On Wednesday, August 12, Harvard Law School’s Graduate Program officially welcomed the LL.M. Class of 2027 to campus: 184 new students with law degrees from the United States and countries around the world who will spend the upcoming academic year pursuing a Master of Laws degree.
The majority have pursued advanced studies or have two or more years of professional or teaching experience. The cohort includes three prosecutors, four judges or magistrates, two diplomats, a former member of elected government, seven full- or part-time law teachers, and three members of a non-U.S. military, and one diplomat. The 2027 cohort also includes 16 current or former Fulbright scholars and 24 Supreme or Constitutional Court Clerks.
Outside of their legal work, the LL.M. students’ pursuits are just as wide-ranging. In addition to the many musicians, NGO founders, outdoor adventurers, competitive athletes, and trivia experts, the LL.M. Class of 2027 includes a published travel writer, a paramedic who delivered three babies, a fortune teller who reads tea leaves, a lifelong sailor who has completed four ocean crossings, a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, and a former youth chess champion.
In addition, eight candidates are beginning their studies for the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree, the law school’s most advanced degree. These students, all of whom are Harvard Law alumni from the LL.M. Class of 2026, will work closely with Harvard Law faculty members on: competition and public markets; sovereignty, property, and citizenship; private wrongs; anticorruption; contract law and design; judgment interpretation in international law; comparative constitutional theory; and post-Watergate privacy law.
Harvard Law School is also welcoming seven international exchange students from its partner schools in Cambridge, Geneva, Seoul, Paris, and Sydney. These students will pursue studies in constitutional law, corporate criminal liability, law and economics, cross-border transactions, economic migration, and complicity-based conscience claims.
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