Master of Laws (LL.M.) - Harvard University

Harvard Law School is offering a one-year Master of Law (LL.M.) program. This degree program typically includes 180 students from some 70 countries. The Graduate Program is interested in attracting intellectually curious and thoughtful candidates from a variety of legal systems and backgrounds and with various career plans. 

Harvard’s LL.M. students include lawyers working in firms, government officials, law professors, judges, diplomats, human rights activists, doctoral students, businessmen and women, and others. The diversity of the participants in the LL.M. program contributes significantly to the educational experience of all students at the School.

The philosophy of the LL.M. program is to offer the students a broad platform to design their own course of study within parameters set by the Harvard Law School faculty. Those parameters include some exposure to U.S. law, some writing experience, and, in the case of students who hold a J.D. degree from a school in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, a recommended exposure to legal theory. 

Within this framework, LL.M. students have enormous latitude in planning their year. Interested faculty, the Graduate Program staff, and special student advisors work hard throughout the year to help students identify and refine their study objectives, then develop an appropriate sequence of courses and other work.

Admission Requirements

• Applicant must have either a J.D. from an ABA-approved U.S. law school or a first law degree (e.g. LL.B., abogado, maîtrise, or the equivalent) from a foreign law school.
• If the applicant is in his final year of law studies, he must complete the degree no later than June of the year in which he intends to enroll.
• Please note that while Harvard University does not require work experience or further study beyond law school, they do find that people with two or more years of such experience tend to submit stronger applications and get more out of the LL.M. program.
• All applicants from non-English speaking countries who did not receive their full-time legal education entirely in the English language must take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination within two years prior to submitting their applications. The Graduate Program requires a minimum score of 100 on the internet-based test (with a minimum score of 25 on each subsection).
• Applicants with at least two consecutive years of full-time university education conducted entirely in English may request a waiver of the TOEFL exam; however, such waivers are very rare and are granted at the sole discretion of the Graduate Program.

Course Structure

The philosophy of the LL.M. program is to offer students a broad platform on which to design their own course of study within parameters set by the Harvard Law School faculty. 

All students must satisfactorily complete a minimum of 23 credits and a maximum of 28 credits in one academic year; most students complete between 23 and 25 credits. The foregoing minimum and maximum include the one credit assigned for completion of the portion of the Legal Research, Writing and Analysis course that takes place during Orientation. Students also must satisfy some specific course and written work requirements.

Specific Requirements

International LL.M. students are free to choose their own courses. The only course requirement is that students must take one core course in U.S. law. 

The following courses have been pre-approved for this requirement: 

• Antitrust Law and Economics – U.S., 
• Contracts, 
• Civil Procedure, 
• Constitutional Law, 
• Corporations, 
• Criminal Law, 
• Evidence, 
• Family Law, 
• Legislation and Regulation, 
• Property, 
• Separation of Powers, 
• Taxation, or 
• Torts. 

International students also must write a paper of 25 or more pages that involves independent reflection, formulation of a sustained argument, and, in many cases, outside research. Papers may be written either independently or in conjunction with a seminar. Finally, students are strongly encouraged to take at least one course focusing on legal history, legal theory, policy analysis, or legal process.

For students who hold a J.D. from a law school in the United States or Puerto Rico, and who are hoping to embark on a law teaching career, the emphasis is slightly different. These students have the opportunity to take a step back and relate the doctrinal areas in which they previously concentrated to broader intellectual, social, and cultural traditions and to pursue an extended writing project. Thus, students from the United States and Puerto Rico are strongly encouraged to take at least one course that is primarily focused on legal theory or jurisprudence and are required to write a paper of at least 50 pages in length.

Tuition Fees

Tuition for the 2021-2022 academic year is $67,720; in addition, health insurance and health services fees, the LL.M. activities fee, dental insurance, the costs of housing, food, books and supplies, and personal and travel expenses for a single student come to at least $36,830, for a total of at least $104,550. 

For the 2021-2022 academic year, the standard budget for students with a spouse and/or children calls for at least another $15,600 in living expenses for the spouse and at least $8,400 for each child.

Financial Assistance

Harvard University offers some financial assistance for students at the LL.M. program to help them with their studies. 

All financial aid awards are primarily based on the applicant’s demonstrated financial need. Financial aid is offered in the form of both grants (scholarships) and loans. The average grant is approximately half of tuition; for a small number of students with particularly acute financial needs, the university might be able to offer grants covering full tuition and a portion of living expenses. 

In addition to the grant funds, Harvard University is able to offer students with financial need access to educational loans. Everyone in the LL.M. who demonstrates financial need receives some form of aid, whether as grant, grant & loan, or loan only.

All applicants who wish to apply for financial aid should complete the online financial aid application via the online application home page. 

Because the processes for making admissions and financial aid decisions are completely separate, your application for financial aid will have no impact on your application for admission. In addition, given the funding limitations, prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to seek other sources of funds early in the application process.

Part-Time Positions

In some cases it may be possible for students to undertake part-time paid employment on campus, e.g., working in the Law School Library or as research assistants for faculty members. Generally speaking, students can expect to earn up to a total of $3,500 over the course of the academic year in return for 10–12 hours of work per week. 

These positions cannot be arranged through the Graduate Program Office. Admitted applicants interested in such employment must seek out such positions after arrival at Harvard Law School. Off-campus employment during the year of study is not permitted for international students.