Lawyers from six of the world’s continents are studying at Ohio State in a new master’s program for law students.
The Moritz College of Law is offering a Master of Laws program for international students that lasts one year and will send these lawyers home with an improved knowledge of the American legal process.
“This program is designed for foreign lawyers who wish to advance their legal education in a stimulating academic environment,” said Mary Ming, the Assistant Dean for International and Graduate Programs.
Currently, there are eight students in the program and Ming said English is the second language for every student except one.
The program is for students who have already received law degrees in their home countries. They are required to complete 24 semester credit hours, in which 19 are to be selected from the wide range of courses offered to all Moritz students.
“We started this program not only for the LL.M. students, but also for J.D. students to get that exposure, and to be aware of other countries’ legal systems that are very different from our own – our legal system is actually very unique,” Ming said.
In the United States, there are approximately 84 LL.M. programs, with around 45 of those programs designed for international students.
“Our hope for this program is to keep it a small quality group,” Ming said. “We would like to keep getting a diverse group of students and are working on offering more scholarships to keep that goal.”
Ming said the college received an even higher than expected enrollment.
“We were going to be happy if we were able to accept three students for our program, but were thrilled at the fact that we received eight qualified students,” Ming said. “We were very happy with the wide range of the response we received.”
Kelly Cass can be reached at [email protected].
