Hello everyone.

I'm interested in doing an LLm in International Human rights Law. I don't have a law degree. The National University of Ireland, Galway for instance, doesn't require its applicants of LLM in International Human Rights Law to have a Law degree. Is there a possiblity at a university in the States to do an LLM without a law degree?

Thank you very much.

Hi Arta

You're right some law schools do not require law degree for admission to its human rights law program, such as Hong Kong University (my alma mater) but according to my experience that i got from making appliations to six law schools in California, all of them require a first degree in law.

maurice

Yes, in USA there LL.M admission is possible without first law degree. Recently, I have read on this Forum someone without law degree got admission at U PENN with partial fee waiver.

I am not sure about this. Who said this? I saw you said something about this to Nina A (I think this is her name), but I couldn't find a post where she said that she does not have a law degree. Am I confused or are you?

nriattorney, Hannenyh:

Thanks for your posts.
nriattorney: I checked the UPenn Website and what you said sounds to be true. Here is what the website mentions:
'The International Program Committee (which oversees all graduate programs) can, in exceptional circumstances, admit students to the LL.M. program who do not already hold a law degree. Typically, such students will hold a Ph.D. or M.D. or an equivalent graduate degree, will have already embarked on an academic or professional career, and will be able to show how legal training is important to the advancement of this career and/or their scholarly work.'
This is availble at :http://www.law.upenn.edu/prospective/grad/apply/
I will just write to them.
Best,
Arta

Well U Penn apart, there are several law schools which admits students in Masters degrees program without the candidate having first law degree; today only I read an article in LL.M Guide detailing several such law schools; the author also happens to be a student of LL.M without first law degree.

Several schools also permit transfer to JD after LL.M . The object seems to be to allow a candidate the choice of law profession. Earlier I used to wonder : why JD after LL.M ? then I realised that if you do LL.M without first law degree, and later develop an interest in law, JD will fill up the gap.

Well U Penn apart, there are several law schools which admits students in Masters degrees program without the candidate having first law degree; today only I read an article in LL.M Guide detailing several such law schools; the author also happens to be a student of LL.M without first law degree.

Hi,
I have developed an interest in law late in life, having already done a BA Econ, MBA and bunch of professional certifications. I work in a compliance/internal control/operations role with a fund manager and would like to study financial and securities law without going back to do another undergrad degree. I'm especially interested in part-time, distance learning as I am skeptical about clawing back lost earnings and expenses from a full-time program. Any advice? Thanks very much.

Update 8 months later: I decided on the SOAS CeFIMS MSc Finance and Financial Law distance program, and have completed 2/8 courses with partial company sponsorship. Lack of class interaction is a drawback, but the curriculum and resources are top-notch, clearly focused on financial markets. I see the Magic Circle etc have taken a savage beating, so hedging with distance studies over full-time was the right choice.

I would like someone to list the schools that have been suggestsed. Either by email or ordinary name of instituion.