From our Founder

From our Founder

Hi there! I wanted to tell you a little bit about my experience and the reasons I created LL.M Studio.

As a Colombian attorney who came to the U.S. to get a graduate degree in law (and ended up getting a JD at Northwestern), I understand the challenges foreign attorneys must face as they course advanced legal studies in the U.S.

Many of us embark on the experience confident that our previous training will be all we need to excel. (That, and the fact that many of us are successful lawyers in our home countries).

However, this rarely turns out to be the case, particularly for lawyers trained in Civil Law. Due to the differences in systems and legal culture, many of us end up wasting precious time during our programs, spinning our wheels as we try to figure out how to navigate the experience.

After having mentored a number of incoming international students informally (both for LL.M and JD programs), I realized that a more formal approach was needed and that having gone through the process my viewpoint (coupled by the experiences of many fellow alumni) could be of great help.

As a result, I decided to follow my passion, leave my position as a Corporate Associate at Sidley Austin in Chicago (a wonderful firm, by the way) and create LL.M Studio, a resource for foreign attorneys seeking to follow a similar path.

I hope you find some answers and leave our site thought-provoked and even more excited about your studies!

All the best!

Johana M. Gomez

LL.M Studio Founder