JD/LLM in Employee Benefits
As a JD candidate at UIC Law, you have the unique opportunity to enhance your marketability by specializing in employee benefits law. UIC Law offers the only Graduate Employee Benefits Programs in the country, and with continuous input from our faculty and advisory board, we've developed a timely, focused curriculum with the depth and relevance to ensure your career success in this area of law.
Earning an LLM in Employee Benefits will enhance your employability, while only adding a semester or two to your time at the Law School. To accommodate students, classes are held in the late afternoon and evenings, and on Saturdays. One-week accelerated courses are also offered during the summer. Upon completion of your JD requirements, you decide if you will graduate with your JD (at which point you are eligible to sit for the bar exam) before completing the LLM requirements or graduate with both degrees on the same day. As a graduate of the joint program, you'll have a separate GPA for both the JD and LLM programs.
Requirements Heading link
Effective Fall 2020, new students are not being admitted to this program. Please contact the program directly for more information.
Students may matriculate into a joint-degree program only after they have completed 30 JD credits but before they have completed 60 JD credits. Joint JD/LLM in Employee Benefits candidates may apply the first 10 credits satisfactorily completed in the LLM program in which they are enrolled to the electives requirements of the JD. Most degree candidates will be able to complete the requirements of the joint program with 110 credits (80 JD 30 LLM) instead of the 120 credits required if the programs are completed separately. Students unable to complete the joint degree must still complete a total of 90 hours to be awarded the JD degree. Up to 8 of your LLM elective credits can be taken from the tax law program, or with appropriate approvals, from any of the Law School’s other Centers for Excellence.
Students who matriculated prior to August 16, 2019, are subject to degree requirements in place when they first enrolled, provided they complete those requirements within the time limit for degree completion and do not interrupt their enrollment without formal approval. Students should consult their appropriate Center regarding their degree requirements.
Curriculum Heading link
Required Courses
- Employee Benefits Law (EB 475, 3 Credits)
- Fundamentals I of Retirement Plan Issues (EB 520, 3 Credits)
- Fundamentals II of Retirement Plan Issues (EB 521, 3 Credits)
- Survey of Executive Compensation Plans (EB 460, 2 Credits)
- Survey of Welfare Plan Issues (EB 501, 2 Credits)
- Tax & Employee Benefits Research (EB 511, 2 Credits)
Please review each course description to determine what prerequisites apply.
Elective Courses
- Cash or Deferred Arrangements (EB 533, 2 Credits)
- Compensation Law: Taxation & Other Legal Issues (EB 482, 3 Credits)
- Contemporary Benefit Issues (EB 545, 2 Credits)
- Employee Benefits in Corporate Transactions (EB 556, 1 Credit)
- Employee Benefits Litigation (EB 479, 2 Credits)
- Employee Benefits Practice & Procedure (EB 541, 2 Credits)
- Employee Benefits Public Policy (EB 551, 2 Credits)
- ERISA Fiduciary Law (EB 536, 2 Credits)
- ERISA Responsibilities for Financial Institutions & Service Providers (EB 531, 2 Credits)
- ESOPs (EB 535, 1 Credit)
- Executive Compensation Benefits Advanced (EB 547, 2 Credits)
- Externship or Practicum in Employee Benefits (EB 555, 1-4 Credits)
- Health Care Reform ACA (EB 494, 2 Credits)
- Independent Study in Employee Benefits (EB 596, 1-3 Credits)
- International Employee Benefits (EB 553, 1 Credit)
- Lawyering Skills IV: Drafting: Employee Benefits (EB 450, 3 Credits)
- Special Topics in Employee Benefits Law (EB 594, 1-2 Credits)
- Specialized Employee Benefit Plans (EB 543, 2 Credits)
- Survey of Retirement Plan Issues (EB 522, 2 Credits)