LLM vs JD - Which US Bars a Foreign Lawyer Can Sit

LLM vs JD - Which US Bars a Foreign Lawyer Can Sit

An LL.M. is not a US law license, and no single answer covers the country: each US jurisdiction writes its own rule on whether a foreign law degree can get you into a bar examination room, and about a quarter of them say no on any terms. Of the 51 US jurisdictions (50 states plus the District of Columbia) checked on September 5, 2026, 37 admit graduates of foreign law schools by examination and 14 do not. Only a handful say that an LL.M. from an ABA-approved law school is, by itself, enough. In most of the 37, the LL.M. is one required piece alongside an equivalency determination, a common-law requirement, a practice-years requirement, or prior admission somewhere else in the United States.

This page reports what each jurisdiction publishes. It is not legal advice and it is not an eligibility opinion: only the bar admission authority for the jurisdiction you want can tell you whether your degree qualifies, and its current wording governs, not this table.

LL.M. vs JD, for a foreign-trained lawyer

The two degrees do different jobs, and the confusion is worth clearing up before the table.

A JD (Juris Doctor) is the standard first professional law degree in the United States. It normally runs three years full-time, it is the credential every US jurisdiction is built around, and a JD from a law school approved by the American Bar Association is the one credential that satisfies the educational requirement everywhere. If you hold one, the "which states" question mostly disappears.

An LL.M. (Master of Laws) is a one-year graduate degree. For a foreign-trained lawyer it is usually a cure or a supplement: it is what several jurisdictions accept to make up the gap between a foreign legal education and what they would otherwise require. It is not a substitute for a JD in general, and it is not a license. The University of Texas School of Law puts the point plainly on its own LL.M. bar page: "An LL.M. degree does not make foreign lawyers eligible to practice law in the U.S. Each U.S. state regulates the admission of attorneys to the practice of law."

Three consequences follow, and they are the reason a state-by-state table is the only honest format:

1. Eligibility is set jurisdiction by jurisdiction. Bar admission is regulated by each state's highest court or its bar admission agency, not by the ABA, not by NCBE, and not by the law school that admits you to an LL.M. program. A school can enroll you in an LL.M. without your being eligible to sit anywhere.
2. "LL.M. accepted" rarely means "LL.M. is enough." Most jurisdictions that accept an LL.M. also require an equivalency determination of your first law degree, and many bolt on a practice-years or common-law condition on top.
3. The LL.M. itself has to qualify. Several jurisdictions specify credit counts, subject mixes, how long you have to finish, and whether any of it may be online. An LL.M. that satisfies one state's curricular criteria will not automatically satisfy another's.

How to read the tables

The tables below group all 51 jurisdictions into three sections and give one row each. Every row says where the rule comes from:

• Own rule (Sep 5) - we read the jurisdiction's own bar authority page or court rule on September 5, 2026, and the operative sentence is quoted below the table.
• NCBE chart (Sep 5) - we could confirm only the entry in NCBE's Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements, Chart 4 (Foreign Legal Education), read September 5, 2026. NCBE's own advice on its jurisdiction pages is the right instruction here: "Since jurisdiction rules and policies change, NCBE strongly advises consulting the jurisdiction's bar admission agency directly for the most current information."

Chart 4 is the index that tells you where to look. It is not a substitute for the rule, and in at least one case below the chart and the jurisdiction's own rule do not read the same way.

Section 1 - An LL.M. or additional US law-school study is the route

Twenty-two jurisdictions publish a route in which a foreign-educated applicant qualifies by adding US law-school work, whether that is a full LL.M. or a fixed number of credit hours.

