Master of Laws (LLM)

Penn Carey Law’s LLM program is over a century old and recognized among the best, attracting top students worldwide. The program is a one-year, full-time course of study in advanced legal topics designed primarily for lawyers trained outside the United States. Students select courses from an extensive curriculum of specialized courses and seminars. Penn Carey Law grants a generalized LLM that allows each student to design their own curriculum, enabling them to focus on subjects that best suit their needs. LLM students take courses alongside our upper-level JD students and are with us for ten months, including the five-week Pre-Term Program.

Penn Carey Law LLM students are also eligible to enroll in the Wharton Business and Law Certificate, a custom-designed program for our students taught by Wharton faculty and industry experts selected for their teaching skills, subject expertise, and ability to offer applied concepts and examples to participants. All LLM students may participate in this program, which runs concurrently with the LLM program.

In 1790, James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, framer of the Constitution, and member of the first U.S. Supreme Court, delivered the University of Pennsylvania's first lectures in law to President George Washington, all the members of his Cabinet. Following this auspicious beginning, Penn began offering a full-time program in law in 1850, under George Sharswood, an innovator in legal education. Since that time, Penn Law has been at the forefront of legal education in our country.

Penn's academics are boosted by its inherent culture and ecosystem of innovation. You name it, if it's cutting-edge, the University's faculty and students have their hands in it. Grounded in the liberal arts and sciences and enriched by four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools' integrated resources, Penn offers students an unparalleled education informed by inclusivity, intellectual rigor, research, and the impetus to create new knowledge for the benefit of individuals and communities around the world.