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Long story short: I have a PhD degree and work in academia for several years; will turn 33 in June. Accepted by HLS and want to practice IP law or Corporate law. Wonder if biglaw firms care about my age (especially for corporate law which I do not have any business work experience).

Thanks.

(Disclosure: 2L who will be 31 upon entering Biglaw)

No, I don't think 36 is a problem for either IP or corporate, at least not on the grand scheme of things (there may be particular firms that want 'em young for whatever reason - none that I came across).

General consensus seems to be that anything under 40 is generally not a problem - anything over that and you might have to have a good narrative about 'why law and why now.' The PhD more than covers that reason, I think.

Anecdata: I had a professor who taught in a university for 15 years, then went to law school, practiced in Biglaw for a couple years, and is now teaching again. He was considerably older than you and made out just fine - I can't imagine you'll be any worse. Also, I have several classmates in your age range and they all did fine at OCI - age wasn't a factor one way or another (except maybe being able to show professionalism/maturity more easily than KJDs).

Thanks for reassuring me zacharus85. I have been an assistant professor for 3 years (both teaching and doing research) and realized that I might never enjoy this academic job. I heard stories of how labor-consuming and physically challenging the job in Biglaw can be so was a little worried if people had bias against "older JD student". Great to know the story of your professor which is inspiring.

zacharus85 wrote:(Disclosure: 2L who will be 31 upon entering Biglaw)

No, I don't think 36 is a problem for either IP or corporate, at least not on the grand scheme of things (there may be particular firms that want 'em young for whatever reason - none that I came across).

General consensus seems to be that anything under 40 is generally not a problem - anything over that and you might have to have a good narrative about 'why law and why now.' The PhD more than covers that reason, I think.

Anecdata: I had a professor who taught in a university for 15 years, then went to law school, practiced in Biglaw for a couple years, and is now teaching again. He was considerably older than you and made out just fine - I can't imagine you'll be any worse. Also, I have several classmates in your age range and they all did fine at OCI - age wasn't a factor one way or another (except maybe being able to show professionalism/maturity more easily than KJDs).

My firm has a number of associates who started in their 30s (and some partners who did years ago).

Good to know. Thanks Hutz_and_Goodman.

Best
Dawei

Hutz_and_Goodman wrote:My firm has a number of associates who started in their 30s (and some partners who did years ago).

No, but why would you want to do that? Are you taking out loans? Do you have a family? You may never be able to give them a good life if you're taking out loans for biglaw