Should I get an LLM?

[RedLantern]

I'm considering getting my LLM after I graduate (2010). I'm thinking about taxation or estate planning. It seems like a lot more people have one in taxation than estate planning but I am probably more interested in estate planning than taxation, but the University of Washington offers it in taxation and I would really like to go back home and end up working there. Does anyone have an LLM or could comment on the usefulness of one?

 

[DNW]

Why don't you worry about it in late 2009 or early 2010?

 

[Connemara]

Bad idea: JD Really bad idea: LMM

 

[crazyquik]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Bad idea: JD
Really bad idea: LMM

Especially because the Legum Magister is abbreviated with two Ls

I only see three reasons to get an LLM:

1 - tax - most useful, simply because of the nature of tax law

2 - international - only useful if you actually plan to be a cross-border transactional lawyer (because let's face it, that's what the majority of "international" lawyers do; buying oil fields in third world countries, not human rights/NGO stuff)

3 - "I want to be a professor but I couldn't get an SJD" -

The LLM will certainly beef up your academic credentials if you want to be a professor. It will give you more time (and free resources) to publish something that matters (like a book, or several articles, or a study, or one really really good article). I think it's probably useless if you want to be a litigator, and mostly-useless for most transactional lawyers.

 

[mr. magoo]

Sort of depends on your prospects for ending up in the Pacific NW without one. There aren't a ton of Washington jobs and there's a fair amount of demand, so unless you're getting serious nibbles from shops out there, it might be useful to have a local degree and use the connections. Moreover, a tax LLM is a bankable degree, unlike say a LLM in Constitutional Law or something.

 

[JoelF]

If you absolutely want to do tax, probably worthwhile. Otherwise no, since you have a U.S. JD.

Originally Posted by Connemara

Bad idea: JD
Really bad idea: LMM

Better idea: Learn to spell.

Best idea: Comment on things you know something about.

 

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by JoelF

If you absolutely want to do tax, probably worthwhile. Otherwise no, since you have a U.S. JD. Better idea: Learn to spell. Best idea: Comment on things you know something about.
a.) I r stoopid b.) Derrrrrr

 

[DNW]

Originally Posted by Connemara

a.) I r stoopid b.) Derrrrrr
Sigged! P.S. there's something wrong with the sigging page in User CP.