How to Use Personal Stories Effectively to Strengthen Your Master of Laws Application

Introduction

I’ve previously written about mining your background for stories and ideas and the techniques one can use to evaluate their own profile for a successful application, in a way that doesn't require you to brag but helps you find what's uniquely authentic. However, if you’ve read examples of personal statements, especially for American-style applications, you’ve likely noticed they often rely on personal stories.

This is because many available essays are for JD (Juris Doctor) programs—designed for those who aren’t yet lawyers but want to enter the US legal market. These applicants often answer the “why law” question (why become a lawyer), which often leads to discussing their personal development and their personal associations with law.

Applying for a master of laws (LLM), however, is a different process. LLM candidates are already qualified lawyers, and their main task is to answer “why LLM” and “why now.” This question requires a more specific, professional focus, drawing on career experience to explain the need for an advanced law degree. You'd therefore naturally focus on your trajectory as a lawyer up to date.

That being said, while personal stories might not dominate, they still play a role since professional development is rarely, if ever, independent from personal growth.

In this post, I’ll outline effective guidelines for incorporating personal experiences into an LLM application. I'll talk about tactics you can use and the examples from my client work. For how I've done it in my essay for Harvard in more detail, please see this post.

For the conceptual framework I use to help people generate ideas and stories for application essays please this post. It's part of my original 5-step methodology for writing personal statements.

Tactic 1: Connect your personal experience to your professional life, goals, and motivations for applying

Since the primary goal of doing an LLM is to advance your professional career, the focus should naturally be on your professional choices. Personal stories therefore will work best when they are tied directly to your professional life and decisions.

Examples:

• One client of mine wove her journey of becoming a vegan into her LLM application. This story was relevant because it marked the beginning of her interest in environmental issues, eventually leading to her specialization in environmental law. It also showcased her struggle to align personal values with professional identity until a climate litigation project in law school inspired her to pursue work in environmental policy. This connected well to her plans of getting involved with the EU environmental policymaking.
• Another client wrote about his participation in Russia's major protests between 2014 and 2022 and his arrests. These experiences supported his aspiration to use the LLM to work in transitional justice and democracy-building.
• Another client recalled working in the garden with his mother as a child to explain his early interest in agriculture, which eventually led him to study it in college.

Tactic 2: Talk About your personal experience, not someone else’s

This might seem obvious, but many applicants make the mistake of focusing on others instead of themselves. Some write about the people they want to help after earning their degree, while others focus on influential figures in their lives or dedicate the entire essay to their trauma. This approach doesn’t serve you well. Your personal statement needs to reflect your life, experiences, and perspective.

Example of what NOT to do:

‘As a once-undocumented immigrant, I can relate to the reality and fear my father and community live in daily and can make a critical difference in the immigration law community. Seeing my father overshadowed by his legal status created a fearless passion in me to become an advocate for him and other fellow immigrants.’

While this example touches on an important issue, it focuses too much on the father’s experience instead of the applicant’s own. The essay suggests that the applicant hasn’t fully processed her experiences or articulated how they connect to her goals.

This doesn’t mean you can’t reflect on how witnessing injustice shaped your decisions. You can—but you need to frame it through your own lens and show how those experiences motivated your path.

Tactic 3: Make It relevant and connected to your overall message of ‘why this degree now’

Everything in your essay must be relevant to your application and fit within the context of your overall message: Why are you applying for a Master of Laws now? Each story or experience you include needs to pass the “so what” test. Yes, it might have been a pivotal moment in your life—but so what? How does it prove you should be admitted? How does it connect to your motivation for pursuing this degree?

Examples of how NOT to do it:

‘I was the first LGBTQ+employee to come out at the openly Christian company where I worked.’

As a reader, my first thought is: I understand how challenging that must have been. So what? The applicant didn’t explain how this experience connects to their decision to apply for law school. Instead, they made a broad statement about wanting “to help those who are taken advantage of, discriminated against, and harassed in the workplace.” While noble, this is too generic—every law school applicant claims to want to protect people’s rights. To stand out, you must connect your personal story directly to your professional goals.

