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Exam Day

I walked into the exam days with minimal idea of what the two days would look like. In light of that, let me give you a brief overview of what to expect on the exam days. 

I was lucky enough to secure a spot in Westchester, only 1.5h away from Manhattan (compared to the many hours of travels to Buffalo and Albany). Most of the exam-takers lived in the same hotel complex.

I took my exam in a classroom of Pace University. Staff and exam-takers were all very friendly, and it was a pleasant atmosphere, though you could feel that many students were very nervous. One thing I would do differently is not to come too early. The exam started at 9:30 AM, and we were told to be there by 8 AM. However, once you get there, you sit at your desk without your personal belongings and wait for the exam to start. Waiting for so long can make it challenging to be fully focused the second the exam starts and keep that focus until the end.

After the three-hour MPT, there is a one-hour lunch break, followed by another three hours of MEE. On the second day, the test starts with three hours to answer 100 questions and another three hours and 100 questions after a lunch break. 

After the exam, get your mind off the tests as it takes the Bar months to return the results. If you are wondering, there is no set-in-stone score needed to pass the bar, but it is graded as a curve. Consequently, the score you need to pass depends on the performance of all test takers. For the multiple-choice part, I was told that you could expect to pass with 60-65% correct answers.

Overall, there is no need to be afraid of the test days. It is a pretty straightforward test, and if you are well prepared, you will do fine. 

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Bar Exam

In the last few chapters of the blog, I will focus on some advice for taking the bar exam. For many LLMs taking the bar exam is essential to then stay in the US and work in a firm on an OPT or even beyond that on an H1B visa. 

Hard Facts

I will be taking the New York Bar Exam in late February 2022. The bar went back to in-person examination and conducts the tests in New York City, Westchester, Buffalo and Albany. However, only students that studied in New York State get the chance to sign up for a spot in New York City. 

Unlike the California Bar, the NY Bar Exam is part of the multi-state bar exam, which means  that the test itself is essentially the same as in all other multi-state bar exam jurisdictions of the US. It is a two day test, wherein the first day is the written part, consisting of two 90 min tests and six 30 min tests. The second day is the multiple choice day with 100 questions in the morning and 100 in the afternoon. 

Registration

Maybe one of the hardest parts of getting admitted to the bar is to register for the exam. Make sure to be early and to get all the relevant documents from your home law school. You will generally need to start gathering documents around a year before taking the actual exam. 

Preparation

I don’t want to go too much into detail in regard to the different Bar Review programs as I think that they are basically very similar. I went with Themis and was pretty happy. 

Make sure to plan to prepare for the exam between 6 and 10 weeks full time (part-time definitely more), depending on your personal schedule and your experience with taking bigger exams. I generally made sure not to study too many hours a day and also enjoy New York City and stay motivated, but again, it very much depends on your personal style. 

The bar prep programs usually consist of lectures, outlines, practice essays and multiple choice questions. The results of the practice questions can give you a pretty good indication on where you are at. 

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Graduation

For whoever joined this blog later - due to Covid, I deferred the start of my program from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021. As I started the program in January, our school year was closing, coming to an end in December. So it was time to say goodbye. The exam period ended around a week before Christmas, and students slowly started traveling back to their home countries. Without going too much into detail, I can say that there were no easy goodbyes after spending such a special and memorable time together. 

While the official Law School Commencement would take place in May with all the LLMs from the Spring and the Fall batch combined, we organized our own little graduation celebration and sailed around the Bay for an afternoon. 

After graduation, I will move to New York City to take the NY Bar Exam. As so many LLMs are aiming to take the bar, I will be sharing my strategy and some tips for the bar in the next two posts. 

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National Parks

Before I turn to telling you more about final exams, I want to give you an insight what we did before final exams. 

The week before finals, dead-week, is a week without classes that is supposed to give everyone a chance to recap the class materials and prepare for the exams. For LL.M.s that don’t have too many exams, it���s usually also a good time to explore and travel around for a few weeks. 

We visited a couple of national parks in and around California. I prepared my personal Top Five list in case you will be pursuing your LLM in California or you ever want to travel around the West Coast.