Quoted (all retrieved September 5, 2026):

• California, State Bar of California, Foreign Education: "If you have been fully admitted to the practice of law in any U.S. or foreign jurisdiction, you are qualified to take the California Bar Examination without additional legal education." Rule 4.30(A) of the Rules of the State Bar: persons who studied law abroad may qualify as general applicants provided they "have a first degree in law, acceptable to the Committee, from a law school in the foreign state or country and have completed a year of legal education at an American Bar Association Approved Law School or a California accredited law school in areas of law prescribed by the Committee".
• Colorado, Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel: Path B requires that the applicant "has completed a course of study at a foreign law school that is accredited in the jurisdiction where it is located, and the course of study is based on the principles of English common law and substantially equivalent in duration to a J.D. legal education program provided by an ABA-accredited U.S. law school; and has completed an LL.M. degree that meets the curricular requirements of this rule at an ABA-accredited U.S. law school."
• Connecticut, Bar Examining Committee: "An applicant must submit proof of a legal education as required by all subsections of Art. II-3. This includes a satisfactory foreign legal education AND a satisfactory LL.M. degree from an ABA or Committee approved law school." The LL.M. "shall consist of a minimum of 24 credit hours".
• District of Columbia, Court of Appeals Rule 46(c)(4): "An applicant who graduated from a law school not approved by the ABA may take the bar examination only after successfully completing at least 26 credit hours of study in a law school that at the time of such study was approved by the ABA. All such 26 credit hours must be earned in courses of study, each of which is substantially concentrated on a single subject tested on the Uniform Bar Examination. The hours of study may be earned through remote instruction that meets the definition of 'distance education course' set out in the American Bar Association Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools."
• Georgia, Office of Bar Admissions: the applicant must be "currently enrolled at (or have been awarded an LL.M. degree from) a law school fully approved by the American Bar Association, in the program leading to an LL.M. degree that meets the requirements set forth in the Curricular Criteria for LL.M. Programs adopted by the Georgia Board of Bar Examiners, and which includes a Professional Responsibility course with an emphasis on the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct." Georgia also names the qualifying programs: "The only law schools that currently offer LL.M. programs that satisfy Georgia's Curricular Criteria are the University of Georgia School of Law, Georgia State University College of Law, and Emory University Law School."
• Louisiana, Committee on Bar Admissions: foreign-trained applicants must supply "Proof of successful completion of 14 semester hours at an ABA accredited university in certain subjects, of which no more than 6 hours of credits may be obtained through distance learning."
• Maryland, State Board of Law Examiners: "SBLE also has the discretion to waive the standard educational requirement for applicants receiving their first legal degree (J.D. or equivalent) from a non-U.S. law school AND who also obtains an LL.M. or equivalent degree from an ABA accredited law school. (See Maryland Rule 19-201(b)(2) and Board Rule 7.)"
• Massachusetts, Board of Bar Examiners Rule VI.1: "Graduates of law schools in foreign countries may be permitted to petition for admission by sitting for the written bar examination in Massachusetts or a concurrent written exam in another Uniform Bar Examination jurisdiction, petition for admission by transfer of a previously earned Uniform Bar Examination score, or petition for admission by motion upon obtaining a prior determination of their education sufficiency from the Board of Bar Examiners."
• Missouri, Board of Law Examiners: "Graduates of nonABA-approved law schools and foreign law schools cannot apply to take the examination unless they demonstrate that they meet the requirements set out in Rule 8.07(d) or (e)."
• Ohio, Gov. Bar R. I, Sec. 1(C)(2): "If an applicant's legal education was not received in the United States, the applicant must submit an education evaluation completed by an education evaluation service approved by the Court and a properly authenticated transcript showing successful completion of thirty credit hours of courses taken at a law school approved by the American Bar Association. Twenty of the thirty hours of coursework must be chosen from a list of courses specified by the Court... The thirty hours of coursework must be completed within a period not greater than forty-eight calendar months."
