Maybe some of you are still wavering whether to do a specialized or a general LLM. The following could, perhaps, be helpful to you. Anyway, it'd also welcome your opinions and feedback.
Some time ago I had an interesting exchange with a recently retired legal recruiter who also spend a part of his life in academia. We talked about the merits of specialized and general LLMs. Basically, in his opinion a specialised LLM would be highly attractive for someone knowing exactly that he wants to spend the rest of his career in a particular area of law.
On the downside, however, a formal specialization would severely limit his career options outside of his area of law which, in today's fast changing world, is a point worth to consider.
An alternative to the specialised LLM he suggested would be using a general program and focusing on 2 preferred areas of law through the selection of appropriate subjects + choosing 1 or 2 unrelated subjects (Assuming that you can choose up to 8 half-year options in many LLM programs this would mean 3+3+2). This combination, in his opinion, would enable a graduate to claim (informal) concentrations in two different law areas, and, to boot, the degree would still be considered general, which means that it would not hamper a graduate to pursue a career outside of the specialised areas. Moreover, there is the option to specialize with the general LLM even after the completion of the program by doing some additional work in a preferred area of law (e.g. researching and publishing a law review article).
To specialize or not: that is the question...
Posted Jul 17, 2010 21:02
Maybe some of you are still wavering whether to do a specialized or a general LLM. The following could, perhaps, be helpful to you. Anyway, it'd also welcome your opinions and feedback.
Some time ago I had an interesting exchange with a recently retired legal recruiter who also spend a part of his life in academia. We talked about the merits of specialized and general LLMs. Basically, in his opinion a specialised LLM would be highly attractive for someone knowing exactly that he wants to spend the rest of his career in a particular area of law.
On the downside, however, a formal specialization would severely limit his career options outside of his area of law which, in today's fast changing world, is a point worth to consider.
An alternative to the specialised LLM he suggested would be using a general program and focusing on 2 preferred areas of law through the selection of appropriate subjects + choosing 1 or 2 unrelated subjects (Assuming that you can choose up to 8 half-year options in many LLM programs this would mean 3+3+2). This combination, in his opinion, would enable a graduate to claim (informal) concentrations in two different law areas, and, to boot, the degree would still be considered general, which means that it would not hamper a graduate to pursue a career outside of the specialised areas. Moreover, there is the option to specialize with the general LLM even after the completion of the program by doing some additional work in a preferred area of law (e.g. researching and publishing a law review article).
Some time ago I had an interesting exchange with a recently retired legal recruiter who also spend a part of his life in academia. We talked about the merits of specialized and general LLMs. Basically, in his opinion a specialised LLM would be highly attractive for someone knowing exactly that he wants to spend the rest of his career in a particular area of law.
On the downside, however, a formal specialization would severely limit his career options outside of his area of law which, in today's fast changing world, is a point worth to consider.
An alternative to the specialised LLM he suggested would be using a general program and focusing on 2 preferred areas of law through the selection of appropriate subjects + choosing 1 or 2 unrelated subjects (Assuming that you can choose up to 8 half-year options in many LLM programs this would mean 3+3+2). This combination, in his opinion, would enable a graduate to claim (informal) concentrations in two different law areas, and, to boot, the degree would still be considered general, which means that it would not hamper a graduate to pursue a career outside of the specialised areas. Moreover, there is the option to specialize with the general LLM even after the completion of the program by doing some additional work in a preferred area of law (e.g. researching and publishing a law review article).
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