How useful would a law degree be in my case?
I am an executive at a Fortune 60 auto parts company in Michigan. At 37, I have 16 years experience + a Bachelor's in Industrial Engineering, MBA from Univ of Michigan - Flint -- good grades and work performance. My main experience is in Manufacturing (Lean) and Sales and Marketing.
What problem am I trying to fix?
1.) I am tired of moving every 3 years.
2.) The automotive industry worries me (my corp is in Ch 11).
3.) My skill set depends on this company / this industry.
4.) No raises in over 2 yrs ('06 total comp was just under 200k though)
Why a Law Degree?
1.) I like the subject matter.
2.) I would like to transition my experience to corporate law.
3.) Law is applicable to every aspect of society and I think it will help me better contribute to society.
MY QUESTION: will I get out of law school and find that I can't get a law position (having no legal experience) for at least the same $ as I make now?
Answers:
Unless you go to a top tier school, you will find getting jobs in your position *EXTREMELY* difficult. If you go to Harvard, Yale, etc. the prestige factor may help you get a high paying job but you would probably have to expect some kind of pay cut.
If you do not go to a prestige school, someone at your age would have a hard time finding a job and no chance of getting something in the range you are earning now.
Law firms look for 25-year-olds who will bill hours in the hope that if they work like galley slaves for 7 years, they can become partners. Firms don't care about the skills you bring from your past life.
Let me give you specific example, I know a guy who is about your age and income level who went to law school. He is nationally known expert (in fact quoted on the front page of a major national newspaper today), book author, a frequent guest on cable news, has testified before Congress several times, and recently graduated *** Laude from Seton Hall (2nd Tier School). He said that only one law firm interviewed him in on campus interviews. The most shocking thing to me was that not a single judge even interviewed him for a clerkship (age discrimination extends beyond just the law firms). He has been rejected from every law-related position he has applied to. While he liked law school, it was a three year+ waste of time and money for him.
This guy has returned to his previous career.
While he had LSAT scores that could have gotten him into a "better" school, he said he decided to go local rather than pick up and move. When I asked him about other schools, he said that he did not know if things would have been different with a degree from a "better" school. He might have just wound up deeper in debt. He did confess that going to Seton Hall for law was the single biggest career blunder of his life.
You, too, could wind up like that.
You would for sure be able to find a legal job. You will be mostly competing with 25-year-old law grads who have no experience in anything, so the industry experience would be a huge plus. Now, whether it's worth taking a loss for three years of tuition and lost income, I don't know, but you would for sure be able to get a job.
combine your experience with your law degree, concentrate on civil law, concentrate on defective auto parts, and see what happens..
You will have a bunch of business experience backed up by a law degree. You will be even more desirable to companies. Companies will not have to train you on simple business logic and behavior. You will also be more valuable and transferable skill-sets to many other industries.
It might not be a bad idea ... but another good idea is to get something that isn't quite as time-consuming and expensive as law school, like a paralegal certificate or something similar. You can earn most paralegal certificates in 6 or even 3 months.
That way, you can explore the opportunities in the legal field related to your current industry, and if you decide you would rather not work in the legal field (or legal department of an automotive company or something), you won't be out hundreds of thousands of dollars and four years.
Also, if you have experience in marketing, that would be another great certificate or degree to build upon what you already do.
my husband is an attorney, and law school is nothing but three years of dog studying, unless you get into on of the top 5 law schools, 1. Yale 2. Harvard 3. Stanford 4/5 Columbia, NYU.
and they hide grades and your guaranteed work, my brother is at NYU law. But law is a hustle to get a good job out of school, there so many ares to practice and if you want corp/patten law. To study that in law school you need a BS in a science or engineering. and of course a good LSAT score aim for 170, but you have to get over 165 to get admitted into a good school.( I only know because I was going to go to medical school but my husband was trying to convince to go to law school for corp/Patten, because of my undergrad BS and grad engineering)he couldn't specialize in that because he has a BA. Plus you don't want a crappy school with crappy rankings, you will not get a job, or you'll get really crappy low paying jobs like 30k. plus always look at bar passage percentage. you want to pass the bar 1st time. around. good luck its worth it. sometimes maybe not even right away but in the long run. law schools expensive my husbands degree was over 100k, my bothers even more. that does not include undergrad. that was paid for.
I hope you find satisfaction in whatever you do. study hard, good luck!
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