Harvard LLM Personal Statement Part A: How to Find a Compelling Topic for a Legal Essay, With Examples

This is Part 1 of a two-part blog series on writing an essay on a legal issue and addresses the question of how to choose a topic. The remaining steps are addressed in Part 2.

What is an essay on a legal Issue, and why might you Need to write one?

If you are applying for a Master of Laws (LLM), you may need to submit an essay on a legal topic (a 'legal essay') as a component of your application. This could be a part of a personal statement or a separate written work, depending on the program.

For example, Harvard Law School asks applicants to:

‘Briefly describe either an important issue in your field of interest or a current legal problem facing a particular country, region, or the world, and then propose a theoretical framework or a legal analysis or strategy to address this issue’.

This is considered part 'a' of the Harvard LLM personal statement.

Similarly, Oxford's Magister Juris program requires a written work that meets the following guidelines:

‘The work must be written in English and on a legal topic. Academic work from your most recent qualification is preferred, but work written in a professional context may be submitted if academic work is not readily available. This will be assessed for a comprehensive understanding of the subject area, an understanding of problems in the area, an ability to construct and defend an argument, your powers of analysis and your powers of expression’.

NYU doesn't typically require such an essay for admission but does for certain scholarships, like the Hauser Scholarship.

As you see, the requirements may vary. However, the substance stays the same: You are asked to produce a piece of analysis on a legal topic in writing.

The purpose of these essays is to showcase your analytical thinking and writing skills, both essential in law. Law is a highly verbal pursuit, and a legal essay is a snapshot of your lawyering abilities. It allows the admissions committee to see your professional skills in action.

For top universities like Harvard and Oxford, it also serves as away to filter serious candidates, as crafting a strong legal essay demands significant effort and dedication. This means that fewer applicants will go through the trouble of doing it which narrows the pool of eligible candidates that the admissions committee will later have to sift through.

How to choose a topic for your LLM Legal essay

It's best to start in advance, as crafting a winning LLM application requires effort and time.

Choosing an essay topic involves identifying:

• a broad field of interest
• a problem in that field of interest that needs solving

Using your own background and writing history as a starting point can be helpful for a few reasons for it:

1. Writing a strong essay takes time

To produce a strong essay, you need to read extensively. You won’t be able to produce a winning essay without consuming and integrating lots of relevant literature on the subject.

To have something to say on a legal issue, you need to be aware of its context, the existing debates, the names of researchers known for their expertise in the field, remaining gaps in the literature, and the like. All that requires extensive background knowledge of the subject.

In my experience, a quality essay requires extensive reading, ideally around 10-15 sources per 1,000 words. Sometimes, it’s more. Sometimes, it’s less. Ultimately, it depends on the topic. Some topics are more literature-heavy than others. For instance, in the essay I submitted to HLS, I directly referenced 15 academic sources. To deepen my understanding of the topic, I read about 10 to 15 more, to get a handle of the topic and feel competent discussing it.

In the process of writing the essay, you’ll be making notes, digesting ideas, making connections between them, deciding what you agree or disagree with, and formulating your own arguments. All of that takes neural connections. And neural connections take time to form.

Building on a topic you're familiar with can make this process more manageable.

2. An essay based on your writing history will be coherent with your profile

Choosing a topic you’ve previously worked on can lend cohesion to your profile, though this isn't a strict requirement.

For the sake of clarity, you are under no obligation to choose a specific topic simply for the purpose of making your profile look coherent. It's not the goal. The goal is to showcase your analytical skills. For instance, I wrote my legal essay on something very different from what I’ve worked on in the past, and I was perfectly fine.

But if you do choose a topic you’ve previously worked on, it can contribute to the overall convincingness of your application. It can therefore be an additional bonus in your favor.

3. Your essay will be more personal

It’s not immediately clear but a legal essay, like a motivation letter or a personal statement, also needs to be personal. Personal in a sense that it should be evident that you are the best person to write it.

