Hi all,

Any ideas on the best Universities to do an LL.M. in securities law?

More precisely, my idea is to follow a career in investment banking law or at a government agency...

Thank you

Pedro

I would say that Columbia in New York would be a good choice.

try Prof. Choi at NYU. One of the best.

Choi and Kahan recognized for best corporate and securities articles of 2008 by Corporate Practice Commentator

http://www.law.nyu.edu/news/CHOI_KAHAN_TOP_10_ARTICLES

Georgetown has a great securities law LLM, considered one of the best in the country: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/graduate/securities.cfm

Hi Pedro. I second AHG, Georgetown has the best specialized LL.M in securities, followed by Boston University.

Although Columbia and NYU only have general or general corporate LLMs, Koala and gunner are never wrong to recommend them either: you can tailor your course selection to specialize in virtually anything you want.

For better or worse, we (including recruiters) give more weight to the general reputation of a law school than to its strength in specific fields.

General reputation, and financial aid tend to be the primary factors in choosing law schools. Specialty helps choosing between schools of close to similar prestige.

So for example, unless BU offers a scholarship and your budget is tight, I would strongly recommend against choosing BU over Columbia just because BU has a specialized LL.M in banking while Columbia does not.

In my humble opinion, if you want investment banking or want to work in, for instance, in the SEC's Market Regulation Division ('33 Act focused-that is new issues), the NYU Corporate LL.M. would be best. Investment banking lawyers are "generalist". They are like quarterbacks, calling in the labor, tax, investment management, ERISA, etc lawyers as needed. But you have to have just enough knowledge to know who to call. They usually are better suited to be general counsels of corporations too. The NYU Corporate program seems to be geared to this type of law to me (again, this is my opinion). If you want to to be a more specialized, say investment management (hedge funds, mutual funds, ERISA, etc.) georgetown is the absolute best program. GT has tons of classes focused on investment management ('40 Act focused). Investment mangement is more regulatory in nature (hence GT's program is called securities and financial regulation). The NYU program is called a corporate law.

The SEC has a division called investment management that specializes in this type of law. I always thought the BU program was more so commercial banking focused. I haven't looked at any of the programs but Georgetown's in a long time, so my information may be outdated. All the programs have classes that overlap too-so this is not a hard rule. But it is what I remember and how I formed my opinion about the various programs. Take a look at the classes offerred under each program and see what you like
In any event, you can't go wrong with any of these, including Columbia's.

Thank you all for the responses.

I am 28 years old, lawyer, currently working as a legal advisor at my country's securities commission.

My idea is to have legal training in american law and more preciselyin the area of securities (both regulation and operational aspects - such as funds), with the aim of starting an international career, either at an international organisation (IMF, WB, ECB), an US government agency (SEC) or an investment bank.

Do you think this is the right path to achieve it? I mean, is an llm the right tool to start an international career as described?

Thank you all again

Pedro

Yes. For someone like you--a person who is positive that she/he wants to specialize, an LL.M. is a great idea.

But the only suggestion I would have is that you should try and focus your goal a little further. It's not absolutely mandatory. But the more you specialize your LL.M. with certain classes, the easier it will be to convince an employer that you want to practice in a particular area. Ofcourse it can be risky too b/c you'll focus to the exclusion of other areas of law.

Securites law is a large field. There are broker/dealer lawyers, investment, corporate, banking, etc. Each is very specialized and seldom tread in the specialization of the others.

Good luck. I think you have a good plan!

Thanks again.

I would like to study a quite wide range of issues within the securities area.
From what I've seen, even the Law schools that don't have specialised securities LL.M. have very specific courses on this field. So the big question is which Law school would be best ranked in what I'd generally name as financial law issues.
I've noticed that US News does not have a ranking on financial/securities/banking law.

Any ideas on this? Should a person just choose based on the general reputation of the school?

Best regards

As a current student at the Georgetown University Law Center seeking an LLM in Securities and Financial Regulation, I highly recommend this program to anyone interested in pursuing a career in either securities or financial regulation. Quite frankly, I believe those professionals without an LLM in this area of specialty will be at a disadvantage due to the complexity and comprehensiveness of these fields of law.

