Legal English Certificate Program

The Legal English Certificate Program (LECP) is a two-semester, 25-credit, full-time residential program experience primarily designed for international professionals—lawyers and non-lawyers alike—who need to improve their general English proficiency and legal English communication skills. The program is only open for enrollment in the fall semester for full-time residential students.

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Demonstrate improvement in their English language abilities across listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• Demonstrate improvement in their knowledge of legal English, including an understanding of legal vocabulary and concepts and their appropriate usage.
• Be able to formulate, structure, and clearly communicate legal arguments made in English.
• Demonstrate a foundational knowledge of common law principles that underpin the US legal system.
• Be able to use legal precedent to synthesize and articulate rules of law.
• Apply skills useful for legal studies, including case briefing, issue spotting, effective note taking, and study and time management skills.
• Demonstrate the ability to participate in the American law school classroom environment through asking questions, orally presenting legal concepts and arguments, and responding to the Socratic method of teaching.
• Demonstrate a deepened familiarity with and understanding of the various forms of assessment and assignments commonly used in law schools, including fact patterns, multiple-choice exams, client memos, research and writing assignments, and argument papers.

Requirements for the Certificate

International students who do not intend to pursue LLM studies may enroll in the two-semester Legal English Certificate Program only. The certificate may be pursued as a stand-alone certificate or as part of BU Law’s Two-Year LLM Program track (the “Two-Year LLM”). To receive the Certificate in Legal English, all candidates must satisfy the following requirements:

• Complete 25 credit hours in two semesters of residence, consisting of all required courses in BU Law’s Legal English Certificate Program (LECP);
• Obtain a final cumulative average of at least C+ (2.3) for all courses; and
• Receive no grade of “F” in any course.

Required Courses for the Certificate

In the fall semester, students will take US Legal Discourse (6 credits); Academic Skills for US Law Studies (3 credits); and Introduction to US Legal Culture (3 credits). In the spring semester, students will take Legal Reasoning and Analysis (6 credits); Legal Writing (2 credits); Persuasive Legal Advocacy (2 credits); International Contracts and Negotiations (1 credit); and Topics in American Law (2 credits).

Requirements for the Two-Year LLM Program

For international professionals interested in LLM studies at the School of Law, the LECP serves as the first year of BU Law’s Two-Year LLM Program, allowing them to improve their English skills prior to commencing full-time law studies. Students admitted into the Two-Year-LLM program must satisfy the following requirements to advance to the LLM program to which they have been conditionally admitted:

• Complete 25 credit hours in two semesters of residence, consisting of all required courses in the Legal English Certificate Program;
• Obtain a final cumulative average of at least B (3.0) for all courses;
• Receive no grade of “F” in any course; and
• Satisfactorily complete the 0-credit, two-week pre-LLM summer program offered; or, at the discretion of the Director of the LECP, satisfactorily complete the summer program offered by the LLM program into which the student has been conditionally admitted.

Required Courses for the Two-Year LLM

Students enrolled in the Two-Year LLM will complete all of the courses required for the certificate program. Additionally, Two-Year LLM students must satisfactorily complete the 0-credit, two-week pre-LLM summer program Academic Skills for the International Lawyer; or, at the discretion of the Director of the LECP, satisfactorily complete the summer program offered by the LLM program into which the student has been conditionally admitted.