English Test Requirements for US Law School LLM Programs for International Students

Why LLM programs set a high English bar

An LLM, Master of Laws, for internationally trained lawyers is usually a one-year add-on degree built for people who already hold a law degree and often a license to practice in another country. Coursework moves fast: dense case law reading, legal writing assignments, and classes built around cold-call discussion, where you respond on the spot in precise legal English. Law faculties treat this workload as tougher on language skills than a typical graduate seminar in another field, which is why many law schools set LLM-specific English score minimums at the high end of the graduate range. Georgetown Law , for example, requires a TOEFL iBT score of at least 100 (5 on the rescaled test introduced in January 2026) or IELTS 7.5 for LLM applicants whose first law degree was not taught in English.

The exact minimum differs by school and by program, and some schools publish separate thresholds for a general LLM track versus a specialized track built around bar exam preparation. Treat any number you find on a forum or a general study-abroad site as unreliable. Go to the specific LLM program's own admissions page for the current cycle's requirement, since these figures get revised between admission cycles.

English score requirements and bar exam eligibility are two separate systems

Meeting a law school's English proficiency requirement gets you admitted to the LLM program. It says nothing about whether that LLM degree lets you sit a bar exam in a specific US state afterward. Those are two separate approval systems run by two different kinds of authority.

The law school's admissions office sets and checks the English score requirement. Each state's own bar admission authority, usually called a board of bar examiners or a state bar association, separately decides which foreign law degrees, and which US LLM programs completed on top of a foreign degree, qualify a candidate to sit that state's bar exam, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, as tracked in the NCBE Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements . A school's LLM program can admit you, teach you, and graduate you while the bar-eligibility question stays entirely up to the state where you plan to practice.

How LLM English requirements typically get administered

• Official score reports usually need to go to the law school's own LLM admissions code, not only the university's general graduate code, so send two separate score reports if your program asks for this.

• Some LLM programs pair a test score minimum with a required admissions interview conducted in English, on top of the written score.

• A small number of programs offer conditional admission with a required English or legal-writing bridge course for applicants who fall slightly under the published minimum.

What this means for your research order

• Decide which state, or states, you might want to sit the bar exam in before you shortlist LLM programs, not after you have already enrolled.

• Check that specific state's bar admission authority website for its rules on foreign-educated applicants and LLM degrees, since eligibility rules differ state by state. New York, for instance, sets its own LLM credit-hour and residency rules in Rule 520.6 of its bar admission rules .

• Separately confirm the LLM program's current English score minimum on its own admissions page, since this is a law-school decision, not a bar-exam decision.

• If a specific state's bar eligibility is your goal, ask the LLM program directly whether its curriculum is designed to satisfy that state's requirements, since some programs build coursework specifically around a target state's rules.

Where to verify each piece

For the English score requirement, go to the law school's own LLM admissions page for international applicants, usually separate from the general university graduate admissions page and often listed under the law school's own graduate programs office. For bar exam eligibility, go directly to the bar admission authority of the state where you want to practice, and read its rules on foreign legal education and LLM equivalency before you commit to a specific program.

Contact both offices directly if a page is unclear or does not address your specific country's law degree. Admissions staff at LLM programs regularly field this exact question and can tell you whether past students from your country and your specific undergraduate law degree met the requirement.

Other parts of an LLM application that test your English separately

A TOEFL or IELTS score is rarely the only place your English gets judged in an LLM application. Personal statements and writing samples are read closely for grammar, structure, and legal writing style, not only content. Some programs also require a short answer or essay question specific to the LLM application, separate from the general test score, as an added check on your written English before an admissions committee makes a final decision.

If your LLM program requires an admissions interview, treat it as a live English proficiency check on top of your test score, not a formality. Interviewers assess how you handle unscripted legal discussion in English, which is the exact skill the written test score is meant to predict.

Why the English bar rarely drops for LLM applicants

Some other graduate programs at the same university lower or waive their English score minimum for applicants from certain countries or educational backgrounds. LLM programs do this far less often. A law degree from a non-English-medium system does not reduce the English demand of a single semester spent reading opinions, writing memos, and debating case law in a US classroom, so admissions committees hold the line even for well-qualified foreign-trained lawyers with strong professional records at home.