I was just wondering if anyone would like to recommend any good law schools for LL.M programs that teach US Antitrust law. In general I would prefer a school either in the NY area or somewhere in California, but that is not necessarily a must. Maybe someone has personal experience with a good school?

Thanks!

The University of Chicago is far-ahead the best place to study antitrust.

If you're thinking NY/Cali exclusively, though, NYU has an LL.M in trade regulation, which would be pretty good. Harvard has some good people in the field too.

Despite being the best law school in Cali, Stanford doesn't have a very strong antitrust program

Hey,

thank you for the quick reply! I will definitely look into Chicago. I would expect both NYU and Harvard to, unfortunately, be out of my league, but who knows - right? As a foreign student, I don't know a thing about University of Chicago, so for all I know it might be just as hard as the two other mentioned.

Hey there. If you do some research, you'll see that UofC is the place you should be trying to go to. I'm sure if you ask knowledgeable antitrust practitioners, they'll all know about the Chicago School.

Chicago certainly doesn't have the brand name of Harvard around the world, but it is very famous amongst academics. In particular, the University of Chicago's economics department and law school played a highly significant role in revolutionizing antitrust policy in the 70s and 80s. Many of the world's leading antitrust and law & economics experts are still there - Judge Posner, William Landes, etc.

As betweem the 3 schools you mention, NYU would be far ahead the easiest to get into (though, of course, by no means "easy"). It has a class of 400+ LL.M students. Harvard would be the most difficult. Chicago is tough to get into (it has an LL.M class of only 50, which makes it very competitive)

If you want to learn more about US law schools, check out USNews rankings and Brian Leiter's rankings. Good luck!

NYU has more students but it also receives many more applications. It's not less competitive than Chicago, and is in fact more prestigious. Harvard also has hundreds of LLM's, the number is irrelevant, as many LLM's in NYU program are actually Americans studying International Legal Studies or Tax.

How many applications does NYU get? Chicago gets about 800 each year for 50 spots. NYU would need an awfully large number of applicants to maintain the kind of application:acceptance ratio of Chicago. I'd have a hard time believing it's harder to get into than Chicago. That said, I'm sure NYU does get more applications, given its location in New York and diverse array of offerings.

Harvard's LL.M is much smaller than NYU's. HLS has 150 LL.Ms to NYU's 450. The number is not irrelevant. It's widely acknowledged that Stanford and Yale are far out the hardest LL.M programs to get into - they each enroll in the realm of 30 students each year.

I did my JD at HYS, but I looked into the LL.M programs in some detail (I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do the JD or LL.M - I eventually elected the former). NYU is obviously a great law school. Is it more prestigious than Chicago? I don't know. It's certainly better for international law or tax. It's also higher ranked in US News. But aside from that, Chicago has a superior reputation in many fields. Its placement of graduates into academia and federal clerkships far exceeds NYU. In any event - for antitrust or law & economics - it's a no-brainer. Chicago over all others (and I include Harvard & Yale).

For the original poster - you said you were worried Chicago/NYU might be out of reach. You should consider applying to George Mason Law School - it has an excellent law & economics and antitrust program (I think it has a dedicated LL.M in law & economics)

Indeed because NYU is in New York and because it is more prestigious, it gets many more applications than Chicago, that's a very known fact. I also looked at this in detail. The prestige of NYU in the U.S is the highest possible. Of course Harvard and Yale have their edge in some circles, as in the academia and in the Courts, but for firms NYU (and CLS) have the edge because they're in New York where most of the action is. Once you have 150+ LLM's it's very much the same. This is because NYU has 400 LLM's and at least 150 of them are Americans. The difference between 250 and 150 is not huge. It's also irrelevant. The number of LLM's simply shows how popular the different LLM programs of NYU are - there are different concentrations and each concentration has between 30 - 100 LLM's, which is less than most schools.
It is true that Chicago has some excellent professors in the field of law and economics, but that's only if you're particularly interested in research in this specific subject - it's not relevant for foreign LLM's who want to work or get to know the U.S market so much.

You seem very taken with the prestige of NYU! I assume you're a student/graduate :)

Personally, I wouldn't see any prestige differential between Columbia, NYU and Chicago. In any event, there's no way NYU places better into law firms than Harvard, Stanford or Yale. Anecdotal evidence suggests it (HYS being harder to get into and having better students) and studies prove it:

http://www.leiterrankings.com/jobs/2003job_national.shtml

Also, consider what might be the most relevant part of the US News ranking (the lawyer/judge reputation score):

1. Harvard University (4.8)

1. Stanford University (4.8)

1. Yale University (4.8)

4. Columbia University (4.7)

4. University of Chicago (4.7)

6. New York University (4.6)

6. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (4.6)

6. University of Virginia (4.6)

http://leiterlawschool.typepad.com/leiter/2007/03/us_news_reputat.html

I'm just stating facts.

Leiter rankings 2003?

Look at recent Vault for instance. That's also more "prestigious" :)

http://www.vault.com/lawschool/top25/

NYU number 3, Chicago number 5. Together with U.S News (5 compared to 8, with 85 to 80 points difference) there's really no question about it. Also worldwide it's quite obvious which is known better.

The vault list (that's 2008...):

1
Stanford University Law School
2
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor Law School
3
New York University School of Law
4
University of Virginia School of Law
5
University of Chicago Law School
6
Harvard Law School
7
Columbia Law School
8
University of California, Berkeley - Boalt Hall School of Law
9
Northwestern University School of Law
10
Yale Law School

This debate is getting a little silly. If you think NYU is more prestigious than Harvard and Yale, that's fine. But that's not a view I've ever heard expressed before.

I've seen the Vault list - I'm skeptical, to be honest, of a law ranking that places Yale 10th. Students there take their pick of virtually any firm they want.

Stanford's obviously a top school, but do you think it's the most prestigious in the country?

I don't think NYU is more prestigious than Harvard and Yale. I think Harvard and Yale are obviously more prestigious. NYU is more prestigious than Chicago, that's all I'm saying.