St. John’s School of Law: Preparing Lawyers for Global Practice

NYC is not only a global cultural, entertainment, media and financial capital, it is also the home of the United Nations.What better place to study international law?

The Law School's Center for International and Comparative Law serves as a focal point for preparing students for practice in a globalizing legal profession, using litigation, transactional, and regulatory advisory skills. As a student you can become involved through symposia, research projects, the CICL Student Fellows Program, and two international law journals, the St. John’s Journal of International and Comparative Law  and the New York International Law Review.

The Law School’s global curriculum is designed to provide St. John’s J.D. and LL.M. students with a broad exposure to the practice of law in a transnational setting and the opportunity to explore diverse legal systems across the globe. At its core, the global programs curriculum includes courses in international and comparative law taught by St. John’s faculty members with expertise in the area. Building from this base, St. John’s offers innovative programs that are designed to prepare law students for actual international legal practice:

• Students participating in our summer study abroad programs spend four weeks studying international and comparative law at St. John’s campuses in Rome and Paris.

• In the NATO Practicum, students spend a semester working and studying as part of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation staff in Belgium.

• Students in Transactions in Emerging Markets travel to Eastern Europe with their professor for meetings with leading policymakers, businesspeople, and attorneys.
   
• Skills courses such as Drafting International Contracts and International Legal Research provide the practical tools for a globalizing profession.

The School of Law also offers three Masters of Law (LL.M.) degrees primarily related to the globalization of legal practice:

• An LL.M. in U.S. Legal Studies for Foreign Law School Graduates that prepares foreign attorneys to take the New York Bar Exam
   
• An LL.M. in International and Comparative Sports Law, a degree jointly administered with Spain’s Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economía (ISDE), where students study in NYC (in English) and then are placed in work-study semesters with a sports team, league, or other sports law institution in the U.S. or around the world
   
• An LL.M. in Transnational Legal Practice for lawyers seeking to deepen their knowledge of cross-border transactions, international litigation, public international law practice, or another field of international or comparative law.

Please contact the Law School’s Office of Transnational Programs for more information about the J.D. and LL.M. curricula and program offerings in international and comparative law.