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Editor's Blog
Class of 2010 bloggers!
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Aug 5, 2009
Hi folks,I hope everyone's enjoying what's left of summer. With the next academic year about to start, now's a good time for our annual appeal for LL.M. bloggers.
If you found this site helpful during your searching for and applying to LL.M. programs, why not share your experiences with next year's class? All it takes is a few posts, and already you're helping give back to the free flow of information and experiences - from real people - that makes this site a good resource.
Bloggers have written on a number of themes:
* How they picked their program
* Career goals
* The application process
* First impressions of the school, city and/or classmates
* First impressions of a the country (if they've moved overseas)
* Favorite / least favorite LL.M. classes
* Social life on and off campus
* Job search and recruiting fairs
* Interesting topics discussed in class
Oh, and if fame is what you're after... Blogs on LLM GUIDE get thousands of reads a month, mostly by people who are either also doing an LL.M. or hoping to do one in the near future.
Remember, you don't have to write a novel; just a few lines or paragraphs every now and then. Tell us how you're doing. Thanks again for all the posts from last year's bloggers, including those from Stephan at UCL and Jaan222 at Virginia.
If you have any questions, just get in touch.
Have a great rest of the summer everyone,
Maren
New Photo Upload Feature
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Mar 18, 2009
Hi All,
Spring is around the corner, and I hope everyone is getting good application news back from their law schools of choice.
I wanted to tell you about a small new feature we've added to the LL.M. programs directory: the "Upload your Photos" function. Basically, this tool is for students past, present, and future to share their photos of law school campuses and surroundings. 
Three cheers to Elena25, who has already posted some nice, wintry photos of law schools in New York City and Montreal, and to Manuel_Law for his snapshots of Stanford and Berkeley.
If you've visited or attend some law schools and have some campus pics laying around, let us see 'em! Don't worry if they're not National Geographic material; just as long as they are your own.
And now for the boring but obviously necessary caveat: this tool was NOT designed for law schools to blast our site with marketing pics, nor was it created for people to post photos of themselves (there are other sites for that!). We will delete all of these, along with any photos that violate our terms of use. Repeated violations will be subject to editorial and public ridicule. ;)
Take care, and talk with you again soon!
Maren
LLM GUIDE in The Financial Times
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Nov 10, 2008
The Financial Times ran a story this morning by Ursula Milton about choosing an LL.M. program. It's a useful article, and we are very happy to be featured in it! Check it out here.
In fact, FT published a handful of other stories about LL.M. programs today in their Global Legal Education supplement, including this handy breakdown of LL.M. programs and a student narrative from IE Law School.
Talk to you again soon!
Maren
LLM GUIDE Board Nearing 50,000 Posts - THANKS
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Oct 14, 2008
Hi Folks! We hope everyone in the LL.M. Class of 2009 is settling nicely into their courses.As our LLM Discussion Board nears 50,000 posts (less than a hundred to go at last count), we wanted to do a little shout out to everyone who has posted on our board since we launched it back January 2005. With LL.M. students (past, present, and future) sharing their experiences and views, it has become a bigger and more lively community than we could have imagined. On average, there are 1,000 posts here a week!
Here's a little retrospective of some of the more notable threads. You might find nuggets of wisdom here...or maybe not.
The Popular Threads
"Tax Law Rankings" (85,000+ views)
"Best Law Schools in Continental Europe?" (55,000+ views)
The Legendary Threads
"Is a Harvard LLM worth it?" (going strong since April 2005)
"Foreign lawyer in the US? You don't need LLM"
The Funny Threads
"Best entertainment law programs in the US"
"Rejecting Harvard in Style"
And what would our board be without the truly heroic participation from LLMers like tmalmine, ivan2006, droit.est.philosophie, or the other experts and insiders like c.miller, lmwoods, richardvf, GregoryXu, who have been friendly and generous with their insight. There are many others worth mentioning. These are the kinds of folks that make online communities valuable. You rule!!
Till next time,
Maren
An LL.M. in China - Is it worth it?
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on May 26, 2008
Hi there! I just wanted tell you all about an interesting blog post by Donald C. Clarke, a professor at George Wasington University Law School. He has collected and published the feedback he got from lawyers - who had either taken an LL.M. program in China or who are involved with hiring lawyers in the field - about the value of doing an LL.M. at Chinese universities. The PDF document can be found here.Meanwhile, here is an article we published last year about English-language LL.M. programs in Asia, generally.
We'll check in again soon. Until then, enjoy your summer!