Rank 5 - Death Valley

Close to Las Vegas, Death Valley is a great starting point for many of the other national parks around. It is fairly small and nice for a half-day hike.

Rank 4 - Joshua Tree

2-3h from LA, Joshua Tree Park is famous for thousands of Joshua Tree’s and the completely clear sky of stars at night. 

Rank 3 - Zion National Park

Zion is in Utah and therefore around a dozen hours away. Nonetheless, it is totally worth it. With its unique rock colors and scary steep hikes, it is always going to stand out even if you saw a couple of national parks in a short period of time. 

Rank 2 - Big Sur

Technically, it is not a national park itself but a coastal highway with multiple smaller national parks. Around 3 hours from the Bay, Big Sur is the beautiful coastline that you will see on so many California travel guides. Spend a full day there, enjoy a couple of nice hikes down to the beaches and stop along the road for sunset. 

THE WINNER - Yosemite National Park

I know - no underdog winner here, but Yosemite is just magnificent. Not only is it very big, but it is also so diverse. Entering the park at Tunnel View gives you a view you will not forget. Also, Yosemite has a hike for anyone, be it the 16h half-dome hike or a nice 2h walk to a beautiful lake. You dan’t go wrong with Yosemite. 

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Finals

With the end of semester coming to an end, I want to provide a brief insight into what finals look like. After 13 weeks of instruction classes come to an end and the last week of instructions is followed by a reading week. In the end it is nothing else than a week without classes that is supposed to give students some time to review class materials and prepare for finals. After that there is a 10 day finals period.

However, not all classes have finals. This semester I had six 1-unit classes. 

The 1-unit courses are generally pass/fail. That means that no specific grade is given and students only get a pass/fail based on assignments and or class participation. Further, some classes have papers that are to be submitted sometime close to the end of the semester and replace a final. As I also had a class like that, I was left with only one final exam. This was Contract & Sales and was as quite common (at least since Covid) a Take-Home-Exam. That means that students can take it any day in the 10 day final period and can use class materials to solve it. My exam was 6 hours from the moment I opened the case brief. 

Berkeley Law  is somewhat unique in their handling of grades. There is no A, B, C, D & F system, but a graded curve. Students are measured by how well they are doing compared to their classmates with usually 20% getting High Honors, the next 30% getting Honors and 50% getting a Pass (assuming nobody fails, which is usually the case). Though it seems like this might lead to an ellbow-mentality, I haven’t made that experience. People were really nice and helpful. 

Whether LLMs have a separate curve or are part of the JD curve depends on the class size and number of LLMs in the class.

One important note: There is absolutely no reason to stress out about the exam. I think it is virtually impossible to fail a class if you show some genuine interest and or attend classes.

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College Sports

The culture of college sports in the US is truly unique. Even though many of the T14 schools don’t have a reputation of having college sport teams that compete for the national championships attending games is an amazing experience. 

In fact, the best paid public employee in California is UC Berkeley’s football coach. While his team does not count to the best ones in the country, Berkeley has some great other teams and iconic ex-players that are now successful professionals. If UC Berkeley was a country, they would have been ranked 8th in last Olympic’s medal count. Famous Ex-Golden Bears are Alex Morgen (best female soccer player in the world), Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay’s Quarterback), Jared Goff (Detroit Lion’s Quarterback) and many Gold-medal swimmers.

During this semester, together with dozen of other LL.M.s, we attended many of the football games. The team hosts its games in the iconic Memorial Stadium, that has capacity for up to 80,000 people. Though many are not interested in the sport itself, it is always a big event and all fraternities and sororities celebrate Gameday by having an open house and big parties that start early in the morning. 

The Big Game

Each year’s highlight is The Big Game - the football game between Berkeley and Stanford. Even if both teams do bad in the league, winning this game can save the season and cause big celebrations on the winning team’s campus. On the night before each year’s game, there is a big bonfire on Berkeley Campus to get everyone in the mood for the game. The winning team gets ‘The Axe’, an actual axe that has been passed to the winner for decades now.

