After a master 2 in law, many students hesitate between the entrance exam for the CRFPA (the French bar training centres) and a year abroad. The LL.M. is attractive because it opens the way to the New York bar and reassures firms with international clients. It also has a cost: an extra year, a budget to find, and a timetable that slips. This article explains what an LL.M. really is, which firms value it, when to place it relative to the CRFPA and the bar school, how to finance it, and how to write it on a resume without overstating it.
What an LL.M. is and what it is not
The LL.M. (Master of Laws) is a postgraduate degree from law schools in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, usually completed in one year. It is aimed at lawyers who already have a legal education. They take elective courses, sometimes with a concentration (arbitration, business law, tax law), and often write a thesis. LL.M. programmes are also offered in France, in English or in partnership with foreign universities, and their value and recognition vary.
What it is not:
- Not a lawyer’s title. The LL.M. is a degree, not admission to a bar. To practise as an avocat in France, the route remains the one described by the Conseil national des barreaux on its page on the conditions of access to the profession 🔗: a master 2 in law or a recognised equivalent degree, the entrance exam to a training centre, the initial training, then the CAPA. The LL.M. does not exempt you from any of it.
- Not a guarantee of a job. It signals familiarity with common law and legal English. It replaces neither a solid internship nor hands-on experience with files.
- Not a key to every American bar. Each US state sets its own conditions for candidates educated abroad.
The New York bar
This is the most concrete argument in favour of the LL.M. The New York State Board of Law Examiners 🔗 reviews the legal education of each foreign candidate. When that education falls short of the American curriculum, an LL.M. can make up the gap, on precise conditions: the programme must be taken on an American campus at a law school approved by the American Bar Association, in classroom courses, with a minimum number of credits and mandatory subjects, notably professional responsibility, legal research and writing, and an introduction to American law. Distance learning is not accepted.
The practical consequence: not all LL.M. programmes are equal with regard to this exam. A short, hybrid or non-US programme may be excellent academically and still fail to meet these conditions. Before applying, ask the Board for an assessment of your eligibility and compare it with the programme’s curriculum. For the other routes abroad, our article on practising abroad as a French lawyer goes through the options.
The firms that really value it
An LL.M. does not carry the same weight everywhere. It is read differently depending on the firm and the type of work.
Paris offices of international firms are the most receptive to the degree: English is the working language, cross-border files are common, and the partners have often spent time abroad themselves. There, an LL.M. is read as a sign of familiarity with common law systems, but what sets candidates apart is still the quality of internships and written English.
Firms working in finance, mergers and acquisitions, arbitration or international contracts regularly handle documents governed by foreign law. Training in American or English law is a real asset there. For a lawyer who works in international arbitration, for instance, the profile in the international arbitration lawyer resume example shows how education and languages fit together with the files handled.
Firms focused on domestic law (criminal law, family law, employment law, individual clients) gain much less from it. For them, an additional year abroad says little about your ability to plead or run a local file. In that case, the time and money are often better invested in an internship or in exam preparation.
A simple rule: ask whether the firms you are targeting hire associates with this degree. Look at the public careers of their junior lawyers, and ask the ones you meet during an internship. What the job ad says matters less than what the people actually hired show. Choosing an internship is precisely the subject of our article on the PPI internship in a law firm.
Before the CRFPA, during the school, or after the CAPA
The right moment depends on your plan. Three positions are possible, each with its advantages and costs.
Before the CRFPA
Leaving right after the master 2 is the most natural option academically: you are still a student, grants and student status are easier to obtain, and your study rhythm is kept. On the other hand, you push the entrance exam back by a year, and you will prepare for it remotely or on your return. That delay is real: the exam demands sustained preparation, detailed in our article on the CRFPA preparation method. Make sure the year abroad does not absorb all of your preparation.
During the bar school
This is the most delicate position. The initial training is dense and ends with a final internship, as our article on how the bar school unfolds describes. Some schools offer tracks or internship periods abroad, but a full LL.M. on an American campus does not fit this calendar. If you are considering spending your individual teaching project period abroad, ask your school about the possibilities and conditions.
