Need Advice:
I graduated from a tier 2 JD program. At this point, I am employed at a "decent" job in NY, but not getting paid enough to make a serious dent in loans. I've been accepted into a tier 1 LLM program in international law. I understand the risk and that there is no guarantee I will gain meaningful employment afterwards. However, I want to know if there are any success stories out there. I keep hearing that the LLM is not worth it for US educated students, unless it's in tax.
My goal would be to find a "better" (financially) firm job afterwards, doing international transaction work perhaps. I'm not looking for BigLaw, but something where I can work for 5 years to pay down the debt before moving on to international public interest work.
Is there a brightside I can shoot for? or am I totally going down the wrong path?

Not sure I'm the best person to respond, but since nobody else has, I'll give it a shot. You may have seen from my comments in the other threads that I'm not of the "only get an LLM in tax" mentality for U.S. JD holders. But in your situation I think you need to tread carefully. How much additional debt would you have to take on for the LLM? In this economy, with plenty of laid off attorneys circulating in NYC, I don't know that I'd seek an LLM just to find greener job pastures. I do think it's still valuable for other reasons, e.g. making connections, transitioning to academia or another geographic area. But it doesn't sound to me as if that's what you want.

I'll give you a bit of ambiguous advice. I just finished my NYU (non-tax) LLM (domestic candidate). I managed to find a biglaw job straight out of school. That being said, I think that it was my JD grades (good) that got me the job. All the firms that I interviewed with had little interest in my LLM grades. However, you could argue that the LLM got their interest to begin with. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that one.
I will leave you with one bit of advice -- Many people that I have spoken (i.e. senior attorneys) with have said something like "damn, I sure wish I had gotten an LLM before I was too entrenched in the practice to go back. I don't know if it would have helped me, but it sure sounded like fun."
Best of luck.
Mike S

Thank you for your responses. Although the decision remains difficult, I am still leaning towards enrolling into the program. Despite the large risk involved, I figure the extra year can only make me more marketable as an attorney despite the possibility the level of increase in marketability may be minimal.