This year’s Big Game was hosted in Stanford and Berkeley crushed the Stanford team. After the 41:11 win by the Golden Bears, Berkeleyans invaded the pitch and celebrated on Stanford’s home ground. 

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Class Insight: Topics in Privacy and Security Law

Before I started my LL.M., I would have loved to get a better insight into what classes would be like. To help with that, I want to share my impressions in a couple of blog posts, each focusing on one of my classes each.

One of my courses this semester is Topics in Privacy and Security Law with Professor Schwartz. He is one of the leading professors in the field of Law & Technology and the most cited scholar in the field of Privacy Law.

The class is a seminar-style lecture, with around 15-20 students. It takes 3 of my 15 units this semester and it is one class a week. The lecture itself is pretty long with 2h40. The main goal of the class is to write a paper about a self-chosen topic in the field of privacy or security law. The paper should be between 12 and 15 double-spaced pages and should be suitable for publication. It is due the end of the semester and is the basis for the final grade (Smart LLMs take classes without finals to go on roadtrips in the reading and exam weeks!). My paper assesses Voter Privacy Law in a comparative approach between Germany and the US.

The weekly class does not have anything todo with the paper. Instead, Prof. Schwartz invites highly reputable instructors from other law schools to speak about their papers. These are assigned to read in the week before and then presented by a couple of students before the guest goes into detail about it. We have had fantastic guests from schools all over the country. All of them were open for questions and were excited to talk about their current projects. I really enjoy these classes that are mainly based on the classroom discussion as these are the moments where you can tell that the students sitting next to you are not only very smart, but also come from very different backgrounds and have different expertises. This made me appreciate the Undergrad/Grad School approach that I wasn’t used to from Europe. The discussion benefits a lot from having students that had an undergrad major in unrelated fields like molecular sciences or public policy.

For everyone heading to Cal and interested in Tech Law: Make sure to take a class by Prof. Schwartz (and ideally a small one)

We’ve been talking a lot about law school, here a photo from our favorite surfing spot in San Francisco:

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The Law School Building

Having seen so many pictures and having walked by the law school from the outside every day, I was very excited to finally see it from the inside.

The law school is located on the South-East end of campus, right below the Memorial Stadium, home of the Golden Bears, and the i-House, a housing complex for around 700 students from all around the world. It’s a 5-min walk away from famous Telegraph St , the center of Berkeley’s student neighborhood, Southside, where you’ll find a bunch of restaurants, shops and whatever else you might be looking for.

The Berkeley Law building, formerly known as Boalt Hall, is a three-level complex consisting of classrooms, a library, a reading room , offices for professors, staff, student organizations and journals, more social hang-out spots and Cafe Zeb, the law school cafe.

Coming from a big European public school, I consider the classrooms very nice and well-equipped. Whenever not in class, I usually spend my time studying in the reading room or hanging around Cafe Zeb. The reading room is an impressive and very spacious hall, directly connected to the rooftop. With face-coverings still being required indoor, many students spend their time studying at the tables on the rooftop. Cafe Zeb is a family-owned business and the spot to hang around if you want to be distracted from work. With around 280 LLMs and many more JDs in this fall’s class, there will always be a few around around for a great conversation. For me personally, that’s at least an as important part of the LL.M. as any class.

(C: Steve Whittaker)

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Back on Campus

After a remote semester, in Mid-August it was finally time for a return on campus. In Spring, Cal announced that they were planning to ramp up in-person classes to a 100% for all classes below 200 students. (Which applies to all law school courses) With Delta surging all over the country in the second half of the summer, everyone was nervous whether the school would change their plans for in-person instruction in the fall. They did not, which meant that on the 16th of August, around a 1000 law students returned to campus.

The start of the fall semester also meant that the LLM class size would increase from 80 to around 280. After three weeks I can say that this definitely changed the dynamic of the class, though I would argue that a small batch, as well as a large class size has Ups and Downs. While in the Spring everyone knew each other very well, with close to 300 people it now may sometimes feel a little overwhelming and it will definitely not be possible to get to know every single classmate very well. The small class forced everyone to reach out to people with different backgrounds and not just pick individuals with similar interests. However, on the other hand, with such a big group almost every country is represented and it’s close to certain to meet someone new at every bar night/law school event.

