JD to Finance: how did you decide on that career path?
Looking for some advice here.
I just finished up undergrad with a liberal arts degree and business minor. I’ve been accepted to a great law school with a massive scholarship, so I’ll be going there in the fall. I’ve always thought that law would be for sure the way to go, and there’s a lot that I like about the idea of being a lawyer, but I’ve taken an interest in finance through my business minor. Specifically, I like the idea of being able to see the inner workings of a business and attempt to solve problems there, and I like how finance seemingly offers a good mix of abstract thinking/verbal skills and analytical/quantitative skills. I did several pre-law internships, albeit not in the exact field I would hope to go into (bankruptcy and restructuring), and I was pretty lukewarm about what the people above me were doing on a day-to-day basis.
My question is: for people who went from law school/practicing law to finance (or people who thought about it but decided against it), what made you decide to make the switch? Are there any resources/experiences I should look into to see if finance would be a good fit aside from internships/work experience (which seems impractical at this point given that I don’t have anything lined up for the summer and law students are expected to work in law firms the summer after 1&2L years)?
There’s still a huge part of me that wants to be a lawyer, so it’s not like I’ve just had a total change of heart — I just want to look into this career path a little bit more. If I had to decide today, I would go work in bankruptcy/restructuring, where I would definitely have more exposure to finance than most other practice areas, and see if I still have the finance bug after a few years of work experience. However, I would also love the opportunity to start making that decision a bit sooner.
Thanks in advance.
Do you know Bernie trump IRL?
Thanks for the link; I read through the OP and some of the replies (BernieTrump took the majority of the replies down). From the way he described it, corporate law sounds absolutely miserable. My questions are:
Don't go to law school unless you have a burning desire to be a politician.
I worked in BB IB, then went to Harvard Law, only to go back to IB.
Law school was a miserable 3 years for me, and if it wasn't for the Harvard degree I got at the end of it, I would have regretted it.
I don't know what "great law school" you've got the scholarship to, but unless it's Harvard, Yale or Stanford, don't go.
Take advantage of this current hot economy and job-hop your way to your ideal position.
It’s another top 14
The opportunity cost of law school cannot be understated. Even if you have a full ride, you’re missing out on 3 years of income. A lot of people think big law is the answer, that they’ll make $200k and who cares if they hate the job. But my understanding is that most only get a couple years in big law before they are forced out, very few get to stay and climb the ladder to partner. Now I’m not saying you won’t land in a decent paying job after that, but a lot of people end up taking a significant pay cut at that point.
Sure, money isn’t everything. But only a select few lawyers actually enjoy being lawyers and when you talk to them, they’ll be happy to tell you that. My point with the above is that there are better ways to make a living, and if you’re already having doubts about law enough to consider finance, you should seriously consider if law school is the right move
Thanks for the response. I wouldn’t phrase it as having doubts about law school, more so just picking up an interest in finance and considering it as an alternate career path in case the legal market is weird and/or I hate law. From what I understand, going from big law > finance is fairly common, but almost nobody goes from finance > law unless they went to law school after a few years in finance.
I’m under no illusion that big law will be fun, but there’s still a lot that I like about the idea of being a lawyer. I’ve had a pretty much lifelong interest in it, and I think it matches my skill set super well (strongest in verbal areas like reading, writing, speaking etc). I’ve loved the law classes that I’ve taken at the undergrad level due to the way of approaching problems they require and the subject matter itself.
Oh and re: the opportunity cost — I’m not sure what, if any, career opportunities I would be giving up in at least 1, possibly 2 of the 3 years in law school. I have a liberal arts degree that’s fairly useless if you don’t plan on going to law school, and I’m not sure how far a business minor would carry. I would have to do a lot of work to figure out how to pitch myself for any sort of finance role. Not to mention I’m still trying to figure out if I could even see myself in one of these positions, as most of my exposure has just been through class/professors, talking to friends in that area, and doing some outside reading
It really depends on your ability to network and the alumni from your undergrad. You are a little late to the party at this point given the way finance operates.
T14 on a significant scholarship as you say is certainly not as bad as the people who go to a t100 and finance everything. Debt is the biggest consideration with law school in my opinion. If you can keep that low, you’ll have the freedom to choose jobs you’ll enjoy, or pivot elsewhere in your career. The ones who go $300k in debt are screwed if they can’t hold a biglaw job long enough to pay it back.
Best of luck with your future.
Look, I don't want to pile on, but I kind of need to. For background, I attended a T6, interned in big law after 2L, managed to sneak my way into an associate program at a BB doing recruiting during 3L. The climb was steep, and I only got one offer.
I actually liked law school a lot. The classes were interesting (especially once you got to choose the ones you took), and I happened to make a lot of close friends. But being a big law lawyer just. sucks. That TLS thread linked to above is 100% accurate. I graduated law school almost a decade ago, and am at the point where people in my graduating class are making partner now. The ones that are still working in big law (that I am friends with) are doing it because they don't know what else to do. Not a single one actually enjoys the job.
If your actual goal is to get into finance, you are much better off passing on law school, getting some other sort of corporate experience, and going for your MBA in three years. THAT SAID, it is not impossible to get into finance out of law. It is not common, but it is not impossible. I have several friends that started their career in bankruptcy, and then were successfully able to shift to special situations / distressed credit hedge fund roles. Even then, they often had to initially join in a more legal capacity and then fight their way onto the investment team.
Occasionally banks will hire corporate M&A lawyers into their banking programs, but frankly, it's more likely to get a banking job by recruiting during the law school process. Some BBs are starting to have actual recruitment teams focused on law schools (but it is more opportunistic, and many years they will make zero hires through those programs).
Long story short, you can go to law school and break into finance, but it is the winding path and there are better alternatives.
Thanks for the response. This is definitely very informative. Did you have an undergrad background in finance, or did you have to learn it on the fly?
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