As the title suggests, which career path would you choose? Both career paths pay well and are equally interesting; however, I was wondering which path would allow me to grow (career-wise) the most/fastest in the long run. Ultimately, I would like to be a Partner if I enter corporate law or an MD if going into IB.
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I think you're asking the wrong website
If you choose banking you can start at the analyst level immediately after undergrad. If you go the law route, you have 3 years of paying T14 law school fees on top of your undergrad debt before making less than you would as an Ib associate (which you'd get the promotion for from analyst after 2-3 years). If it's solely about money then banking is best.
Unless it's Harvard or Yale Law there's no other reason apart from your passion of becoming a lawyer to choose that over IB
Why do you think plenty of lawyers transition to banking but not the other way around?
Well yes, but a banker can always go to law school and become a lawyer. For so many lawyers to switch over to banking (making their three years of law school and three years of tuition paying essentially useless) is very telling.
one thing to keep in mind is that the percentage of associates that make equity partner in big law is very small. if you go to a T14, you'll mostly likely do a 3-5 year stint in big law corporate and then move in-house, but I'm sure there are exceptions
I was torn between the two for a while for the same reasons you listed and decided on banking for two reasons:
It's very likely that I'll do banking FT after undergrad, but I'm still probably gonna sit for the LSAT after my SA stint to keep that door open.
Oh, I never thought about recruiting for law after a few years out of undergrad. I always assumed I would have to do it right after senior year. I might gun for IB then since it leaves the most doors open.
My 2 cents is that you could do both. Assuming you do well on the LSAT and get it out of the way, it will be valid for 5 years. If you are truly interested in both, starting in IB seems like a good way to:
1) Gain some meaningful experience and make your profile more attractive 2) save up some money to pay for law school 3) enjoy the combined exit opps of law and IB after you graduate.
In any case, it would be much better to do IB first and not like it rather than eating a $200k JD + 3 years opportunity cost and not like it.
I think @paulevansloafers is spot on.
If you grind it out in IB for two years and then go to law school, you’ll be setting yourself up for tremendous success down the road. You’ll see more in two years of IB than most college grads see in 5 years of working.
Plus, you’ll be exposed to real world legal concepts working on transactions that will enhance your learning experience in law school.
Moreover, the IB experience will impregnate you with commercial and financial knowledge that will allow you to run circles around law school classmates.
Taken together with the money you’ll make, I think this is a tremendous way to start your career and then transition to the legal field. Even if after law school you want to go back to the business world, the analyst to JD path would be more valuable than even a JD/MBA without work experience
I made this decision last year and since I'm currently sitting in a law class very bored typing this post and not crushing #modelsandbottles, you can figure out which path I choose. Also on mobile rn so sorry about formatting. I have a couple critical points based on my own experience that I think you should consider:
1) Can you actually get in to a T14 school?
Based on your post, I hope you already took the LSAT or have at least practiced a lot (10+ practice tests) and have a tight score range. If your goal is BigLaw and you are going to debt finance law school, DO NOT GO IF YOU CANT GET IN TO A T14. I don't care how smart you think you are. The LSAT is a monster and it is the controlling factor for admissions. If you have a 3.6+ GPA and a 167+ LSAT, continue reading. If not, go IB.
2) Do you want to be a lawyer?
Law school is a depressing, soul-sucking place. I cannot emphasize this enough. You are consciously choosing to hate your life for the first year, and then be bored as hell for two more. If you aren't committed for the long haul, you're gonna have a bad time.
3) You can always do both.
Plenty of people at my school (BigLaw "target" school) worked in IB for a couple years and then came to law school. The finance experience is highly valued by firms and will probably be enough to land you a BigLaw offer regardless of your grades. The extra money in savings will be very nice for your lifestyle, but consider if you will still be gung-ho for 3 more years of school, 2 years from now.
4) Which one will get you laid more?
Law school is not the same as undergrad, but you're still at college, and that's pretty tight.
For me, I knew my personal skill set would make me more valuable as a lawyer so it was a pretty easy call. Also, a guaranteed $200k payday in your early-to-mid twenties helps despite the intense debt load. General consensus at my school is that the debt will take care of itself after a few years.
Happy to offer any more insight based on my experiences. Good luck with your decision!
Would a T6 Law School add value to a long-term banking career?
I think most people would tell you that it can be a value-add in some cases, but that the finance skills are vastly more important.
If you want to go into a specific area that is very legal intensive (Rx/levfin/M&A with antitrust implications) the JD will probably be seen as more useful.
Also, consider how a T6 law degree looks on your resume. People look at you differently if you tell them you went to Yale Law School, but be prepared to explain why you did it if your goal was banking the whole time.
Thanks for the insight. I definitely have the GPA requirement and am around the 168 mark on the LSAT in my recent practice exams. Is Law School really that depressing? Also, if I go IB, it's going to be restructuring; hence the reason why I'm debating Law School or IB.
Good for you. I start all advice that I give to anyone about law school with a caveat about T14 because otherwise I just don't see how anyone can justify spending $200k to go to Podunk University School of Law.
Obviously everyone's experience is different. For me, I found that people were generally more interested in the daily reading assignments than in even bothering to learn your name. I think its ubiquitous at top schools that there is a constant sense that no matter how hard you are working, it is not hard enough. You go all semester just to take one final exam at the end that completely decides your grade. There is very little reward and very little external motivation besides the existential dread that sets in when you start to fall behind. Combine that with the fact that I will be saddled to my firm and for at least the next 3 years post-gra and it is a decidedly bleak experience.
Without any practical experience, I can only tell you why I made my choice. What ultimately made my decision was the trajectory that m law school placed me on vs. what my specific IB offer would have gotten me. My goal is to make a sh*tload of money and I knew I was more likely to achieve that by going to law school based on my personal circumstances. I am better with words and synthesizing/analyzing information from large legal documents. Maybe you are better with numbers and can articulate your position more clearly with a spreadsheet than a legal argument? (No doubt this is a crude comparison of the two roles!) Sounds like you have similar goals so my advice is to try figuring out which one you think you'd be better at, and go from there.
Law school isn't depressing, it's pretty fun actually. But that's part of the problem. The job is often pretty lame, and that gets masked by the fact that law school itself isn't bad at all. So college kids get a positive impression of law school and make the mistake of committing their life to the wrong career.
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