For instance, it’ll make little sense for you to write about the truth commission in Colombia if you’ve never been to Colombia, have never shown any interest in anything Colombia-related, and don’t speak good enough Spanish to read relevant literature in original. The chances are, it’ll be incredibly difficult for you to write a good essay on a topic you feel no personal connection to.

One way to demonstrate the personal relevance of a topic is through your existing expertise, building on your research and writing history.

How to choose a topic Using your writing history

If you are applying for an advanced degree such as Master of Laws, it's likely you already have a history of writing legal papers and essays. A natural start therefore is by auditing of your past legal writing projects to identify potential topics for your essay.

1. List your past work

Reflect on your past legal writing, whether from school, work, or other experience. Some questions to guide you:

• PhD candidates: If you are doing or did a PhD, can you write about your research question, or a specific aspect of it in a way that fits the essay format?
• Legal practitioners: If you are working for a law firm, as an in-house lawyer, or as a lawyer in another capacity, what are the legal questions you’ve tackled in your work (without breaching confidentiality)? What legal memoranda or case work could you use as an analytical window into an important legal issue?

Example: A friend of mine wrote his HLS essay on the following issue. If a court applies foreign law, does it have discretion to deviate from its interpretation by a foreign court if such interpretation is deemed mistaken due to extra-legal considerations? This was inspired by a case he dealt with while working in a law firm.

• Law students: If you are a student, what course papers oressays have you written?

Example: A friend of mine wrote her HLS legal essay about contracting out governmental services to private actors in the context of secondary schools in England. She chose it because at the time, she was writing a dissertation on that very subject.

• Moot court participants: If you took part in a moot court, what theoretical issues were raised there? How can you use them for your essay?

Example: A friend of mine wrote his HLS legal essay on the democratic legitimacy of the government. This topic was inspired by his participation in the Jessup competition and a legal issue the Jessup case tackled that year. This was also connected to his experience as an election observer, which he wrote about in his personal statement.

2. Review and refine

As you list topics, avoid judging or discarding them too early. At this point, you are taking an inventory. Your goal is to collect as many options as possible. You’ll assess their viability later.

3. Evaluate with a checklist

After listing, sort topics based on:

• Your continued interest in them: What topics are still interesting to you?
• The effort required to revisit sources or research from scratch: Where is your memory of the sources still fresh, and where will you need to do an extra-amount of work from scratch? Do you have the capacity to do that work?
• Their potential to strengthen your overall profile: What topics will make your profile look more coherent?

Finally, choose atopic based on this refined list.

commonly asked questions about choosing Your Essay topic

Here are some common questions that might come up as you decide on a topic for your legal essay:

1. Should I focus on international law, or can I write about my home-country's law?

Many applicants, myself included, feel pressure to focus on 'important' regions, especially if they've internalized the idea that these regions are more 'valuable' for study. For instance, when I studied at Lomonosov Moscow State University, it was consistently conveyed to us that places like the EU and the U.S. are legally superior and thus worthier of study than, for instance, Russia. Even though the HLS essay prompt explicitly mentioned ‘a problem facing a particular country,’ I simply could not imagine that choosing an issue of Russian law could be valuable for an application to Harvard or Oxford.

I’ve seen other people internalize this in various ways. So I’m articulating it here to reassure you that you don’t have to choose a topic relating to a ‘developed’ legal system as opposed to ‘undeveloped’ one. Similarly, choosing an issue of international law is not inherently worthier than choosing an issue of national law. You are allowed to write about your home country as well.

Pay attention to the prompt and do what it says. For instance, as mentioned, HLS prompt clearly states that your topic can have an international, regional, or national focus. It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you write a competent analysis of it. Remember, the goal is not to convince the admissions committee of your point of view on that matter; the goal is to showcase your analytical and legal skills.

On this point, a friend of mine from HLS says:

‘Play to your strengths. I’m Canadian so, naturally, I wrote about a legal problem in Canada. If you’re not an expert in a foreign jurisdiction, don’t pick that jurisdiction because you’re trying to impress someone. It’s better to demonstrate that you can communicate a problem simply to someone who knows nothing about the issue than to try talking about something they already know a lot about and where gaps in your knowledge will be laid bare’.

