The Career & Professional Development Center has outstanding resources for international students, including a dedicated staff member with significant professional law experience who devotes time to LLM students in their job search. In addition to the strong support from the Career & Professional Development Center, international students at Duke benefit substantially from the willingness of alumni, both in the U.S. and abroad, and from Law School faculty to offer advice and assistance.
Many LLM graduates find positions with U.S. law firms, expecially in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles; Duke LLM students participate in the New York City job fair, where legal employers from around the world conduct interviews for positions both in the U.S. and overseas. Legal positions available to LLM graduates who wish to work in the U.S. vary from year to year and tend to reflect external conditions, such as the extent of trade with the student's home country or the state of the global economy. LLM students are more likely to find jobs in the U.S. if they have had a few years of professional experience before beginning study at Duke.
A significant group of LLM graduates remain at Duke for a period of time after graduation in order to prepare for the New York or California State Bar Examination. Students who elect to return to their home countries after graduation frequently identify positions in overseas offices of American law firms or at firms and organizations serving American clients involved in international work.