I did this LL.M as part of a special French program enabling those who are fluent in a language to undergo bilingual legal studies. For their last year of Master, students were sent in foreign partner universities and would graduate in both countries. I chose De Montfort University because of its program and specializations which were focused on business law, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Europe.
This year of LL.M marked my first time living alone. Until then, university had always been "relatively" close from home (an hour and a half is not so long when you live in Paris). The novelty was not so much living in another country (that, I was used to) as not having "someone" (a.k.a. my mother) cooking for me and doing my laundry.
I moved into a huge red building (everything is red in Leicester) with many students (most of them drunk half the time, but let's disregard that). Being on campus forced me to become sociable. You must get to know your flatmates if you want to survive (you're stuck with them anyway). You stumble upon new people, little by little they become familiar until you call them neighbors. I really enjoyed myself, made a good amount of friends (some of them still are), joined the university's newspaper and the gaming club, etc.
As for my academic life, the courses were extremely different from France (fewer students, compulsory participation, weekly assignments). Even the grading system came from another planet (percentages instead of a scale of twenty). It was not all that bad. Thinking outside the box was not sanctioned. Papers could be creative or humorous, provided that the logic and arguments were correct. I never loved competition law more than when working was fun.
Thanks to this LL.M I learned to be more independent and to rely less on others. I also met new people, from various backgrounds and horizons. One of my former flatmates has even become my roommate.
Professionally, these courses brought me a better professional insight on English law. At my French university, professors from renowned Anglo-Saxon universities would give us lectures, but I learned more from my "local" teachers at Leicester, as the knowledge and tools they gave me were practical.
In any case, an LL.M is a must-have on any C.V. It is a proof of one's law and language skills. From my job-seeking experience, many recruiters require an LL.M for applications involving international interactions.
For further information about the LL.M. in Business Law at De Montfort University, click here.
