Advice on Deferring Law School for Consulting for Industry Experience
I'm a Stanford first-year planning on pursuing international law (interested in international security, cybersecurity, etc.) My ultimate goal is to get into a junior-year defer program at HLS or CLS and do defense and security consulting in my gap years, since my mentors at school have all recommended a couple of years in industry before going to law school. My plan is to do ecs and internships related to law/non-profit/international affairs, but my worry is that without consulting internships I won't be able to get a job in consulting.
But, my focus is on getting into a top tier law school because of international law's extreme barriers to entry.
Does anyone have advice?
To add more context: my thought process behind defense consulting was that I'd get more out of law school with professional experience, but it really isn't my dream job so l'm not willing to sacrifice a summer doing a consulting internship when I could be building my resume for law school. It is, however, something I think would be a beneficial to have if/when I wanted to stop practicing law and transition into international security.
One of my mentors from boarding school has pretty much the same interests that you’re describing. He went to Georgetown and did the 2 year HLS deferral program and worked in defense consulting.
Here’s what I know about his path / the ILaw / defense space:
Law school admissions cares primarily about your academic performance and potential so you should maximize your GPA, while taking really hard classes (they won’t be impressed if you took easy classes just to juice your GPA), and get the highest LSAT score possible. After that, everything else is pretty much gravy.
As far as international law and defense branding before law school, rather than focusing on MBB for “pResTiGe” it probably makes more sense to look into the DC market for defense boutique consulting firms / defense focused Ibanks / other DOD opportunities as that’s where the industry obviously has the most presence.
Also, that is where the top international law firms are located (white and case, Skadden, etc.). They obviously have offices in NYC but DC is where these international business law / general international law practices are located.
Last note is that while Stanford will obviously open doors, these types of firms / organizations are dominated by DC undergrad / law schools so you should have an answer prepared for “why Stanford” besides the reason that it is an absolutely amazing university. Or just make really good friends with these people.
Best of luck!
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To my knowledge (was a banker not consultant), MBB hires analysts as generalists, while boutiques are usually specialized by nature of being a boutique.
Also — Jl12 hit the nail on the head: would make more sense to focus on being where the action is rather than being narrowly focused on a particular brand name.
From being in the position of recruiting and interviewing candidates (as a banker), there’s a significant degree of luck that goes into these processes so better to focus on being in the location where there are the most opportunities for your interests to increase your chances of landing a relevant job.
But knowing that you are a first year and focused on prestige makes sense as this is common for first year students.
Would also approach your search with humility. I am a Stanford alum and am very aware of the power of the brand so no need to “sell” Stanford’s name. I don’t find it compelling that GT, GW, American U, Catholic U have trouble getting into the UN as these schools are highly specialized in the international affairs space. Just have a logical and humble story crafted for interviews.
PM me if you’d like any resume templates or to connect you with people.
Went to high school in MD and know a ton of people in the international affairs space.
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For reference, I graduated law school yesterday and am working in corp dev now. I did intern in undergrad at what is now one of the 100 largest defense contractors in the world in CD.
(1) What do you think building your law school resume means? Having a defense contractor or some defense consulting role for a summer internship isn’t going to hurt you. What do you think you will be doing instead? And yeah. You will probably need some type of consulting internship (or something similar) to get a solid consulting job out of school. It isn’t impossible to get a job like that without such experience but it is much harder.
Likewise, the admissions primarily care about GPA, LSAT, where you went to school, and if you have any experiences the school can brag about. The specific work experience you get isn’t that important so long as you have a worthwhile story explaining it. And if you can’t spin any work experience into sounding relevant for what you are trying to go to law school for then that could indicate a bigger question that should be asked.
(2) If you are really trying to be a hardo to maximize you chances of doing international law, try to be something like a Fulbright Scholar. But even then, you are grossly overthinking it. It is so much more about where you go to law school (mainly for who recruits there) and how well you do in law school in terms of what you need to do to get an international law job. Your previous work experience or whatever you do before law school won’t really matter unless it is something the law firm can brag about on their website (ie - being a Fulbright Scholar, being a former congressperson, being a retired NFL athlete, etc). If you get into a top law school you will be just fine for getting a job in international law. Unless there is some very specific thing within international law that you want to do, international law is a big playground. Getting into any T-14 will provide you with enough doors.
(3) In terms of experience, like what the previous commenter said, DC is the place to be. Don’t focus as much on the “prestigious name” as being in the right place. If you want to set yourself up to be successful, be where the action is. The action is centered in DC. There are other places you can be but that’s where you can make the most of your pre law school experience.
This also applies to law schools. A school like Georgetown will be much more useful to you than Stanford or Northwestern.
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