2. Does the topic have to be academic or applied? What if I am a practitioner and haven’t written anything academic?

If academic writing is preferred, it’ll be explicitly mentioned (see, eg, the Oxford prompt above). If not, both should be acceptable. When deciding what to write about, always come back to the purpose of the document. You are not being asked to submit it as a mere formality, just for the sake of it; you are being asked to demonstrate how you think and write. Choose what showcases your skills the best.

If you are still unsure and have doubts, reach out to the university and ask.

3. Should the legal essay reflect my primary academic or professional focus? For instance, if I am a real estate lawyer, should I write about real estate law?

Generally, it’s good if your legal essay aligns with other parts of the application. For instance, if you write about an ambition to shape climate policy in the EU in your personal statement, like one of my clients did, then choosing an important issue in climate policy for your legal essay will serve you well because it demonstrates the seriousness of your intentions.

However, you are under no obligation to write your essay on the same topic you work on as a practicing lawyer or academic. You can choose something else. Again, the main purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate your legal skills. That can be done regardless of whether or not your topic reflects your primary professional focus.

4. Should I follow the trends and write about what’s 'hot'? Everybody seems to be writing about the AI, legal tech, or climate change. Should I do that as well?

It is my personal conviction that you’ll be better off writing about something authentic and compelling to you on a personal level rather than something that’s ‘hot’ or on the agenda.

First, if you do otherwise, your nervous system will be taxed trying to squeeze out of you a decent analysis of something you don’t like. You’ll probably have nothing to say about it, it’s going to feel forced, and the admissions committee will see it.

Second, you’ll be competing against people who are actually interested in these topics and understand the field. It’s a lose-lose situation for you. Write about something you are genuinely interested in.

Additional criteria for choosing a topic

A prompt can ask you to write not only about ‘an important issue in your field of interest’ but also ‘a current legal problem’ (see the HLS prompt). To choose based on the latter part of the prompt, ask yourself:

• What are the legal topics or topics with a legal dimension that are on the agenda in your country, region, or globally?

Example 1: A friend of mine wrote his HLS essay about the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act passed in Pakistan in 2016. It was adopted the year he applied, and in his words, the Act ‘caused public outcry due to certain provisions that were ostensibly overbroad and appeared to enable the censorship of free speech.’ It therefore concerned a current legal problem facing a particular country.

Example 2: Another friend of mine wrote about a famous case in Canada concerning the authority of border agents to search travelers’ cell phones. The case was recent at the time of his application and widely publicized, thus satisfying the criterion of currency.

When answering this question, go through the same process as you did with your previous writing projects. Make a list of all legal issues you could potentially write about that meet the criteria of your prompt. Then evaluate them, considering the following parameters:

• Do you have the background knowledge on this topic to write about it competently?
• If not, how fast you can acquire such background knowledge? Do you have the time at your disposal?
• Is this topic personally compelling to you?
• Can you explain this topic to your target audience, or does it require too much explanation of the relevant context to fit within the given word limit?

Make a decision based on the remaining items of the list.

How to identify a topic from scratch

If you still don’t have a topic, here are a few strategies to consider.

Their original source is Rocking Qualitative Social Science by Professor Ashley Rubin. These strategies were developed for large research projects, like doctoral and postdoctoral research, but can be scaled down and applied to a legal essay. Almost everything that turns out to be a big research project usually starts small; it's just a matter of what you focus on and what you omit.

Usually, a topic will combine theoretical and empirical components.

Technique no. 1:

Start with theoretical materials, such as an area of literature, a debate, a theory, a framework, or a concept.

Then, select a topic in which to apply or explore that theoretical stuff; choose one that is a good place in which to explore this material.