‘I vividly remember seeing the shadows of two people dressed in black, one pointing a gun at my mother and me, while the other took things we worked so hard to get.’

This is undeniably traumatic, but the applicant failed to interpret this experience in a way that tied into their motivation for law school. The story remained disconnected and didn’t pass the “so what” test.

‘Outside of class, I joined the school’s rugby team and began learning how when in harmony, a team could outmaneuver or overpower anyone standing in their way.’

‘Not only do I have a strong family connection to the football team, after attending countless games with my father over the years, I share the core values Notre Dame upholds – of diversity and compassion for others.’

Both examples are demonstrations of the poor use of a personal experience. They do not explain how sports led the applicant to a decision to become a lawyer (both were applying for a JD in the US). The fact that they are unrelated to the decision to become a lawyer makes them ineffective.

Tactic 4: If it’s a story from the distant past, make sure it fits one of the exceptions

As a rule of thumb, stick to stories from the past five years. Childhood and adolescent experiences often weaken personal statements, as they can seem backward-looking and avoiding adult challenges.

However, there are exceptions:

• If the distant past is highly relevant to your adult achievements and decisions, it can be included.
• You can use childhood or teenage experiences to provide context for later decisions or events.

For example, you may have gone through a traumatic event during your childhood which required you to work full-time while in school and remain close to your home. In this case, you have a good reason to share it to explain your later choices and accomplishments.

Example:

When I wrote my personal statement to Harvard, I included a story from high school because my journey in law uniquely started at age 14, when I won my first national law competition. (In Russia, high school students can compete in academic olympiads, including in law - see more here).) This was a pivotal moment that influenced my decision to pursue law and gave context to my broader theme of exploring how lawyers can become decision-makers rather than mere advisors to decision-makers.

Ineffective use of a similar event:

• A client applying for a Master of Laws and Finance in Germany included her high school olympiad experience in her first essay draft. However, with a 12-year gap between that event and her application (compared to my 7-year gap), the story felt irrelevant. She failed to connect it to her essay’s main argument and neglected her 10+ years of professional experience. This weakened her application and created the impression she lacked other accomplishments, which was unfair to her strong professional background. She revised her essay following my suggestions and successfully gained admission.
• In another case, a client focused on an event from when she was 12, involving her father. The essay didn’t explain how she overcame the experience, instead becoming an abstract rant about her past. Without showing growth or relevance, the essay didn’t make a compelling case for admission.She didn’t take my recommendation to focus on other, stronger aspects of her background and was ultimately not accepted.

Tactic 5: focus on the Overcoming, not the suffering

It's the overcoming, not the suffering that counts. It may sound harsh, but simply recounting difficult experiences won’t guarantee admission. You must show growth, progression, and relevance to your application.

Example of effective storytelling (from a client):

‘Two years ago, I was asked to step onstage to receive the best employee of the year award. My company become a leader of the national stock exchange market due to the effective investment funds management and the launch of the environmental project I led.

During the ceremony, I could not resist thinking back to where I started. No one could have predicted that success. When I started school, I faced hardships in a number of subjects, having difficulties learning dates in history classes, memorizing poems in literature, and solving equations in math. This infrequently led to being bullied by other kids. Yet, I truly loved studying. […] Eventually, I expanded my knowledge base so much that I started competing in the social science olympiads for high school students. I won the regional competitions twice. By the time I finished high school, my grades had improved so much that I became a top student in school, graduating with a silver medal, one of the highest honors’.

This story works for two reasons. First, it moves freely along the time axis. It starts with a recent professional achievement, then reflects on earlier struggles, and finally shows how the applicant overcame them. Second, it connects the personal story to academic success, demonstrating that she’ll do well in a graduate program.

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I hope these guidelines help you craft a personal statement that effectively weaves together your personal and professional life into a compelling, cohesive narrative. For how I've done it in my essay for Harvard, please see this post.

For the conceptual framework I use to help people generate ideas and stories for application essays please see this post. It's part of my original 5-step methodology for writing personal statements.

Good luck! ☺️