From law to an MBA

vanesslondon · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:40 am Post subject: From law to an MBA

Hi Stacey,
I have been working as a lawyer in London for two years (my only two years' work experience) and would like to do an MBA.
I studied at Cambridge University and attained a good GPA, however I am worried about the GMAT because I haven't studied maths in 10 years!
I am aiming for the 700s, but we'll see about that Wink

My main question is whether business schools will look down on an applicant with a legal background.
My work has centred on banking and asset finance, so it is relevant, but I will have to really draw out leadership experience as legal work is very team led rather than allowing one individual to lead.
Are business schools hesitant to take on 'career switchers'?
What is, in yout opinion, the best way to sell my legal experience.
My honest reason for making the switch is that I am fascinated by the business decisions managers make, and in law I only execute the very formulaic part of these very interesting transactions - the wrong side of the table, so to speak.
Any advice would be gratefully received,
Many thanks in advance,
Vanessa

Stacy Blackman · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject:

Most MBA programs are looking for diversity, and there will not be a problem with a legal background. While leadership is very important, so is teamwork. You may be able to show that in a team setting you occasionally took the lead but also knew when to take a back seat, that you collaborated effectively, and that you were respectful of your peers. All of this is important and will be great for your application. The honest reason you state for switching is absolutely fine. Most MBA's are career switchers - it's a great reason for going to business school.

vanesslondon · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 11:14 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Stacy, I really appreciate the advice.

*buries head in a pile of GMAT books*

zakatala · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 6:00 am Post subject: Lawyers, please help!

Dear Vanessa,

I seem to be in exactly the same place as you are in terms of switching law for business. And just like you, I have a private practice experience in a Big Five law firm as well as an in-house legal experience on top of that. But my math …well, nothing serious in the past 10 years though I was extremely good at it in high school. I am from continental Europe.

Many lawyers seem to flee the profession, which is sad. But my point is not about that. You posted on this thread almost a year ago, and I am really keen to learn how things work out in the end.

I would really really appreacite it if you could give some useful tips on how to better manage the change.

With best regards

Zakatala

vanesslondon · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 8:59 am Post subject:

Hi Zakatala,
Thanks for writing!
I'm not sure of how much use I can be because one year on I haven't made much progress! Wink

I stalled in my preparation and started my GMAT prep in February on and off. It was very difficult because I was working long hours at that time. I am about a third of the way through my prep now and plan to take the test in early August, to apply for business school in the fall.
I have been thinking of how to best sell our experience and I think that you are very well placed to do so having worked in-house. My problem is that I have comparatively little experience. Hopefully I will do a client secondment next, which will help.
I can't say much about managing the change but perhaps about arguing in favour of it: I think you can make the argument that working in-house you realised you wanted to contribute to the company's growth and make decisions, not merely work in a support capacity, which I think a lot of lawyers feel is the extent of their involvement in a large transaction.
I'm so pleased to have found a fellow lawyer! There aren't many of us! I am sure that you will find the maths straightforward if you were good in high school - I wasn't so good and really had to learn from scratch. Mathematically challenged though I may be, I can see that it's not the hardest maths in the world - I'm just bad at math! My friends who gave up maths at A-level can still do this 10 years on!
It would be great to stay in touch and share our progress - I'll pm you my email address.
Loads of luck!
Vanessa

richs_ca · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 8:38 am Post subject:

Hello Vanessa and Zakatala.

Looks like I'm in the same boat as both of you. I'm a lawyer in Canada and have been practicing commercial litigation for 3 about years at one of the big national firms. I'm seeing more and more young lawyers getting out of private practice, and even a few doing MBAs!

Just wrote the GMAT, bombed the quant and aced the verbal. If your fist language is English you won't have a problem with the verbal - especially the CR, which is what we do pretty much everyday as lawyers. My math has always been horrible, and even with a prep course my score didn't increase too much. But my math was always poor and I'm pretty sure that if you were good in math in high school it will come back - it's really all high school math.

I applied to b-school this week, so hopefully the high verbal score will be good enough. Good luck to both of you!