Hello,
I have graduated from a UK university with 1st class hons and intend to do a graduate LLM in Oxford University (UK). On completion of the LLM i would like to practise in the USA. However, though i am aware that i may be eligible to sit a number of state bar exams i am not entirely sure of how keen US law firms to hire someone trained in UK law schools.
Can you help me be sure?

Is it worth considering doing another LLM but at a US institution in this instance?

All comments are welcome and thanks, in advance, for reading and responding to this post.

It depends on the firm. I know a lot of people have been hired by US firms who have UK or Commonwealth degrees. Many of them have either a US LLM in addition or alternatively relevant work experience. While some US firms might hire you straight out of the Oxford BCL you would also be competing again the people who have LLMs from Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Stanford, Yale etc etc so it would be a tougher task to get a job. If you really want to work in the US firm then I suggest three options:
1) Get a US LLM
2) Get the Oxford BCL and get relevant work experience (2-3 years) before applying to the US
3) Get the Oxford BCL or not, apply to US firms based in London (Skadden, Cravath, etc etc) and transfer over to the US after a few years.

Hope that helps!

If you want to practice in the states, the easiest way is to work for a US firm in London, get some experience, then transfer to a US office. I know lawyers who have done this. But you might have to finance the bar exam yourself.

Yes thank you both, your answers have proved very useful. It seems to confirm my idea that to compete with the US competition an LLM from a top tier US institution is my best bet considering time and expense and seems in any event unavoidable. I am glad that neither of you mentioned that a JD would be the only real and practical way to compete and i have to admit that this is a weight off my mind.

I have gathered from other posts flygirl that you are entering into a research degree at Oxbridge this year i am guessing that you are considering a career in academia. Not sure i have the consistent brilliance to compete in the academic world but i thought this website to be very interesting and somewhat entertaining ...enjoy
http://www.kevinboone.com/university.html