• Pennsylvania, Bar Admission Rule 205(b): applicants "may apply to sit for the Pennsylvania Bar Examination per Rule 203 or seek admission by transfer of a bar examination score per Rule 206 provided they have successfully completed 24 credit hours in an accredited American law school" in listed subjects, and "All coursework for the required credit hours shall be completed at the campus of an accredited law school in the United States. No credit shall be allowed for correspondence courses, on-line courses, courses offered on any other media, or other distance learning courses." Rule 205(a)(2) adds the practice condition: five of the last eight years.
• Tennessee, Supreme Court Rule 7, Sec. 7.01(b)(2): the applicant must have "been awarded, by a law school fully accredited by the ABA or a Tennessee law school approved by the Board under section 17.01 of this Rule, an LL. M. Degree after completion of a Traditional LL. M. program", and "The foreign-educated lawyer must participate in the LL. M. program, either full-time or part-time, in person in the United States at the ABA-accredited or Tennessee-approved law school, and the instructions and assignments must be in English". Tennessee also excludes specialised degrees: "An LL. M. Degree in a specialized area of the law, such as Tax or Environmental Law, does not meet the requirements for the Traditional LL. M. required by this Rule".
• Texas, Board of Law Examiners, summary of Rule 13: under 13 Sec. 4(a) a common-law applicant with education "Substantially equivalent to approved law school" and 3 of the last 5 years in practice needs no LL.M.; under 13 Sec. 4(b), 4(c) and Sec. 5 the summary records "LL.M. required". The Board also notes: "Rule 13 §9 sets out curricular requirements for an LL.M. to qualify certain foreign-trained applicants to sit for the Texas Bar Exam".
• Utah, Rule 14-704(d): the applicant must have "graduated from a Foreign Law School in a country where principles of English common law form the predominant basis for that country's system of jurisprudence", "been Actively and lawfully engaged in the Full-time Practice of law in an English common law jurisdiction for no fewer than three of the last five years", and "completed with a minimum grade of 'C' or its passing equivalent no less than 24 semester hours... at an Approved Law School, within 24 consecutive months."
• Washington, Admission and Practice Rule 3(b)(3) and (4): eligibility on "graduation from a university or law school in any jurisdiction where the common law of England is the basis for its jurisprudence with a degree in law that would qualify the applicant to practice law in that jurisdiction and admission to the practice of law in that same or other jurisdiction where common law of England is the basis of its jurisprudence, together with current good standing and active legal experience for at least three of the five years immediately preceding the filing of the application"; or "graduation with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree for the practice of law", defined as "an LL.M. program at a law school approved by the Board of Governors that consists of a minimum of 18,200 minutes of total instruction to include at least 12,000 minutes of instruction on principles of domestic United States law".
• West Virginia, Rules for Admission, Rule 3.0(4): eligibility where "The applicant is a graduate of a law school of a foreign country where the common law of England exists as the basis of its jurisprudence", "The educational requirements for admission to the bar in said country are substantially the same as those of this State", and "The applicant has successfully completed study at an ABA-accredited law school, with a minimum of 30 credit hours of basic courses... which such study shall be completed within a period of 36 calendar months from the date of the inception of such study."
• Wisconsin, SCR 40.055: "Notwithstanding SCR 40.04(1), an individual who has received a law degree in a country other than the United States may apply to take the Wisconsin bar examination, provided the applicant satisfies all of the requirements of subs. (1) or (2)". Sub. (1) requires a common-law first degree plus a license and practice "for at least three of the last ten years"; sub. (2) requires an LL.M. whose "program consists of a minimum of 24 semester hours of credit", is "completed within 24 months of enrollment", and for which "No credit shall be allowed for correspondence courses, on-line courses, courses offered on DVD or other media, or other distance learning courses."
• Alabama, Alaska, Delaware and Indiana: NCBE Chart 4 entries only (checked September 5, 2026). NCBE records Alabama as requiring foreign admission plus one of a substantial English common law component, "at least 24 semester hours of legal subjects covered by the bar examination in regular law school classes, under ABA standards", or US admission plus three years' continuous practice; Alaska as requiring "successfully completed 1 year at an ABA-approved law school, including successful completion of 1 course in US Constitutional Law and 1 course in US Civil Procedure"; Delaware as requiring a combination of degrees the Board "determines is substantially equivalent to a juris doctor degree", including an LL.M. from an approved law school; and Indiana as a discretionary waiver for an applicant who "has obtained a graduate degree from an ABA-approved law school in a program based on American law".

