Hello,

I have a German LLB. (Fernuniversität Hagen, distance education LLB, fully accredited)

Am I eligible to take the NY bar exam (or any bar exam) after an additional LLM in the United States? Would my distance education aspect be considered another deficiency that I could not heal with an LLM?

I just finished Med School in Germany and I got an offer for a residency in the US. I would like to be able to practice in both fields (medical and law)

Thank you very much!

Hello loeris,
Your history sounds very interesting and made me curious.
To answer your question:
To be submitted to the NY bar exam as a foreigner an LLM might qualify you to sit the Bar as long as the LL.M. meets the following criteria:
An LLM from an ABA approved law school. The program shall consist of no less than 24 credit hours and 700 minutes in instruction time (online LLM programs are not accepted.) The LLM will last at least 2 semester of at least 13 calendar weeks and will be completed within 24 months.
under no circumstances should your LLB have been shorter than two years. Otherwise it's not acceptable. Your LLB should compare to a typical JD in the US.

Just out of interest, why did you study in two major subjects that are demanding enough on its own? What is your purpose and how do you imagine to combine both professions? I am very eager to hear from you!

Hello llmadvise,

Could a fully accredited, 3-year distance education LLB be comparable to an American JD? The distance aspect worries me a lot. Otherwise German LLBs are usually accepted by my knowledge.
Are there distance education JD programs in the US?
Do you have an idea where I could get information on this?

I realized half way through law school (to be exact: during a semester abroad in the US) that being a (German) lawyer would not satisfy me really. I went back to Germany and started Med School. All Med Schools are public in Germany and they do not allow someone to be in Law and Med school at the same time. That is why I had to finish my law degree via distance education.

To be honest I do not have specific plans for combing both fields in the US but I know that there are a few dozen German doctors with an additional right to practice as lawyer and they work in various fields, like research, politics or even corporate business. With both qualifications you have great career chances everywhere basically.

Thank you for your reply!

loeris, I am not aware of any distance learning JD's. I believe the difficulty is to find a University that takes you on for an LLM with a distance learning LLB rather than sitting the bar exam.
The State Bar of Michigan does not require a bachelor's degree.

Hello,

I have a German LLB. (Fernuniversität Hagen, distance education LLB, fully accredited)

Am I eligible to take the NY bar exam (or any bar exam) after an additional LLM in the United States? Would my distance education aspect be considered another deficiency that I could not heal with an LLM?

I just finished Med School in Germany and I got an offer for a residency in the US. I would like to be able to practice in both fields (medical and law)

Thank you very much!

Hello userusa,

thank you for your reply! If that is true than this would be the solution. I would get an normal (on campus) LLM in the US of course. I just have to find a law school with my cheap LLB degree but if I explain my story I should have a chance.

Where did you get this information? I would like to make sure that I will not invest into an LLM that is useless to me.
Thank you for your help!

Hello loeris, If I were you, I would consult the NY bar prior to enrolling for an LL.M. and ensure your LLB will be accepted. I know that a J.D. distance learning program is very unlikely in the States and if you had one, hardly any University would take you on for an LL.M. afterwards as they generally don't value distance learning programmes, the same. However, this might be different for foreigners. You said it is accredited, so why don`t you ask the ny bar admission directly?

Hi loeris, I am afraid at ny bar exam site it is mentioned that no credit shall be allowed for law study in a foreign country that was undertaken through distance education as defined in paragraph (c)(6) of this section, nor shall any credit be allowed for correspondence courses.
To make your degree count towards the ny bar exam you need 83 credit hours for graduation. 64 of them must be in classroom and 2 in professional responsibility. Credits for field placements or externship count at max of 30 credits. Only up to 15 credit hours for distance education courses may be counted towards both, the 83 credit hours required for graduation or the 64 in classroom credit hours required. Hope this answers your question.

Hello llmadvise and userusa,

Thank you very much for your advise!

Ho loeris, I just read this post and thought how upsetting it must be to find out that your LLB doesn't count after you have completed your studies.
I wondered if it may be possible to complete two LLM's in order to sit the ny bar? I mean you need 83 credit hours and 64 of them in classroom. An LLM counts about 22-28 credit hours and your LLB 16. This way, the maximum you can achieve are 72 credit hours. If you then add a summer course you should definately have enough credits. I believe this is still better than to repeat your whole studies.

Hello kayle,

thank you for your reply! It could be possible to do that but if being US lawyer would be my number one priority I would probably just get a regular JD.
Since I already got into residency it is unlikely to find the time for two LLMs or an additional JD any time soon. I might get a US LLM to have some expertise in US Law but not with the aim to practice as a lawyer. To get the law practice would have been a "nice to have" but it is not essential to me.

Thank you!