The first day on campus felt like first day of high school. People were nervous and excited to meet new friends, meet people they only knew with their Zoom background and to finally sit in a classroom again. People got lost in the law school and everyone was constantly looking for a 3L (a JD last year) to help them find their classroom, as they were the only ones that have ever been to the law school before the pandemic hit.

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Housing

Many prospective students ask me about tips for housing hunt.

„Heated“ seems to be an absolute understatement for the housing market in the Bay Area. While Covid has lowered the prices a little, it can already be noticed the this change was only temporary.

This makes personal needs even more decisive for the decision on the style, as well as the location of the housing.

Type of Accommodation

If you are coming alone, you will need to decide whether you want a place for yourself or if you are living in a community. Living alone in a studio can easily get you to a monthly rent of $2000-3000. Alternatively, a single room in a good location can be somewhere between $900-2000. To save money, many students (especially undergrads) will consider sharing a room ($600-1300).

I knew that I wanted a room for myself, but I also wanted to live in a community. There are many alternatives for that purpose. For one, the student on-campus dorms. „On-campus“ doesn’t actually mean that the buildings are actually on campus - they are usually somewhere in Southside - but that they are run by the university. Further, there are comparable „off-campus“ communities, that are sometimes a little nicer, but maybe also a little more pricy. It is also very common to live in a Co-Op, which is usually a big house with bedrooms for 6-12 people. Lastly, there is always to option to just find a room in a shared flat.

For families, the university offers relatively big studios in Albany. These are a little further out and the complex is structured like a gated community.

Neighborhoods

The two most vibrant neighborhoods are Southside and Downtown. Out of these, I would recommend living in Southside because of its close connection to the campus, the many students living there and the good restaurants.

Safety is always a criteria in Berkeley. Both of these neighborhoods regularly have incidents involving assaults or sometimes robberies. However, I don’t think there is a reason to be scared. During the day it is absolutely safe to walk around. During the nights many students take an Uber or only walk around in groups. I usually always walk and feel safe. Especially If you avoid the two-three specific streets that people tell you about (mainly the area around People’s Park), there is no need to worry. I would definitely not make it the decisive criteria for deciding against living in Southside.

If you want a neighborhood that is a little more green and a little more quiet, North Berkeley is the place to be. It has restaurants and grocery markets close and is also close to campus. You will just see less college-life around.

I would not recommend living in San Francisco or Oakland, because of the commuting, but that of course depends on personal preferences and needs.

FYI: I live in a single room with private bath in an off-campus housing with around 80 students. Rooms are not cheap ($1000-2000), however this also includes all amenities, cleaning and basics such as standard kitchen equipment (oil, salt, pepper, coffer, rice). The rooms and communal areas are very nice and just newly built. Feel free to contact me, if you need more info.

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The City of Berkeley

When I decided between the different admission offers, I looked at three decisive criteria: Academic class, financial considerations and the location of the university.

While a lot can be found online in regards to rankings, curriculums, and financials, it can be tough to get a sense of how each university’s location impacts the daily life. For me, it was the decision between Berkeley and New York (Columbia). Often approaching alumni can be a great help, but as one might not always be close, I want to elaborate on some insight on the city of Berkeley that I would appreciated a year ago.

On the East side of the Bay Area, Berkeley is a little town that is shaped by the presence of UC Berkeley. It is hard to walk around any given street without seeing a Cal-logo or the school’s mascot Oski. Much of the city’s life centers around the campus, that is located in front of the Berkeley Hills. These offer multiple hiking opportunities, that allow for a drink with a view of the sun setting behind the Golden Gate bridge. There are also a lot of options for doing sports in Berkeley. I made a lot of use of the tennis courts, fitness courses and (heated) swimming pools that are free for students.

While Berkeley is full of restaurants and has quite a few nice bars, „going to the city“ - San Francisco - for a day a week can be a nice change. Without a car or Uber (around 30mins over the Bay Bridge - Uber: $20-40) the Bart takes you to SF in 45 to 60 minutes. (Around $7)

Closer and often a lot more affordable is Oakland. While the reputation of the dirtier and unsafe city still sticks, it has become a hub for foodies and street art.

