Majors

• Corporate and Finance Law

  Corporations conduct much of the world's economic activity, using capital markets to raise debt and equity financing and sophisticated securitization, corporate restructuring and joint venture arrangements to expand their access to human and investment capital. The LL.M. in Corporate and Finance Law prepares graduates to play key roles at law firms, governmental agencies and in-house corporate legal departments.

  Basic course

  • LEX 7156 Corporations (2 credits)

  Required courses

  • LEX 7816 Taxation (4 credits)
  • At least one finance course from the following options:¹
    • LEX 7141 Corporate Finance (4 credits)
    • LEX 7406 International Finance: Transactions, Regulation and Policy (3 credits)
  • At least one corporate tax course from the following options (some may require pre-requisites in addition to Taxation, or admission by the instructor):
    • LEX 7821 Taxation of Corporations (4 credits)
    • LEX 7014 Taxation of Corporations – Mergers and Restructurings (4 credits)
    • LEX 7060 Business Planning (4 credits) or LEX 7061 Business Planning: A Transactional Approach (4 credits)

  Electives

  In addition to the basic and required courses listed above, the Corporate and Finance major must take at least 16 credits of approved-elective or approval-required elective courses from the list below, with no more than 8 credits of approval-required elective courses applying towards the degree. View electives list.

  Thesis (2 or 3 credits)

  Option A: Stand-Alone

  •  LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)

  Option B: Seminar

  • LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)
  • LEX 7990 Directed Study (1 credit) 

  ¹ If neither of the LEX finance courses are offered during the entire academic year, a corporate and finance major may take FIN 7090 outside the Law School instead.

  Practical skills

  Externships and clinics offer opportunities to hone skills permitting you to step into practice. Students work alongside lawyers in multinational corporations and law firms, government agencies and international organizations 

  Career paths

  • In-house counsel
  • Law firm (regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions, other transactional planning)
  • Sole practitioner (controversies, borrowings, contracts, transactional planning)
  • Government (securities regulation, consumer financial protection, antitrust)
  • Banking, hedge funds, financial institutions
• Labor and Employment Law

  Employment relations in the 21st century are the focus of Wayne Law's Labor and Employment Law LL.M. This area includes labor unions, employee benefits, anti-discrimination law and other employer compliance issues. Our graduates work for all types of employers, including corporations, government entities, law firms, and labor unions and tax-exempt organizations advocating for workers. 

  Basic course

  • LEX 7501 Labor Law (2 credits)

  Required courses

  • LEX 7221 Employment Law (3 credits)
  • LEX 7216 Employment Discrimination (2-3 credits)

  Electives

  In addition to the basic and required courses listed above, the Labor and Employment Law major must take at least 16 credits of approved-elective or approval-required elective courses from the list below, with no more than 8 credits of approval-required elective courses applying towards the degree. View electives list.

  Thesis (2 or 3 credits)

  Option A: Stand-Alone

  •  LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)

  Option B: Seminar

  • LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)
  • LEX 7990 Directed Study (1 credit)

  Practical skills

  Externships and clinics offer opportunities to hone skills permitting you to step into practice. Students work alongside lawyers in multinational corporations and law firms, government agencies and international organizations.

  Career paths

  • Human resources offices
  • Union advisers, union organizers, union lawyers
  • Arbitrators, mediators/negotiators in union collective bargaining environments
  • Law firms or sole practitioner (employer compliance or union representation)
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other federal agencies dealing with discrimination in employment
  • Law firm hiring offices
• Taxation

  Taxation is key to legislative policy development, economic planning and business activity across the globe. Governments at local, state and federal levels have complex and interrelated systems of taxation, and international organizations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development encourage multinational cooperation in addressing core tax issues. The LL.M. in Taxation requires you to achieve competency in fundamental areas of federal income taxation (personal, corporate and partnership) and allows you to explore subfields of special interest to you, whether it be litigating tax controversies, developing policy proposals to advance the economy, assisting in transactional tax planning or working with individuals to hone estate plans.

  Basic course

  • LEX 7816 Taxation (2 credits)

  Required courses

  • LEX 7311 Taxation of Partnerships (2-3 credits)
  • At least one corporate tax course from the following options:
    •  LEX 7821 Taxation of Corporations (4 credits)
    • LEX 7014 Taxation of Corporations: Mergers and Restructurings (4 credits)
    • LEX 7060 Business Planning (4 credits) or LEX 7061 Business Planning: A Transactional Approach (4 credits)

  Electives

  In addition to the basic and required courses listed above, the Taxation major must take at least 18 credits of approved-elective or approval-required elective courses from the list below, with no more than 6 credits of approval-required elective courses applying towards the degree. View electives list.

  Thesis (2 or 3 credits)

  Option A: Stand-Alone

  • LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)

  Option B: Seminar

  • LEX 8999 Masters Thesis (2 credits)
  •  LEX 7990 Directed Study (1 credit) 

  Practical skills

  Externships and clinics offer opportunities to hone skills permitting you to step into practice. Students work alongside lawyers in multinational corporations and law firms, government agencies and international organizations.

  Career paths

  • Governmental tax policy and revenue collection agencies (IRS, state treasury departments)
  • Local, state and federal legislative staffs dealing with budget and tax issues
  • In-house tax counsel (transactional and tax planning)
  • Law firm (transactional planning, financial planning, financial instruments)
  • Sole practitioner (tax planning, estate planning, employee benefits)
  • Academic teaching
  • Consulting (tax-exempt organizations reporting/planning)
• U.S. Law

  The LLM U.S. Law major is designed to introduce internationally-trained lawyers to the American legal system. It also provides students with the opportunity to design a course of study that would qualify them to sit for the California or New York bar exam.

  Basic courses

  • LEX 8875 Survey of United States Law (4 credits)
  • LEX 7424 Introduction to the Legal System of the United States (2 credits)
  • LEX 8890 U.S. Legal Practice Skills for Foreign Law Students (2 credits)
  • LEX 8815 Fundamentals of U.S. Legal Research (1 credit)

  Electives

  In addition to the basic courses listed above, the U.S. Law major must choose five to six additional courses (15 credits) in areas of interest to you, with the approval of the director, from the entire law curriculum other than the first-year J.D. courses. Students may personalize coursework in areas of particular interest and to facilitate admissions to take the state bar exam.

  Law majors generally may not apply approval-required elective courses (other than directed studies) towards their degree; however, in extraordinary cases, a student with a U.S. Law major may petition the director for permission to take an elective course outside the approved list for the U.S. Law major to be credited towards the degree; if the director approves, a written statement shall be filed with the Records office stating the rationale for the course approval. A student with a U.S. Law major may also petition the director for approval to take a course at the graduate level in other departments of the university that will be recorded on the student's transcript but will not be counted towards the 24-credit requirement for the U.S. Law LL.M. degree. View electives list.