Section 2 - Eligible, but the gate is practice, prior US admission, or an equivalency finding

Fifteen jurisdictions admit foreign-educated applicants by examination without an LL.M. being the operative requirement. In most of them the binding condition is time in practice, admission somewhere else in the United States first, or a case-by-case equivalency determination.

Quoted (all retrieved September 5, 2026):

• Florida, Rules of the Supreme Court Relating to Admissions to the Bar, rule 4-13.4(b): an applicant with an LL.M. must show "an LL.M. degree from an accredited law school, or within 12 months of accreditation, where the program meets the curricular criteria for the practice of law in the United States of America adopted by the board", plus "evidence as the board may require that the applicant was engaged in the practice of law for at least 2 years in the District of Columbia, in other states of the United States of America, or in federal courts of the United States", plus "a representative compilation of the work product in the field of law". Rule 4-13.4(a) sets the no-LL.M. alternative at "at least 5 years" of the same US practice. Rule 4-13.2 defines "accredited" as "any law school approved or provisionally approved by the American Bar Association at the time of the applicant's graduation or within 12 months of the applicant's graduation."
• Illinois, Board of Admissions to the Bar, Rule 715 threshold requirements: "The lawyer must have been licensed to practice law in the country in which the law degree was conferred and/or in the highest court of law in any US state, territory, or the District of Columbia for a minimum of 5 years"; and "During each of no fewer than 5 of the 7 years immediately prior to making application in Illinois, the lawyer must have verifiably devoted a minimum of 80 hours per month and 1,000 hours per year to the practice of the law of such country and/or to the law of any US jurisdiction(s) where licensed." The Board is explicit about the consequence: "Unless you satisfy ALL of the foregoing threshold requirements, you are not eligible to apply for permission to sit for the bar examination under Rule 715."
• Minnesota, Rules for Admission to the Bar, Rule 4A(3)(b): a bachelor's degree "from an institution that is accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education or foreign equivalent"; "a J.D. degree or equivalent from a law school attended following completion of undergraduate studies"; "the applicant has been licensed to practice law in any state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia in 60 of the previous 84 months"; and practice "as principal occupation" for the same period. Rule 4A(3)(c) is the alternative: "the applicant has been licensed to practice law in any state or territory of the United States or the District of Columbia for at least 10 years."
• Nevada, State Bar of Nevada: "The Nevada Supreme Court rules regulating admission to practice law require that all applicants have received a juris doctorate degree from a law school approved by the American Bar Association. For applicants who did not receive a juris doctorate degree from a law school approved by the American Bar Association, prior to applying, you must be certified by the State Bar of Nevada, Committee on Functional Equivalency." The page also records a rule change: "Effective April 11, 2025, revised Nevada Supreme Court Rules on Functional Equivalency."
• Oregon, Rules for Admission 3.05(3): the applicant "shall have the burden of proving: (a) That the requirements for admission to the practice of law in the foreign jurisdiction in which the applicant was educated is substantially equivalent to those of this state; (b) That the applicant is currently admitted to practice law in a foreign jurisdiction where the Common Law of England exists as a basis of its jurisprudence, or has been admitted in any United States jurisdiction after having passed a bar exam in any United States jurisdiction; and (c) That the applicant is a graduate of a law school equivalent to a law school approved by the American Bar Association."
• Vermont, Rules of Admission, Rule 8(b): an applicant who graduated from a foreign law school "must establish he or she has: (1) completed a legal education at a Foreign Law School whose curriculum provided training in a system based on the common law of England and that is otherwise equivalent to graduation from an Approved Law School, as determined by the equivalency determination process; and (2) been admitted to the bar of a court of general jurisdiction in the country in which the Applicant attended the Foreign Law School and has maintained good standing in that bar or resigned from that bar while still in good standing."
• Virginia, Rules of the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners: the Board's rules address "Graduates of Non-ABA Approved Law Schools (including foreign law schools) with an LL.M. Degree from an ABA Approved Law School", requiring a certificate "signed by the registrar or other proper official" that the applicant completed the degree requirements. NCBE Chart 4 records the accompanying condition: the applicant must have "been admitted to the court of last resort in any state or territory of the US or the District of Columbia."
• Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island and South Dakota: NCBE Chart 4 entries only (checked September 5, 2026). NCBE records Hawaii as open to an attorney admitted "before the highest court in a foreign country where English common law is the basis of that country's jurisprudence" who has "actively practiced law in that jurisdiction for 5 of the 6 years immediately prior to application"; Kentucky as turning on whether "the applicant's legal education is substantially equivalent to an ABA-approved law school education"; Maine as requiring the equivalency regulation plus three years' practice; New Hampshire as requiring common-law training plus equivalency plus good standing; New Mexico as requiring licensure and practice in another US jurisdiction "for four of the preceding six years prior to the filing date of the application"; North Carolina as satisfied by a degree "approved for licensure purposes in another state of the United States or the District of Columbia" with licensure there; Rhode Island as open to "foreign-educated applicants who are admitted in another US jurisdiction"; and South Dakota as permission "upon good cause if the graduate has passed the bar examination in another state and is a member in good standing of that state."

