For those interested in landing a job read this article from the WSJ (even if it applies to J.D. it can be true also to LL.M.):
"So lets say youre one of those college juniors or seniors whos known since diaperdom that you wanted to be a lawyer. Not just any lawyer, a big firm lawyer. And lets also say youve got stellar grades from a top school and that you missed all of one question on the LSAT. And now youre faced with this conundrum: Where should you go to law school? Harvard? Yale? Stanford?

Not so fast there, High Achiever. According to this report out today in the National Law Journal, your choice should be Columbia or Northwestern. Columbia Law School landed in the No. 1 spot again as the school that sent the greatest portion of graduates to NLJ 250 law firms, with nearly 75 percent of its students in 2007 taking jobs among the nations largest law firms. Northwestern finished in the No. 2 spot, with some 73.5 percent of its graduates accepting slots at NLJ 250 firms. Boston College Law School rounded out the list of the top 20 go-to law schools, with 36.8 percent of its 261 juris doctor grads heading for full-time jobs at NLJ 250 law firms.

The big movers this year: Northwestern, which moved to No. 2 from No. 11; Southern Cal., which moved from No. 20 to No. 14. New to the list: UCLA (No. 17) and Boston University (No. 18). Heading in the other direction were University of Texas and Fordham, both of which fell off the list.

The secret sauce behind Northwesterns success? It could be that the school has also focused on enrolling students with significant postgraduate work experience, says dean David Van Zandt. And the school has worked to accept students in recent years from geographically diverse areas, with an emphasis on those from the Northeast, which has helped to boost recruiting from NLJ 250 firms, he said. Michael Schill, the UCLA law school dean, also attributed his schools popularity among NLJ 250 firms to an increased effort to geographically diversify the student body. Said Schill: Were being more aggressive."

If you want to read the full article:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1207904905249

Let's just hope the LL.M. job market improves a little next year...

You do understand that the only reason Columbia and Northwestern are at the top is because they fail to place graduates in judicial clerkships at comparable rates to Yale, Harvard and Stanford, don't you?

Anyone getting a federal clerkship can easily land a big law firm job (the former are far more competitive & prestigious). Something like 40% of Yale JD grads get clerking positions; about 25% of Harvard/Stanford JDs do likewise. Columbia, Northwestern etc place FAR less - hence their higher ranking in placing immediate graduates in big law firms.

Anyone who honestly thinks a Northwestern or Columbia JD grants better job opportunities than Harvard or Yale is dreaming.