Law in the US

vanillar0se

N/A

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Because...?

I'm not convinced that's true. What evidence are you basing that assertion on?

Reply 2

vanillar0se

Hi, the point of this post was for studying abroad and if anyone had any knowledge of studying Law in the US!
I have reasons of my own and wish to know more about it, thanks.

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

To answer your question, both you and other people need to understand the question you're asking and why you're asking it.

The phrasing of your question and subsequent responses suggests you haven't done much, if any research into this. You can apply to a JD with a first (non-law) degree from the UK. You can work as a lawyer in the US without a JD, if you have a foreign law degree (e.g. LLB), in certain states; two allow you to directly take the bar exam, to my knowledge. You can do an LLM in the US after doing a foreign law degree to qualify in some other states. There are some LLB-JD courses in the UK, where you earn both degrees with internal agreements (finance not guaranteed).

As noted above, finance is prohibitive if you insist on the case of doing both degrees there. There is almost no financial aid for international students in the US unless you are applying to need-blind colleges. These are also the most competitive and well known colleges in the US, and attract exceptional applicants from around the world - by way of comparison, Harvard, one need-blind college, tends to have an admit rate of about 5%, while Cambridge here has an average of 20% across all it's undergrad courses (I think law is about 15%). The alternative is applying to sports scholarships, and you would probably need to be an Olympic hopeful to be a realistic prospect for more than a small partial scholarship. They also look for very different things in applicants than UK universities do - simply doing very well academically is not sufficient to get into the "top" colleges, which are all the need-blind ones. Graduate funding is even more limited generally, although there are a few UK-US programmes which provide scholarships - these are extremely competitive.

Beyond that, there is no automatic right of work in the US after completing any number of degrees there (although I believe it's easier than for international students in the UK). Unless you are literally able to spend half a million dollars on education in the US and be able to sort something out if you can't get a green card and work there after graduating, there are probably better routes to just "working in law in the US". However, depending on why you want to work in the legal sector in the US (or why you think you want to), you may find better alternatives that suit your preferences in other countries, or even in the UK anyway.

If you aren't able to answer very basic questions about your motivation to study in the US and understanding of the legal system you purport is preferable, that doesn't bode well...