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I have a full ride to a solid Tier 1 LS that before ITE put 25% of the class in Biglaw and last year still put 15% in biglaw. I have a parent who is a biglaw partner in an awful market that makes close to 600K a year. I would have connections there and could definitely at least land a job after law school that would pay 80-85K in that market w/ a small bonus.

OR

I can taking a consulting job at Deloitte in DC and actually put my Economics degree to use.


Any thoughts or advice?


BTW - When I say awful I mean a shitty location.

Consulting can way more interesting and won't rack up debt! And, if you do it, law school will still be there for you to come back and specialize in something you know you'll be interested in. Also, the job experience may get you a better school, scholly, or job prospects afterward. Finally, and most importantly, going to law school right now will leave you in the worst legal market in a long time. Waiting it out in consulting is a good idea and most people who have the chance should do it if they can.

Is it S&O? I'd take that if you thought it was interesting. Deloitte S&O works you to death but you'll be making close to what you say you expect to make after graduation without wasting three years. Plus, if Deloitte S&O does put a decent amount of people in the m7 if you want to jump to finance later which is far better money.

It is the Risk Management side or the Federal Practice side.

OP, btw.

Anonymous User wrote:It is the Risk Management side or the Federal Practice side.

OP, btw.

Meh, then i'd be more inclined to go to law school since you have a parent who is a partner and a guaranteed 80k job. Although, taking time to do something besides school has benefit in and of itself. Maybe i'd try to defer the full ride and take the job and then decide a year from now.

Dude. Consulting. Avoid law school. Very expensive. Boring. 3 years long. 80% of lawyers I know are completely miserable.

Do Deloitte. Then go get an MBA. Business school is one long drunken party (they call it "networking").

Seriously. If you are in NY, go to Columbia. Swing by the law school library. Then go to the business school library. One is a monestary of stressed out students the other is party central, so loud you can barely think, with maybe 10 books in the entire fucking place.

I have an old friend that ended up at Deloitte and has been there now for years. She likes it.

Deloitte S&O works you to death

I am sure this seems to be true... UNLESS you are currently an associate in biglaw, in which case I very much doubt Deloitte would be seen as anything other than a lifestyle choice.

I can attest to the fact that the hours I work as a consultant are 100x more civilized than the hours my lawyer peers work.

In short:

Consulting = no debt, better hours, better looking women, salary NOW, upward potential much greater, much more interesting.

ALSO, "Tier 1" is meaningless. With the legal job market in the condition it is in, it is T10 or bust.

PM me with questions about consulting/business. Please.

The problem is out of lower ranked business schools the job opportunities aren't very good and OP already has a guaranteed well paying legal job. He doesn't need a t10 law school. Also, anecdotally deloitte S&O hours are on average worse than biglaw. From what I hear deloitte S&O is very easily the most demanding hours wise of any consulting I've seen. But I agree OP should take the job for now and reevaluate later.

Take consulting now, see how you like it and law school will always be there a few years down the road. If anything, you could probably get into a better law school, and even if not you could have a better chance at OCI from the school you got into, with Deloitte on your resume.

After working in consulting for a few years, some great opportunities may come your way--if not, law school will always be there--especially Northwestern. Congratulations on having two outstanding options !

As a few posters have said, do consulting, make bank and then, if you get the education itch again, do b-school. It's a lot more fun and one fewer year.

OP here - Can you really make that much consulting? I heard the money is pretty good? I also hear that the turnover rate is terrible? Also, from what I have been exposed to.... anything outside a T10 MBA is absolutely worthless?

deadpanic wrote:

I always love that jpg

I did both and suggest you do the same.

I was at Deloitte S&O in Boston for 3 years, spent some time working in DC too. It was awesome experience but I was fortunate to work in an area that they didn't have much expertise in so I was getting a ton of responsibility on pure strategy work. Deloitte does not do much pure strat work and ops/IT stuff B L O W S. I also had good partners which is very rare.

Then I took a full ride to a school similar to the one you describe. Deloitte folks will be confused that you aren't getting an MBA. You need to take those years and decide if law school is still what you want. My time there only further underscored the fact that it was and it wound up being the right decision. That experience will also be primo for OCI.

I would consider retaking the LSAT and shooting for a JD-MBA at a higher ranked school. Deloitte may even pay for part of that. I have classmates from other big firms and they all are getting a JD/MBA though I didn't want that.

You could also defer your acceptance for a year or two. Either way, I think you should work a bit.

I forgot to add that the hours will suck but the DC office's hours will be FAR BETTER. I traveled 100% of my time, and was on a M-F deal for 4 months. There is nothing like the feeling of having to get up at 4:30am every Monday for months to get a 6:30am flight. It is horrible. But the good news is that nobody really cares about long hours when you are on the road because you arent able to go home anyway. I never worked a weekend and Fridays were usually spent on the golf course even though I made it seem like I was "working from home" (when i was on a Monday-Thursday project).

Also keep in mind that Deloitte laid off like half of S&O about 3 years ago. I honestly saw so many of the people I started with get let go with horrible severance that I was thrilled to leave on my own volition. It was a downright savage place when the market turned. Of course they laid off way too many people and are probably on a hiring binge. They will one day do it all again. The leadership there is atrocious. Perhaps it's good training for biglaw.

Have you at least interned at one of the big four to see what it is like? Consulting can be just as soul sucking as law school depending on what area you are in. Still not a bad idea to get some WE before going to law school. I like the ideas people are throwing around ITT about JD/MBA.

OP, not sure if this is you, but I found this thread on WSO and found it relevant to this thread. Apparently Risk Management is much more audit oriented than I previously understood. I'm guessing you already know this, but thought i'd post anyways.

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/d ... consultant

The real answer is do what will make you happy in the long term.

Well, do you want to be a consultant? Or do you want to be a lawyer?

If you don't know whether you want to be a lawyer, don't go to law school. It's that simple.

SBL wrote:If you don't know whether you want to be a lawyer, don't go to law school. It's that simple.

+1

As with most things, SBL speaks the truth on this one.