Section 3 - Not eligible by examination on a foreign law degree

NCBE Chart 4 records fourteen jurisdictions as answering "No" to "Are graduates of foreign law schools eligible for admission by examination?" (checked September 5, 2026). In these jurisdictions the published route runs through a JD from an ABA-approved law school.

Two of these rows need reading carefully.

South Carolina is the one place where Chart 4's two columns pull against each other: the eligibility column says "No" while the LL.M. column says "Yes". NCBE's own supplemental remark resolves it and is worth quoting in full: "South Carolina does not accept LLM degrees. If a foreign law school graduate obtains a JD degree from an ABA-approved law school, then the graduate may sit for the exam." Read the LL.M. column as answering a narrower question than it appears to.

Michigan is the one place where the chart and the state's own rule are not saying quite the same thing. Chart 4 records Michigan as "No". Michigan's Board of Law Examiners Rule 2(B), read on September 5, 2026, requires a JD "from a reputable and qualified law school that (1) is incorporated in the United States, its territories, or the District of Columbia" - which a foreign degree cannot satisfy - but the same rule then adds: "The Board may in its discretion permit applicants who do not possess a JD degree from an ABA-approved law school to take the examination based upon factors including, but not limited to, relevant legal education, such as an LLM degree from a reputable and qualified law school, and experience that otherwise qualifies the applicant to take the examination." The State Bar of Michigan's own page directs foreign lawyers to that rule and to the Board: "Foreign lawyers seeking admission by examination to the SBM should review BLE Rule 2, noting specifically the degree requirement." Discretion is not eligibility, and only the Board can say what it will do with a given file - but a page that reports Michigan as a flat no is not reporting the rule.

Territories. Chart 4 records Guam as admitting foreign law graduates who have "obtained an LLM from an ABA-approved law school", and records the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as "No". For Puerto Rico, NCBE's supplemental remark reads: "Applicant must validate their studies and obtain a law degree from a law school approved by the ABA and by the Supreme Court." (All checked September 5, 2026.)

What New York and California actually require

These two jurisdictions handle most foreign-educated applicants, and they work very differently. Both sets of wording below were read on September 5, 2026.

New York runs on 22 NYCRR 520.6 and on an advance evaluation you must request before you apply. The New York State Board of Law Examiners describes the two-part test its own way. On duration: the applicant's program "must also be 'substantially' equivalent in duration to a full-time or part-time program required at a law school in the United States approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) and in substantial compliance with the following: (a) 83 credit hours in law courses must be required for graduation; (b) at least 64 of the 83 credit hours must be earned by attendance in regularly scheduled classroom courses at the law school; (c) a minimum of 700 minutes in instruction time, exclusive of examination time must be required for the granting of one credit. No credit shall be permitted for distance education courses, online courses, correspondence courses, or coursework offered on digital format or other media." On substance: "The foreign country's jurisprudence must be based upon the principles of the English Common Law, and the 'program and course of law study' successfully completed by the applicant must be the 'substantial' equivalent of the legal education provided by an ABA-approved law school in the United States."

The LL.M. is the cure, and the cure has a hard limit: "An applicant, whether educated in a Common Law or non-common law country, whose legal education is not of sufficient duration or not substantively equivalent to an ABA-approved law school program, may cure the durational or substantive deficiency (but not both)." For programs begun in or after the 2012-2013 academic year the Board sets the shape of that LL.M.: applicants "must successfully complete the requirements of and be awarded an LL.M. degree within 24 months of matriculation"; "the LL.M. degree program must consist of a minimum of 24 semester hours of credit", with "a minimum of 700 minutes of instruction time per credit"; "No distance education is permitted"; the program "must take place over at least two (non-summer) semesters of at least 13 calendar weeks each"; and "All coursework must be physically completed at the campus of the ABA-approved law school in the United States."

