LEALS is different from most courses. As we celebrate ten years of LEALS, I have had a lot of time to reflect on that. And how one of my (many) crazy ideas turned into a change in my career and life.

Because my students are not being “steered” towards a specific U.S. law school (and even back in my China years they weren’t!), it isn’t a typical partner school pipeline course. In fact, LEALSers aren’t even being steered towards the U.S. as their only option, and more LEALSers study outside the U.S. than inside the United States. And each year, I write more LORs for schools outside the United States.

I also have a lot of experience with teaching abroad. Seeing visiting professors parachute in for a week or a couple weeks, I decided to create more long-lasting experiences for my students. In fact, that was part of the initial plan of teaching courses that lasted full semesters, or at least 3-4 weeks, when I was based in China.

We have class WeChat groups that start weeks before the course so students get to know me. We have a pre-course questionnaire so that I get to know the students. Office hours each week. And because I teach for the same school summer after summer, successful LEALSers encourage their junior classmates to work hard in the course and it creates chains of LEALSers who help the next group. And LEALSers for Life is not just a catchy slogan. I stay in touch with LEALSers over the years. Even though I have not had an in-person course since 2018, I’ve been able to meet online LEALSers in the U.S. and around the world in my post-2020 new format.

Here is the Summer 2025 syllabus in case you’re interested.

As I mentioned, it’s about:

• 1/3 the material you get in an Introduction to the U.S. legal system course in your LL.M. program
• 1/3 the material you get in a legal writing course in your LL.M. program
• 1/3 the material you get in a pre-LL.M./LL.B. summer program for the U.S. law school experience, including the classroom experience, applying to law schools, etc.

And as I always mention, a strong LL.M. graduate can likely teach a similar course! An easy way to give back to your LL.B. program? Offer to do something similar for LL.B.s before they start applying abroad. You’ll help give them a head start, give back to your school, and get to teach. And with new online formats, the costs incurred in my old life (31 months based in China for a U.S. law school) are so much lower.

Similarly, U.S. law schools create partnerships with law schools abroad. An easy “ask” for your U.S. law school partners: ask them to design a similar course! Any school with an LL.M. program will easily have the personnel to teach one. And they can view it as a cost-effective recruitment and engagement activity as well.