ADVANCES
Bankruptcy LL.M. Alumni Thrive as Judicial Law Clerks and Practitioners This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Bankruptcy LL.M. program at St. John’s Law. In those two decades, it has built a reputation as the nation’s preeminent Master of Laws program devoted to bankruptcy and restructuring. As they pursue their degree full time and part time, St. John’s Bankruptcy LL.M. students gain the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to be leaders in the field. Like many current and past Bankruptcy LL.M. students, Jennifer Schein ’21LL.M. handled some bankruptcy matters as a lawyer before starting at St. John’s. She was drawn to the “fastpaced, intricate, collaborative, and diverse” practice area and wanted to accrue more extensive, specialized knowledge. “I saw how cases handled in bankruptcy affect our everyday lives—from what we eat and how we get to work to how we treat our environment and what we do on the weekends,” Schein says. “Bankruptcy provides relief to individuals, as well as large corporations and municipalities, based on the
24 l ST. JOHN’S LAW MAGAZINE
wide variety of cases at the intersection of federal law, state law, and the code.” Less than a year into her LL.M. studies, with the support of St. John’s faculty and administrators, Schein earned and began a judicial clerkship with Hon. Lisa Beckerman in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. “Judge Beckerman has been a leading practitioner, and I feel incredibly honored to be one of her first law clerks as she takes the bench,” Schein shares. “I’ve already learned so much through my clerkship, and I have no doubt
that I’ll grow my knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of the Court that will have an immeasurable effect on my career in the future.” As she looks to that future, Schein finds inspiration in the career of Kristin Going ’02LL.M., a partner at McDermott Will & Emery LLP who co-teaches Schein’s Business Bankruptcy Reorganizations class as an adjunct professor at St. John’s Law. Among the first Bankruptcy LL.M. students, Going was a few years out of law school and practicing at a creditor’s rights boutique when she realized that she wanted to