The timing is the part people miss. New York requires the evaluation before the application: "To establish eligibility for the bar examination, all first-time applicants under Rule 520.6 must request an advance evaluation of their eligibility before they file an application for the bar examination." The Board warns that "it can take up to six (6) months from the date of the Board's receipt of all required documentation for an eligibility decision to be made", and it publishes fixed deadlines for LL.M.-route applicants: the online Foreign Evaluation form and all required foreign documentation by May 1 of the preceding year for a February exam and October 1 of the preceding year for a July exam. It also warns what happens if you skip ahead: an applicant who pays the "$750 application fee" before a determination "does so at their own risk in that the $750 application fee will not be refunded or credited if a determination cannot be made in time for such exam or if it is later determined that the applicant is ineligible."

California splits foreign-trained applicants in two, and the split is the whole story. If you are already a lawyer somewhere, the State Bar's own sentence is short: "If you have been fully admitted to the practice of law in any U.S. or foreign jurisdiction, you are qualified to take the California Bar Examination without additional legal education." That is the attorney-applicant route, and it asks for no US law study at all.

If you are not admitted anywhere, you come in as a general applicant under Rule 4.30(A), which requires "a first degree in law, acceptable to the Committee, from a law school in the foreign state or country" plus "a year of legal education at an American Bar Association Approved Law School or a California accredited law school in areas of law prescribed by the Committee". The State Bar's Guidelines for Foreign-Educated General Applicants with a First Degree in Law put numbers on "a year": the applicant must have "Been awarded a US Master of Law degree (LLM) based on a minimum of 20 semester or equivalent units of legal education", of which "One course must be on professional responsibility that covers the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and leading federal and state case law on professional responsibility." The non-degree alternative is stricter about the mix: "a minimum of 20 semester or equivalent units of legal education... must include at least 12 semester or equivalent units comprised of three separate courses on subject matters tested on the California Bar Examination and one course on professional responsibility." Either way, "The degree or the course work must be awarded or completed, as applicable, within 36 consecutive months of the date the applicant began qualifying study at a law school."

The equivalency step is separate and comes first: California requires "an evaluated course breakdown of all foreign legal education and a Foreign Law Study Evaluation Summary form completed by a credential evaluation agency approved by the State Bar", and it reserves the last word: "Information provided by a credential evaluation agency regarding the completion of a law degree and number of years of study is considered advisory; the State Bar reserves the right to make the final decision with regard to law study equivalency."

Two contrasts are worth holding side by side. New York bars distance education outright for the curing LL.M.; the District of Columbia expressly permits its 26 credit hours to "be earned through remote instruction". And New York caps the cure at 24 months from matriculation while California allows 36 consecutive months from the start of qualifying study.

Dates that moved recently

• Vermont removed its LL.M. cure. The Board's own note to the 2021 amendment of Rule 8 says: "Rule 8 is amended to remove the cure provision in 8(c)(4) that allowed applicants with law degrees from non-common law countries to establish equivalency by completing a qualifying LLM at an ABA-approved law school." An LL.M. can still form part of an equivalency determination for a common-law graduate, but it is no longer a standalone cure. The current Rules of Admission carry a 7/1/2026 revision stamp.
• Nevada revised its functional equivalency rules "Effective April 11, 2025", per the State Bar of Nevada, and now routes non-ABA graduates through a Committee on Functional Equivalency certification before any component of the Nevada Comprehensive Licensing Exam.
• Pennsylvania's Rule 205 was retitled and amended: the rule's own history line records "April 17, 2024, effective May 1, 2024", and the rule is now "Admission of Foreign Attorneys and Graduates of Foreign Institutions".
• Florida's alternative route was rewritten in 2022 to add the LL.M. path at two years of US practice alongside the five-year no-LL.M. path. NCBE's Chart 4 supplemental remark also flags a further change dated October 1, 2026, after which "LLM applicants must have an LLM from an accredited law school as defined in rule 4-13.2 of the Bar Admission Rules"; if you are applying around that date, read rule 4-13.4 on the Board's own site rather than any summary.
• The bar exam itself is changing. NCBE describes the legacy Uniform Bar Examination as "administered through February 2028", with jurisdictions moving to the NextGen UBE on their own timetables; NCBE's adoption table was "last updated July 16, 2026". Several of the rules above are written in terms of "subjects tested on the Uniform Bar Examination" - the District of Columbia's 26-credit requirement is the clearest example - so the subject list a credit has to map onto can move even when the credit count does not. Check the jurisdiction's current subject list before you enroll in courses to satisfy a credit requirement.

