Dean Odette Lienau (center) with LLM students.
We provide a rigorous education by renowned faculty at a top U.S. university withÌýpersonalized guidance and mentoring in a friendly and supportive environment.
BC Law is highly ranked and well known for the quality of its faculty, students, and curriculum. We prepare lawyers for practice in a global environment, and our faculty comprises some of the strongest international scholars and practitioners informed by the latest law and business developments.
Our LLM students enjoy the best of both worlds. They can tailor their courses to their interests by selecting from an array of courses and specialize by taking a concentration in one of our six areas: human rights and international law, cyber security, business law, environmental law, intellectual property law, and tax. As a BC Law LLM student, you’re poised to have a significant impact on global law development and application.
Our LLM Program also promotes true immersion, giving you a genuine US law school experience with JD students as your colleagues and your classmates. Your courses are taught by full-time faculty.
The size of our LLM program allows us to provide individualized attention to our students. LLM students are paired with a full-time faculty mentor in their field of interest and a JD “buddy� for support. The LLM team meets weekly throughout the year to advise on academic and career strategies.
Our celebrated culture of collaboration, inspiration, and encouragement builds international professional networks and lasting personal bonds. More than 10,000 BC Law alumni and 120,000 ÌÇÐÄVlog alumni are on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other platforms.
In addition to our incredibly strong and supportive alumni community, BC Law invites internationally renowned professors, business leaders, judges, and prosecutors to campus regularly to meet with students, discuss global legal issues, and establish important connections for later employment.
LLM students have access to BC Law's extensive Career Services Office programming and network and are provided dedicated career counselors to assist them in finding the right path for the next step in their careers. The BC Law network, name and excellent reputation in the international market makes for unlimited opportunities.
Dean Odette Lienau (center) with LLM students.
Business & Commercial Law
Our faculty include leaders in the fields of business and commercial law. ProfessorÌýKent GreenfieldÌýis among the pioneers in the so-called stakeholder school of corporate law, and his most recent publication, in a long list, argues thatÌýCorporations are People Too (And They Should Act Like It)Ìýfor Yale University Press. His research crosses both constitutional law and corporations law. ProfessorÌýFrank GarciaÌýis an international trade and investment law scholar, and has made several foundational inquiries into the nature of these fields of law, most recently inÌýConsent and Trade: Trading Freely in a Global MarketÌý(2018) with Cambridge University Press. ProfessorÌýBrian QuinnÌýis co-author of a leading M&A casebook,ÌýMergers & Acquisitions: Law, Theory and PracticeÌý(West), alongside others, andÌýblogs on legal developments in corporate governance and mergers & acquisitions at theÌýM&A Law Prof Blog.ÌýFinally, ProfessorÌýNatalya ShnitserÌýis a leader in retirement security and the regulation of financial intermediaries.
Cybersecurity
LLM students interested in a concentration in cybersecurity can choose from a number of courses cross listed in our MLS program.ÌýKevin Powers, faculty director of BC Law's MLS in cybersecurity program, draws on his 30+ years of cyber and national security, emerging technologies, AI, law enforcement, business, data privacy, higher education, and teaching experience to deliver a world-class program with faculty experts and practitioners across all areas of this growing specialty. Faculty includeÌýChristopher Porter,Ìýhead of International Security Cooperation at Google Cloud and former US National Intelligence Officer for Cyber,ÌýKatherine Fick,ÌýAssociate General Counsel at IBM, andÌýMichael Cahalane,ÌýCetrulo LLP’s Co-Managing Partner, among many others.
