JOINT JD/LLM DEGREE

Some students know early on in law school that they wish to specialize in a particular area of law. For those qualified students, The John Marshall Law School offers the joint JD/LLM program in:

• employee benefits   
• information technology   
• intellectual property   
• international business and trade   
• real estate   
• tax

The program builds upon John Marshall's relatively broad base of required courses-both in substantive areas and in skills training-to permit students to specialize in one of six areas of law, without giving up the benefits of a traditional legal education.

Joint degree students are permitted to apply the first ten credit hours satisfactorily completed in the LLM program toward the 90 credits required for the JD degree. Thus, joint degree students, in most circumstances, will be able to complete the requirements of both programs with 104 credit hours (80 JD + 24 LLM). A JD student must have at least a 2.5 grade point average, and must have completed 30 credit hours to be considered for admission to the joint degree program.

Each of the joint JD/ LLM programs has different qualifications beyond these minimum requirements. Interested students should meet with the director of the program they wish to enter. With quality counseling and careful planning, JD students can complete coursework that enables them to participate in LLM courses on a par with the lawyer students.

The completion of a joint JD/LLM degree program will not only provide an in-depth educational experience in a particular area of the law, but it will allow law students to distinguish themselves from other recent graduates in order to compete successfully for jobs. John Marshall offers its students a joint JD/LLM, JD/MBA (in conjunction with Dominican University), JD/MPA and JD MA (in conjunction with Roosevelt University).

Why a Graduate Degree in Law?

Well trained lawyers who have experience with graduate degree programs know it is difficult to cover more than the bare fundamentals of an area within the time limits of a BA or JD program. This limitation, in addition to the need to further develop knowledge and skills in a particular field, makes graduate study increasingly important and attractive for students.

In 1998, John Marshall began offering MS degrees. All John Marshall graduate programs are open to qualified applicants either as a comprehensive curriculum, leading to a graduate degree, or as individual courses, benefiting the practicing professional. Each of the programs is designed to give specialized training in a certain discipline.