work for a record label and plan to go in house in the future). I am a British student and so will be looking to take the NY bar following the completion of my LLM to therefore potentially try to find work in NY or return to London to cross qualify and work in house there. I have been offered a very generous scholarship from USC and a place at Berkeley (no scholarship).

Does anyone have any advice for me (any would be greatly appreciated) as I am finding it hard to choose. I know Berkeley is better in the rankings and overall a better name but the financial difference is making it hard to decide!!

I know USC has lots of entertainment law courses but considering I will also be taking quite a bit of IP law (which I know Berkeley also specialised in) this doesn't look like a deciding factor either.

Where should I choose ?!?! Thank you for all your help in advance.

.... anyone?????

Congratulation. It is a hard to choose between them indeed. You have to set your priorities first.

Will Berkeley be the best choice? Can you pay the debt back?

I believe Los Angeles is the place to choose in terms of entertainment law.

Frankly, the choice is yours. Make a list of all the potential pros and cons of going to either.

One thing I can tell you is: USC has a lot of rich alumni living in LA = connections to meeting celebrities and get to know entertainment people.

That's what I know. Correct me if I am wrong.

All the best.

I practiced in NYC for several years, and while the USC brand isn't as dominating there as it is in California, it is still strong there. When entertainment law gets brought up, two schools come to mind: USC and UCLA. For NY based on your particular situation, I would choose USC. But for London, because the Berkeley name might carry more weight, I think it is a closer call.

UCLA is the best university for you, it has its own entertainment law program. I believe that USC comes in second place, since it is also in Los Angeles, where the entertainment industry is.

I practiced in NYC for several years, and while the USC brand isn't as dominating there as it is in California, it is still strong there. When entertainment law gets brought up, two schools come to mind: USC and UCLA. For NY based on your particular situation, I would choose USC. But for London, because the Berkeley name might carry more weight, I think it is a closer call.

I practiced in NYC for several years, and while the USC brand isn't as dominating there as it is in California, it is still strong there. When entertainment law gets brought up, two schools come to mind: USC and UCLA. For NY based on your particular situation, I would choose USC. But for London, because the Berkeley name might carry more weight, I think it is a closer call.

Just my opinion: I do not have a clue about the reputation of LL.M.s in entertainment law, but I think the OP should rather pick the school which has the best program instead of the best reputation in London, since 1. People who work in the industry most likely know which programs are the best, so picking the best PROGRAM and not UNIVERSITY is the good thing to do in my opinion; 2. OP is not sure about whether she would work in NYC or London (and maybe she would end up somewhere else like LA, who knows, depends on the opportunities you have), which is another reason to go with the best program instead of "which school is the most famous in X city"

On another note, I fully agree with NapZ that USC would be beneficial in the possible event OP wants to work in California. Not sure why it's NY or London after graduation, given that LA is going to house a ton of work in the field.

Oldman, I never said you told her to pick Berkeley because of its reputation; but you saying "it is a closer call" still means that the fact it is "Berkeley" could change things if she works in London. Maybe it is true, what I was saying is that in my opinion that should not be a factor to take into account since professionals of this industry would likely know which programs are the best, and that if Berkeley is not better than USC (especially if she has a scholarship at USC) for entertainment law, I don't see why she would rather go to Berkeley. And again, who knows what the future is made of, if she gets opportunities to work outside of London in the future, that would be a shame to have attended Berkeley just because it is more famous in the UK.

This being said, I remind everyone that I DO NOT know anything about entertainment law, so maybe Berkeley is actually better than USC, I have no clue about that (btw, do you mean South California or South Carolina ?).

I think that USC is a great option for you... you are interested in entertainment law so your best options are UCLA and USC, both have specialization in such area and are located in LA where is located the most importants players of enterntaiment business.

As I mentioned in other post both universities have a goo spot in the ranking... Berkeley at 12 and USC at 19 (I do not think that a diference of 7 places worth to pay the difference since USC offered you a scholarship. So financially it will better to attend USC and the ROI also will be better.

I think that the only schools that worth to pay full tuition are the top 3... Yale, Harvard and Stanford.