Aya Ichinose
LLM for Foreign-Trained Lawyers (U.S. Law)
It was a long-time friend of mine who suggested that I enroll into the US Law program at Temple University Japan Campus (TUJ Law), knowing that I had been thinking about going back to school to learn the law again for quite some time. She thought that TUJ Law’s program was perfect for me, because it would enable me to study the US law which would be useful for work, but also because as a Japanese-English conference interpreter, I would have no language problem in classes taught by English-speaking professors.
After learning about the program from my friend, I contacted TUJ right away. I had a delightful meeting with Ms. Tanaka, who is the Program Coordinator. Her explanation about the program got me really excited about studying at TUJ Law, and I immediately decided to enroll.
As you can see from how I came to study at TUJ, I enrolled into law school at first as a life-long learning effort. Professional conference interpreters like me are required to be a generalist rather than a specialist; I was not a specialist in the area of law. I just wanted to have an opportunity to be a student again, study the US law to expand my views. I had thought it would suffice to earn the LL.M. degree, and I did not plan to take the US bar exam at that point.
After starting school, I decided to take only one class per week. I knew that would take me longer to finish the program, but considering my workload as an interpreter, I believed it would be better for me to stick to that schedule.
At TUJ Law, the students are able to start learning from the basics of legal writing. I had never taken a class like that before, for the university that I attended did not provide such class, and it was very refreshing. At first, I had no idea what I was doing and assignments that I submitted were returned filled with professor’s comments on what I should fix. However, as I got better as the weeks passed by, and it was a very fun learning process.
Each class is taught by professors who are licensed to practice law in the US. Many of the professors had been living in Japan for some time, and they understood where non-English-native students would have difficulty comprehending, including various legalese and Latin terms. It was impressive how the professors paraphrased those words so that the students can understand it. As an interpreter, I had the joy of learning many sophisticated words which were new to me from professors, which was to me like a bonus to studying at TUJ Law.
For class, I needed to read 30 to 40 pages from the casebook each week. The language used there was not at all easy to read. Even though I only took one class a week, it was a lot of work to keep up with class while having a job. However, when that effort paid off and I got good grades on final exams, it made me ecstatic and made me want to study even harder.
Also, in addition to taking substantive and procedural law classes, I had an opportunity to take an advanced writing course called “Guided Research.” There, under the guidance of Professor Saunders, who is the Director of TUJ Law, I wrote a research paper on the theme of my choosing. It was the first time I wrote such paper, because I never wrote graduation thesis as an undergraduate student. (It was not a requirement for undergraduate law students at my university to submit one.) It became a very valuable experience to have written something in my own words, in my own legal perspective.
As I continued to study at TUJ Law, I gradually became more confident in my ability to learn the law. I was also stimulated by my classmates’ aspiration to take the bar exam in the U.S. After approximately 2 years had passed since enrollment, I started to seriously consider taking the Washington D.C. Bar Exam.
After obtaining sufficient number of credits to complete the LL.M. program, I stayed at TUJ Law a bit longer to acquire necessary credits to take the Washington D.C. Bar. After fulfilling the requirements, I took Bar Prep courses at TUJ Law to prepare for the exam, along with buying a commercial bar prep course. My hard work paid off; I passed the Washington D.C. Bar Exam at one sitting.
Most of the materials that I had used for prepping for the exam were provided by TUJ Law. Professor Saunders, who had taught the bar prep course had repeatedly told us to hold ourselves accountable for making the study plan and sticking to it, as well as to make it a habit to self-assess the essay writing. I believe abiding by that advice had formed the foundation for my passing the exam.
For me, having met wonderful friends while studying in the LL.M. program was a great gift. After you enter the workforce, there aren’t many opportunities which would enable you to meet new people who are of different ages with different professions. TUJ Law enabled me to meet those people, who continuously stimulated me from various directions. In addition, every year in the semester starting from January at TUJ Law welcomes J.D. students from all over the United States. It was a priceless experience for me to study in classes with future US lawyers who were studying in US law schools.
Best thing about TUJ Law program is that not only does it function as a place of learning and challenge to those who are working as legal professionals, but it is also a welcoming place for people like me, who just wanted to learn something new. The tuition is not cheap. However, the investment that I made in TUJ Law have generated the biggest lifetime return for me. I wholeheartedly appreciate my learning experience at TUJ Law. I would like to make use of what I have learned at Temple in the work that I do going forward.
If you are at all interested in studying the US Law, I urge you contact the Law School Office at TUJ. Just like me, I’m sure you would be intrigued by the learning opportunity it offers. I suggest you take a step forward, to try and see what you are capable of.