Amicus Partners

First Person Accounts (FPA’s) are meant to provide a first-hand account of law graduates who have pursued, or are pursuing, a post-graduate course (an LLM or otherwise) from different universities across the world.

Apoorva Gokare is an Indian law graduate who recently completed the 2-year Juris Doctor course offered by Iowa University. Like other accelerated JD’s, the Advanced Standing Program at Iowa College of Law allows foreign trained lawyers to complete the US JD in two years as compared to the three years that the traditional JD takes. 

In this FPA, she discusses her reasons for opting for an accelerated JD, the US law school experience, finding employment in the US, and much more. 

Before getting to the JD itself, I am curious to know what prompted the move to the US? And once you had decided to move, how did you go about selecting which 2-year JD to apply for?

First, I decided to move to the US because my parents had already moved there while I was doing law school in India. My brother and his wife were also in the US at the time. I wanted to stay close to family and was a great opportunity to expand my horizons to practice law.

After I decided to move, I knew I would live in the US long-term (mostly all my life, if everything worked well), so I weighed my options between an LLM and a JD.

My uncle, a lawyer in the US, recommended the 2-year JD program. I spoke to some folks who had done an LLM and some who had done/ were doing a JD to get their perspective on employment opportunities and expenditure between the two.

After that, I was convinced that a JD would give me a better thrust in launching my career in the US.

The other factor that influenced me to go for a JD program was that an LLM would restrict my bar eligibility to only a few States, whereas a JD would allow me some flexibility. Not just the bar eligibility but also my chances of passing the bar – an LLM is technically a 9-month course on a specified area of law, but the bar exam has fundamental subjects like – property, criminal law, constitutional law, torts, etc., which I would not be taking as an LLM student.

Another year, though a more expensive than LLM, felt more advantageous concerning all that I mentioned above. Rather than seeing it as an extra year, I saw it as a year less than traditional JD students for whom it is 3 years after a 4-year undergrad. Technically, it would be the same for me – 5 years of law school in India and 2 years here.

Could you tell me a bit about the application process for the Advanced Standing Program at Iowa Law – what were some of the more challenging aspects of the application? What was the interview process like?

Once I started looking for 2-year JD programs, I understood from my homework that it wasn’t a popular program and not many universities offered it.

I shortlisted six colleges.

The application process was through the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). Some universities required an LSAT score; some did not. All universities require TOEFL/IELTS for English proficiency. Other aspects of the application were – Statement of Purpose (SOP), Recommendation Letters, Transcripts, and a Degree Certificate for the Indian law degree.

The most challenging part of the application was the SOP. It takes a lot of time and a lot of drafts to feel contended about what you submit. I thank my family for multiple reviews and for helping me refine it. Other than that, it just takes a lot of time to gather all the application materials, send hardcopies to the US, follow up on recommendation letters, etc.

After submitting all the materials, LSAC came up with a report and sent it to every college I applied to. The report usually consists of undergrad grades converted to suit the American grading system, verifying LSAT and TOEFL scores, compiling the recommendation letters, SOP, employment history and background information, etc.

Next, I got an interview request from Iowa. It was the COVID year, so the interview was remote. I met with the Director of Admissions, and we spoke for about 45 minutes. I did not have much experience with formal interviews, and it was one of my firsts.

I thought it was a smooth conversation – she asked me about why Iowa, my prior internship experiences, extracurriculars, leadership roles, etc. Also, I asked her a few questions at the end to get a gauge of how Iowa would be a fit for me.

Again, with the benefit of hindsight, what were the most difficult bits about the US law school experience – anything you wish you had known before you enrolled for the course? And how different was the course as compared to the Indian law degree?

My US law school experience was quite different from India’s. The first-year courses felt familiar [because India and the US both follow the common law system as we were British colonies] but I never felt I knew more than my classmates. The class environment was very intimidating during my first semester.

I dreaded the “cold calls.”

