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True enough. But the point is that this would greatly limit your options relative to a JD. If you happen to be interested in a field where a German law degree w
by pdabbadabba 11y ago
True enough. But the point is that this would greatly limit your options relative to a JD. If you happen to be interested in a field where a German law degree would be a benefit, then great. But that is probably not true for most people.
Having been tangentially involved in legal recruiting, U.S. law firms are very much looking for people who satisfy particular criteria, and these criteria are developed with the assumption that a student went through the conventional American legal education system. (Think, GPA, law journal experience, moot court, judicial clerkships [yes, you can get one with an LLM, but it will be much harder without the faculty connections you build over several years], etc.) In short, they are looking for a "certain kind" of resume. For most, a German law degree with a U.S. LLM will not readily meet that test. I'm not saying, of course, that it will be impossible to get a job. I'm just saying that a person with that sort of resume will be swimming upstream compared to her UT friends with JDs.
It might be tempting to say that you would not want to work someplace that takes this approach to hiring. But, for better or worse, most people probably would.
- steven2012 11y agoHaving a challenging interview process with $30k in debt vs being $250k in the hole after graduating sounds like a pretty good trade off to me. I'd rather take the harder interview and little debt rather than a slightly easier interview and a crushing $250k debt before starting a day of work. And given the current unemployment rate of lawyers, it would make even more sense to do it the way the blog post describes.
- pdabbadabba 11y ago> Having a challenging interview process with $30k in debt vs being $250k in the hole after graduating sounds like a pretty good trade off to me. I'd rather take the harder interview and little debt rather than a slightly easier interview and a crushing $250k debt before starting a day of work. Maybe so, and I've said as much. This depends on your specific career goals. But note that "challenge interview process" here is really a euphemism for "will get a significantly smaller range of job offers."
- URSpider94 11y agoI think you underestimate how focused the major law firms are on pedigree rather than on straight merit. Bypassing the standard process will indeed get you a law degree and a chance to take the Bar, but it won't necessarily even get you an interview at a top firm.
- ma2rten 11y agoExcept in this example the student has some work experience already. Doesn't that count for something?
- URSpider94 11y agoAlmost all students do internships in the two summers in between the three years of law school. These internships at top firms are themselves highly competitive, as they result in job offers for the best of the interns.