For longer trips, the beach town Camel-by-the-sea and Santa Cruz are super nice weekend destinations. Los Angeles is around 5,5 hours by car, thereby better suited for a longer trip. Overall the Bay is a great starting point for trips through National Parks, as well as up and down the coast. Many students also use the proximity to Hawaii for a trip over Spring Break or after the end of the program.

Of course I am biased, but yes - there is no better place for a once-in-a-lifetime year abroad than Berkeley.

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Journal Work and Other Extracurricular Opportunities

UC Berkeley has a long history of being a hotspot for political activism, most famously represented by the Free Speech Movement in 1964. Aside from political activism, extracurricular involvement is an even more crucial component of student life at UCB than it may be at other law schools. Right now, the school has more than 1,200 student organization, covering every possible interest such as Bears against ICE (group to end deportations and abolish ICE) , Alt. Protein Project (research group for protein substitutes), Cal in the Capitol (program to find internships in DC) or the Formula Electric (design and build electric vars for the Formula SAE EV). And this number does not even cover the dozens of sports clubs.

Most popular among law students is involvement in journals and law clinics. Even though the law clinics sound absolutely exciting, I decided against participating in one. Since many of the clinics, such as the Death Penalty Clinic or the Housing Law clinic, deal with highly personal matters with far-reaching personal consequences, involvement comes with great responsibility. There, it is generally expected that one spends at least 20h per week on the clinic. Consequently, participation in a clinic takes up a large portion of the credits in a semester.

Instead, I applied for the Berkeley Technology Law Journal (BTLJ). Journals at US law schools have a special relevance and history. Extensive structures formed behind them early on and they have always been considered a citable source in the literature and by courts. It so happens that there are even detailed rankings of the relevance of the various journals.

The BTLJ is not as famous as UCB’s California Law Review, but its editors are very proud that the journal was recently cited twice by the Supreme Court. To become a General Member in the journal one needs to commit to at least twenty hours over the semester with the option of becoming an Associate Editor with 30h of work.

I ended up in the BTLJ Podcast Team, where we recorded two hour-long podcasts. Within these we covered recent topics in the context of IP and Big Tech and interviewed two experts. We worked in a team of four and it was super fun to draft the outline and later record the podcast itself. You can have a listen to the podcast here on Spotify.

Overall, I can highly recommend journal work. It’s a great way of getting involved and is a great chance to meet and connect with American JDs.

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Spring Break + The State of Vaccinations

Spring Break

I turns out, I owe all of you transparency. Less than 24 hours after my last blog post, said convertible went up in smoke and is now buried somewhere in the Bay Area - it has been a short, but exciting adventure. In fact, the 2000 miles we drove the car up and down the road made us realize, that we had no other choice but to dare another look into the deep hidden pocket of our wallets and get “neeeew wheeeels”.

Spring Break was coming up, which means that already more than half of the semester is over (absolutely crazy). Together with a few other LL.M.s and Cal students, we drove down the coast to Santa Barbara and spent a week in Los Angeles. While some of us had to get some work done during the day, we visited Joshua Tree Nationalpark, did a few hikes, explored Venice Beach and walked through West Hollywood. It’s cheesy, but it feels very special to be able to spend time with such amazing people from all over the world in this wonderful environment and make memories that all of us will have for the rest of our lives.

Three months back, my only real concern was, if Covid and a remote semester would make it impossible to make friendships and get to know people in the same way as before. To be honest, I would have never expected that it could work out this well. However it turned out, with or without Covid, if you try hard enough, there is always a way to connect with other students - while a year ago it might have been a quick chat after class, this year it is the Zoom chat or just the streetwalk. This doesn’t only apply to LL.M.s that are new to the city, but also American J.D.s, that haven’t had the chance to hang out with classmates last year and now moved back to Berkeley to have people around again. To connect with people it also helps that this Spring’s LL.M. class is much smaller and more intimate. It’s actually hard to imagine, that in Fall 210 new LL.M.s are going to join our cozy class of 50 people.

