Hey Yeuping

"....And if you got into the Wharton/Penn program, it is much better than Columbia IMO."

just curious what does "IMO" stand for?

I'm from Europe.

IMO stands for "in my opinion"

I am from Asia

IMO, IMO is a good was of saying it - short & cryptic!

I know very little about U Penn and so I offer no opinion on which is better. I suggest, however, that you research the professors. For international arbitration, Columbia offers Professors Bermann, Smit and Garro. For corporate law, Columbia offers (among others) Professors Coffee, Goldschmid, and Milhaupt.

Hi I just posted this on another thread:

I hope none of you makes the "mistake" of going to Penn with a Columbia admissions because the LL.M. class is smaller or because of Wharton. If you want Wharton get an MBA not an LL.M. and as far as a business oriented law school NO school beats Columbia. Its the only thing they care about. (and BTW Columbia Business School is no joke either and since you are coming from the higher ranked school (law) in the University they don t treat you like an act of charity)

Now as regards LL.M with a concentration in securities/corporate law these are my thoughts which I hope you find of use:

I do believe that for corporate law the 2 best programs are Harvard and Columbia. In Harvard you have Bebchuk, Ferrel, Powell, Roe and a greater number of the leading edge corporate academics than anywhere else.

In Columbia, take a look at the leading casebooksin US Law. These are the books you are going to spend HOURS AND HOURS READING AND WORKING ON:
securities: coffee & seligmann. Coffee, he s in Columbia
corporations: Coffee and Eisenberg ie the authors of 2 out of the 3 classic corporations books teach at Columbia,
law and finance of corporate acquisitions (IE the M&A course )(06 Ed): Gordon and Gilson (2 of 3),
Antitrust: Goldschmid.
Same in Administrative Law.
In Bankruptcy you actually get the lawyers who represented Enron to teach you bankruptcy.

What more can you say? If you want to study US corporate or securities law I find it hard to believe that any school is going to beat Columbia. Plus you are in NY and in a calm part of it in case the big city sounds scary.

I hope you make informed decisions

Good luck and enjoy your LL.M. wherever you end up going. Its a great year.

Hi Blogggs,

Thank you for your answer - you seem to be pretty well informed - thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Do you have a clue which programs are the best in the field of international arbitration? In that perspective which of Harvard, Columbia, NYU or UPenn would you choose (and in what order)?

Regards,

Hi, sorry, I would not know really. If I had to make an un-informed choice I guess I would go with the highest ranked school provided they have some arbitration courses.

good luck!

Hi all,

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but I'm desperate for advice and this seems to be somewhat relevant. I have a choice of doing my law degree in the US or the UK (would be a JD in the US, GDL/LPC in UK). I still haven't heard from all my US schools so don't have a complete picture of my options, but I got an offer from BPP in London. I'm just wondering which route to take???

By the way, I'm interested in practicing environmental law (not defending petrochemical corps, more like working in the NGO sector). Big issues I'm interested in are environmental refugees, climate change, the wildlife trade, etc. I'm 27 and all my work experience is the in NGO sector, and I've got an MPhil in Literature. I'm an American citizen, but my partner is British.

HELP!

Hi Blogggs,

Thank you for your answer - you seem to be pretty well informed - thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Do you have a clue which programs are the best in the field of international arbitration? In that perspective which of Harvard, Columbia, NYU or UPenn would you choose (and in what order)?

Regards,

@Saloman
I have a question that I think you can help me with. I have sent your personal email, if you can give me your thoughts