Sciences Po Master en Droit

Graduate School Law School
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<p>Hello Everyone,</p>

<p>I'm an American student considering law school but nervous about the costs/job market in the US. I'm considering applying for the (very new!) masters of law at Sciences Po. It was only started in 2007, so I was wondering whether anyone has experience with it, whether it's a strong program, what admissions expectations are like, etc...?</p>

<p>Also, I suppose the next step would be to come back stateside and do a one-year LLM. What are my chances, after studying at Sciences Po, of getting into a top program?</p>

<p>Any thoughts would be much appreciated!</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Except for a few exceptions (e.g. CA Baby Bar), you need to get a JD if you want to practice in the US.</p>

<p>LLMs are usually worthless (except for a few Tax LLMs and those still won’t get you past a bad JD institution).</p>

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<p>Hm, but I know you qualify for the New York bar with an LLM as a foreign student, as well as in many other states. The states that don’t allow it will usually allow it if you take a few classes in the US along with the LLM.</p>

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<p>Kind of weird and oddly satisfying that you got pwned by the person who asked the question.</p>

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<p>Not hard at all. Just make sure you go to NYU.</p>

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<p>“Not hard at all. Just make sure you go to NYU.”</p>

<p>Getting it from NYU or Georgetown would be ideal.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice, Ivy! What do you think… any chance of BigLaw from this background or is it too dubious? Big firms (Clifford Chance, etc.) recruit from this school for their Paris offices, but I dunno how it would look stateside.</p>

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<p>Big firm recruiting for LLMs at NYU is pretty bad because of the economy. That said, I know many LLMs headed to Davis Polk, Cleary, etc. Some of them, I believe, had jobs at those firms’ European offices before matriculating in the LLM program, so they might have had an NYC offer waiting for them from the start.</p>

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<p>Yes, as a foreign student. You said you were

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<p>Even with a U.S. LLM as a foreign student, you need to have completed the equivalent of a JD before you’re eligible to sit for the bar.</p>

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<p>LLM recipients are eligible to sit for the bar in New York, foreign or American.</p>

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<p>Among other requirements, a foreign-educated lawyer wishing to sit for the NY Bar must “provide satisfactory proof of the following: <a href=“2”>…</a> that the applicant has successfully completed a period of law study in a law school or schools, that is at least substantially equivalent in duration to that required under subdivisions (d) and (e) of section 520.3”.</p>

<p>[Foreign</a> Legal Education](<a href=“http://www.nybarexam.org/foreign/foreignlegaleducation.htm]Foreign”>Foreign Legal Education)</p>

<p>Subdivisions (d) and (e) of section 520.3 define full-time and part-time programs such that a foreign program that meets either definition would have requirements substantially similar to a U.S. JD program.</p>

<p>Please don’t make me continue.</p>

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<p>Butttt… the Sci Po masters is a law degree that qualifies you to take the French bar. It has exchange programs with all the US top JD programs (Harvard, Columbia, Cornell)… doesn’t that, in fact, make it equivalent to the JD?</p>

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<p>There is additionally the requirement “(4) that the jurisprudence of such foreign country is based upon the principles of the English Common Law”.</p>

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<p>That’s why you do the LLM. I know French people who have qualified for the bar and passed after the LLM, but they didn’t do this sci po thing, rather a more traditional program. I guess that is what I am nervous about.</p>

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<p>I think the Sciences Po LLM would fail both the durational and substantive requirements. Doing the U.S. LLM is only permitted to repair one, not both, of the deficiencies.</p>

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<p>Hm, yeah. This is what I feared. I will keep my eye on this, it’s still <em>years</em> away, but thanks for showing me that document. What’s your background, if I may?</p>

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<p>No. Please do! And while you do so, I’ll tell some 600 foreign LLM students at Columbia and NYU that they cannot sit for the NY Bar. Haha, they were even invited and sat in on our bar information sessions. The joke’s on them!!!</p>

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<p>Hey, flowerhead. Earlier you recommended NYU and Georgetown for LLM. I’ve heard that in other places, too. Any reason why those are more attractive for students coming from abroad?</p>

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<p>I hope your professors at NYU don’t care that you have difficulty reading. To help make it clear for you:</p>

<p>(1) Foreign-educated lawyers must have completed a JD-equivalent program
(2) Foreign NYU and Columbia LLM students have completed such a program since that is a prerequisite for admission.
(3) Your “point” about NYU and Columbia LLM students is misguided.</p>

<p>elorica, the NYU and Georgetown tax LLMs are good. NYU is just the best tax LLM in the country, with Georgetown coming in second. If you want a plain LLM, there are other (better) options.</p>

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<p>(1) I never said I’m at NYU.
(2) I know people in the LLM programs at CLS and NYU who have just done the Sciences Po Masters.</p>

<p>u mad?</p>

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<p>I don’t know about the CLS LLM overall, but NYU’s overall LLM program is also good. Though, again many recipients don’t get big firm jobs, it probably boasts the highest percentage placement into big firms out of any LLM (and I’m talking about LLM recipients not in the tax program). In fact, I’m pretty sure most NYU LLMs are not in the tax program.</p>