Lawyer Losing Money (“LL.M.” backronym)
A lawyer receives a J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree; some lawyers go further for a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree. The LL.M. degree has been criticized as useless and overly expensive, but a money-maker for law schools.
The LL.M. degree has been given the backronymic (back acronym) nickname “Lawyer Losing Money” since at least 2009.
The J.D. degree is sometimes given the backronym “Just Dumb.”
Wikipedia: Master of Laws
The Master of Laws is an advanced academic degree, pursued by those holding a professional law degree, and is commonly abbreviated LL.M. (also LLM) from its Latin name, Legum Magister, where the double L stands for the Latin plural, because both profane and ecclesiastical law are included. (For female students, the less common variant Legum Magistra may also be used.)
LLM Discussion Board
Unazoi
LLM=Lawyers Losing Money
Thu Jul 09, 2009 07:38 PM
Dear Future and Prospective LL.M. Students:
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE thoroughly research the usefulness of obtaining an LL.M. no matter which country, school or program you choose.
LL.M. programs are essentially a very low-risk cashcow for law schools. Think of starting such a program as tantamount to a school installing an ATM/cashpoint. Unfortunately, an LL.M. is not a career enhancer for most lawyers, but it does contribute to the salaries of pampered law professors who aren’t bothered over whether or not you find work post-LL.M. employment. Have you noticed the significant increase in the number of LL.M. programs despite there being fewer jobs available for lawyers? Why is this? Does it make sense from a student’s prospective to continue expanding the pool of LL.M. holders all the while there are fewer decent jobs available?
JD Underground
Al_Bundy_4_Prez (Jul 14, 2009 - 8:11 am)
LLM=Lawyers Losing Money. I have one in banking and finance law from University of London, which was paid for by my J.D. school through a scholarship (awarded 2008) but employers don’t give a sh*t about the scholarship or the degree that resulted from it.
U.S. employers just don’t care about LLMs, except for perhaps those in the tax law industry.
Top-Law-Schools.com
reasonable_man
Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:34 pm
LLM = Lawyers Losing Money; unless its a tax LLM from certain schools.
The American Prospect
LLM: Lawyers Losing Money
BRYCE STUCKI MAY 8, 2013
To critics, the degree is little more than a scam making extra cash from attorneys desperate to burnish their credentials in a brutal legal job market.
(...)
From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, the LLM was a marginal degree aimed primarily at foreign students and a few American lawyers looking for specialized knowledge in areas like tax law. An LLM is not necessary to work as a lawyer, no member of the Supreme Court holds one, and successful pursuers of the Master in Laws will end with more education than most of their professors. Since LLM candidates take the same courses as JDs, students earning a first degree in law, they require little overhead. LLM students often pay the same tuition as JDs and rarely receive financial aid. Schools are not required to report any job stats for LLM graduates, meaning students cannot investigate either the salary or nature of the work a typical graduate from the program can expect to land.
(...)
Despite the lack of data, critics are quick to question the value of an LLM—“LLM stands for Lawyer Losing Money,” says University of Colorado-Boulder professor and frequent law school critic Paul Campos.
Business Insider
Desperate Lawyers Are Wasting $70,000 On An Extra Useless Degree
Erin Fuchs | May 9, 2013, 5:15 PM
Legal industry insiders are attacking the Master of Law degree — which some lawyers choose to get after earning their JDs — as a useless waste of money, The American Prospect reports.
(...)
“LLM stands for Lawyer Losing Money,” University of Colorado-Boulder professor Paul Campos told the American Prospect’s Bryce Stucki.