Northwestern U. Law Review Colloquy on Admitting Foreign LL.M.s to the Bar

Posted by Alan Childress

The Northwestern University Law Review now publishes an on-line Colloquy as well, linked here, and has just posted an interesting piece by Northwestern’s Carole Silver {left} and Mayer Freed {below right}.  It is entitled, “Translating the U.S. LLM Experience: The Need for a Comprehensive Examination.”  An abstract is below the fold.  As summarized by Colloquy editor Mark Spottswood:

The authors discuss the present status of legal education for foreign students of U.S. law, focusing especially on the ways that the U.S. bar examination system may fail to meet the needs of both foreign LLM students and their future employers.  They then discuss an alternative: a comprehensive examination on United States law for foreign lawyers.

The authors’ introduction serves as a fuller abstract:

The process of globalization has generated increasing interest in United States law.  One consequence of this interest is the development of a new market for U.S. legal education:  foreign nationals, both those who have previously studied law and those who are licensed to practice law in their home countries.  These students frequently seek to gain fluency in U.S. law by enrolling in U.S. law school LLM programs.  This essay will discuss the mismatch between the career interests of LLM graduates and the state bar licensing systems in which they participate, and will propose a unique comprehensive examination tailored to meet the needs of foreign LLMs.

The Colloquy acts like a blog in the sense that Comments are welcome at their site.