A Foreign LL.M. – An Expensive Holiday?

After two years of working in a law firm, a dream to study in Oxford grows within you. A dream that was never really there, but one that you are now convinced you must pursue. When I say “Oxford”, I’m only referring to any colonial or renowned western university. It appears that the Indian fascination with white skin and other things western extends to education as well. Though the lines before this are a dead giveaway about which way I’m leaning, I will, through this piece, attempt to dispassionately weigh the pros and cons of studying abroad..Two years into a law firm job, and you are not sure about whether you want to sit behind a desk and undertake research and drafting for the foreseeable future. You begin to think that the experience of studying abroad will add value to your profile and personality, and that education in the Ivy League or it’s British equivalent will hold you in good stead. You know that studying in these institutions will ensure that your family and peers look at you with an enhanced level of respect for the rest of your life. You only see the positives at this point and believe that the INR 35 lakh-deep hole that the experience is likely to burn in your pocket will provide adequate returns later. This belief becomes fact in a handful of cases, but is certainly not the norm. Many a bright Indian mind has undertaken this journey, only to return to India and continue working in the same or similar capacity that they were working in prior to their departure. At this point, we try to tell ourselves that the year-long LLM experience in a foreign country and the exposure that comes with it was well worth the 35 lakhs – but was it?.Unless you are on scholarship, a one year LLM in the US or UK will cost you roughly INR 35,00,000. Unless your father is Scrooge McDuck, you will probably have to take a bank loan to get through the one- year course. If you can get yourself a job in the jurisdiction of your education, you may be able to repay that loan in about 2-3 years following graduation. If not, and as is usually the case, you will have to return to India and attempt to find a job that will remunerate you adequately to repay the fat loan. A well-paying job such as this will usually have to be with a law firm, the same vocation that you were attempting to escape from in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, you could truly enjoy your law firm job, in which case you would not be attempting to run from it at all. I have met some great people during my law firm stint and can vouch for the fact that it can be truly enjoyable. This piece only attempts to capture a broader trend..If you don’t have a scholarship, but do have a daddy Scrooge McDuck, the whole experience is likely to pinch a lot less financially. However, you do have to ask yourself whether you will be comfortable taking substantial money from your family despite being a 25-odd year old adult. If you are, for whatever reason, able to answer the question in the affirmative, then you probably have a viable option..If not, working in a law firm or other organization, as high paying as it may be, will not let a 26-year-old save more than INR 5 to 7 lakhs a year, which means that you will have to work for 5-7 years to repay your loan. The financial obligation will force your hand and put you in a position where you will have no choice but to undertake a job that will allow you to make enough money to repay your loan. The freedom and liberation that you hoped to achieve by completing a foreign LLM will therefore, in most cases, not materialize..All of this may be worth it, if there was a clear tangible benefit. However, unless you want to enter into academia, research or the like, there is no obvious benefit in completing a foreign LLM, or any LLM for that matter. Unless you intend to work in a niche area in a specialized law firm, firms don’t usually offer any additional weight to the fact that you have done your masters. In fact, the advanced age without the corresponding experience may sometimes be a handicap..A lot of the time, the yearning to study abroad arises from a lack of conviction in the fact that your current job is your calling, and from the consequent disillusionment that is likely to set in. This is not to say that there are no right reasons for people to spend good money and study abroad. Some amongst us are so academically oriented that the thought of receiving a higher quality of education, from renowned jurists in some cases, is genuinely exciting. The thought of being part of program with a well-defined structure and purpose may be stimulating for some and this is not something that many Indian colleges offer, especially in the post-graduation sphere as far as law is concerned..Some other good reasons to (spend money and) study abroad that I can think of are (i) education in a specialized university which you know will open avenues for employment in a particular sector, whether in India or abroad (e.g. certain government bodies, the UN and other similar organizations); (ii) to supplement the skill-set necessary for your current job, whether in a law firm or otherwise, consequently increasing your scope for growth; (iii) to equip yourself with the skills necessary to enter into the domain of research and academia; (iv) to enter into a new area of expertise, whether in India or abroad; (v) to provide