LAW BRIEFS

FIRST INT'L. LLM STUDENTS TO GRADUATE

SUFFOLK LAW’S LLM in U.S. Law for International Business Lawyers, a three-year summer program held in Budapest, Hungary, is about to yield its first graduates. This May, the program will bestow degrees on its inaugural class, a group of 28 lawyers hailing from 18 different countries.Budapest

"We have succeeded where no other law school has even tried," says Professor Stephen Hicks, director of graduate law programs, whose origi¬nal vision for the internationalization of the law school led to the creation of the Budapest program.

A total of 70 LLM candidates from 31 different countries participated in this year’s program, held during the last two weeks of July at Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law. At the open¬ing night dinner and reception, stu¬dents expected to graduate in May re¬ceived special medallions to celebrate their completion of the three summers. Dean Alfred Aman commemorated their achievements while also welcom¬ing new candidates to the program in an address titled "Privatization, Globalization, and Law." Program participants, who typically have earned their law degrees outside the United States and are already practicing attorneys, are drawn to the unique scheduling format of the Suffolk Law LLM program.

"I never thought I would ever have time to complete an LLM degree," says Tranquil Suaverdez Salvador III, a partner at one of the leading firms in the Philippines who is scheduled to graduate this spring. "This program made my dream a reality." According to Maxim A. Zgodko, another prospective graduate who is a partner at a Russian firm, the geographic diversity of the program candidates also enriched the learning experience.

"Practically every one of us from all these different countries found some¬thing special in this program that was important for everyday practice in our home countries," says Zgodko. "The exchange of ideas in class was as much of a learning experience as the lectures."

–Dan Tobin

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