Selecting the right job for law school

Guys, I am looking for sincere advice about my career. This is very specific post so it may not help many other people but I would really appreicate your thoughts.

For my full-time I would like to look at two things: (1) whether I like the job (2) whether it will help me to get into good law school (possible JD/MBA).

I am planning to work for 2 years and go to law school for JD or JD/MBA. Then with few years experience in M&A practice I want to come back to banking for M&A or restructuring.

Out of following options, (1) MS Finance (2) CT Capital Markets (3) MM IB (Oppenheimer, Duff & Phelps). What would be the right choice for me to satisfy both criteria?

Thank you

 

MM IB, A year ago I was contemplating law. Spoke to a guy at Watchtell/Sullivan & Cromwell/ Cravath, who is an associate that participates in the interview process. His words: "most of the pre law work experience interviewees come in with are basic jobs, what we really look for is class rank, law review etc; however if the person did something like investment banking prior to law school, that's gonna grab my attention"

Disclamer: The jump from law to IB is quite rare, it only happens amongst the top M&A firms like Skadden, S&C, Cravath. It usually comes about as a result of networking, and experience; usually about 4/5th year of an associates tenure. However in this current market its gonna happen less because the experienced hire pool is so large. If you want IB, do IB !

 
Peter_27:
If you want IB, do IB !

Thats all you need to know. The best way to IB is IB...

Frank Sinatra - "Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy."
 

Doing this does not make much sense. If you want to be a lawyer, go to law school immediately (or work for a year or two as a paralegal).

If you want to be a banker, work in M&A. Maybe do a MBA to rebrand. But Finance > JD > law > finance just seems needlessly complex. Why do you want to do this? There are easier ways to get into restructuring.

 
Cruncharoo:
Unless you want to be Bond Counsel or something then I doubt you need law school. Bond Counsel definitely gets paid though, I'll tell you that for sure

also some of the least interesting people I know. tax accountants included.

 
monkeyc:
Cruncharoo:
Unless you want to be Bond Counsel or something then I doubt you need law school. Bond Counsel definitely gets paid though, I'll tell you that for sure

also some of the least interesting people I know. tax accountants included.

I don't disagree with that at all

This to all my hatin' folks seeing me getting guac right now..
 
Best Response

I would agree - "if you want IB, go IB" - but it's never that simple. A close friend of mine knew he wanted to become a lawyer before he started as an Analyst. He just didn't want to go straight to three more years of school, and figured that spending a few years learning how to work hard, learn something about, and make some money wasn't a terrible idea.

On the topic of Law to Investment Banking lateraling, I echo the point about top firms presenting the "best" opportunity, and the reality of such moves being fairly rare.

That said, for some reason or another, I've encountered a ton of JDs in securitization groups. Not sure why, but I wouldn't have expected it.

"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
 

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