Harvard Law School (HLS)

HLS Graduate Program: Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program
http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/graduate/programs/llm.php

Overview

The LL.M. (Master of Laws) program is a one-year degree program that typically includes 150 students from more than 60 countries. The Graduate Program is interested in attracting intellectually curious and thoughtful candidates from a variety of legal systems and backgrounds and with various career plans. Harvard's LL.M. students include lawyers working in firms, government officials, law professors, judges, diplomats, human rights activists, doctoral students, business men and women, and others. The diversity of the participants in the LL.M. program contributes significantly to the educational experience of all students at the School.

The philosophy of the LL.M. program is to offer our students a broad platform to design their own course of study within parameters set by the Harvard Law School faculty. Those parameters include some exposure to U.S. law, some writing experience, and, in the case of students who hold a J.D. degree from a school in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, some exposure to legal theory. See Degree Requirements. Within this framework, LL.M. students have enormous latitude in planning their year. Interested faculty, the Graduate Program staff, and special student advisors work hard throughout the year to help students identify and refine their study objectives, then develop an appropriate sequence of courses and other work.

Most of a student's program will be drawn from the regular Harvard Law School curriculum - some 250 courses and seminars each year, offered to J.D. and graduate students alike. Students also have the opportunity to pursue a limited number of credits at other faculties within Harvard and other area schools and a variety of writing projects. About half of the LL.M. class each year write a 75- to 100-page paper (called the "LL.M. paper") on a topic the student develops in consultation with his or her faculty supervisor. We also offer the more extensive LL.M. thesis, an option designed for students who already have significant research and writing experience and plan careers in law teaching. Other students write shorter papers, whether independently or in conjunction with a course or seminar.

Given the flexibility of the program, the range of curricula students design is enormous. Some students take a varied curriculum, with courses ranging from environmental law to corporations to public international law. Others select courses primarily in a single area, such as constitutional law, business organization and finance, legal theory, or human rights. In addition, we are developing concentrations in particular areas of study - effectively "majors" within a single LL.M. degree program. For example, the Committee on Graduate Studies has approved concentrations in human rights, taxation, Corporate Law and Governance and international finance - the first of its kind in the U.S. - now in its sixth year. The faculty is considering developing concentrations in other areas, including possibly law teaching.

Finally, our students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of extracurricular and co-curricular offerings on a not-for-credit basis. Graduate students participate in the full range of student organizations at the Law School. Other opportunities are designed specifically for graduate students. For example, in a typical year we offer between six and eight Byse workshops, taught by specially selected S.J.D. students and treating such disparate subjects as game theory and the law, police misconduct, feminist approaches to law and development, and the history of private international law. Other offerings include the Law Teaching Colloquium, a full-year offering that explores different approaches to the teaching of law, and the Legal Practice Workshop, designed to acquaint students with modes of legal analysis and writing used in the American law firm environment.

Degree Requirements

As indicated above, the philosophy of the LL.M. program is to offer our students a broad platform on which to design their own course of study within parameters set by the Harvard Law School faculty. All students must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 22 credit hours and a maximum of 26 credit hours in one academic year; most students complete between 22 and 24 credits. Students also must satisfy some specific course and written work requirements. More specific requirements applicable to international students and U.S. students follow.

International LL.M. students are required to take at least one of the following courses in American Law: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Corporations, Criminal Law, Property, Taxation, and Torts. International students also must write either the 75- to 100-page LL.M. paper, the more extensive LL.M. thesis, or a paper of 25 or more pages that involves independent reflection, formulation of a sustained argument and, in many cases, outside research. Both types of papers may be written either independently or in conjunction with a seminar. Finally, we urge students to take at least one course focusing on legal history, legal theory, policy analysis or legal process.

HLS Graduate Program: Download the Application
http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/graduate/admissions/downloadapplication.php

Your application and all supporting documents must be received by the Graduate Program no later than:
LL.M. Program	December 1, 2008 for all applications. (We strongly encourage all applications to be delivered by November 15, 2008.)

To download the instructions and application forms, which you can fill in on your computer and then print out, please click on the links below:

• Instructions (142 KB - 10 pages)
• Application for Admission (304 KB - 5 pages)
• Recommendation Request Forms (132 KB - 2 pages)
• Transcript Request Forms (125 KB - 2 pages)

Application Information for Master of Laws (LL.M.) Program

Eligibility Requirements

To be considered for the LL.M. Program, an applicant must have a J.D. (Juris Doctor) from an accredited U.S. law school or a first law degree (J.D., LL.B. or the equivalent) from a foreign law school. Harvard Law School is rarely able to accept into its LL.M. Program anyone who already holds or is pursuing an LL.M. or equivalent degree from another law school in the United States.

Admissions Criteria

Admission to the LL.M. Program is highly competitive. Last year approximately 1,500 applicants competed for around 150 places in the LL.M. Program. Most applicants are fully qualified for the program, and the Committee on Graduate Studies must select from among a large number of candidates who have excellent credentials. In evaluating applications, the Committee takes into consideration the applicant's grades and rank in his or her law and other university studies, letters of recommendation, occupational interests, professional and personal accomplishments, and other factors, including the following:

For LL.M. Applicants from Abroad

The Program is designed for intellectually curious and thoughtful candidates who come from a variety of legal systems and backgrounds and who have demonstrated an intent to return to their country to contribute to the academy or legal profession. We are equally interested in applicants pursuing careers in law teaching and research, government service, the judiciary, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and private practice.

Application Materials

To apply to the LL.M. program, applicants must complete the relevant parts of the Graduate Program's application materials. These call for applicants to provide information about themselves and the studies they propose to pursue at Harvard, letters of recommendation from professors and others who know their work, and transcripts from each university they have attended. To obtain copies of these application materials, please either download the application or ask us to send you a copy.

n addition, all applicants from non-English speaking countries or who did not receive their legal education entirely in the English language must take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination within two years prior to submitting their applications. The Graduate Program requires a minimum score of 600 on the paper-based test, a minimum score of 250 on the computer-based test, or a minimum score of 100 on the internet-based test (if you take the internet-based test, you must also have a minimum score of 25 on each subsection). Applicants with at least two years of university education conducted entirely in English may request a waiver of the TOEFL exam; however, such waivers are not automatic, and are granted at the sole discretion of the Graduate Program.

TOEFL is offered by the Educational Testing Service at locations around the world. For more information, check their web site or contact them at TOEFL Services, Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541, USA.

Application Deadlines

For the LL.M. class beginning in September 2009, the application deadline for all applicants will be December 1, 2008. (We strongly encourage all applications to be delivered by November 15, 2008.)

Applications must be sent out in time for delivery to our office on or before the application deadline. Please note that application deadlines will be strictly observed. Because the various parts of an application must come from several sources, it is your responsibility to make certain that all required materials reach the Graduate Program by the deadline. A notice will be sent to you confirming receipt of your application; we will then send you a second notice indicating whether your application is complete. We regret that we cannot acknowledge receipt or completion of applications by telephone, fax, or e-mail.