Combining JD And MBA Degrees Suit Lawyers
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“I would advise virtually every law student to concurrently earn an MBA,” says Julie Hilden. While her own career, with a J.D. from Yale Law School; three years in First Amendment law with one of the nation’s top law firms; and then becoming a successful author, might appear to have little to do with business, she says she would have benefited from business training.
Though it means a fourth year of student loans, Hilden says that is peanuts compared to the career and profession benefits, which she outlines in five reasons to become a JD/MBA.
Reason 1: Law firms, she says, are generally run poorly because no one actually knows much about business.
Few firms, she says, have “the humility” to admit they don’t know something and call on business consultants. In addition, it’s very tricky to be sure they don’t violate attorney-client privilege and other legal ethics when “non-lawyers” are in their firm..
A further result is poor succession planning. Rather than advancing promising attorneys with salary and title increases, most firms are still organized so anyone who doesn’t make partner (guaranteeing you a share in firm profits) within a certain numbers of years probably won’t, so capable people leave for more promising firms. That leads many experienced attorneys to refuse to mentor new lawyers because they may leave the firm, though mentoring is the best way to make them more effective early in their careers.
Reason 2: Lawyers often represent businesses as clients.
“It is a tremendous advantage for attorneys to be able to understand a business perspective. This may be even more true for attorneys who become in-house counsel. Yet many attorneys are former liberal arts majors who never took a business class in college, and initially find the business perspective fairly alien,” Hilden says.
Reason 3: Lawyers aren’t trained in basic business concepts.
Neither law school nor interning (clerking for a lawyer or judge while a student) prepare students for real-world business situations. They graduate well versed in law and how to research and write legal documents, but may be clueless when it comes to business concepts they need to bring or defend lawsuits. Hilden says business training adds knowledge of three key concepts: “risk, return and strategy.”
Reason 4:
Law schools fail to teach global perspectives and creative thinking, both gained in an MBA program.
While business schools often have students from many countries, law students are almost always from the same country, and often the same state or province, because that’s how attorneys are licensed. That handicaps attorneys as businesses become more global, and more oriented toward nimble, rather than traditional thinking.
Reason 5: Business schools do a better job of training people to lead.
Lawyers, she said, are taught to be excellent advisors, but their effectiveness may be hampered if they don’t also demonstrate the kinds of leadership valued in business. They may be at the table, but not in on business decisions that will have major legal consequences down the road.