mooze wrote:
Firstly, I think an MBA would be very useful to run your own firm. I toyed with the idea of going to law school, and in my research I discovered that law partners are generally pretty aweful business people, even at the top firms.
Secondly, I think you should consider going to MBA straight from law school,...reason being that you have a compelling reason to get an MBA, you have a goal, and you have relevant work experience in your field. Going back to work is just burning more time on top of the 3 years for JD and 2 years for MBA.
Finally,...you seem to be dead set on this,.....but setting up your own legal shop sounds like a bad move given the legal market conditions. What is your debt situation like? Law is not where you want to be right now.
Mooze,
Thanks for your input.
My own experience at my old firm revealed the exact same thing, at least on that micro scale: law partners are awful business people. I watched for three years as the managing partner/principal operated his practice with glaring inefficiencies and a lack of genuine business sense. That firm could have been much more efficient and profitable.
I want to operate my own practice with high efficiency and a sharp business sense, and it seems to me that an MBA is the place to go to get that.
It's not that I'm dead set on this - it's just that i know its what i want to do. I simply want to take the most intelligent route to get there. I will likely have some debt upon graduation from law school, but it's too early to say for sure as I'm just finishing up my first year. Regardless, the federal loan repayment programs have made law school debt WAY MORE manageable than they've been in the past.
I think there is an argument to be made for going straight to b-school after law school. I could open my practice upon graduation (with a loan) and effectively use b-school's networking element for business referrals.
On the other hand, if I worked as an attorney for a couple years out of law school, I could perhaps save some money and learn from my early mistakes as an associate rather than a principal.
As far as the legal market goes: who knows how it will be in a few years. The legal market cycles more rapidly than people assume, I think. As far as im concerned, its a crap shoot. Although it would be nice to earn a ton of money running my own practice, I will be plenty content if I manage to earn a decent wage as my own boss.