LLM's offer specialized legal education to lawyers who either want to change their field of practice or expand their education in the field in which they already practice. Prospective LLM seekers should consider the course of study they are interested in when determining where they want to pursue their LLM. They might specialize in popular areas, such as tax law or environmental law. Other areas include international law, human rights law and corporate governance.
Taxation law is one of the most popular subjects of study for lawyers pursuing LLM's. According to U.S. News and World Report, the top ten specialized programs for tax law are, in order, New York University, Georgetown University, University of Florida, Northwestern University, University of Miami, Boston University, University of San Diego, Harvard University, Loyola Marymount University and University of Michigan, all of which offer LLM degrees. Many other law schools offer well-regarded programs including University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Loyola University, University of Denver and Villanova University.
A burgeoning field of interest, LLMs focusing on environmental law have become increasingly popular. U.S. News has listed the top ten programs specializing in environmental law as University of Vermont, Lewis and Clark College at Northwestern, University of California at Berkeley, Pace University, Florida State University, Georgetown University, University of Colorado at Boulder, Stanford University, University of Oregon, New York University and University of Maryland.
While international law is a different kind of specialization in that it focuses on international treaties agreements, and organizations rather than law that is enforceable through a court of justice, it has become a popular field due to the increase in international trade, multinational corporations, humanitarian issues and other issues of international concern. LLM programs in international law vary widely in the types of approaches they take. New York University, which tops the U.S. News list for the best international law programs, for example, offers an LLM in international business regulation, litigation and arbitration. The other top ten schools include Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, Yale, George Washington University, Michigan, American University, University of Virginia, and Duke University.
Many other subjects of specialization remain popular and various schools offer LLM degrees in those areas. Stanford University, for example, offers an LLM in corporate governance and practice. Harvard and Northwestern both offer LLM's in human rights law. LLM seekers can study criminal law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, which, like American University, also offers an LLM in Constitutional Law. Intellectual property LLM's are also popular and are offered at Boston University, Stanford, U.C.--Berkeley and George Washington University.
A number of universities in countries other than the U.S. also offer LLM degrees. Although they will not enable foreign lawyers to sit the bar in the U.S., they provide legal learning that might not be available at U.S. universities. The University of London, for example, offers LLM degrees in commercial law, intellectual property, tax law, international business law and legal theory. Utrecht University in the Netherlands offers programs in English that lead to LLM's in European law, public international law, and international law of human rights and criminal justice.