The aim is to combine international experience and cultural familiarity with rigorous and directed legal training to cultivate critical skills needed to practice in the global legal environment of the 21st century.

The GLS program is small and selective, admitting approximately 20 students each year. Applications are made at the same time as (but separately from) applications for admission to the J.D. program. Applicants must demonstrate proficiency in a second language as well as English. GLS participants pursue a specialized curriculum of seven courses to satisfy program requirements. Two of these courses have been created for, and are restricted to GLS students: a first-year seminar designed to introduce participants to different career pathways through faculty and visitor presentations, and a second-year seminar focused on specialized skills sets (such as international legal research, comparative legal analysis, and international negotiations). As part of the latter, GLS students work on a major research, writing, and advocacy project on an international legal topic of their choosing.

GLS students are also encouraged to take advantage of the many opportunities Georgetown Law offers for broadening and deepening their knowledge and perspectives. These opportunities include summer internships abroad after their first year and externships during their second year, as well as enrollment in the London-based Center for Transnational Legal Studies or participation in the Semester Abroad program. The GLS Program is co-directed by Profs. David P. Stewart and Mary DeRosa.

​Of the 23 who graduated in the spring of 2022, one was summa cum laude, three were magna cum laude and seven were cum laude. One received the Dean’s Certificate, four were recipients of the Order of the Coif, nine were pro-bono pledge honorees, one received the Georgetown Law Journal Meritorious Service Award and another received the Westin Scholar Book Award. Half of the graduating class went to private firms, many in New York and D.C. Many chose to work in government or the public sector, from the Washington State Office of the Attorney General to the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). One was awarded the RFK Human Rights Pinto Fellowship, while another was awarded a Fellowship at the DC Affordable Law Firm. Several secured clerkships at the district and circuit court levels, from U.S. District Courts in Miami to the Fifth Circuit in Jackson, Mississippi.