UK LLB to American law school?

Hi,

So there are actually a number of different ways to qualify in the US.
Firstly, you don't qualify in the US per say, you qualify in a state - most likely international students it will be New York or California.

Secondly, you can do you LLB here and then pursue a recognise LLM in the US before taking a state bar exam. Or you can do your LLB here and then a JD in the US and then take the state bar exam.

It is possible to do courses through providers like BARBRI which prepare you for a state bar exam without having a degree from the US - however, you will likely need a UK common law degree.

There are unis like KCL, LSE, UCL which do joint LLB-JD programmes normally with Columbia / Georgetown but these are highly competitive and are based on your first-year grades. This will, however, put you in good stead to practice in the US.

If you go into corporate la some law firms down the line might sponsor you to take a bar exam if you wanted to relocate once qualified but this is very rare.

Hope this helps!

Thank you very much, this was immensely useful. I applied to KCL too so that's great. Just to clarify, if I do my LLB then pursue an LLM, how much extra time would I be spending studying? In terms of time that I wouldn't of spent studying if I qualified from the get-go in the US.

An LLM in the US is typically 1 - 2 years and then a bar preparation course is an intensive summer-ish long course

My apologies, ive phrased this very poorly. It was my understanding you had to complete the equivalent of a UK undergraduate before starting law school in America. So if I do my LLB here and then spend 2 years doing an LLM, obviously I've spent 5 years studying. If I did everything in America ie American degree, how long would I spend in total studying?

If you obtained both degrees in the US, then it would take you seven (7) years, which does not include the time you will spend studying for the Bar Exam for whichever state (most likely Cali or NY) you sit the bar exam.

Any undergraduate degree is 4 years in the US, unless you take summer classes every year or take more than 17 credits per semester. To be considered a fulltime undergrad you have to take between 12 - 17(or more) credits/semester.

Typically in order to graduate with your undergrad degree (in the US) you will need to accumulate 120 credits total, you do the math.

Also consider that most well-regarded US unis yearly tuition fees are $55K-$67K. That is fees only, this does not include accommodation or food etc.

Then if your grades are good enough and you are competitive academically you can apply to one of the T14 Law Schools, which will make you competitive for the top corporate jobs. However beware Law School in the US are Hunger Games like; everyone wants (a considerable amount of your cohort) will wants those associate positions commanding circa $170K in starting salary.

Regards,

What age do you generally enter university as an undergrad? And how long is Law School?

Quick question, do you have to wait till you graduate from the LLB before applying to US law schools or can you apply right before your third year starts? (So that you don’t have to take a gap year between undergrad and law school)

Yes, you can apply before you get your degree. Consider the following link as a guide:


https://www.nesl.edu/blog/detail/the-complete-law-school-admissions-timeline-and-checklist

Thank you so much for the link! It’s incredibly helpful. Did you also apply to law school in the US? If so, how did you find the whole process?