Who is your ideal client?

I currently support the following categories of clients:

• professionals whose most valuable resource is time. Often, these are lawyers working in demanding environments such as law firms. Time is a scarce resource for them, and they want to maximize the results they get from investing it into the application process. I act as an accelerator helping them achieve their goals.
• people who seek a change in their career trajectories, be it breaking into an international market, transitioning to academia, or growing professionally in other ways. They want to do an LL.M. to unlock more opportunities for growth and would like my help with crafting the applications that explain that change.
• people who are frustrated by the absence of clear frameworks, feel stuck with their applications, and want their efforts to pay off.

These categories are just labels. If you have a can-do attitude, a commitment to mutual work, and a strong desire to succeed, I’d love to have an initial conversation with you.

I can't do a full-scale mentorship program at the moment. Do you offer other types of coaching/ mentoring?

Yes, I do. If you are interested, please fill in a short application form.

The beauty of individual work is that it can be tailored to the needs of a person I'm working with.

My most requested formats of coaching are:

1. profile & background analysis
2. generating ideas & topics for a personal statement, motivation letter, or another essay
3. review of a personal statement, motivation letter, or another essay

‍

1/ profile & background analysis

I help you analyze your background, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and define a strategy for presenting them in your application.

It's for you if:

• you have various activities and achievements on your CV but don't know how to talk about them in your application;
• you believe you've done 'nothing special', or not enough to warrant admission to a renowned law school, and want help finding out how to work with your profile to still achieve your professional goals and dreams;
• you don't know how to interpret your background in a way that shows you are a valuable candidate;
• you've been thinking about doing an LL.M. for a while now but are not sure about how to present yourself and want help figuring that out;
• you don't know how to connect your background and your reasons for applying for an LL.M.

‍

2/ generating ideas for an essay

I help you get started on your application essays, such as motivation letters, personal statements, and statements of purpose - find a topic, generate multiple ideas, and get you going.

It's for you if:

• you don't know what to write about in an essay except for restating the facts from your CV;
• you only have a vague idea about what to include in an essay;
• you can't single out the main moments - everything seems important;
• you need a system to get going and be confident that you are on the right path;
• you have too many ideas or too few;
• you don't know how to translate your ideas and experience into an essay;
• you can't seem to start, and keep postponing your essays forever;
• you don't know how to connect your background and your reasons for applying for an LL.M.

‍

3/ review of an essay

I'll catch you where you are, regardless of how much progress you've done on your essays.

It's for you if:

• you've been working on your essay for some time now but don't know if it's any good;
• you feel stuck with your essays;
• you'd like an expert opinion;
• you are looking to improve the essay you wrote, whether it's the phasing and expression, structure, the choice of topics and stories, and the like.

‍

If you have a custom request not covered by the above, please reach out and we'll discuss it.

How does the coaching look like?

For all formats of coaching, there are several distinct parts:

1. Application Form: I get initial impression of your profile through your CV and the application form.
2. ‍Discovery Call: We have a 20 to 30 min call to determine if working together is a good fit. We discuss your goals, what hasn't worked for you so far, and how our mutual work can benefit you.
3. Application Development Session: If we decide to proceed, I'll invite you on an application development call to discuss your concern, whether it's background analysis, idea generation, or something else. This happens in zoom and typically lasts between 1 and 2 hours.
4. Follow-up: I send you executive summary that includes my session notes, detailed analysis with recommendations on how to proceed, and an additional exercise to do on your own to enhance the results of our work together.
5. If you've written an essay and submitted it to me, I also give feedback on it.
6. I send you a zoom recording of our session for you to rewatch anytime you want.
7. Becoming a mentee: If you decided to proceed on the basis of a mentorship program, we move forward with the mentoring/ coaching relationship. I send you an invitation to sign up by completing payment, reviewing a coaching agreement, and scheduling our next application development session. The price of the 1st application development session is applied towards the price of the mentorship program.

If this is something you are interested in, please fill in a short application form.

I don't write the applications for you

My goal is to help you enhance your chances wherever you are on your master’s or PhD application journey.

An important part of this is to help you own and shape your story while preserving your sense of agency and accomplishment, and abide by the ethical guidelines.

This means that I won't write your applications for you. I'll guide you through the steps and support you with the expertise that I have but I won't cross the boundary. This would go against my values.

I don't do one-off consultation sessions

I don't do abstract Q&A sessions, where you ask broad questions (like 'how to write a personal statement?' or 'is it difficult to get a scholarship in Germany') and we don't work with your background. I did them in the past and found unfulfilling. The reason is that it’s impossible to answer questions in abstract, without working with your particular profile, the documents you write, and the particular programs you choose. Usually, the only answer I can give without digging into your background is 'it depends', and this is not helpful for you or me.

I don't do the program search

I can help you narrow down the criteria, clarify your vision and goals, and advise on the program search but I don't do the search for you.

I don't do the funding search

The thing with funding is that it's close to impossible to provide a general strategy for it. There are no unified databases, and the funding you'll be eligible for is highly dependent on your choice of programs, your personal circumstances, your area of study, your nationality, and the like.

A search for funding is a whole process, usually separate from preparing the applications for admissions.

I will help you work on a scholarship or funding application, eg, guide you through writing a CV or a motivation letter. However, I won't do a funding search for you.

That being said, everything that I could generalize about funding, everything I know about it, you can find in my Ultimate Guide to Funding Your Master's Degree. I made it extremely affordable, and it contains the expertise I've collected over 10+ years of successfully applying for academic funding distilled on 70 pages. This guide, along with some other materials on looking for funding, is also included in the recorded part of my mentorship program.

I don't assist with bachelor's applications

My primary expertise is in master of laws (LL.M.), PhD in law and postdoc in law applications.

I do not advise on applications for a bachelor's degree.

However, for custom requests

If you have a custom request that is not covered by the courses and guides I've created so far (e.g., you want me to help you with an essay you've already written or you only want one or two sessions), please fill in the application form, and I’ll see what I can do.