LLM and interdisciplinary Master degrees and Diploma certificates
Franklin Pierce Law Center offers LLM, Master degree and Diploma certificate programs for lawyers and non-lawyers in three fast-growing areas of law:
Lawyers can add value to their JD or baccalaureate law degree with Pierce Law’s LLM degree. Non-lawyers can enhance their professional training with our interdisciplinary Master degree.
Alumni of our Graduate Programs
History and Mission
The Graduate Program at Pierce Law, inaugurated in 1986 under the auspices of the newly established Germeshausen Center for the Law of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has become an integral part of Pierce Law's educational mission over the past two decades and has proven to be a natural complement to its Juris Doctor degree program. From that very beginning, the complexion of Pierce Law's Graduate Program has been highly international, drawing students from around the globe. Recognizing the worldwide need for interdisciplinary intellectual property education for patent, trademark, and copyright professionals, government policy-makers, and business executives at the juncture of law, business, and technology, and building on Pierce Law's traditional strengths in intellectual property education, the one-year interdisciplinary Master of Intellectual Property [MIP] degree remains after two decades the only interdisciplinary degree program in intellectual property offered by any ABA-accredited law school. A decade later, the MIP degree was supplemented by the establishment of Pierce Law's Master of Laws in Intellectual Property [LLM-IP] degree program to address the need of lawyers from the United States and around the world for a recognized graduate academic law degree with the "Pierce Law" brand.
Graduate students enroll in the same courses as JD students. The addition of the LLM and MIP students to our community of scholars and professionals has opened up opportunities for major expansion in the number and quality of Pierce Law's intellectual property offerings and a strengthening of its overall intellectual property curriculum, leading to the wealth of curricular offerings in intellectual property studies we see today.
In 2000, responding to the rapid growth of information technologies and the multiple and complex legal issues that this development has engendered, Pierce Law expanded its interdisciplinary and LLM-IP programs to encompass the intersection of "commerce and technology." The Master of Commerce and Technology [MCT] and Master of Laws in Commerce and Technology [LLM-CT] programs have attracted over one thousand students from the United States and over 80 other countries and regions. Our alumni now constitute a global "Pierce Law Network" of graduates, many of whom have become significant players in the rapid globalization taking place in intellectual property and information technology law, policy, and business.
Pierce Law also initiated a four-month Diploma certificate, which incorporates the same course work as the Master degree program, but is designed for individuals who cannot spend an entire year in residence. The Diploma is offered in the fall and spring semesters.
Most recently in 2006, building on the reputation of success of its graduates in policy-making positions around the world, and as a natural extension from its offerings in international studies, Pierce Law instituted its most recent graduate degree offerings - the Master of Laws in International Criminal Law and Justice [LLM-ICLJ] and interdisciplinary Master of International Criminal Law and Justice [MICLJ]. Graduate students are fully integrated into the Pierce Law community in every respect. The richness of international experience and diversity that they bring to Pierce Law has proven to be a powerful magnet for attracting a wide diversity of students to all of our degree programs.
