Amicus Partners

In 2013, Joshua Alter graduated with a law degree from the St. John’s University School of Law. Since then, he has worked in and taught at three different law schools across the US: St. John’s Law, University of Florida’s Levin College of Law, and Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. With a focus on the non-JD offerings at US law schools, Joshua founded Beyond-JD, a role that he has assumed full time this year.  In this interview, Joshua shares his thoughts on the LLM v JD experience, the future of non-JD offerings, and how prospective LLM applicants ought to evaluate their study abroad options. 

You have had such an interesting career path – lecturer in schools around the world, legal education “internationaliser”, LLM advisor, and now an entrepreneur. What prompted you to take up Beyond JD full-time? 

The short answer is the timing finally felt right.

Over the last dozen years since my J.D. graduation, I have had a pretty cool career. I worked in three very different positions at three very different law schools with three very different LL.M. operations: St. John’s, Florida, and Northwestern.

The common theme throughout my career has been supporting LL.M. students in a system and structure that I believe is really designed for the benefit of J.D. students. My interest in the differences in J.D. and Non-J.D. experiences started when I was a 3L Teaching Assistant and I have figured out a way to build a great career supporting students in closing the gap between degrees.

Beyond Non-JD has been a hobby and a way to balance my work for U.S. law schools with sharing information with all prospective students. And I’ve told myself and others that I’d stay “inside” legal education until I felt like I had plateaued and could accomplish more from the “outside.”

I feel like I hit that point this past summer.

I have been thinking about life outside U.S. law school work since 2018 when I returned from 2.5 years based in China for St. John’s. And again in 2022 after deciding to depart Florida to take some time off to unwind post-pandemic. But now, in 2025, I feel like I have the ability to fully focus on work involving and surrounding Beyond Non-JD.   

Could you share some of your plans at Beyond JD for the next twelve months?

I created Beyond Non-JD so everyone would have access to the information I share with my Legal English for American Law Schools (LEALS) students and others I speak with. And so I’ll build out a lot of the programming surrounding that theme. The Fee Waiver newsletter, which has recently launched, the Bali Law School podcast (launching soon), the monthly webinar series on topics of interest to prospective LL.M. students and current LL.M. students, and much more extensive focus on blog entries are the four areas where you’ll see Beyond Non-JD grow.

But I’ll also finally shift into consulting, which will take up more of my working hours. I’ve partnered with a couple law schools abroad for LEALS courses, and will finally create a private enrolment LEALS course for people around the world who seek a head start on the U.S. law school experience.

I’ll also work with current LL.M. students who seek additional support outside their law schools. And a little work with prospective LL.M. students seeking advice throughout the application, admissions, scholarship, and deposit processes.

Finally, I’ll work with a couple law schools abroad on building out their global engagement opportunities, including working with U.S. law schools.

You regularly write about the non-JD law experience of international students at US law schools – three areas where you think US law schools can improve this experience?

Non-J.D. operations are generally designed to generate revenue.

My focus is on:

1. Ensuring prospective students understand that and so they can make decisions that they feel maximize their own benefits for their tuition dollars; and
2. Explaining to schools that providing more support and better experiences for Non-J.D. students is actually a good business strategy to generate more revenue. And for both, I think the right thing to do anyway.

Hearing so much LL.M. and international student feedback, I think the first thing would be to work harder to build out the connections between J.D. and Non-J.D. students. For LL.M. students to feel like valued members of the entire community. International LL.M. students can feel like second-class citizens in their own law schools, which can lead to negative perceptions of their experiences.

The second, is for schools to spend more resources on Non-J.D. programs and students. I think we’re starting to see schools devote more resources to LL.M. bar prep, which makes sense. LL.M. students can’t practice in the U.S. until they become licensed, and so ensuring as many LL.M. students as possible pass bar exams is a good strategy. It should also make the challenging job search slightly easier and lead to happier alumni when alumni offices reach out for donations.

Something I think about often is whether the model is really about maximizing revenue by minimizing expenses or understanding that there are very real benefits to more LL.M. and other Non-J.D. revenue being reinvested within those programs.

Finally, with the growth of Non-J.D. programs, I think schools can really think about which programs they are in the best position to offer, especially when it comes to residential, international students. With the growth of online, hybrid, non-degree, and other programs that generate money, there is not as much of a need for residential programs for foreign students to generate revenue. Which takes the pressure off having programs that may not be good fits at all institutions.

Because at least in my experience, so many residential LL.M. students on F-1 visas are looking for the same things that J.D. students are looking for. Residential programs add $20,000-$40,000+ to a degree for a year, and these come with heightened OPT and bar exam passage expectations. Schools can really focus on programs they’ll do best and ensure that the students in their programs are good fits.

