Master of Laws (LLM)

The LLM is how a nationally trained lawyer becomes internationally legible. Law graduates use the year to specialise — international commercial law, arbitration, technology and data law, human rights — and to add a respected foreign credential to a home qualification. For Indian law graduates, an LLM from a leading school is an established route into international firms and arbitration practice.

Choose by specialism and faculty, not by brand alone: an LLM is taught through seminars with the professors who write the field's literature, and the value is concentrated in exactly that contact.

A specialist postgraduate law degree, taken for depth in one field rather than as a route to qualification.

• A bachelor's degree in law, or a related degree with substantial legal content. Some programmes accept a non-law degree with relevant professional experience.
• English proficiency at a high level; the reading volume is considerable.
• A statement naming the specialism — international commercial, human rights, tax, intellectual property, maritime.
• Professional experience valued, and required by a minority of programmes.
• No entrance examination in most cases.

An LLM is a specialisation, not a licence. It does not by itself qualify you to practise in the country where you study — that is a separate process with its own examinations, and assuming otherwise is a common and costly error.

Most useful for lawyers deepening a specialism or moving into international practice, rather than as an entry qualification.

• Specialist practice within a firm — the most common purpose of the degree.
• International arbitration and cross-border transactions.
• In-house counsel roles requiring a specific expertise.
• International organisations, tribunals and non-governmental organisations, particularly from human rights and public international routes.
• Compliance and regulatory leadership.
• Academia and doctoral study, for which the LLM is the usual step.

For a qualified lawyer this is a genuine specialisation and a route into international work. For a fresh graduate it adds knowledge but not practising rights — and the professional qualification is still the thing employers require.

One year, almost entirely elective, built around a chosen specialism and finishing with a dissertation.

• A specialist track — international commercial law, human rights, tax, intellectual property, corporate governance, maritime, arbitration.
• Comparative and international law, and the interaction between legal systems.
• Advanced legal research and writing to publication standard.
• Dispute resolution — arbitration and mediation, often with practical exercises.
• Seminar-based teaching in small groups, which is where the value sits.
• A dissertation on a specialised question.

The specialism should follow from where you intend to work. A human rights LLM and a tax LLM lead to entirely different careers, and the year is too short to hedge.