Hey everyone,

I have to choose among College of Europe LLM, Oxford MJur and LSE llm.
I want to practice competition law in Brussels.
I know the College of Europe is very very focussed and specific and gives you the possibility to work in prestigious law firms in Brussels.
The kind of preparation Bruges gives is very technical and very specific for the job you will be doing afterwards.
The subjects you can find in bruges aren't available anywhere else and there is a very specific expertise in every area of eu law.
On the other hand, according to some opinions i've heard, the CoE has maybe lost a bit of its prestige in the last 10 years, but these are just opinions.

Oxford has on its side the worldwide brand name, the academic excellence, and, well, oxford is oxford.
Oxford would also give me the possibility to have direct experience of a Common Law system, and definitely to improve my english almost up to a mothertongue level.
Oxford would also give me a better possibility to move away from brussels if I were to understand it doesn't suit me anymore.
On the other hand oxford seems not to be that well recognised by recruiters in Brussels, especially for competition law, despite the department of competition studies and professor Ezrachi working there.
Finally oxford's LLM has a reputation for being absolutely excellent for academia but a bit less interesting for somone who wants to practice as a lawyer immediately after the masters.
LSE has a very strong brand name as well, but it doesn't have such e great reputation for competition law.

Any opinions on the subject??

Hey everyone,

I have to choose among College of Europe LLM, Oxford MJur and LSE llm.
I want to practice competition law in Brussels.
I know the College of Europe is very very focussed and specific and gives you the possibility to work in prestigious law firms in Brussels.
The kind of preparation Bruges gives is very technical and very specific for the job you will be doing afterwards.
The subjects you can find in bruges aren't available anywhere else and there is a very specific expertise in every area of eu law.
On the other hand, according to some opinions i've heard, the CoE has maybe lost a bit of its prestige in the last 10 years, but these are just opinions.

Oxford has on its side the worldwide brand name, the academic excellence, and, well, oxford is oxford.
Oxford would also give me the possibility to have direct experience of a Common Law system, and definitely to improve my english almost up to a mothertongue level.
Oxford would also give me a better possibility to move away from brussels if I were to understand it doesn't suit me anymore.
On the other hand oxford seems not to be that well recognised by recruiters in Brussels, especially for competition law, despite the department of competition studies and professor Ezrachi working there.
Finally oxford's LLM has a reputation for being absolutely excellent for academia but a bit less interesting for somone who wants to practice as a lawyer immediately after the masters.
LSE has a very strong brand name as well, but it doesn't have such e great reputation for competition law.

Any opinions on the subject??

OXFORD for God!!!

CoE is just a place for Europeans and do not guarantee anything that Oxford would not.

Come on!

can you not do both ie. defer one, so you do one now and do one later the following year...... having both on your cv would be immense.

i've studied at CoE and Im currently doing the LLM at Cambridge (boohoo I know), so i can give you some incite. in deciding where to go, you should consider the following factors:

1. are you a qualified lawyer already? If yes, then do heavily consider CoE, there are plethora of jobs for qualified lawyers in Brussels in Competition Law, (as opposed to non-qualified lawyers) and the law firms do heavily recruit from the CoE. They even come on campus, for the interview selection. It also helps if you have some legal work experience as well.

2. How good is your english, and do you speak another language? Good english is needed to work in a Brussels Law firm, despite being in Belgium, all the work in conducted in English. If you speak french, german or another top european langauge then you stand a good chance, because there is lot of competition work coming in from these countries,

3. What nationality are you? Some countries ie French, Germany, Italy, regard the CoE very highly. In the UK, for example, no one could give a toss about the CoE.

4. Oxford is a top notch uni, so can't really go wrong in going there, but in my opinion, go there if you want to (a) work in london or (b) go back to your home country after the masters. This is where the MJur will be most useful.

5. Degree wise, name wise, they are both excellent, obviously Oxford has the universal brand recognition, and when you will say Oxford people stand and listen. But the question you need to ask yourself is where do you want to practice after your masters.

