The Master of Laws program is designed for students who wish to take full advantage of NYU’s extraordinarily wide range of course offerings and the diverse research interests of our faculty. Candidates pursuing the Master of Laws have the freedom to choose courses that match their intellectual interests. Of course, this does not mean that they need to abandon their specialized career goals in corporate, international, trade or other fields. For instance, students in this program can still take a good number of international classes while sampling classes in other areas. Students also have the option of expanding a typical research assignment into a master’s thesis, culminating their training with a significant scholarly work.
Focus on Curriculum
Our professors challenge students to explore different approaches to the very manner in which law is conceived, legal process is perceived, and the world of legal practice is understood. Students in the Master of Laws program draw on truly remarkable curricular diversity, taking courses from Constitutional Law to Corporations, from International Business Transactions to International Human Rights Law, from Economic Analysis of Law to Environmental and Energy Law, from Criminal Law to Legal Philosophy, and from Intellectual Property to International Criminal Law. A quick search of our online course descriptions is enough to whet anyone’s appetite.
Future business lawyers can earn the Advanced Certificate in Law and Business from the NYU Stern School of Business in conjunction with the LLM degree. Starting two months before the LLM, this certificate program provides graduate business school training to equip law students with the tools necessary to understand the finance and accounting that underlie the transactions and business structures they design as lawyers.
Sorting through all of these options can be challenging. Accordingly, the Office of Graduate Affairs and Law School faculty members invest a great deal of effort in advising LLM students on how to go about creating their own intellectually stimulating program.
More Opportunities
All LLM students are invited to take advantage of the Law School’s tremendous variety of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. In addition to student groups, there are lectures, workshops, field trips, internships, fellowships, career events, and social activities.
Some of these activities are tightly integrated with our academic programs. For example, after admission some students apply for the Transitional Justice Leadership Program. This selective program, which is pursued in conjunction with the LLM degree, provides students guaranteed enrollment in two of the core courses offered annually in this area, and the opportunity to undertake a related, academic-year internship with a New York international organization or NGO.
Programs and events aimed specifically at master’s students are coordinated by the Office of Graduate Affairs and there are even more opportunities in the larger Law School community.