Vaccinations

On another note, I want to give a little insight into the state of Covid restrictions and vaccination: In California’s Covid-colour-system, Berkeley and SF have recently moved to the Orange Tier, which allows many more businesses to open up. While bars have been allowed to open up indoors with a limited capacity a few weeks ago, now museums, sport stadiums and movie theaters are also allowed to have visitors with a limited capacity. Once again, it can’t be stressed enough how much good weather helps during these times. Even with indoor business opening up, people mainly stick to outdoor dining and spend as much time outside as possible. This, together with our university-wide one to twice a week Covid-testing, makes me feel very safe.

  Meanwhile, the speed of vaccinations is simply astonishing. By now, 37% of Californians and more than 50% of Berkeleyans have been vaccinated. Starting this week, all adults are eligible and I was lucky enough to get my vaccination today.  (Yes, I’m extremely excited!)  I got my vaccination at one of Berkeley’s mass vaccination sides. European as I am, I got there by bike and was surprised to see, that out of 15 vaccination tents 14 were “drive-ins” for people that came by car. I found myself the fifteenth’s tent, showed my ID and thirty seconds later, I had the Moderna-vaccine inside my body. I was asked to take a seat on a romantic plastic chair for 15min surveillance of possible side-effects and got my appointment for the second shot in 4 weeks.

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Car purchase + Microadventure #1: Napa Valley

Scrolling through my last blog posts, I realized that the distribution of academic content and of leisure topics does not accurately reflect my time in Berkeley so far. When we speak of the desire for "personal development" in letters of motivation in LL.M. applications, we rarely mean exclusively professional development. Of course, the year should also be used to build another home and to get to know another part of the world thoroughly.

With this in mind, I had the idea from the beginning to look around for an affordable used car. As much as I like to use public transport in Europe, it was immediately apparent in the first few days why this is not an equivalent solution here. While trips to “the city”, San Francisco, are alright (45min instead of 25min by car), more distant destinations in California require a car. Many students get rental cars, that are reasonably priced. After getting here, I quickly found a friend that proposed to get a car together. Overwhelmed by the many options on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace (really sketchy in Europe, really popular in the US), we just called two sellers. Less than 24 hours later, we had the keys to a 20-yo convertible (nice!) Pontiac in our hands and $ 1500 less in our pockets.

The cheap gasoline prices compensate for the enormously high consumption, but not for the bad conscience in terms of sustainability. (Can this possibly be offset by the fact that the avocados on my toast here don't have to be flown in?)

Obviously, we couldn’t wait any longer for our first trip over the Golden Gate bridge. We took one of our classmates to Napa Valley – California’s famous wine valley, whose wines regularly compete with finest French wines. The region gained fame through the movie "The Parent Trap" (1998) with Lindsay Lohan. Last year, unfortunately, some parts of the region were significantly threatened by wildfires, but has recovered in large parts.

We booked a bike wine tour in Calistoga and spend the day biking from one winery to the next. All the wineries get their wines from local (often their own) vineyards and offer cheap, but really informative tastings. With our paired, yet limited knowledge of wine and stories from our homelands, Europe and Dominican Republic, we engaged the winery owners in conversation and snagged a free tour of the facility. Around noon we had a picnic in style surrounded by vineyards. As one of us had to drive home, the other two had to share each extra serving of wine and we came to the conclusion, that the bike rides will from thereon require the wearing of a helmet.

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A Day in the Life at UC Berkeley

We are in a pandemic. While I would love to study in-person at Berkeley Law, this semester is conducted (almost) fully remotely. In fact, the desire to have in-person classes was the reason why I decided to defer my program start half a year ago. Six months later classes are still remote, but life has returned to the city of Berkeley. Streets are getting more and more crowded and the city seems to wake up from a year-long pandemic-sleep. Berkeley has also recently announced that it plans to return to fully in-person classes in the next semester.

So how does a day in the (virtual) life at UC Berkeley look like? I will give you an insight on a typical Wednesday – the day on which my timetable is the fullest:

7:30 AM: Coffee on the stove, catching up with some readings for today’s classes and getting ready for the day.

