One day something interesting popped into my inbox.

Among the newsletters and freelance cattle calls was an email from NYU Law School’s Tax LLM program.

It contained a fee voucher.

I was shocked and flattered – tax law was my passion during law school, and NYU’s LLM program is consistently ranked #1 in the country.

A Master of Laws (LLM) degree is a post-law school master’s degree. Tax is one of the few LLM specialties not considered an utter waste of time.

I immediately filled out the LSAC application and strategized how to get recommendation letters from law professors who have long forgotten who I am.

After my initial wave of enthusiasm, I remembered the fraudulent employment stats and starting salaries published by law schools. I also remembered how angry everyone was 2L year when we realized that our school lied to us about our prospects.
After some research into the value of tax LLM programs, I realized that there’s simply not enough reliable information available for me to make an informed decision regarding the purported benefits of an LLM.

What I’m fretting over:

• What if I can’t find tax law employment after getting a NYU LLM? Would I just return to Thomson Reuters with $80,000 more in student loans?
• What if law firms ignore the LLM degree due to my University of Minnesota degree? An outstanding LLM isn’t going to cut it for a firm looking for an Ivy League Law Review alum.
• Even if I get a job at a top Manhattan law firm, would my (supposedly) higher salary overcome the significant opportunity cost of giving up my current corporate career?