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LL.M. Writing Project Requirement

To earn the LL.M. degree, LL.M. candidates must complete the LL.M. Writing Project requirement (“Writing Project”). The Writing Project is a research paper based on a student’s original legal research, and must meet the following criteria:

1. The paper must be worth at least two points of academic credit. A two-point paper, whether written as a seminar requirement or as supervised research, generally represents about 140 hours of work, or 10 hours per week, and is usually 20 to 25 pages or 6,500 to 8,000 words, although individual professors may have different requirements.
2. The paper must be graded on the A-B-C-F scale. Credit (Pass)/Fail or other non-evaluative grades are not permitted.

The following will not satisfy the LL.M. Writing Project requirement:

1. Reaction papers, opinion papers, journal entries, or critiques.
2. A series of shorter research papers whose total equals 20 to 25 pages.
3. Non-research based writing projects.
4. Papers for which the research is based entirely or mostly on reading materials (cases, articles, commentaries, etc.) assigned by a professor for the course or seminar.
5. Papers written for courses taken outside the Law School. (In rare circumstances, exceptions can be made for courses completed at NYU Law School through the formal CLS/NYU Exchange Program.) 
6. The paper written for LL.M. Legal Research and Writing.
7. Student journal articles, notes, or research assistant positions unless the student writes a paper that meets the LL.M. Writing Project standards as supervised research (see below for details on supervised research).

The Writing Project requirement can be completed in several ways:

1. Seminars

• If a student is enrolled in a seminar that requires a 20 to 25 page research paper and that seminar is worth at least two points of academic credit, then the seminar paper will fulfill the Writing Project requirement.
• If a seminar requires a shorter research paper (i.e., 10 pages), a student may seek the instructor’s permission to write a longer research paper (20 to 25 pages or 6,500 to 8,000 words) in order to satisfy the Writing Project requirement. In such cases, if the student writes at least 10-15 additional pages, she may be entitled to earn one additional point of academic credit. The student must register the additional point as “Supervised Research Paper: Course Related” (L6689) by completing the LL.M. Research and Writing Registration Form, available in Registration Services. The student will thus earn a total of three points of academic credit—two for the seminar and one for the additional work done on the paper.
• If a seminar provides the option of a final examination or a research paper, a student who opts to write the research paper will fulfill the Writing Project requirement provided the final work product meets the standards set forth above.
• If a seminar has a final examination instead of a research paper, a student may seek the instructor’s permission to write a research paper worth at least two points of academic credit (20 to 25 pages) in addition to taking the final exam in order to fulfill the Writing Project requirement. The student must register the additional two-point paper as “Research for the LL.M. Degree” (L6691).

2. Supervised Research. See Supervised Research and the LL.M. Essay for more details. 

3. LL.M. Essay. See Supervised Research and the LL.M. Essay for more details.

Registering Your LL.M. Writing Project

LL.M. candidates must register their “LL.M. Writing Project” (L6694) by completing the GLS Research and Writing Registration Form on the Registration Services website. Candidates must obtain the signature of both the professor and either the dean or director of Graduate Legal Studies, and include on the form a full description of the type of paper to be written. The form is due Oct. 15 for writing projects to be completed during the fall term and Feb. 1 for writing projects to be completed during the spring term.