Environmental Law
International law scholarÌýDavid Wirth, one of 13 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Alumni Ambassadors,Ìýheadlines our faculty in this area. ProfessorÌý°Â¾±°ù³Ù³ó’sÌýextensive work in climate change accompanies a more than two decade-career in international environmental law. In addition, the BC Law Land & Environmental Law Program is a multi-dimensional program for JD and LLM students, designed both to train professionals and encourage service in law, policies and doctrines that work for the sustainability of land, air, and water resources.Ìý
Human Rights
Our interdisciplinary Center for Human Rights and International Justice—previously co-directed byÌýDaniel Kanstroom—together with a range of courses in our concentration in human rights law, seeks to nurture a new generation of human rights scholars and practitioners that can address issues of globalization and inequality, and other pressing contemporary issues. ProfessorÌý°²¹²Ô²õ³Ù°ù´Ç´Ç³¾â€™sÌýwork in immigration law includes several extensive monographs, includingÌýAftermath: Deportation Law and the New American DiasporaÌý(Oxford University Press 2012)Ìýand Deportation Nation: Outsiders in American HistoryÌý(Harvard University Press 2007). ProfessorÌýKatharine Young, who is also Associate Dean for Faculty and Global Programs, has undertaking award-winning study,ÌýConstituting Economic and Social RightsÌý(Oxford University Press, 2012), which examines the constitutional or international human rights to health care, housing, education and social security. She has also published on women’s rights, including her co-edited collection,ÌýThe Public Law of GenderÌý(Cambridge University Press, 2016). The law school’s human rights courses include aÌýHuman Rights PracticumÌýoffered by ProfessorÌýDaniela UrosaÌýthat addresses the Inter-American human rights system, and the interdisciplinary human rights seminar, a university-wide seminar.
Intellectual Property
Our exciting concentration covers topics in copyright, trademark, and patent law, and incorporates electives in antitrust law, cyber law, and technology licensing. Our faculty includes ProfessorÌýAlfred Chueh-Chin Yen, who directs our program on Emerging Enterprises and Business Law. With Professor Liu, he has authoredÌýCopyright: Essential Cases and Materials,ÌýWest Publishing in 2008. ProfessorÌýJoseph LiuÌýis focused in his work on the impact of digital technology on copyright law and markets. Finally, patent law and antitrust law scholar ProfessorÌýDavid OlsonÌýexamines the legal uncertainties in recent patent laws and the market behavior of actors with patent portfolios. He is former founder and Faculty DirectorÌýfor theÌýProgram on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.Ìý
Taxation
Some of the country's most influential tax law scholars give students an important grounding in US and international tax concepts —including ProfessorÌýDiane Ring, who served as our law school’s Interim Dean from 2021-January 2023. Her work examines cross-border tax arbitrage and international tax relations, and she served as advisor to the United Nation’s 2014 project on tax base protection for developing countries, and the U.N.'s 2013 project on treaty administration for developing countries. She is also Vice Chair for the Tax Section Committee of Teaching Taxation of the American Bar Association. ProfessorÌýJames RepettiÌýis the author of groundbreaking tax equity work, including leader and contributor to numerousÌýtreatises,ÌýincludingÌýComparative Income Taxation: A Structural Analysis.
Other Course Options
With deep connections to ÌÇÐÄVlog’s Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy, the Clough Center for Constitutional Democracy, and other collaborations, the LLM program has developed significant strengths in constitutional law, including comparative constitutional law, gender and family law, international law, and legal history. LLM students can cross-register for courses in ÌÇÐÄVlog’s other graduate schools and university departments as well.
Use our Fusion search tool for full descriptions of current courses and to search our faculty by subject area.
Students must complete at least 24 credits during the academic year—including our 'United States Legal System' course, and for those students with law degrees from outside the US, the 'Legal Research and Writing for LLM Students' course.
Students must also satisfy a written work requirement in one of the following ways:
LLM students receive a rigorous introduction to US Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing. Students work on legal problems that require them to analyze the applicable law and learn to write effectively to a legal audience. All students will also engage in hands-on research to become familiar with the major research platforms used by US lawyers.
Upon graduation, ÌÇÐÄVlog Law School LLM students will be able to:
“ As part of my welcome to the LLM class of 2026, I wish to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of our LLM class of 2025, who, alongside our graduating and ongoing JD classes, proved the resilience and necessity of global legal education. ”
Our LLM community is diverse—in backgrounds, interests, and experiences. Discover what BC Law LLM alumni are like, where they work, and what they experienced, on campus and beyond.ÌýOur LLM graduates join a large alumni network of both BC law graduates in general, and BC LLM graduates in particular.
Schedule a time to speak online with a program professional.
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