The Institute for Law and Finance (ILF) is a graduate school which was established as a non-profit foundation in 2002 by Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. The ILF provides interdisciplinary training to lawyers, senior management and executives in Germany and worldwide and serves as a policy center in the legislative process by offering forums for discussions and exchanges between academia and practitioners.

The ILF offers the LL.M Finance and LL.M International Finance Degree Programs, Spring School on "Corporate Law in Practice" and Summer School on "Law of Banking and Capital Markets".^{[citation needed]}

The executive director of the ILF is ^[when?] Andreas Cahn, Endowment Funds Commerzbank Professorship, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Theodor Baums, Professor of Civil, Corporate & Capital Markets Law, Goethe University Frankfurt and Manfred Wandt, Director, Institute for Insurance Law, Goethe University Frankfurt are ILF directors.^{[citation needed]}

The ILF at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main offers a one-year postgraduate program leading to a LL.M. in Finance (LL.M. Finance) for graduate students with a bachelor's degree in law, business, or economics. The courses are conducted in English language.^{[citation needed]}

About 50 graduates are admitted annually for study. The program is aimed at students with a prior degree in law, business, or economics and who have an interest in combining theoretical knowledge with practical training in law and international finance.^{[citation needed]}

The curriculum is interdisciplinary covering all aspects of international financial law with emphasis on the EU and the United States.^{[citation needed]}

Since 2008, together with the Universities of Deusto, Tilburg, and Strasbourg, the ILF also offers the Erasmus Mundus „Master in Transnational Trade Law and Finance“, a Master's program which has received the approval of the European Union.^[when?]

ILF students are fully enrolled members of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, which confers the LL.M. Finance and LL.M. International Finance degrees.^{[citation needed]}

The LL.M. Finance program incorporates a special four to six weeks' internship with public and private institutions which support the ILF. These institutions typically include leading international law firms, banks, international accounting firms, the European Central Bank, and Deutsche Bundesbank.^{[citation needed]}

The ILF maintains student exchange programs with Columbia Law School,^[1] FGV Direito Rio,^[2] and Amsterdam Business School.^[3]

In October 2014, a new LL.M. International Finance program for graduates holding a first degree in law, business or economics from Asia (especially mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) was launched. The program offers interdisciplinary and practice-oriented training in the areas of international and European banking, securities and finance law to graduates from Asia.^[4]

Every year, the ILF also offers 2-week summer and spring schools. The spring and summer schools are held in the German language.^{[citation needed]}

The ILF faculty consists of both academics as well as practitioners from Europe's financial world, international law firms and the European Central Bank, the Deutsche Bundesbank (German Central Bank) and BaFin (German Financial Supervisory Authority).^{[citation needed]}

The governing boards of the ILF are the executive board, Board of Trustees, Academic Advisory Board and the Donors´Committee.

• Prof. Dr. Andreas Cahn, Endowment Funds Commerzbank Professorship, executive director of the ILF, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• Prof. Dr. Manfred Wandt, Director, Institute for Insurance Law, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

• Mr. Antonio Sainz de Vicuna, former General Counsel, European Central Bank
• Mr. Hans Eichel, former Federal Minister of Finance
• Prof. Dr. Bernd Fahrholz, Honorary Senator, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Gasteyer, Of Counsel, Clifford Chance
• Dr. Hendrik Haag, Partner, Hengeler Mueller (chairman)
• Mr. Felix Hufeld, President, Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin)
• Prof. Dr. Jan-P. Krahnen, Professor at the Department of Business & Economics, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• Mr. Hermann-Josef Lamberti, former Member of the Board of Managing Directors, Deutsche Bank
• Mr. Fausto Parente, executive director, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority
• Dr. Thomas Schäfer, Minister of Finance, State of Hesse
• Prof. Dr. Rudolf Steinberg, former president, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main
• Mr. Carl-Ludwig Thiele, Member of the Executive Board Deutsche Bundesbank
• Mr. Karlheinz Weimar, former Minister of Finance, State of Hesse
• Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, President, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main
• Prof. Dr. Chiara Zilioli, General Counsel, European Central Bank

• Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank (ECB) (chairman)
• Professor Guido Ferrarini, Professor of Law, University of Genoa
• Professor Julian Franks, Professor of Finance, London Business School, Academic Director of London Business School’s Centre for Corporate Governance
• Professor Ronald Gilson, Professor of Law and Business, Columbia Law School and Stanford Law School
• Professor Karel van Hulle, Head of Unit Insurance and Pensions Financial Institutions, Internal Market Directorate-General, European Commission.

The ILF is located in the House of Finance at Campus Westend of the Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main.