8:35 AM: First Class of the Day – Fundamentals to U.S. Law Fundamentals is one of the two core courses that every LL.M. needs to take. We go over the most relevant Supreme Court Cases in the history of the US. From the decision on same-sex marriage to women’s right to attend university. As often the case in US law school classes, the professor relies on the Socratis-method of teaching, meaning students get cold-called on the pre-assigned readings.

10 AM: It’s always sunny in California. I usually try to use the time between classes to get outside, grab a coffee and enjoy the sun.  Wednesdays, it’s also time for the weekly Covid-test, that UCB asks all students living around campus to take. My test station is in Memorial Stadium, the Golden Bears home stadium. 

11:20 AM: Second Class of the Day – First Amendment First Amendment is a typical J.D.-class. It covers important parts of U.S. constitutional law. Our professor calls students in a panel-system (a third of the class is on call every three weeks) and discusses important cases. I take the course to be eligible for the New York Bar. Quick word about the bar: With the courses at UC Berkeley, similar to all big law schools, you can basically take any state bars in the US. However, the overwhelming majority of students only want to take either the New York or the Californian Bar. For an LL.M. it is definitely not mandatory to take the bar – though many do it to higher their chances to find a job in the U.S., German LL.M.s are usually rather less interested in taking it. While the passing rates with the Californian bar are low, it is also a lot easier to be eligible than for the NY Bar. LL.M.s that are licensed attorneys in another jurisdiction do not need to take any specific courses to be eligible, while the NY Bar requires some commitment within the LL.M. course planning.

12:45 PM: Short Swim or Tennis In between classes, I hop onto my bike and go for a swim or play a quick tennis match. UC Berkeley provides for a number of wonderful pools and tennis courts that are free to use (or wait.. is tuition-financed really free or just prepaid?). Banners around the swimming stadium and other sports facilities boast of Berkeley’s athletes' Olympic victories.

2:00 PM: Lunch I usually meet friends on campus for a (socially distanced) lunch. Korean, Mexican, Chinese, American, Italian, you name it – Berkeley with its huge immigration culture has it all. (Fun fact: The streets surrounding campus supposedly have the highest bubble tea density in the US) Alternatively, the law school offers lunch talks basically every day of the week. Most of the times, it is a guest speaker (regularly quite famous, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg a while ago) addressing a current issue.

3:30 PM: Third Class of the Day – Legal Research and Writing The second core class for LLMs tends to be the least popular class in the curriculum. It’s all about learning research and citation methods for the writing project. However, compared to other LLM programs with a long Master’s thesis, it’s a rather short memo. This semester, Legal Research and Writing is also our only in-person class, conducted outdoor and with masks. Berkeley has guaranteed us this in-person class so that we can fulfill our visa requirements.

6:30 PM: Fourth Class of the Day – Practical Legal Ethics Legal Ethics is another class that J.D.s usually take to fulfill their study requirements. We simulate critical situations that demand ethically right decisions and analyze bar discipline rules. As many of the classes I chose, it is “seminar-style” and gives the opportunity to interact a lot with the professor and fellow classmates

8:15 PM: Done for the Day It was a long day. However, with only one class on Thursday and none on Friday, Wednesday night also feels close to the start of the long weekend. Time to grab a drink and enjoy the look from the Berkeley hills over the Bay.

(Yes, the sun sets right behind Golden Gate!)

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Quickstart Guide – LL.M. Curriculum for Dummies

The overwhelming array of LL.M. programs, specializations, and extracurricular activities offered by each university can definitely be confusing. To this end, I want to provide you with a simplified overview of the questions to which I would have wished an answer when picking and planning the curriculum.

