Foreign law students now have the opportunity to earn a Master of Laws degree in as short as one summer’s time.

The Northwestern School of Law’s new accelerated LL.M. degree program was recently announced, and administrators will begin accepting applications June 1 for the first class, which will matriculate into the program in May 2011.

LL.M. stands for the latin “legum magister,” which signifies Master of Laws. It is a degree that foreign students who typically already have a first degree in law can pursue in the United States, said Janet Garesche, director for the Executive LL.M. degree program at the School of Law.

“It is for students who want to come to the United States to get a foundation in the American legal system,” she said.

The School of Law has offered an Executive LL.M. degree program for many years, Garesche said. In this program, foreign students come to NU to complete the degree during a typical school year from September to May. A committee of professors and administrators recently developed the accelerated program, she said.

“We are condensing the program and making it available to students during the summer,” she said.

Students can choose to complete the degree in either one summer or two, Garesche said.

“The main benefit is that people whose personal work-related obligations prohibit them from coming to the states for an entire year have another option,” said Don Rebstock, associate dean for the School of Law and a member of the accelerated LL.M. degree program development committee.

The summer program is appealing to employers as well, Rebstock said. Administrators in the School of Law anticipate many firms will pay for their employees to participate in the program, he said.

All students in the program will be international, Rebstock said.

“It’s a pretty diverse group,” he said. “You get a lot of students from South America, from Asia and quite a few Europeans.”

At the University of Chicago, students spend nine months in the LL.M. program, said Richard Badger, assistant dean for the LL.M. program there.

“Students come from 26 different countries,” Badger said. “They come from all over the world.”

Like the original LL.M. degree program, the accelerated program at NU will be taught by NU law professors, but the class size will ideally be about 20 students, allowing for an intimate setting, Garesche said. The curriculum will also be slightly different.

“It is the same amount of credit and class time,” she said. “We are changing the curriculum to make the learning a little more interesting and innovative.”

Officials in the School of Law are optimistic about the new program, Garesche said.

“We have already had several inquiries,” she said. “There seems to be a good interest level.”[email protected]