Law School vs. MBA and Graduate School: The Advantages and Disadvantages Financially and Career Wise

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Date Posted: Jun/25/2007 4:02 PM
Rating: +12

I don't have anything to say about the JD, but I have some thoughts on the MBA. I'm currently finishing up my MBA in the Part-time Program (Professional Program) at SMU in Dallas. Your assumptions are correct, most MBA programs have minimum work experience recquirements for entrance, however the almighty Dollar goes a long way towards eliminating those. Honestly, I would NOT go straight from undergrad to grad school for an MBA. You simply won't get as much out of the program. You won't really bring anything to classroom discussions or be able to relate to the casework, lessons learned, etc. which IMHO is what makes an MBA program beneficial. Additionally, you likely won't be paid on par with others in your program becuase you won't have any work experience. It may get you into a company faster, but you won't be paid what the traditional MBA (say 5 years experience) is, and frankly, you shouldn't be.

Many people flame the Professional MBA programs, however they are becoming the norm as they are the real money makers for the universities. SMU's Professional Program is ranked much higher (Nationally) than the full-time program. It takes the same amount of time (2-years) but allows you to get work experience while you are going to school. Plus, if you're lucky, your company will pick up some or all of the bill.

My advice to you, if you want to go the MBA route is...pick the best part-time MBA program you can get into and get a job with a company in the area that will pay for you to go there. You will probably have to work for a year or so before you can get those benefits. Then you'll have a year of work under your belt, and can go to school while working. At the end of the program you'll have 3 years work experience and an MBA. The salary differential between this and going full time straight out of college and working for 1 year after graduating with an MBA will be significant, likely $20K/year at least, not to mention the student loans you would have taken on.

This is the route I took/am taking. I went back to school after 3 years in the workforce. I have no regrets, and altough it has severely limited my free time, I have made great friendships with my classmates and don't feel that I have missed out on anything.



Date Posted: Jun/25/2007 3:38 PM
Rating: +1

I have a friend of mine who is a Forensic accountant, he has a finance background with his law degree. (I went to law school with him.) He travels quite a bit, but seems relatively happy with his career. He makes good money. This is just one of the many alternative for a legal background without actually practicing law.

However, the moral of the story is, you're never going to make a ton of money working for someone else. In the situations where you make a lot of money working for someone else (i.e. law, accounting) you're going to have a work quite a bit, and thus the relatively poor satisfaction level of most lawyers.

Once again, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

But, ask any lawyer is he'd trade his job for a job at McDonald's making 1/5th or so of the money. My bet is no one would.




Now, to address some of the questions asked by the OP and raised by others in this thread, I've been practicing corporate law (syndicated and bilateral lending, loan workouts, bond financing, leveraged buyouts and commercial real estate development) for a few years and absolutely LOVE it! Just like with any job out there, I have plenty of moments when I want to tear my hair out, quit and move to Whistler to become a ski instructor but at the end of the day I just cannot imagine not being a lawyer.

I started out with a 1,000+ lawyer international firm, then switched to a 20 lawyer boutique and then two years ago, after spending a couple of sleepless nights trying to make the right decision (and then a few more days trying to convince my now wife that my decision was the right one), switched back to another large firm (500 lawyer AM100 firm (the largest in its home state) with 10 offices all over the country). Some of my friends enjoy practicing law just as much as I do and some of them have decided that it's just not for them and have switched or are in the process of switching to other areas.

Lawyers have a tendency to b^tch about our profession and their lives and some truly are miserable, overworked and unhappy (I have a couple of friends like that). Quite a few of us, however, are able to find a nice balance between work and social life and have very few regrets about our chosen career paths or future prospects.

It's fun to work on matters that make the front page of NY Times; it's gratifying to work on intellectually challenging transactions that impact the markets in profound ways and influence the lives of tens of thousands of people; it's incredible to work with and to learn from people at the very top of their respective fields and to see their names on the "best of" lists (we have former state governors, former state and federal judges, authors of the same treatises taught in law schools, etc...); it's humbling to have expert answers to practically any legal question at your fingertips -- we have experts in practically every field. Combine all that with very reasonable hours that allow you to have a normal life and you'll understand at least some of the reasons that many of us absolutely love what we do and can't even fathom doing anything else.

P.S.
I am not the first one to say it, but I do have to admit that law wasn't my first calling. When I was the second person to realize (longwood was the first), however, that the market for gigolos catering exclusively to young, gorgeous women was a bit slow, I thought that law was an acceptable alternative.