The Program

Even the most basic decision – figuring out which program is the best - might not be as simple as it appears at first glance. The options are almost unlimited. Whether IP, finance law, dispute resolution or wine law - the world's top universities now cater to almost every interest. Whether one ultimately chooses a highly specialized program or the general LL.M. depends on very personal factors. There’s a good chance that for the lawyer who has been practicing for several years the specialized LL.M. might be the better fit, while the fresh law school graduate may still want to dip the toes into different fields of law with a general LL.M.. I count myself to the latter. Berkeley’s top ranking in IP law paired with a general LL.M.-program that offers wide flexibility were the main criteria for my decision from an academic viewpoint. To get an overview of all existing LL.M.-programs I used LLM-Guide and can highly recommend it. (No ad, but own experience)

Certificates

Berkeley offers its LL.M.s who seek in-depth training in a particular area of law to earn (free of extra-change) one of six Certificates of Specialization: 1. Law & Technology 2. Business Law 3. Energy & Clean Technology Law 4. International Law 5. Environmental Law 6. Public Interest Law

Each of the Certificates has its own requirements, usually including a number of specified core courses, the taking of a number of credits in the relevant area of law and the involvement in an extracurricular activity (such as a journal, a society etc.)

Classes

The first big excitement of my studies came two months prior the start of the semester: “Course Shopping” Coming from public and strictly bureaucratic German law school, it felt like a mix of an NFL-Draft and the first time your parents took you to Toys”R”Us. Right at noon, the course lists were opened and the first students to check out their shopping carts, filled with their desired classes, enroll. For me - whose wifi is frequently used by neighbors - this meant: Waitlist for “Computer Programming for Lawyers”. It wasn’t so bad - after all, the professor scared off a couple of students with the words "If you have fun with numbers, you're in the right place." and I joined the class.

There is something for everyone in Berkeley’s schedule of classes. For the first semester, every LL.M. has to enroll in Fundamentals in U.S. Law and Legal Research and Writing. Both courses give an overview of how to approach the new legal system and give a great chance to get to know fellow LL.M.-students. Other than that, LL.M.s are free to choose from all law school classes (and even some Haas Business School classes). Factors for the choice of classes are often requirements for the NY/CA Bar or Certificates of Specialization.

Here you can see my weekly schedule, so that you get a brief idea of a “normal” class schedule. Factors affecting my choice are NY Bar Requirements and that I am pursuing the Law & Technology Certificate.

[CPL: Computer Programming for Lawyers]

Extra-Curricular

Berkeley is very proud of its history of student run organizations. The university has over 1000 active student groups that offer the opportunity to connect with other students who share your interest.  Further, law clinics, society and journals provide for nearly unlimited opportunities of involvement. If you have any specific questions, feel free to drop me an “Ask-me-anything”.

[ucb-llm]

Welcome to SFO – Settling in in Times of Covid

My last day in Germany was marked by the terrible scenes of the riots at the US Capitol. It definitely didn’t make it any easier to say goodbye to friends and family. Nevertheless, after months of preparation and anticipation, nothing could temper my excitement for what was about to come.

After twelve hours of flight, I got to enjoy the last few minutes before arrival with a beautiful sight over the Golden Gate, Apple’s headquarter and the entire Bay Area.

After a year of partial lockdown in Germany, I spent the days before the start of classes exploring every street in the city, until my legs got sore. Contrary to my fear that a college town in times of Covid would feel like a ghost town, the streets were full of students dressed from top to bottom in "Cal"-gear.  

I have the impression that the US has learned from the numerous Covid-clusters in college towns. Berkeley now requires students to get tested once to twice a week. Overall, people here seem to be very Covid-conscious – even joggers and hikers in nature wear their masks and act very thoughtful. The only contrast to this are the many fraternities and sororities (the so-called "CalGreek") that continue to hold events as part of the "spring-rush". However, according to locals, one has to assume that the majority of the house residents has already been infected during the fall semester.

The great advantage of California is without question the possibility to pursue outdoor activities all year round. Many students spend their lunch breaks from remote classes on the large campus for a socially distanced lunch. This made it possible to also get to know some fellow LLM students in person, instead of only analyzing their Zoom-backgrounds during class.

While the law faculty does not plan to start in-person classes again until the fall (With the exception of one in-person course for visa status), some faculty are slowly starting outdoor in-person classes again.

In my next post, I'll go into what the curriculum looks like in UC Berkeley's LLM program and the flexibility you have in choosing courses.