LL.M. students enrolled in the Course Track or Thesis Track may choose from all courses offered during their year of study at Vanderbilt Law School. In addition, during the fall semester, all LL.M. students are required to take Introduction to Legal Research, Writing and Analysis in the United States. This course, which is specifically tailored to meet the needs of foreign attorneys and scholars, provides a distinct academic forum in which LL.M. students learn:
All LL.M. students must also take the course entitled Life of the Law.
LL.M. students may enroll in an additional non-credit course, Legal English, which addresses the legal vocabulary. This valuable course acquaints students with the legal terms and idioms they will encounter in the classroom and in legal texts.
Students in the Course Track choose their courses from the law school's broad curriculum. Your faculty advisor or a law school administrator will help you tailor your studies to your career goals and intellectual interests. Students are required to earn 24 to 28 credits over two semesters of course work.
Students in The Thesis Track do extensive research that culminates in a lengthy scholarly paper. In addition to elective hours, total credit hours must include a substantial scholarly research and writing project, for which students may earn up to 7 course credits. Students are required to earn 24 to 28 credits over two semesters of course work.
The Law & Business Track includes a foundational core curriculum on which students build expertise in areas of interest by choosing from an extensive range of elective courses.
The core curriculum is comprised of six required courses:
Students complete an additional 9 credit hours beyond the core curriculum by choosing from a remarkably rich array of elective courses including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, law and economics, antitrust law, corporate taxation, corporate voting, and secured and global transactions.
Law & Business Track students may enter only in the fall semester each year and must complete degree requirements during one academic year (sequential fall and spring semesters). Students are required to take a minimum of 27 credits and may earn a maximum of 30 academic credits.