After the CAPA
Once you hold the CAPA and a first position in a firm, the LL.M. takes on a different meaning: it is a career investment, often discussed with the employer. Some firms accept a one-year leave and support your return; others expect you to negotiate it from the start of the collaboration. This option avoids delaying your access to the profession and gives you a degree directly tied to your practice (for example, an LL.M. in arbitration when you already work in arbitration). Its drawback is that it requires leaving a post or suspending your practice. To negotiate this kind of absence, reread the clauses of your contract in the article on the freelance collaboration contract.
In short: before the CRFPA if your plan is clearly international and you are aiming at New York, after the CAPA if you prefer your employer to share the project, and never “by default” just to avoid choosing.
Financing your year: grants and firms
An LL.M. is a serious investment: tuition, housing and insurance in the host city, and a year with little or no salary. Do not commit without having costed the budget with the institution concerned, on its official page, and taking ancillary costs into account.
Funding options exist, to be explored in this order:
- Aid from the host university. Many foreign law schools offer merit scholarships or fee reductions to international students. They are requested together with the application, often well before the start of the year.
- Aid from your home institution and public bodies. Your university or school may know of international mobility schemes; ask its international relations office.
- Funding by a firm. Some firms cover all or part of an LL.M. for an associate they want to keep, sometimes in exchange for a commitment to stay on your return. Nothing is automatic: the subject is negotiated, preferably in writing, specifying the length of the commitment and what happens in case of early departure.
- A student loan or family savings, as a last resort, weighing the expected return.
Be honest with yourself about the return on investment: if the LL.M. opens neither New York nor a firm that values it, the cost may exceed the benefit. A reasoned application that explains why this programme and not another also helps to win funding.
The LL.M. on your resume: title, courses, thesis
Once obtained, the LL.M. must be readable within seconds by a partner who does not know the university. A few rules.
Write the exact title, institution, city and year. For example: LL.M. in International Arbitration, [University], [City], 2026. Do not use an approximate title or a misleading translation: the education section gets checked. Our article on the education section of a legal resume explains the order and presentation of degrees.
Distinguish what is achieved from what is in progress. An LL.M. is not admission to a bar. If you are preparing for the New York exam, write it as a step in progress, never as a qualification obtained. This precision avoids a mistake that costs dearly in an interview.
Pick three or four courses that speak to recruiters. Under the degree, list the courses directly related to the position: international arbitration, international commercial contracts, American corporate law, professional ethics. There is no need to copy the entire curriculum.
Mention the thesis if it relates to the position. Give its subject in one line, and the supervisor’s name only if they are known in the field. A thesis on the enforcement of arbitral awards helps an arbitration resume, not a family law one.
Tie the year to concrete skills. Rather than “immersion year”, write what happened: legal clinic, moot court, drafting a memorandum in English, internship at a New York firm. These elements prove your use of legal English better than a self-declared level. To render them in an English version of your resume, our article on the lawyer resume in English for an international firm gives the equivalents of titles and degrees.
Stay consistent with the rest. Dates, titles and institutions must match your online profile, which recruiters check almost systematically.
To put it all in shape, you can create your resume for free: the AvocatCV tool handles the layout for you, and the resulting PDF is read correctly by applicant tracking systems (ATS), which reject poorly structured resumes before a partner opens them.
Frequently asked questions
Does an LL.M. exempt you from the CRFPA or the CAPA?
No. To practise as a lawyer in France, the training and exams set by the Conseil national des barreaux are still required, except for the exemption cases provided by the texts for certain professions or for foreign lawyers. The LL.M. is additional training, not an equivalent.
Do you need an LL.M. to take the New York bar?
Not in every case: the New York State Board of Law Examiners assesses each file. For a candidate whose education falls short of the American curriculum, an LL.M. meeting its conditions can make up the gap. Ask for an assessment of your eligibility before choosing a programme.
Can you do an LL.M. in France?
Yes, several universities and schools offer LL.M. programmes in France. They showcase legal English and common law, but they do not necessarily meet the conditions of the New York exam, which require classroom courses on an approved American campus. Check this point before enrolling.
Does an LL.M. help you get into a criminal or family law firm?
Rarely in a decisive way. These firms recruit mostly on internships, courtroom practice and knowledge of local law. For them, the time and budget of an LL.M. are generally better spent elsewhere.
How do you present an LL.M. still in progress on a resume?
Give the title, the institution and the expected end date, with the mention “in progress” or expected. If you are preparing a foreign admission exam, present it as a step in progress, never as an admission obtained.