Berkeley to Offer Two-Summer LL.M. Program for International Students

The University of California’s law school at Berkeley is offering a new accelerated summer LL.M. program that will allow international law students to take the state bar exam after two summers of study.

Professor Andrew Guzman, who will become chair of the school’s graduate programs this July, told the Recorder that in many nations lawyers can’t win promotion without a degree from a law school in another country. "There's an enormous line of qualified people with law degrees from outside the U.S. who are eager to get a law degree from the U.S.," he said.

Asked to comment on the idea, Dean Nell Newton of Hastings College of Law told the Recorder it may be a good way for law schools to make extra money. "It's a really interesting idea," he said. He said business schools are already way ahead of law schools with their executive MBA programs.