I have been accepted to both NYU's Tax LLM and U Miami's Estate Planning LLM. I think I want to pursue a career in estate planning.

Would it be a huge mistake to turn down NYU for a much more focused LLM at Miami in estate planning (given the current job market)?

If you want to practice in Florida or in the south, then Miami's LLM will be fine (I assume you will pay a much lower tuition at Miami).

If you want to practice anyplace else, NYU.

I'd be interested to find out what you chose. I was picking between those two myself and ended up choosing Miami for Estate Planning due to the curriculum and community they offer. NYU just didn't seem to fit me as well and doesn't offer too much in the way of Estate Planning courses.

I turned down Miami's Estate Planning LLM, only to get waitlisted by NYU, so if you could go ahead and turn down NYU, I'd appreciate that!

Just kidding, I think GULC is better for me anyway. But your decision should hinge on how dedicated you are to either Florida as the place you want to work or Estate Planning as your area of practice. Otherwise, NYU would be the obvious choice.

I turned down Miami's EP program last year. I was talking with one of my professor's from law school and when I told him that I had gotten into Miami he asked if I had applied to NYU or GULC (I live in Virginia).

I think if you want to stay in Florida then you'd be okay with Miami, but NYU is going to have a much bigger draw.

Personally, I chose UF for their tax program because I want to be in the South and it will end up being significantly cheaper.

Hello everyone,

I ended up at NYU. After speaking with my professors and attorneys in the tax field, I felt I could not turn down the opportunity to get my LLM at NYU. I absolutely do not regret my decision. The NYU LLM is the highly regarded in the legal community and an attorney with the degree is viewed as an asset to any firm.

After speaking with people who went to the LLM program at Miami, I would not recommend their program. It is structured in a very unique way (the second semester is one week "crash courses" on EP) and the students do not have the same code and reg based learning experience. I have been told by attorneys in FL that they will not even interview graduates of the Miami program.

If you want to stay in the south, Florida has a great program, but I have not found it difficult to get interviews in Florida with my NYU LLM. Just look at some of the attorney profiles in Florida and you will see a lot of NYU LLM alums.

To summarize, I wouldn't spend the tuition for an LLM unless it was at NYU, UF, or Georgetown.

I will say, that in my talking with some of the professors I have had in the past as well as some of my family friends who are attorneys going into this process I decided that I would not spend the money on an LL.M. unless it was one of those 3 programs.

Obviously, this is biased by the fact that I live in VA, and am going to have to pay the whole bill on my own.

JCC123, are you finishing up the NYU LLM program this year?

If you don't mind, I have a few questions:

Did you go straight into LLM program from law school or did you work first? If the latter, did you do tax law? Also, how many years out are you?

Do you regret doing the program at all?

I'm set to attend the NYU llm taxation program, but am starting to have second thoughts about giving up a job and taking out student loans.

I was in tax for almost 3 years and very happy, but the work dried up quite a bit and I slowly was shifted to non-tax work. After a year of waiting for the tax work to pick up, I'm now at risk at being stuck in a non-tax practice group, which is why I thought of going for my LLM in taxation. I am hoping that by the time I graduate, my current employer will need a tax associate again. But if not, I figure it might be easier to find a job with a LLM and also fresh out of the LLM program v. trying to do so without a LLM and from my current firm where I've been doing mostly non-tax work for the past year.