If you earned an undergraduate degree in law outside the US or a JD in the US and find yourself needing to add additional specialized knowledge to your legal toolkit to move your career forward, a LLM may be the right degree path for you. While variants of this degree are offered globally with a variety of requirements and specialities, traditional LLMs based in the United State require different backgrounds for domestic US students and students with international profiles.

US applicants have either earned a JD already and seek to deepen that knowledge with additional subject matter expertise, or have another professional background for which a deeper dive into law might prove valuable.

International applicants typically have earned a professional law degree in their home country, and ideally have professional work experiencing practicing law as well; interestingly, some LLM programs in the US prepare internationally credentialed lawyers to take and pass bar exams in select US states, opening up additional career opportunities.

What does submitting a successful LLM application entail? No LSAT score is required to apply, though strong undergraduate and graduate grades are expected from top LLM programs, and histories of past legal research publication can also add value to applicants’ profiles. A TOEFL score is typically required as well for applicants who earned their degree outside the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, or Singapore.

Personal Statements are often the crux of the application and provide candidates with the chance to tell their personal and professional stories and advocate for why they should be included in the incoming LLM class, as well as demonstrate the strength of their writing skills. In some cases, schools will ask you to discuss in detail the potential research questions or projects you’d like to explore while earning your LLM. In these cases, the Personal Statement becomes more of a critical writing sample than a chance to tell your story, but holds equal importance to admissions committees.

Since the other facets of their application are predetermined (undergraduate field of study, past GPA, etc.) clients routinely come to us for Personal Statement support because they want to stand out amidst crowded applicant pools. Below you can learn more about the service we provide.

• Spend 1 x 1 time diving deeply into your LLM candidacy, motivations for applying, and unique strengths and weaknesses worth drawing attention to in your Personal Statement
• Provide strategic storytelling advice as you map out and write your Personal Statement
• Edit and polish your Personal Statement with you for submission to a single school of your choice
• Provide final proofreading to ensure your final draft is compelling and your case for admission is clearly articulated

• Work with you on any application element of your choice (minimum 2-hour purchase billed in 15-minute increments)

With over three decades of experience in admissions, marketing, and student engagement, Patty Keegan is a recognized leader in guiding candidates through their educational journeys. Known for her tenure as Associate Dean for Chicago Booth's EMBA program, she has extended her expertise to both MBA and law school admissions coaching.

Her diverse background includes serving on the admissions committees of other top institutions, such as Stanford GSB, where she contributed to shaping incoming classes and fostering excellence. Her influence is echoed in the words of grateful candidates: "Thank you, Patty, for being a strong advocate of my personal and professional growth. I couldn't be where I am now without you."

Patty's expertise spans beyond business education. In a significant expansion of her career, she is embarking on law school admissions coaching, leveraging her keen understanding of application dynamics to guide aspiring legal professionals. Her role in marketing law school programs has equipped her with insights into the unique demands of legal education and the qualities that set exceptional candidates apart.

Beyond her roles in program administration and admissions coaching, Patty's commitment to education extends to the realm of writing and publishing. As a Publishing Coach at Bright Ray Publishing, she enriches business professionals’ personal brands through storytelling. Her mastery of storytelling enables her to assist applicants in crafting impactful essays and personal statements that resonate with admissions committees.

Patty's experience spans continents, as she played a pivotal role in expanding the Booth EMBA program globally, opening campuses in Europe and Asia. Her global perspective, cultivated through extensive travel and cross-cultural interactions, has added depth to her coaching approach. Her contributions have garnered recognition, including the highest award from the Executive MBA Council, and invitations to speak at prestigious conferences.

Patty holds an MS in Adult Education and a BA in American Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

With her unique blend of admissions expertise, marketing acumen, and writing finesse, she continues to shape the trajectories of future business and legal professionals. She is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Scott brings 15+ years of experience as a higher ed. operator to his law school admissions consulting work. He began supporting law school-focused undergraduate students as a Prelaw Advisor for NYU's College of Arts & Sciences, where he published the College's weekly prelaw newsletter and directly advised hundreds of NYU students as they prepared to take the LSAT and submit strong applications. He went on to support law school applicants at Accepted.com before joining Fortuna, and runs a career coaching practice, Networth, that specializes in helping lawyers find meaningful careers beyond "Big Law." To-date, he has helped JD's pivot into general counsel positions in big pharma, earn C-suite offers at startups and search funds, and pursue other meaningful roles.

In addition to his tangible law school admissions consulting experience, Scott has deep writing expertise as the former Head Writing Tutor for the Liberal Arts Honors Program at UT-Austin, from which he graduated summa cum laude, as well as NYU's award-winning Creative Writing Program, where he earned his MFA in Poetry and received the highly selective Writers in the Public Schools Fellowship, studying under Pulitzer Prize winning poets Yusef Komunyakaa and Sharon Olds. The author of 4 award-winning narrative poetry collections, Scott translates his passions for language and storytelling into work with clients, helping them craft memorable law school Personal Statements and Diversity Statements that get and keep admissions committees' attention.

In addition to his passions for law school consulting and creative writing, Scott is an active angel investor through Hieronymus Capital, which he co-founded with his wife, and enjoys investing in and learning about early-stage businesses in the edtech, human capital, and digital asset spaces. He is based in Austin, Texas.

Jayne offers clients a unique combination of admissions experience in both MBA and JD admissions, plus experience recruiting for a top global economic, litigation and strategy consulting firm.

Jayne started her career in investment banking, then shifted to higher education, reviewing thousands of JD and MBA applications over twelve years. In her most recent admissions role, Jayne was responsible for evaluating and selecting candidates admitted to the full-time MBA program at the Kellogg School of Management. In addition, she also worked directly with the JD Admissions team at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law to build some of the largest incoming JD/MBA joint degree cohorts each year. Jayne’s commitment to increasing diversity within MBA programs motivated her to take the lead on LGBTQ+ recruitment during her time at Northwestern University.

Jayne left the Kellogg MBA admissions team to join Charles River Associates, an elite global economic, litigation and strategy consulting firm. In her role as a recruiting manager, she helped attract and evaluate consulting candidates from top undergraduate, graduate and PhD programs in North America and Europe. In addition, Jayne presented graduate school admissions workshops and conducted resume and essay reviews for junior consultants preparing to apply to MBA, JD, and PhD programs. She has a BA and BS from Saint Louis University in History and Business Administration, respectively, and a MA in History from Arizona State University.