6. Also note Oxford provides two law masters: the BCL and the MJUR. Again, whilst both are world class, the BCL is more highly regarded than MJur,

If i were you, I would try to do both, then again people think i'm a freak for doing two......

Hi I'm more or less in the same situation...

I would like to be a competition law lawyer in Brussels and I was accepted in ox, LSE and other uk universities. I also applied to COE but I gave up before their decision when I got accepted in ox.

COE surely has a program of great quality but comming from belgium I prefered going abroad.

It also is an opportunity to improve my knowledge of english which is very important for competition law lawyers.

I think it can be interesting when you come from civil law countries to go to a common law one.

Moreover as you said oxford is oxford. When you speak to people who aren't lawyers they often never heard about COE.

Hope to see you there ;-)

Well, I am not a yet fully qualified lawyer, I speak english rather well, even though oxford could make me improve to a totally new level, and I have already been practising competition law for more than a year both at dg comp and at a top 3 law firm in brussels.
I would rather think of an US llm after either oxford or bruges, and only if necessary, for example in case it is required for the partnership in a us firm.
Pursuing my full qualification as a lawyer is the reason why I have turned down an offer from U of Virginia and I will eventually turn down also an offer from U of Chicago.
I also speak two other eu languages.
Finally, as I said, I want to work in Brussels, and oxford is sometimes a bit less recognised by hiring officers in there, whereas oxford would also give me the possibility to aim for the UK if I were eventually to get tired of brussels.

Thanks sheikbaron, your insights are particularly useful. As I want to practice as a lawyer I think doing two masters in Europe would mean becoming a bit overqualified, and hiring officers usually beware of overqualified people, because they show a bit of hesitation to start with actual work and also, but not only, because they are sometimes too expensive.
Thank you all very much for your two cents of thought, any kind of perspective is useful to help me make my choice more carefully.

Just to say that my opinion is that oxford is not less recognised by law firms in brussels. On the contrary the different partners to whom I spoke advised top uk/us universities.

Hey!

Both are great!

I'm currently doing an internship in competition law in a top american law firm.... everyone has been to the CoE or the States or even both.

I've met several partners from law firms specialising in competition law and they all prefere the CoE because of the unique education you get there.

If you want to do competition law in Brussels, then I guess the CoE is the best, although I'm pretty sure they would also hire you with a degree from Oxford.

Hard choice!

Hi everyone I wanted to ask about the probability of deferral to Coe as I have done their interview and still haven't recieved their final decision. I have been accepted in an Ivy League university in the US and wanted to get your opinion.

Hey everyone,

I have to choose among College of Europe LLM, Oxford MJur and LSE llm.
I want to practice competition law in Brussels.
I know the College of Europe is very very focussed and specific and gives you the possibility to work in prestigious law firms in Brussels.
The kind of preparation Bruges gives is very technical and very specific for the job you will be doing afterwards.
The subjects you can find in bruges aren't available anywhere else and there is a very specific expertise in every area of eu law.
On the other hand, according to some opinions i've heard, the CoE has maybe lost a bit of its prestige in the last 10 years, but these are just opinions.

Oxford has on its side the worldwide brand name, the academic excellence, and, well, oxford is oxford.
Oxford would also give me the possibility to have direct experience of a Common Law system, and definitely to improve my english almost up to a mothertongue level.
Oxford would also give me a better possibility to move away from brussels if I were to understand it doesn't suit me anymore.
On the other hand oxford seems not to be that well recognised by recruiters in Brussels, especially for competition law, despite the department of competition studies and professor Ezrachi working there.
Finally oxford's LLM has a reputation for being absolutely excellent for academia but a bit less interesting for somone who wants to practice as a lawyer immediately after the masters.
LSE has a very strong brand name as well, but it doesn't have such e great reputation for competition law.

Any opinions on the subject??