I was scared to voice my opinions/answer questions in class. Also, I had to read before every single class to prepare for the class. It would take me at least 4-5 hours of reading for a 1 ¼ hour class. If you didn’t read, you wouldn’t be able to follow the discussion in the classroom. I would have about 2-3 classes a day, and the rest of the day, a lot of my time went into reading, briefing cases, prepping for cold calls, and outlining.

The challenge for me was time management and discipline. Eventually, I got a hang of what worked best for me and did pretty decent in school. 😊 I had spoken to some alumni before starting law school and had an idea of these things, but I didn’t realize the intensity until I was in it.

This is how I would summarize my experience – In India, they teach you “what the law is” but in the US, they teach you “how to think like a lawyer.”

Given your experience, how do you think foreign trained lawyers can boost their chances of finding employment in the US? Any soft skills that you found really worked for you?

According to me, networking is very important in landing a job in the US. Students should not hesitate to reach out to people, ask for informational interviews, attend conferences, and connect with people who are similarly situated or have similar interests. Also, having an outgoing personality, the urge to learn, being flexible, and getting out of your comfort zone is important too.

Getting employed in the legal field in the US is tricky as it is influenced by external factors like visa sponsorship. I would say that’s one of the main hurdles. As it is a non-STEM degree, you would only have a one year OPT (Optional Practical Training) status upon graduation to find employment that would sponsor your work visa, and if you do, then get picked up in the H1B lottery.

Because of the uncertainty with the whole visa process, I believe that employers (small-medium size law firms and other organizations) are hesitant to take a chance to hire a foreign-trained lawyer (cost v. benefit analysis, right!).

This is where I feel pursuing a JD would give an advantage over LLM. My observation has been that a JD would stand a higher chance in the employment race than a person who has studied the law of the land for just 9 months!

I say that because a fair number of foreign-trained law students in the 2-year JD program already had an LLM degree and decided to pursue JD after that for better employment opportunities. Subsequently, I know most of the students in the 2-year program at Iowa went into Big Law – so it’s definitely possible!

Having said the above, I don’t want to discourage anyone from coming to the US to pursue their legal career, but I want them to have a clear picture. I am not demotivating anyone from pursuing an LLM, but they should be aware of their long-term goals and what aligns best with that!

How has the Delaware Bar prep been? How much time do you think one should devote to this process?

The Delaware bar prep was very stressful, to be honest! Not just for Delaware, bar prep is generally very stressful. I had not taken a lot of bar classes outside of my first-year mandatory curriculum, so my anxiety was at a higher level. I felt I had to put in more time than others.

Also, not going to lie, my memory is not that great, so I felt as though I was learning concepts for the first time. Generally, most people who are taking the bar right after graduation will just do bar prep for the 10-12 weeks leading up to the bar, which is what I did too.

Thankfully, I did not have to work during that time and did not have many family responsibilities either. My bar prep course – BARBRI – had a schedule that I could curate to my own needs. According to that, I had to study at least 5-6 hours a day (including most weekends) to finish the course. I felt like I had to put in more hours (about 7-8 hours) because I had to rewatch some parts of certain lectures if I had not taken those courses in law school.

The key is to stick to the schedule and keep going.

I did not have to worry about what subjects to study and when because the bar prep would schedule it for me – give tests in the concepts I was weak at, suggest more reading, balance out the subjects, change between different aspects of the exam – MCQs and essays, etc.

Not just watching and reading the lectures but also practice, practice, practicing the questions – especially in a time setting – is very important!

And, of course, I cannot emphasize enough that RESTING is crucial too!! Towards the end, I felt burnt out and was convinced I would fail (everyone goes through that phase), but it will all work out in the end, if you put in the time and effort!

Lastly, any advice for other Indian law grads who are interested in pursuing a master’s or the JD course in the US?

 I have covered most of them briefly in my responses above. Before beginning to think about pursuing a legal education in the US, take time to think about long-term goals, research the areas of law that you are interested in, connect with people who are in those areas, and don’t hesitate to call/email them to ask a few questions about their journey!

Talking to people who have gone through the whole process will bring some perspective and help decide what course suits you the best.

If someone has specific questions or want me to elaborate on certain things, they can always connect with me on LinkedIn.

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