Where the personal statement fits

None of the above is an admissions question. Bar eligibility is decided by a court or a bar admission agency on documents, and no essay changes it. The essay question comes one step earlier: to reach an LL.M. that a given jurisdiction will accept, you first have to be admitted to the program, and the personal statement is where a foreign-trained lawyer's file is either legible or generic. If you are writing that document, the LL.M. personal statement for foreign-trained lawyers covers the licensing-route framing and the LL.M. personal statement guide covers the four jobs and the published length limits; neither is repeated here. When you have a draft, the LL.M. personal statement rubric reads it against the standard for that document rather than a general essay standard, and the law school personal statement review page explains how that works. For the rest of the law shelf, start from the law school essays hub.

Sources checked on September 5, 2026

Every quoted sentence above was retrieved on September 5, 2026 from the page linked below. Rows marked "NCBE chart" were confirmed only against NCBE's Chart 4 and its supplemental remarks.

• NCBE - Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements, Chart 4: Foreign Legal Education and the per-jurisdiction views at ncbex.org/jurisdictions
• NCBE - NextGen UBE adoption by jurisdiction
• New York State Board of Law Examiners - Foreign Legal Education (the Board's statement of Rule 520.6; the Court of Appeals rules site refused a direct request on September 5, 2026)
• The State Bar of California - Foreign Education, Rules of the State Bar, Title 4, Division 1 (rule 4.30), and Guidelines for Foreign-Educated General Applicants with a First Degree in Law
• District of Columbia Court of Appeals - Rule 46, Admission to the Bar and Committee on Admissions - Guidance for Graduates of Non-ABA Approved Law Schools, 26 Semester Hours
• Texas Board of Law Examiners - FAQ, Summary of Eligibility Requirements for Foreign-Educated Applicants
• Washington Courts - Admission and Practice Rule 3
• Wisconsin Court System - SCR Chapter 40, Admission to the Bar
• Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar - Rule 715, Qualifying Graduates of Foreign Law Schools
• Georgia Office of Bar Admissions - Instructions for Foreign-Educated Applicants
• Florida Board of Bar Examiners - Rules (rules 4-13.1, 4-13.2 and 4-13.4)
• Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 7, Article VII
• Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners Rule VI: Foreign law school graduates and Foreign Educated Attorneys
• Supreme Court of Ohio - Rules for the Government of the Bar, Gov. Bar R. I
• Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners - Rule 205
• Colorado Supreme Court, Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel - Eligibility for Foreign-Educated Individuals
• Virginia Board of Bar Examiners - Rules of the Board
• Maryland State Board of Law Examiners - Guidelines for Seeking Waiver of the ABA-Approved Law School Degree Requirement (Md. Rule 19-201(b))
• Minnesota Board of Law Examiners - Rules for Admission to the Bar and Eligibility and General Requirements FAQ
• Missouri Board of Law Examiners - Admission Eligibility Requirements
• State Bar of Nevada - Functional Equivalency
• Utah Supreme Court Rules of Professional Practice - Rule 14-704
• Oregon State Bar - Rules for Admission (rule 3.05)
• Connecticut Bar Examining Committee - Determination on Foreign Education
• West Virginia Judiciary - Rules for Admission to the Practice of Law (rule 3.0)
• Vermont Judiciary - Rules of Admission to the Bar of the Vermont Supreme Court (rule 8)
• Louisiana Committee on Bar Admissions - Application Requirements (Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XVII, Sec. 6)
• Michigan Board of Law Examiners - Rules (rule 2) and State Bar of Michigan - Bar Exam: Out-of-State or Foreign Lawyers
• University of Texas School of Law - Bar Information for International Lawyers (the quoted sentence about what an LL.M. does not do)

Verification note. Bar admission rules change between cycles, and several of the rules above changed within the last four years. Before you enroll in a program or file anything, open the bar admission agency's own page for your jurisdiction and confirm the current wording. Where this page says "NCBE chart", treat it as a pointer to the agency, not as the rule.