Hello All,
I have been admitted to GWU LLM in IP program. But tuition fees is the most imp aspect and condition.

I have one year of litigation experience. and also I have litigation background. I very much wish to attend the program...I also have the commerce and common law background and not science and engineering background.

The question is...
Will the program prove fruitful if in caase I have to attend without scholarship and spend entire 60K expenditure and fetch a job which can repay the same in a year or two?

How is the job market which can absord a foreign lawyer with USA LLM in IP in litigation...as an attorney...!!!
and also secondly, if not attorney then as corporate or paralegal!!!

Please give some opinion guys...!!!

I wish if someone takes a lil time to advise me on this deadlock...!

Hi Baluza, I am admitted to GWU in IP as well.

Generally speaking, it is not easy to be hired in the U.S. with only a LLM degree even if you get it from Harvard. It is very good that you have a focus on IP litigation. There are probably only two types of works in litigation: 1. Advocating in front of judges and juries in favor of your clients in the court, and 2. Reading and checking tremendous amout of legal documents.

I don't know how the others think, but I will not entrust a foreign lawyer with only less than one year legal education in the U.S. to perform in the court for certain cases involving millions of dollars. So, it is more practical for foreign lawyers to do the second type of work which is extremly stressful. And it is also diffcult to become a "partner" as long as you are limited to do it.

In addition, the second type of work doesn't necessarily require you to have a degree of natural science but it does require you to have a better understanding of technology issues especially in patent litigation.

Anyway, this is only my personal opinion. I suggest that you should listen to the others' perspectives as many as possible. Best of luck to you.

GWU is one of the better law schools for an IP LLM. I have had a couple of friends graduate from there and they swear by the law school. It has a corporate/industry leaning as opposed to an academic one and has some top quality faculty. Of course, there are better IP LLMs offered in the US, such as those in Stanford, NYU and Berkeley but GWU is not bad at all. Also, I have heard GWU is very well endowed with funds and for international students especially, they tend to give considerable tuition fee waivers. I suggest you apply to them for a scholarship and then take a call. In any case, you won't be making a bad choice with GWU if you are interested in IP.

Good Luck!