I've been reading the NYU/CLS posts, but for me, the most important issue relates to which school has the best professors.

NYU has: Ronald Dworkin, Richard Epstein, Jeremy Waldron, Eleanor Fox, Derrick Bell, Joseph Weiler, Arthur Miller, Thomas Nagel, plus all their tax experts.

Who does Columbia have?

In terms of professors, NYU seems to be much better. What does everyone else think?

One word: Yes.

NYU has a faculty exchange program with oxford, but columbia doesn't. why is that?

I´m not utterly sure to affirm that the professor staff of a given university is better than the other one. In that case, we should canvass carefully all the faculty, and after, and only after, make such a meaningful sentence.

One word: Yes.

nyu is ranked number one for international law, taxation and legal theory.

columbia isn't ranked one in any specialty.

nyu is ranked number one for international law, taxation and legal theory.

columbia isn't ranked one in any specialty.

NYU is indeed ranked number one for international law and taxation. To be sure, I have no qualms with giving it top marks for taxation - many people I know regard its taxation LLM as primus inter pares. I know some quarters also consider it extremely strong for international law (and I believe, particularly for Public International Law) - and while I think CLS is better, I can see that point of view, though I disagree with it. All well and good.

That said, I find it hard to accept whenever anyone comes in SO ONE sided in a debate and proceeds to denigrate the other institution. Let's be honest - the distinction between the two institutions is relatively fine. CLS is great. NYU is, in many respects equally great (and depending on who you ask maybe even more so). If you want to work with one of the professors walker points out, go for NYU. If you want to work with a professor in CLS, similarly, go for it. While I personally favour CLS (and my own admittedly anecdotal observations underlies that belief), unmitigated slamming of another institution, I think, speaks as much about the institution you support (presumably for self-interested reasons) as it does about the level of education it has afforded you.

And for those who are wondering: nope, I have no affiliation with either NYU or CLS and I therefore care to defend either of them, or praise either of them, for their own sake (or because my own ego is so fragile that supporting the institution that gave me my LLM would increase my own sense of self-worth). I do however, care about making sure the people here get the best considered advice, and in this thread, unfortunately, I see a complete dearth of that.

nyu is ranked number one for international law, taxation and legal theory.

columbia isn't ranked one in any specialty.

Which ranking is that? Link?

So mnementh, can you please enlighten us: which "inspiring" institution did you eventually choose when you had to do your LLM? (Clue: You did not choose Duke, according to your previous posts in this board)

Please. Just because it's the place you did your LLM. Get a life. Though I have a great amount of respect for NYU, let me assure you that you're not doing them any credit at all with your less than objective posts.

newbie hmmmm, very interesting comment that was. are you really a newbie or are you just changing user names? "get a life" - pshh, strong.

People - relax. Though I agree with mmneth in that although I disagree with some of his views, "hmmm..", your attack was uncalled for, we should try to focus on the merits rather than attacking each other. I know I sound like a freaking broken record in saying this over and over again, but neither school wins in any personal attack.

Folks it could not have been explained the undergoing comparisons better than the way folks like yasminm and memeth did in their posts. And yasminm....you don't sound like freaking broken record, you sound terrific and so do your reasons as they came out succinctly and unbiased

Well all this ranking and stuff is very personal. Most people just come up with a US news Ranking and declare that this is indeed the best school.
For an LLM I think there are other equally important bits to consider.
I would probably not look at law school rankings at all.
Let's say a professor works in a law school ranked 20 and he among three or four of the best rated professors in a field of law.
Would I not be tempted to go there ?
If you ask me a 9 month LLM under him would be the same as a Harvard LLM.
Now having said that if all you want is those golden letters Harvard, Columbia behind your name then obviously ranking is the only game.

Let me go further and state ranking does not matter at all ...
Ivy League and Schools with influence in the Judiciary will be your bet.
So HLS, SLS, CLS Yale and Chicgo will make an appearence. just for prestige ...
I do not state that they just don't have the professors, just check those out to ... Yale, HLS, CLS and Chicago have some of the best profs in a number of areas of law.

At the end of the day an LLM for me has more to do with the professor than with the US news ranking ... or the school ...

Yep - I think that's exactly right. Much of what is right for an individual depends on what their aims are. If your aims are teaching, then, ceteris paribus, from my own perspective, it makes more sense to go to Yale than it does to SLS; similarly, it might make more sense to go to Chicago than to, say, CLS or NYU. Of course, those other schools may be much more useful if the aim is to get into IP work, corporate work, taxation etc. Of course, generally speaking, rankings are useful to get a sense of the prestiege of the school, but ultimately, a lot must depend on the context :)

newbie hmmmm, very interesting comment that was. are you really a newbie or are you just changing user names? "get a life" - pshh, strong.

remy aka hmmmm aka troll talking to himself.

remy aka hmmmm aka troll talking to himself.

remy/hmmmm, even as the trolling newbie that you are, you can certainly do better than that lol :)

remy as a trolling newbie you can do better than that :)