As we know that LLM is obviously the preferred thing for law students after their undergrad. However, I have always been certain that I wanna practice in the US and after reading up a little I gauged that a JD is a better shot at the US market than an LLM. I wanted to make a thread to know if there are others in the same boat as me. What do you guys think about this?

Can you pay up $$$$?

Also if you want to go for JD you need a 4 year degree.

If you want to do a 4 year degree (ivy) and 3 year JD in US (premier institutes)

It will easily cost 6 crore + (all inclusive)

If you study an UG Law degree here, it will cost only 20L also your 4 year degree requirement for JD will be done, as a bonus you can also have an Indian qualification. After which you can do a JD in the US (3 crore)

Relevant:

Jindal has tie up with Cornell and Indiana (if I'm not wrong) for JD. Students in the 5-year programmes can apply, and if selected, they can go after completing four years of their degree. So 4 years in India + three 3 years' JD, and you get your Indian law degree + JD both.

Someone I know had said this Cornell through this route cost around 1 crore (plus Jindal fee), though I'm not completely sure if that's reliable info.

What I reliably know is that a few students who went this way are doing fine. One of them is the Asst. Distt. Attorney.

So, not bad I suppose.

Jindal's tie-up with Cornell expired last year and the following US colleges have this pathway:

Maurer School of Law, Indiana University

Texas A&M Law School

School of Law, Seattle University

University of Calgary, Canada

Cardozo Law School, USA

There is not much that Biden could do to make things easier for Indians, mostly because a legislative change is required to do away with the restrictive national quotas instituted in the 1960s, which has given rise to the insane backlog for Indians. A bill to do away with national quotas in a phased manner for employment based green cards has been introduced in the House of Representatives: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3648, but it appears not to be a priority for either party, and seems to be largely overshadowed by the broader conversation on wholesale immigration reform, at the heart of which is the contentious position of nearly 10 million illegal immigrants living within the US.

Frankly, I do not see a change in this situation any time soon.

As of Canada, the pay is frankly not that great, and really poor during the articling period. With a JD and good grades at a Canadian law school though, one has a decent-ish chance to join a BigLaw firm over there. Again, the pay will never even come close to the US, but if you want to live in the 'West', this is perhaps the safest option right now.

On a serious note.

I have seen people discussing about Canada here.

Canada is nowhere as attractive as US. I know big law firm associates (who made 20 lakhs pa in India) working in immigration clinics and in divorce/family law teams which pays pennies. Some of them even work in compliance teams of mncs which is even worse. Very hard to get into a Canadian firm

If you are a capable, India has far more opportunities as a corporate lawyer than Canada. Of course, there are more opportunities in the US.

But Canada's legal market is just 1/6th of NY & CA. At the same time, India's legal market is booming at a 50 % CAGR rate and in the next 20 years will have 3 times more opportunities than canada.

In Canada there are too few good jobs and too much over qualified candidates.

I'm guessing that most of those making the move at the PA level wouldn't have JDs though, right?

Going through the NCA process is a bad idea if your goal is not solely to move out of India, but comparing these candidates to those with JDs would not be accurate when ascertaining future career prospects.

That being said, the pay isn't great even in Canadian BigLaw, no disagreements there.

To be very honest, high fees shouldn’t be an excuse for you to not opt for JD. First GET IN. Do you know how difficult it is for people to get into JD programmes in Js? Crack the lsat and you will receive several generous based grants amongst the T-15 law schools. Most of the people didn’t couldn’t even crack Clat, and they are lecturing you about JD? Two people from NUJS have done this and some from NLS. Only they could because they were able enough. Rest were happy to sing their praises but ofc they all had excuses.

For basic ideas: - https://www.hotcoursesabroad.com/india/find-your-course/how-to-choose-the-right-course/6-vital-facts-for-international-students-eyeing-american-law-courses/

There is another course in Northwestern University which provides accelerated JD. Again you need to have an amazing Lsat score to even knock the doors for this programme. This has been substantially discussed in LI as well but ofc the mediocrity showcased here won’t let you know that.

Some threads that can help you:-

https://www.legallyindia.com/convos/topic/261752-jd-vs-llm-vs-mba-a-mega-thread-is-demanded

https://www.law.northwestern.edu/academics/degree-programs/jds/jd2/#:~:text=Northwestern%20Law%20is%20one%20of,for%20their%20foreign%20law%20degree.

One problem that you may face is the visa issue. So tailor your interview accordingly. Indian students apart from not being to crack lsat, faced another issue and that’s VISA.

Also LSAT as an exam is said to be (in American standards) more competitive/rigorous than GMAT. I hope this helped.

finished my LLM this year from a t6 in the US - job market is not great. but to be fair I don't have a lot of indian work ex, canada route seems to be better as a lot of people have mentioned in the comments and is something I'm considering after working in India for a while. There is someone who did an llm from Columbia and is now doing his JD, you might be able to find him on linkedin. Can reach out to him and have a word.

This thread is almost 2 years old now and I am stuck in the same situation, with the current H1B requirements I want to know if doing JD from US would be a good choice, I don't want to go for MBA, as in no way I will be able to crack those heavy Maths and Quant based exams, LSAT though extremely hard, does not seem impossible, also what's the value of JD outside of US (in case I don't get my work permit) and in light of the same if LL.M would be a better choice (i have no plans to join Academia), I plan to work in Biglaw but don't want to risk it all on my visa permits, adding on - what if one pursues LL.M from a top European law school would that be a better choice for getting a well-paying corporate job outside India?

Just a general question - does LL.M make a difference in your employability even if one does it from a top university?

Please help, Thank You.