I have been a practicing corporate attorney for 4 years and finally decided to take the plunge and get my LLM in taxation. I was never really close to any professors in school since I worked throughout law school so that is not really an option for me. Obviously I will ask my supervisor at work but should I ask my previous one? I have a former law school classmate with whom I worked on many school projects/papers and could opine as to my scholastic ability. However, I don't know how that would look. Help!!! Thanks!

Definitely your law professors but not your classmate.

i think you should approach your law professors to see if they are able to assist you. One from an academic referee and one from a professional referee might be acceptable to some universities.

If, however, it is not possible and you would like to go back to university - try having two professional references. I would advise against using classmates as your referee.

If it doesn't work, wait/work for a few more years and explain to the universities you are applying to that it has been quite a number of years since you attended Law School and thus would be using professional referees rather than academic ones.

Hope my opinion helps!


Cheers,
G

Thanks for your advice!

I too have been practicing for 4 years and am considering going back for an LL.M. Like you, I worked during law school so I wasn't very close to any of my professors. Nevertheless, when I approached a couple of them they were quite receptive about writing a letter. Hopefully your experience will be similar. It may help if you provide the person you ask with a transcript and/or CV.

Also, FWIW, for schools that require three letters, I'm using 1 professional reference and 2 academic references.

HTH!