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Centers & Programs

LL.M. Program

Whittier’s LL.M. Program is designed to provide foreign law school graduates with a thorough foundation in U.S. law and the American legal system.

The LL.M. Program provides an opportunity to study the U.S. legal system generally or to specialize in the student’s area of interest.

Many of our LL.M candidates seek to prepare for the practice of law in a U.S. jurisdiction. For no additional fee, LL.M. students interested in taking a bar exam in an American jurisdiction may participate in the many bar review programs offered on campus by our highly successful Academic Support Institute. The Institute offers a pre-bar program throughout the academic school year and an intensive bar review for several weeks prior to the administration of each bar examination. Additionally, the Institute offers courses in the regular curriculum that are specifically designed to prepare students for the skills required for success on the general bar exam.

An LL.M. candidate works with the Director of the LL.M. Program, Professor Robert Webster to custom-design a course of study from the broad array of J.D. classes, many of which are taught by faculty who have also taught law outside the United States. A student must successfully complete 24 credit hours of study to receive the LL.M. degree, including the required courses Topics in American Law and American Legal Research and Writing. The LL.M. requirements will usually take one academic year of full-time study to complete.

A student can combine the LL.M. degree with the Whittier Law School Certificate Programs in Intellectual Property or in International and Comparative Law, but doing so may require an additional term(s) of study.