The J.D./M.B.A. Degree

Law School Podcaster and MBA Podcaster Team Up To Take A Closer Look At This Popular Joint Program: The JD/MBA Degree

With rising graduate school tuition costs, and an uncertain job market, there’s a lot of interest in joint J.D./M.B.A programs. More schools each year offer more options for pursuing the dual degree. So, Law School Podcaster and MBA Podcaster teamed up to bring you an entire show devoted to J.D./M.B.A. programs – “Deciding Whether To Pursue a J.D. and an M.B.A.: When It Makes Sense To Go ‘Two-for-One.’” In this segment, we take a close look at everything from the different types of programs, to the appeal of such programs, to what types of career opportunities are out there for those holding the joint degree.

Host Althea Legaspi gets things started by looking at how different schools might handle the application and admission process. She spoke with David E. Van Zandt, Dean of Northwestern University School of Law, who created the first three-year joint J.D./M.B.A. program in the nation. He outlined the application process at Northwestern Law and The Kellogg School of Management. “Ours is unique in that it’s a ‘fully integrated 3 year program,’ in which the student gets both the J.D. degree, which qualifies them to sit for the bar in any state in the country and an M.B.A. from Kellogg. It’s integrated in the sense there is a single application separate from either the M.B.A. or J.D. application, and you don’t have to get accepted by both schools, you just have to get accepted into the program. We accept the GMAT, and you are required to give us the GMAT score; you are not required to give us the LSAT. We also do financial aid on a ‘fully integrated’ basis, which means that ‘if you get a financial aid award, it is from the program itself.’”

The University of Pennsylvania Law School and The Wharton School also launched a 3 year condensed J.D./M.B.A. program in the Fall of 2009, in addition to the 4 year joint program previously offered. The new accelerated J.D./M.B.A. program is seven semesters squeezed into three years, including one summer semester between the first two years. Edward B. Rock, of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, The Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law and Co-Director of Institute for Law and Economics at Wharton, is the architect of the new 3 year program and he explains that applicants to the joint degree program at Penn have to satisfy admission requirements at both the law school and the business school. “In our program, you have to be admitted separately to the law school and to the Wharton School, so the law school requires the LSAT, and Wharton requires the GMAT or the GRE.” No easy feat to accomplish both, but Rock points out that if you can, you graduate holding a joint degree with “valuable advantages in the marketplace.”

Van Zandt and Rock highlighted some of the advantages and the limitations of the J.D./M.B.A. programs, and it’s clear that these programs are not for the faint-hearted. Dean Van Zandt acknowledges the Northwestern/Kellogg program is “pretty intense, you’re in school for 22 straight months.” The joint program at Penn Law and Wharton is also “very concentrated” and “tightly focused.” Rock explains that while the 3 year route has its advantages, there are ‘clearly limits’ and a ‘cost in that sense in the focus.’”

Stay tuned and listen to the full show to hear more.

We’ll have another post about some of the ways a J.D./M.B.A. can impact your career goals, featuring some highlights from our conversation with the Directors/Deans of Career Services at NYU Law School and Stern School of Business, a client partner at Korn Ferry International and some words of wisdom from two recent graduates from J.D./M.B.A. program on how the dual degree helped shape their careers.

In This Tough Job Market, Law School Still Makes Sense: Expert Advice for Law School Applicants and Students About Current Economic Conditions

It’s not exactly news that the recession has significantly impacted the legal job market. Big Law firm hiring is down and there’s fewer opportunities and increased competition for public sector jobs as well. But, rather than just dish about “the number of layoffs” and “which Big Law firms are deferring start dates,” we talked to the experts for you to learn specifically where the changes in the marketplace are, strategies that applicants and students can use to maximize their job seeking opportunities and what our experts see as the emerging trends in legal recruiting. We've got it all covered in our new show, The Current Economic Environment: What It Means to Law School Applicants and Students.

Law School Podcaster Host, Diana Jordan gets right into things by getting a snapshot from our guests of the current recruitment landscape and the latest on what’s happening on law school campuses around the nation during the great rite of passage for students – the Fall Recruiting Season. She begins with insightful analysis from Jim Leipold, the Executive Director at NALP, National Association for Law Placement, a nearly 30-year-old non-profit, serving the needs of all those involved in the legal employment process. He says that while the downturn has significantly affected certain sectors, there are some silver linings. “The current recession has certainly had a dramatic impact and it’s had an impact across all sectors but it’s hit hardest probably the largest law firms whose practices were the most closely tied to the financial sector and, in particular, firms in New York City. And also public practice settings that require public funding or grant funding. Those are the two areas that have had the most dramatic slowdown. In fact, there’s a lot of firms positioned in the middle that have thrived during the recession, in part because they have lower cost for offering legal services to corporations. And, at a time, when “Corporate America” has been trying to save money on their legal spend, some of the middle-tier law firms have actually been using this economic recession to grow and hire more lawyers.”

While the number of employers coming to campus is generally smaller and employers that are coming to campus, typically are hosting fewer schedules and seeing fewer students than they have in the past, Leipold says that law firms are not withdrawing entirely from the recruiting process, but they may be delaying it. “ I think law firms have just seen that they need to almost put recruiting on hold for a little while until they see where this settles, when the economy is going to pick up, what sort of work they have. They’re not so much withdrawing from the recruiting process but delaying it, hoping to get a better sense of what their own situation will be financially.”

Leipold also shared NALP’s observations about the growing diversity in recruiting practices that the recession has helped to accelerate and may support in the future. Listen to the show to hear what NALP considers the future might look like for law firm recruitment.

During this show, we also get strategic advice directly from those on the front lines with the students and grads going through the job search in this uncertain market by talking with Carole Montgomery, Director of the Career Development Office at The George Washington University Law School and Kevin Donovan, Senior Assistant Dean for Career Services at the University of Virginia Law School.

We also hear how the recession has affected applications and financial aid from Jason Wu Trujillo, Senior Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at The University of Virginia Law School and from Johann Lee, the Assistant Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Northwestern University Law School.

We are also joined by Ashby Jones, who writes the Law Blog at the Wall Street Journal and covers notable trends in the legal marketplace for the business community. He gives us his unique perspective on the job market during this tough economy and some valuable advice on practice areas that are in demand now and those that may continue to see growth in the future.


Listen to the full show on our website or from iTunes.