Sticking with this theme – do you see US law schools ramping up their non-JD offerings? Should they?

Most U.S. law schools need to generate revenue. Especially to continue to enrol the J.D. classes they seek. To hire the faculty they look to recruit. And to build out other programs and activities and events they want to plan. So, it makes sense that they’ll look to grow Non-J.D. programs to accomplish that over risking issues with their J.D. programs, especially around rankings, admissions selectivity, employment outcomes, and bar passage rates.

Each J.D. student is counted for employment outcomes and bar passage outcomes through ABA Required Disclosures. Rankings are focused on J.D. programs. Faculty and student expectations of classroom experiences are more easily controlled through J.D. admissions than Non-J.D. admissions. And so for ABA purposes, I think U.S. law schools absolutely should keep ramping up their Non-J.D. offerings.

The key is, are they designing Non-J.D. programs that prospective students find valuable and that create a real value-add, career wise, in exchange for that revenue? And I think it’s fair to highlight that question to ensure we’re building better programs for all students in our law schools.

As someone who has closely worked with international students at US law schools, what would you say are some of the benefits of the US LLM experience? And is it worth the high tuition?

The residential LL.M. experience opens up doors to qualify for bar exams and build careers and lives within the United States. I am repeatedly told that bar exams in jurisdictions like New York and jobs through OPT and beyond are the main reasons students continue to look to the U.S. as a leading choice for the LL.M. experience.

So we have those two baked in advantages as a jurisdiction. And I regularly speak with LEALSers and other prospective and current LL.M. students who reinforce this. 

We also have extensive networks of lawyers with U.S. law degrees abroad, including leading practitioners in many of the jurisdictions I visit. This helps build out a real competitive advantage when students and junior attorneys are trying to break into markets. And I often hear that these LL.M. degrees have been a way to stand out.

And so both of those are the types of value-add that I think make the transactional nature of an LL.M. degree attractive, especially to those without funding concerns and those who can secure large tuition discounts in the form of scholarships. And that is on top of the substantive knowledge, the credential, the networks, the opportunity to experience the U.S. legal system, and other benefits regularly spoken about.

Having worked with a pretty large number of LL.M. students who have transformed their careers and lives, I think it is so crucial to have the knowledge beforehand to maximize opportunities and minimize expenses.

And that really is the purpose of Beyond Non-JD. Because when LL.M. programs work well, students have great experiences.

From a law school perspective, how do you think US law schools can improve their student recruitments? Any specific activities which, in your experience, have worked quite well?

I think the pandemic changed the model for LL.M. student recruitment. But innovation had already been happening years earlier, especially with the partner school models. These LL.B.-LL.M. and LL.M.-LL.M. models have taken some of the younger, higher-tuition paying students out of the recruitment pipelines, because they attend their U.S. schools before other schools have a chance to recruit them. Due to my jobs, I have had a front row seat to seeing how different schools accomplish this and some of the best practices.

Back to the pandemic, I think schools needing to shift so much online meant the asymmetrical information gap really started to narrow. You no longer needed to be in the right city or have the right professional network to know how LL.M. scholarships worked or the differences between LL.M. and J.D. programs.

And so that, combined with the continued growth of LinkedIn as an LL.M. information repository, means that if you know where to look, you can really maximize your benefits as you go through the process.

But you need to know where to look.

And this is where alumni and current student experiences are so key. The schools with very happy LL.M. students have such an advantage over schools where LL.M. students feel like they didn’t have the information they needed before orientation. Or even before they deposited. And so seeing which schools have really shifted their students to their first option for recruitment has been interesting to see.

Lastly, for Indian law graduates who are considering a US LLM, what would you say are the three most important factors to consider before even applying?

Follow Amicus Partners for the great information you share! Thanks for giving me a shoutout for the resources I provide. I hope all those resources have been helpful for Indian law graduates.

Second, follow the Indian law graduates who have pursued U.S. LL.M. degrees on LinkedIn. You’ve highlighted Adithya Reddy, who I worked with at Florida. He has been so generous with his time and insights, and my sense from LinkedIn is there are many others who are willing to help the newest group of Indian law graduates understand the process to maximize their own experiences.

And finally, ask difficult questions.

Schools with big Non-J.D. operations generally need international students and their tuition dollars for these Non-J.D. programs (though M.S.L., certificate, and other non-degree programs have diversified tuition streams for more U.S.-based options). Schools are very much recruiting you to join their LL.M. degrees and it is the reason there is so much interest in recruiting in India for LL.M. programs.

Ask about the things that are important to you. Get information in writing, especially for resources you believe will help your overall experience. And ensure you feel comfortable with the expenses and degree and school before committing to the deposit and the tuition.