yourself with the expertise to deal with foreign clients and laws if that is a part of your job profile/requirement. For reasons such as these, the money spent may actually be well worth it (these “right” reasons are merely indicative and there will certainly be other plausible reasons as well)..We often hear phrases being used such as that “a foreign LLM will add an international dimension to your outlook” or that “lawyers must not restrict their perspective to one legal system in this globalized world” or that “the value of networking during a foreign LLM is immense” etc. However, we never hear these statements backed up by arguments telling us how the perspective, additional dimension or list of foreign contacts will assist one professionally while working in India. The exposure is of course nice to have, but the relevant question is whether it justifies paying through your nose for..As far as I am concerned, this is nothing but an example of confused jargon. If you really want that exposure, you could aim to work abroad at a later stage in your career and be paid for the same experience instead of having to pay for it. This is of course harder than splurging 35 lakhs at the age of 25, but not something that good planning or dedicated efforts won’t let you achieve..It’s one thing to be bold and decide to go all out and equip yourself with a degree, but being rash is a wholly different – and the line between the two can be quite thin. For example, the 35 lakhs could have also been spent on buying a house. By the time you finish repaying the home loan in 5-7 years, you will at least have an asset whose value has appreciated in that time. If you choose to repay an education loan instead, from a financial point of view you will have nothing at the end of those 5-7 years..Unless you undertook the course for the right reasons, all that you will have is a degree from a top law college that adds no value to you professionally. This is what happens in a vast majority of cases. Most of us don’t choose to study abroad for the right reasons. We choose to study abroad for inadequately thought out reasons ranging from being tired from working for a couple of years or in the hope of finding your true calling during your educational stint or in the anticipation of find a well paying job abroad or simply because you are not sure what you want from life. None of these are bad reasons to study abroad per se, but they are bad reasons if you are going to spend 35 lakhs on it – what you are really paying for is a white elephant..Also, we often tell ourselves that it is important to live our dreams and that money should not be a restraint in such matters. However, in these situations, we must ask ourselves whether this has really been a dream – how long have we harboured this dream? Is this something that you have genuinely wanted or an option that now seems enticing because you are not sure about what you want from life? Also, the purpose of these year-long excursions is often just to give yourself a tag and attach yourself to a brand. Even in the top colleges, there are some degrees that the institutions are renowned for and some others that they just offer anyway (for e.g. Oxford is well known for it’s BCL degree, but not so much for other legal postgraduate degrees). The money spent is especially not worth it if you are not going to be receiving a top degree at the end of it all. You will still have your friends and relatives look at you in wide eyed wonder, but that could be all that you will have..Coming back to the point on walking the tight rope between being rash and bold – you may have a bullish attitude towards life with oodles of confidence in yourself and your abilities and believe that you will make good of this opportunity, get yourself a job in the foreign jurisdiction etc. However, in actuality, you will only get jobs that are surplus in the market. As good as you may be, the reality is that the undergrads from (for e.g.) Oxbridge, and the local post grads from Oxbridge fall higher up in the pecking order. Firms and companies would rather hire them than you – a foreign post grad from Oxbridge who is not as familiar with the local laws or culture. Leapfrogging them is not impossible of course, but counting on that is not a smart ‘Plan A’. It is like trying to reverse sweep Dale Steyn for six. It may come off – but that doesn’t make it a good plan. To put this in context, think of the value that an LLM degree from NLSIU, Bangalore has, as compared to a BA LLB degree from the same institute – it’s a reasonable degree, but not comparable to the BA LLB degree..So what is the bottom line? If are going to study abroad for the right reasons, the money being spent is probably worth it. Even if one wants to go abroad to simply take a break from work, experience foreign education and explore your opportunities, one should that – but on a scholarship. There is no point in spending 35 lakhs to simply massage your ego – invest it instead. India is a great country and there are inexpensive ways to explore your opportunities here as well. It’s high time we got over the colonial hangover..Bishen Jeswant is a Sub Editor with ESPNcricinfo. He graduated from National Law Institute University, Bhopal in 2012 and worked with one of the country’s top law firms for a couple of years. After an enjoyable law firm stint, he decided to give his passion a chance with ESPN.