LLM Student Life
This section presents a typical LLM experience as a student would encounter it throughout the year.
At the time of admission in the spring, accepted applicants are notified first by e-mail that they have been offered admission. The admission materials arrive shortly thereafter and include lists of current students and detailed information about housing so that prospective students can communicate with people who have first-hand knowledge of Chicago. Once the LLM class for the following academic year has been set, members of the class will be sent email addresses of their classmates so they can begin contact with each other. In July, the Law School will send two publications: the Career Services Handbook for LLM Students (this will help students prepare for finding practical training experience in this country if they wish to do that) and The Constitution of the United States: A Primer for the People (this introduction to some elements of American law and government was written by Professor David Currie of the Law School).
In late September, a week before classes begin in the Autumn Quarter, there are a series of orientation events and presentations. These are designed to introduce LLM students to certain aspects of American law and legal education, and to provide opportunities for LLM students to get to know each other, members of the faculty and students in the JD Program. There are also several presentations by the Office of Career Services for students who intend to look for internships with American firms. The events include several dinners, an LLM night at a baseball game, a boat ride on Lake Michigan, a picnic, and a visit to a comedy club. Also part of orientation is the Law School's first Wine Mess (a weekly Friday afternoon gathering for drinks, snacks, and conversation), which features tables with representatives from the Law School's political, social, musical, and service student organizations.
Unlike many other law schools, Chicago does not have registration in the spring prior to the following academic year. This means that LLM students will register during orientation, the same time all JD students register. This also means that LLM students will be able to get advice - often conflicting! - from other students and faculty about courses before they have to register. There are no specific courses which LLM students are required to take at Chicago, nor are there courses they may not take. LLM students often put together course and seminar schedules that reflect certain practice specialties such as corporate/securities, intellectual property, antitrust/regulation of business, or commercial transactions among others. Most, however, add other offerings in areas like constitutional law, legal theory, law & economics, and comparative law to round out their academic experience.
The first week of each academic quarter is a "shopping period" where students may sample a variety of classes and seminars before selecting the ones that will make up their final schedule. The typical LLM schedule of three courses per quarter will have nine 65-minute classes spread from Monday through Friday.
In the Autumn or Winter Quarters, many students take an optional writing course designed specifically for LLM students. The purpose of the course is to provide an understanding of the U.S. legal process and the fundamental writing, oral, and analytical skills that might be useful in interactions with U.S. lawyers and U.S. clients. This class introduces basic legal skills, such as effective legal writing, including the structure of legal memoranda and correspondence, and persuasive oral advocacy. But the core of the course is on writing itself. The idea is both to offer the opportunity to write in English and to receive appropriate feedback, and then also to learn that which is peculiar to American legal writing. So as to encourage students to take this skills class, and alleviate any concerns that some will be disadvantaged if their English is weaker than that of other LLM students, this class is graded on a pass/fail basis.
During the first week of the Autumn Quarter, the LLM Committee, a group of interested JD students, hosts a dinner to introduce LLM students to JD mentors who will be available throughout the year to provide advice, answer questions and participate in social activities with LLM students. Although the Law School is small enough that LLM and JD students will see each other on a regular basis both in and out of class, this mentoring program helps to set that process in motion. One Wine Mess in October usually has an international theme and includes a football (we call it soccer!) match between LLM and JD teams and some other contests to bring the two student communities together.
With a LLM Program of about 50 students, people find it easy to develop friendships and study or socialize together. An electronic list-serve gives each LLM student access to all students in the Program. Parties, dinners and other more informal social activities are often planned and organized through the list-serve. Many LLM students get together for lunch in the Law School's Green Lounge since there are no scheduled classes for an hour and a half starting at noon each week day. This time is also used by student organizations for extracurricular lectures, debates and meetings.
About midway through the Autumn Quarter, the staff of the library has workshops for LLM students on research techniques.
LLM students participate in social activities beyond the Law School community. The famous campus Halloween Party, organized in late October each year by law and business graduate students from Belgium, draws students from all over the University. There are several annual social events with students in the LLM Program at Northwestern University School of Law: a skating party, a reception, and a soccer match. A major Chicago law firm hosts the LLM students for a presentation about firm practice in this country. For more information on the broader arts and culture opportunities available to LLM students, please go here.
The four-day weekend of Thanksgiving in late November marks the beginning of the "examination season" at the Law School. Since most LLM students cannot return home for the weekend like many of the JD students, there is a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the LLM students at the home of Assistant Dean Richard Badger. Autumn Quarter examinations end around December 10 and most LLM students celebrate with last minute holiday shopping in Chicago before returning home or traveling during the three-week vacation.
The Winter Quarter brings a new set of courses and seminars. Many LLM students participate in an employer interview program in New York City in late January. Social events during the quarter include the Law School auction (where students and faculty put up various goods and services for bid), the Over-the-Hump Party (a gathering at one of Chicago's many clubs to mark the half-way point of the year) and the musical show (a student organized production with several surprise faculty performers). Throughout the year, the Law Students Association (the student government which includes an LLM representative) organizes subsidized trips to Chicago theaters and professional sporting events. The quarter ends with examinations in March and a 10-day vacation which many JD and LLM students take in the warmer parts of America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The academic pace in the Spring Quarter quickens. Papers for seminars and workshops begun earlier in the year become due around May 15. LLM students along with JD students who wish to may take early examinations during the reading period to maximize the time they will have to prepare for bar examinations. A bar review course for New York is offered at the Law School through July, and most of the LLM students taking the New York examination prepare in Chicago. Major social events during the quarter include a formal dance, a dinner for all graduating JD and LLM students, a Law School talent show, and a picnic for LLM students and their families at a professor's home the night before graduation in June.