Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolVa1977
I am in business law right now. Thanks! VaTech does not offer the MBA/JD option though
|
A MBA/JD basically lets you carve one year out of doing these programs separately. Typically, the JD program will let you do a few elective outside of the law school and count the credits to your law degree, so you'd typically take business classes that would count towards your MBA. Also, there will be law classes that are cross listed with the MBA school (i.e. tax, corporations, accounting for lawyers, securities regulation) and MBA classes cross listed for law school (mergers and acquisitions, derivatives, real estate finance).
Most law schools are totally inflexible outside of their joint program and will not let you apply prior graduate degree classes to your JD. You typically need a dean waiver to take a prospective class outside of the law school to count.
So you might want to contact a few law schools and find out their transfer credit policies for prior degrees. It may impact what you take as electives at VA Tech, i.e. maybe real estate finance instead of advanced auditing.
As for the usefulness of a JD, in law, in any area of law where business principles are very important, a MBA could be helpful (i.e. tax law, securities law, anti-trust, etc.).
As for business, a JD may be useful in highly regulated industries. In particular, in industries where the rules and regulations may have more impact on profits than general economic conditions or operations. One example I could think of is the telecommunications industry, where lawyers have gone on to be CEOs over say engineers or finance folks.
Another area of business where a law degree might be useful if litigation is used as a business strategy. There are some companies that hold lots of patents and copyrights and earn revenues by licensing them. They are constantly suing to enforce their rights.
Also, in industries where very detailed, major contracts are crucial, having a legal background can be helpful. I know a guy that worked at a bank, and his job was to evaluate credit applications. He needed to look at contracts to see how they impacted a companies cash flow or if there were any hidden red flags. Similarly, a research analyst at an investment bank might have to evaluate long term supply contracts to see if they pose problems.
However, in general, most business jobs don't really require legal skills, except for spotting issues where legal counsel needs to be consulted. So I would think long and hard whether it is worth the time and cost.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
