1L career advice Forum

[Anonymous User]

L1 at a lower T14
Starting accelerated MBA program (joint degree) next summer.
CPA
First 1% (judging by 1 semester grades)
Foreign languages

I know I am interested in tax/transactional law, possibly international tax etc.
But I don’t know what job would fully utilize my credentials and provide for a more successful career path.

What are my options/possibilities as far as employment?

1.) Big Law right away
2.) Big Law after (possibly) deferral for clerkship
3.) Government – ITC, FTC, SEC etc. I can not understand what is a real value in working for government institutions?
4.) (possibly) transfer to Yale/Harvard and then what?
5.) Any other good ideas?

[anongoodnurse]

Re: Transferring.

I'd probably apply to Yale, maybe Harvard and Stanford as well. Mostly as insurance -- if you stay in the top 1%, you'll have the same opportunities as you would at those schools (and possibly even better), but if you slip a bit (say to "only" the top 10%), then you might be better off for some things, especially out of Yale. But you're in a great place no matter what happens.

Re: Clerkship.

Depends on your next three semesters of grades. If you stay in the top 5 or so (edit: students, not %), then you have a decent (edited to change from "great") shot at a feeder and then SCOTUS. That's too good of an opportunity to pass up, regardless of what you want to practice. If you slip a bit to "only" top 10%, then COA may be out, and then there's a good argument that you'd only want to clerk at the district court level if you wanted to litigate. (Though there's a good counterargument to that as well.)

Re: Government practice.

Does a job where you work reasonable hours (say 8:30-5:30 or so), do really fun and interesting work without most of the due diligence/doc review drudgery, and get paid a comfortable (low six figure) salary with good job security sound and great exit options like a good gig? It does to most, I'd think.

[A. Nony Mouse]

L1 at a lower T14
Starting accelerated MBA program (joint degree) next summer.
CPA
First 1% (judging by 1 semester grades)
Foreign languages

I know I am interested in tax/transactional law, possibly international tax etc.
But I don’t know what job would fully utilize my credentials and provide for a more successful career path.

What are my options/possibilities as far as employment?

1.) Big Law right away
2.) Big Law after (possibly) deferral for clerkship
3.) Government – ITC, FTC, SEC etc. I can not understand what is a real value in working for government institutions?
4.) (possibly) transfer to Yale/Harvard and then what?
5.) Any other good ideas?

Lord have mercy.

More seriously: what, to you, is success? money? preftige? work-life balance? living in cool places? having a fancy office? helping people? other? also, how would you actually like to spend your time? without knowing any of these things, it's kinda hard to say what you should do. (Although you've omitted in-house work from your list of possibilities - any reason why?)

(edited to say: anongoodnurse is nicer than I am, and gave an actual answer about government jobs)

[the lantern]

I'm really really tired but read this thread for some reason. If I had your background, I'd go work for someone like the SEC and then go to the private sector and make boatloads of money at a big firm. With your credentials/background, I think that would be easy for you. Transferring would be an option if you could get into HYS, but still, being top 1% at a 7-14 school is awesome so it is not necessary at all. With your stats, it might be worth going for the most prestigious clerkships too. If you can graduate top 5% from a top 14, Lrev editor, you would seem to be one of the best candidates for everything, including SCOTUS.

[bdubs]

I'm really really tired but read this thread for some reason. If I had your background, I'd go work for someone like the SEC and then go to the private sector and make boatloads of money at a big firm. With your credentials/background, I think that would be easy for you. Transferring would be an option if you could get into HYS, but still, being top 1% at a 7-14 school is awesome so it is not necessary at all. With your stats, it might be worth going for the most prestigious clerkships too. If you can graduate top 5% from a top 14, Lrev editor, you would seem to be one of the best candidates for everything, including SCOTUS.

SEC is a terrible choice for a first job in this situation. With a JD-MBA you need to think more carefully about your career goals. Why are you getting the MBA? Are you even considering a business job?

If you want to do a really high brow academic type of law, like appellate advocacy, then transferring might be best for you. The accellerated program means that you will take far fewer law classes and substantially hurt your chances for certain clerkships (i.e. I would be amazed if a 3 year JD-MBA ever got a SCOTUS clerkship, no matter what their class rank).

If you want to do any kind of corporate oriented law (including general commercial lit) then you're probably best off staying where you're at. You should have your pick of biglaw firms with your work experience and credentials.

There is absolutely no reason to go to the government straight out of school unless you have some super specific career goals. Most paths to high level government positions start in the private sector at top biglaw firms anyway.

[2014]

What is your scholarship and relative poverty situation. You are obviously in good shape for BigLaw, but you could potentially save a lot of money and trade up in a big way prestige wise by transferring.

Your #1 concern should be to repeat your performance btw.