Hey. I am an economics undergraduate and I am looking into jobs and postgraduate studies. I have currently been looking into integrating law into my studies through a masters program which integrates law and business. The final aim of this would be to join a company as a well rounded employee being able to manage generally and financially with a good general of law (which today governs such a big part of all business).
Basically, I would like to have some feedback regarding the feasibility of this idea and whether I would gain anything from doing a masters in law in context of business and management.
There are quite a few US universities that offer joint degree programs, such as a law degree and a business degree. You’re probably looking at 4 or more years of graduate school, and professional degree programs are usually pretty costly with not a lot of financial aid available.
So, the option to do the two degrees is definitely there. But considering the expense involved, you would be wise to be very clear on why you want to engage in both these fields. To be a “well rounded” employee is a kind of vague reason to embark on those studies.
It is often helpful to get a couple years of work experience to have a clearer idea of what kind of work is truly rewarding to a person. Maybe you could develop a more focused interest in why studying law and business would be the right course for you.
I don’t see a point in being “well rounded” in law unless you plan to be a lawyer. And most companies won’t hire you to manage anything right out of undergrad or even grad school without work experience.
I am inclined to agree; unless you have a specific role in mind that you are targeting and that a JD/MBA positions you for better, it doesn’t enhance your “golden ticket” status.
btw, I am a senior executive at a small company with a tech undergrad, MBA and years in mgmt consulting - I’ve been through this…
I should have mentioned before. I did litigation technology and strategy consulting for a number of years with management consulting firms and Fortune 500 financial services companies. My background is MBA and technology. When I describe what I used to do it sort of sounds exciting. Like a cross between law enforcement, finance and secret agent shit (and actually many people do come from those backgrounds). In reality it combines the worst part of accounting, system adminstration and working for lawyers.
Anyhow, there is certainly a need and a demand for people who integrate law, business and technology. But really the value of having a JD in that field is being able to say you are a “lawyer” in order to add credibility. Just having the degree by itself may be somewhat useful, but you would still sort of seem like “not quite an attorney”.
But MBAs rarely “manage” anything right out of B-school unless they either work in a more blue-collar field or already have significant work experience. Usually you start off as an “associate” in some consulting firm or investment bank or maybe a Fortune 500 company’s management training rotation program if you are lucky.
My friends who actually possess a JD/MBA all said the “law” classes given through the business school side were pretty laughable.
You can study to become an attorney, but claiming any expertise in the law after taking a few classes intended for non-lawyers is a case of a “little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
I took Physics & Cosmology in college but I’m not exactly calling up NASA to tell them to let me head up the space program.
Business law classes are more or less designed to make you aware of relevant laws. They are not designed to teach you to think like a lawyer. Which is to say that when the normal layperson gets caught doing something they weren’t supposed to, they will generally plead from a position of ignorance (“I didn’t know I couldn’t do that”), emotional appeal (“it’s not fair that I can’t do that”) or extenuating circumstances (“here’s why I think I can do that”). None of these arguments hold up in a court of law. Lawyers are taught to think and argue from a position of rules, procedures and precedent (“I should be able to do that because according to Bylaw 24j blah blah blah furthermore you let Steve doing, clearly setting a precendent.”)
Laypeople often find these sort of reasoning pedantic and nitpicky, but that’s what practicing law is.
I’ll give you a kind of silly real world example. In college, my fraternity was pulled in front of the student IFC judiciary committee (think the scene in Animal House) because the campus security walked in on us playing beer pong in the middle of the day. Beer games are against campus rules.
As a house officer and being of legal age, I basically argued that “the officer misinterpreted what he saw. Several of the older (21 yr+) boys were celebrating the end of finals in our common room with a few beers (legal). We also sometimes play ping pong in that room, hence the tables and ping pong balls. Well, a couple of the guys got a bit rambunctious and started throwing stuff. It’s entirely possible the officer saw someone happening to throw a ping pong ball and the ball happened to land in someone’s beer cup and thought it was some sort of game.”
Now of course it was absurd. Everyone in the room knew I was full of shit and that we were fully playing Beruit. Mostly because they aren’t idiots. But they let us off with a warning because it sounded reasonable.
Thanks for the tip about what studying law is like; I’m a licensed attorney.
The problem is, when you tell people “these are the relevant laws” you’re basically lying because the law changes daily. You’re making them think they know a hell of a lot more than they actually do, and that what they know is a hell of a lot more unchanging than it actually is. And without also being trained as lawyers at the same time (as in a JD/MBA program) they have no idea how far off base they are.
You’re basically agreeing with **msmith **in this case, AFAICT - someone who gets an JD/MBA/MD/MPH type of joint degree is a “jack of all trades, master of none” and remains without the actual, on-the-ground experience required to appreciate, let alone master, the practical craft of the profession.
Yes, I was agreeing with you. My post was directed more towards the rest of the class. And as I said, it’s important to be aware that there are things like IP laws and other laws related to business so you know when you may need to consult with an attorney.
Although such a degree comes in handy if you want to create an account on Match.com as Dr_HedgefundMillionare_esq.