Example: One debate in my field of study is the existence of regulatory competition in law (theoretical material) - specifically, whether it exists in dispute resolution and drives states to build institutions called 'international commercial courts' (empirical material). I could therefore write an essay discussing the applicability of this theory to a particular case, eg, the Netherlands Commercial Court.

Technique no. 2:

It’s essentially the reverse of Technique no. 1. Start with a topic of interest, then find the theoretical stuff to go with it.

Starting with a topic of interest can mean choosing a place, phenomenon, population, or a historical period that you want to study, then figuring out how to explain it through a theoretical lens.

Example: The same as above, only in reverse. When choosing a topic for my EUI thesis, I decided to study a comparatively recent phenomenon in cross-border commercial dispute resolution: international commercial courts. I chose four case studies, i.e., four countries that created such courts, thus choosing empirical parameters first. After that, I added a theoretical lens - examining the driving forces behind these courts and the lessons lawmakers could use for future court development. A part of my project was to examine the hypotheses suggested in the literature to explain them. If I were writing an essay, I could select one, such as the above mentioned literature on regulatory competition as the driver behind such courts, and write my essay about it.

Technique no. 3:

Select a question that combines the topic and theoretical material from the start. This can mean deciding to write about an already well-known concept but in a particular context.

Example: For my doctoral dissertation at Lomonosov Moscow State University, I decided to study 'the place of performance of contractual obligations' (a well-known concept in private international law) and its application within EU and Russian international civil procedure (context).

Technique no. 4:

Identify a puzzle or a problem and add practical or empirical limits to it.

The problem or the puzzle can be theoretical, i.e., not necessarily attached to a specific real-life situation but arising from theory or academic literature. In this case, you’ll need to add empirical limits. For instance, you could identify a recurring trend in the literature that doesn’t quite make sense, lacks a clear explanation, and isn't limited to a particular time or place. If you choose this, you’ll need to set empirical boundaries for it.

Alternatively, the problem or the puzzle can be empirical - arising from a real-life situation. It can be something concrete that you want to explain, such as a statistical outlier, historical episode, unique case/ person/ organization, or notorious disaster. In this case, you need to add theoretical material.

Example: A friend of mine from the EUI started her research by investigating how the Soviet Union was able to industrialize in the absence of intellectual property rights, while Russia struggles to re-industrialize despite adopting strong intellectual property rights, which presumably better promote innovation.

How I chose my topic for the Oxford and Harvard applications

I applied to both Oxford (2015) and Harvard (2016) using the same writing sample for both applications, only improved and scaled down for Harvard. It was about the optimal design of a tribunal for adjudicating international crimes.

I don’t remember exactly how I got interested in it. I think several factors contributed. First, I had a general interest in public international law (I participated in the Jessup moot court as a student and later coached a team for Concours Charles-Rousseau), and I understood the field. Second, I like researching questions of institutional design and investigating the interplay between substance and procedure in law.

One of the prominent issue at the time was the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and I had background knowledge about the countries involved, which is was helpful and made my topic choice more credible. This geopolitical environment set the empirical limits for the essay.

From a theoretical perspective, there was ongoing discussion about the possibility of establishing a tribunal to investigate the incident. I was interested in this as part of a larger problem in international law: the absence of a comprehensive mechanism for holding states and state-affiliated groups accountable for their crimes. Most international crimes are investigated by ad hoc tribunals, and establishing new tribunals through the UN mechanism requires a proposal to pass through the UN Security Council (UNSC), where it can be vetoed by the U.S., China, or Russia. This means that many crimes ultimately remain unaccountable. My interest in the theoretical part of this issue led me to propose a solution that bypasses the UNSC, ensuring that there is no selectiveness in what gets investigated and what doesn't.

I was initially concerned that my essay wouldn't align with the rest of my profile, which is largely oriented toward private and private international law. But in the end, it worked out fine, and I'm glad I chose something personally compelling.

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Further steps for writing a legal essay are covered in Part 2.

If you'd like help choosing your topic or want personalized feedback on your essay, please fill out this short form or email me directly.