In the current market, lawyers need every advantage they can find and they need to avoid any gaps on their resume. Hence, this LLM may be very helpful. Further, law firms now do not want to pay for the training of their associates and would rather have an associate that can hit the ground running.

In addition to the highly competent and qualified teaching (the best in their fields) and connections with all of the various regulators in DC creating an ideal and cutting edge learning environment, the connections and ability to gain experience at the regulators through the program (e.g., SEC, Treasury, OCC, FDIC, FERC, CFTC, etc.) are excellent. For the reasons stated above, and many others not stated, Georgetown University Law Center's LLM Program in Securities and Financial Regulation is probably the best program of its kind within the United States.
Although there are schools like Harvard, Columbia, etc. these schools, in this area of the law, are not in DC. Why is this important? Washington D.C. is the center of all financial regulation within the US and the center of all legal reforms in the areas of securities and banking law. When your professors walk (or take the Metro) directly from their highest ranking positions in Big Law or at the SEC, OCC, FDIC, CFTC, FERC, Treasury, FINRA etc. (most of whom have also previously worked in Big Law) you become the possible recipient of the best connections possible and are learning the most current and relevant information possible. Although much of the world still says "Wow!" when you say you went to Harvard, at the end of the day it comes down to what you know, who you know, and how well you can utilize these two things in your career.

The current legal market in the United States is probably and hopefully the worst those reading this will ever experience. Also, we should be out of this mess within a few years. Hereafter, things will get better for us all. Now is a good time to be obtaining an LLM in an area of the law that interests you and that will serve to connect you to many future employers. My recommendation is if you have a job then keep it and do the LLM part-time. If you dont have a job and cant find one, then seriously consider getting your LLM (full-time or part-time) from the best school possible in that particular area of the law because in the future this may be a new unspoken requirement in many fields of law such as securities and banking law. Please do not forget some important facts: 1) the law and the legal profession are both becoming more specialized and more complex; and 2) most employers today would rather hire someone that already has a strong foundation in their chosen field than to have to pay for and take valuable time to train that lawyer. Also, the proliferation of LLM programs is changing the landscape of the legal profession and upping the ante as they say in poker.

I am debating the Georgetown Securities LL.M? My debate is whether the degree is economically worth it? Those of you who have done it... what was the placement like for the Georgetown LL.M. in careers.

As background I worked in a Large Investment Bank in London for a year in the compliance department. I then came to law school at a Third Tier School (top 30% in class) and I have an internship with the Securities and Exchange Commission next semester.

I am hoping my SEC internship will lead to a job and I never have to decide to pursue the Securities LL.M. Downsides: taking on more debt and cutting off other areas of practice I have considered (mostly Real Estate). Upside: my top career goal is to work at the SEC or DOJ and I am hoping this could help with that and if I work at one of those programs my loans would be forgiven in 10 years anyway.

For those looking for more specific information and contacts related to the Georgetown program in securities law and financial regulation please see the following: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/GULC-Securities-Financial-Law-Organization-2871304/about.

To answer your question, note that getting into the SEC from the internship program is exceptionally difficult. Whereas, you would probably have better luck entering through a similar program at the DOJ. With massive budget cuts on the way, hiring will probably not increase a lot in either organization. Most of our colleagues in the program became employed in excellent jobs, but only after very thorough and strategic networking facilitated by their LLM experiences and contacts. Please don't expect to just sit back, study and be handed a good job, even with excellent grades. The LLM job assistance team is far less resourced and does not view their role in the way the JD career services team does.

Thanks for your reply.

I know getting a full time job there will be extremely difficult and a best case scenario. I am trying to think of other ways to continue to move forward into that goal of working for the SEC or DOJ, and I would be open to other suggestions as I am thinking about this program as a last resort to keep moving towards that goal.

I definitely realized from working at the Investment Bank its all about networking, so although I left it out of my post, that is another reason I was thinking about this program. To stay in DC and try to continue to network to get into one of those entities. I am going back through my IB contacts to try to find a legal role there as well.

Do you remember a rough guesstimate of the class split between:
- Government
- Law Firms
- Investment Banks, Broker Dealers, Asset Managers, etc.

I would be willing to start at any of them out of law school, after completing the SEC internship, or doing the Georgetown LLM.

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.