Yes I know there have been threads about this and I will sound pretentious but hear me out.
I will be at an FT EB this year come graduation but I have been accepted for HYS law. I would defer my enrollment for 1-2 years, finish my EB then go to law school after 1-2 years
I know the biggest problem with law school is the $$$ but fortunately my parents will fund most of law school bill so I would be graduating law school with pretty much $0 of debt. On top of that coming out of HYS I know I'll probably easily secure a biglaw gig. I personally think the prestige of having the HYS name will do me good in the long run and with a recession (probably) coming in 2019/2020 seems like a good time to be in a graduate program to "weather the storm". On top of that with M&A + legal experience I think 5-10 years down the line I'll have a lot of opportunities and flexibility with my job.
But theres a part of me that thinks its foolish to spend 3 years missing out on making $$$ while going back afterwards to pretty much make less money had a not left IB to begin with or moved to PE. So you who have gone through law school or you know people that have gone through law school, please talk me out of it.
Ultimately I will go through my analyst stint and see how I feel about finance then decide but wanted to hear some opinion.
Just do what you want.
“Talk me out of going to law school”
NO.
If anyone on this board cares that much about your fortune, that’s some pretty weird shit.
Nice humblebrag though. Tell mommy and daddy we all say hi.
His account name is thecoolkid1234 lmao that’s even more pathetic than mine
Just my two cents, but I would plan on taking the law opportunity. I don’t work in IB, but I got a non-finance grad degree from HYS and it has opened many doors for me I didn’t even know were there (at least in NYC). A JD would be even more powerful.
Since you’re already admitted and tuition is a non-issue, it’s a no-brainer.
Be an adult and make your own life choice.
HYS does not guarantee a Big Law job. Even if you got the job it doesn't mean you'd survive it, let alone thrive in it. You need to do it because you actually like the law or want to be a lawyer. If you don't like the law, school will be a never ending nightmare.
Hated law school and hated being a lawyer even more.
Having said that, if you're going to a top school like HYS, after your analyst years at an EB, without any monetary cost to you, I would 100% do it.
Everyone thinks there's one path to success these days. Target school --> 2 years in IB --> PE --> Top MBA --> ??? --> Profit. Don't underestimate the power of having a background or skill set that differentiates you from your peers, especially in an increasingly homogenous industry like finance. Even after 3 years of law school and an internship or two over your summers, you'll know infinitely more about the law than the average person.
On the law side of the equation, law school tends to attract wimpy academic-types with little-to-no business acumen, minimal work experience and a pronounced sense of entitlement. If you go, love it and decide to be a lawyer, you'll have found your passion and have no issues landing a job at a top firm with your background. When you get to a firm, your work experience in a similarly intense advisory job will set you apart and make you a star. Not to mention the fact that you'll actually understand the business points of the job, which confound even many of the most successful lawyers. You'll have no trouble becoming a rainmaker.
On the flip side, if you decide it isn't for you, you have those two years of investment banking to fall back on. You'll have absolutely no issue getting back into that world as an associate, now equipped with three years of rest and perspective as well as a new weapon at your disposal. Senior bankers may not always respect lawyers, but a lot of them are fascinated by the law and impressed with someone who can dig into a statute and pull out an answer to a client's question.
And if you decide neither are for you? You'll have three years to really figure out what you want to do while getting an amazing education at one of the best schools in the world, surrounded by some absolutely brilliant minds.
The bottom line is that in your situation, the only cost is opportunity. Life is short. There's tons of time to make money. Combining a law degree from a top school with 2 years of investment banking experience will be a deadly combination and may even help you confirm what you want to do with your life.
The incoming associate class at my firm has a lot of JDs in restructuring, FIG and mining (not entirely sure why JDs flock to the last one). About ~30% of restructuring were JD & MBA grads. If you like banking, a law degree is a nice distinction even if you want to do coverage or M&A (highest value is in restructuring just from my observations).
I think you should reneg on the FT offer, decline your acceptances into law school, and live off of your parents money.
You would probably want to do some sort of grad school later anyways (MBA?) so the point about missing the opp to make $$$ is pretty irrelevant. MBA is 1 year shorter but who cares.
The only factor you should consider is whether you want to do law (in 3 years) or M&A, which, unfortunately, no one on this board could answer for you.
Do it. Having excellent working knowledge on the legal end of things is incredibly practical and makes just about anything you do moving forward much faster.
Thought about law school, but didn't go. Have some close friends that did go that route. In my opinion, if you're into law school already you have a sense of the curriculum and what its going to be like. My feeling is that being a lawyers has a nice distinction to it (more than banking and less than being a doctor) and saying you graduated from HYS law give you a leg up in terms of immediate prestige and intellectual presence. If you think the classes and the grinding away reading and studying will be interesting to you, then you should go for it.
With that being said what deterred me was 1. Law school is a huge grind. The first two years are brutal and unless you're really smart, you're going to have to study a bunch, just like everyone else. Personally, spending hours reading that text just wasn't appealing to me and I know I'd end up struggling due to lack of interest.
From a financial perspective it makes no sense. 3 years of tuition (even if you don't pay it) for a job that pays high 100k in salary with a small bonus? First year analysts make more than that. An 8th/9th year attorney will make ~$350k all-in at the highest paying firms. A first/second year associate in banking could pull that. Plus in my opinion the earning potential generally lower than banking/PE. Not that the decision is entirely based on money, but the trajectory is just worse in my opinion.
It's a much more rigid hierarchy to make it to the top. I think the path is well traveled to become a partner, perhaps even more so than banking (and for sure more than PE/HF), but you're going to have to grind away for 10+ years to get there
Frankly I just find the work much less interesting than banking. I work in PE now and I feel bad for the M&A attorneys we work with on deals(This point is somewhat limited to Corporate law, but I'd imagine the sentiment carries). Basically they're client facing so they have to do whatever we want whenever we want and they need to be extremely detail oriented and good at interpreting our random thoughts and musings into actual law. They need to read, draft, reread, redraft giant legal docs all day and night and the worst part to me, is that there's no real reward for being an amazing lawyer.
Now I'm sure this isn't' true in all cases, but at the end of the deal, we're never rewarding the attorney for an amazingly executed APA or amazing legal work that made the deal work for us. We're just assuming that they did their work, brought up the relevant items we needed to be aware of, and have drafted a doc based on our guidance that protects us from any and all downside risk. Anything less is a failure. Anything more is just assumed that they're doing their job.
Anyways, that's my rant. I can't make the decision for you, but you can't really go wrong either way. If money doesn't matter to you and you really like law go for it. For me, I romanticize that it would be nice to have my JD, but in reality I'd rather be in banking/finance.
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