The R-Word and the Job Market for Lawyers
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Mar 22, 2008
Hi Everyone! Even as the admissions decisions arrive from US and UK law schools, one of the liveliest discussion board threads has been one about the current job market for lawyers and LL.M. graduates. How has the sub-prime crisis, turbulence on the global financial market, and fears over a recession affected the job market for lawyers and graduating LL.M. students?
It's true, there have been widely publicized layoffs at big-league firms lately, but overall assessments of the legal job market depend on who you ask. Some papers are forecasting tough times ahead for lawyers, particularly for firms specializing in finance, mergers, and acquisitions. Others see light at the end of the tunnel, particularly for lawyers who can help out with insolvencies, sub-prime litigation, and the like.
At least these are the media reports coming out of New York and London. Does anybody have an insider view of the job market that awaits LL.M. graduates in these places, as well as other financial hubs like Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, ...? How bad is it out there?
Applications, Acceptance Rates, and Big Decisions
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Nov 14, 2007
Hi Folks,
It's been a while since we checked in here on the Editor's Blog. Winter is creeping up on us, which means application season for prospective LL.M. students. So, like last year, we'll be posting some of the upcoming application deadlines for US and UK law schools (and possibly others) in the LLM News section over the next week or so.
Some of you may even be undecided about whether to drop what you're doing to go get an LL.M. A few bloggers have tackled that age-old "To LL.M. or Not to LL.M." question over the last several months, including Law and Letters, TaxProf (two short posts: 1 and 2), and Andrew Hammel.
Speaking of admissions, we've come across this attempt to calculate acceptance rates at LL.M. programs at some of the top law schools in the United States. We're always interested to see new statistics and reports about LL.M. programs, simply because the big education magazines rarely dedicate much coverage to them. We're certainly not used to seeing quantitative spreadsheets like this.
The LL.M. student blogging on our site has been slower this year, although Ricey has given us a few nice posts from Harvard Law School, and for a while, one could count on shockresist for a candid and funny snapshot of student life in Beijing. But even if you're only now just applying to LL.M. programs for next year (that's right, Class of 2009!), it would be great to hear from you, too. There are dozens of MBA bloggers who start posting before they've even mailed their first application. LL.M. students face many of the same decisions – to go back to school, which school, etc.
Anyway, until next time, best of luck with the applications!
Take care,
Maren
Another Exciting Year Begins
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Jul 23, 2007
Hi, everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the summer. Some of you who are starting an LL.M. this Fall have already made the trip to your respective schools for summer law and language courses. I wish you all the best as you get settled in for an exciting year.Let me start this post off (once again) by thanking Ivan, Tmalmine, Droit (and the others) for their blogging this year. I know I'm not alone in describing their efforts as heroic. A read through Tmalmine's candid One Day in My Life, Droit's informative JOBS, the BAR EXAM and the THESIS, and Ivan's epic Season Finale and you'll see what I mean. I hope they keep us posted where they end up in the coming months.
If you're looking to pursue an LL.M., you can read all the law school brochures and rankings you want, but really, what's more insightful than an honest, down-to-earth, personal account from people who are actually doing it themselves?
So, here comes the predictable, not-so-subtle appeal to other LLM-bound folks to consider posting some of your impressions and experiences this year on LLM GUIDE Blogs. Harvard-bound Ricey has already kicked things off for the Class of 2008.
The blogs on this site get thousands of reads a month, mostly by people who are either also doing an LL.M. or hoping to do one in the near future. A periodic blog post is a great way to support the active community and knowledge sharing we've tried to foster here on this website.
If you have any questions about blogging, or anything else about our site, don't hesitate to get in touch.
Until next time, take care!
Maren
Law School Rankings
By Maren[LLM GUIDE] in Editor's Blog on Apr 7, 2007
Hi, everyone! Spring is finally here, and I hope all is going well with your LL.M. programs or applications. We've really enjoyed the blog posts and discussion threads in recent weeks. As is the case each spring when law school decisions start coming in, the discussion board makes for lively reading.
As you may know by now, the US News and World Report published their famous Law School Rankings for 2008 at the end of March. Although these rankings tend to reflect more on J.D. programs than LL.M. programs, prospective LLMs still like to know where their favorite schools stand among top US law schools. Still, the whole business of ranking law schools remains somewhat controversial.
In a recent discussion board thread, Ivan2006, also one of the bloggers on LLM GUIDE, pointed out an interesting article over at the Social Science Research Network, which dissects the methodology of US News rankings.
For those looking for a second opinion on US law schools (other than the US News rankings, that is) there's also the Leiter's Law School Rankings website, run by University of Texas professor Brian Leiter, as well as the Hylton Rankings, compiled by J. Gordon Hylton of Marquette University. And if you want to browse rankings for schools outside of the United States, you can find a few links here.
Until next time,
Maren
