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I am undecided business major at McComb's School of Business at UT Austin and as a junior, I need to choose a major quick. I want to pursue corporate law and while I originally thought management would be ideal, now I am considering finance and the many tracks I can choose from, such as general finance, corporate/investment, financial markets, investment management, etc. So, which major provides the best background for a career in corporate law?

My best guess would be business so you can talk the company language but you are aware that like 1% of freshly minted graduates are placed in corp law right?

Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

/McCombs grad- Finance

ogman05 wrote:My best guess would be business so you can talk the company language but you are aware that like 1% of freshly minted graduates are placed in corp law right?

Yes business, that is the college I am in. I am just trying to find out which major within business is best.

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

/McCombs grad- Finance

Good point, I never thought of it like that. You're right though - when I was looking at management classes a lot of them did not seem like business classes. Which finance track did you pursue?

TMT90 wrote:
Good point, I never thought of it like that. You're right though - when I was looking at management classes a lot of them did not seem like business classes. Which finance track did you pursue?

Finance. I graduated right when the tracks popped up, and we could take them or not. I felt like taking a track in, real estate or risk management would pigeonhole me to an industry, so I just stayed on my original track.

Plus I already had a very good job lined up in marketing and project management.

FINANCE.

It really doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you go to a law school that is ranked highly enough and get good enough grades.

Go with the major you will enjoy the most and will get you the best grades.

ogman05 wrote:you are aware that like 1% of freshly minted graduates are placed in corp law right?

is this true? can anyone confirm?

and are you saying that there are very few positions in corp law?

is this true? can anyone confirm?

and are you saying that there are very few positions in corp law?

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's true that positions in "corporate law", as most 0L's probably define it, are not easy to come by. Even in the best economy, fewer than 10% of law graduates got these types of jobs. Now, it's more like 5%. You need to either go to an elite school or be at the top of your class at a non-elite school.

Thanks for your help guys. If I ultimately decide to go the finance route, would a general finance track serve me better than one that is specialized (such as energy finance, corporate finance, investment management, etc). HBK I know you mentioned the not wanting to be pigeonholed to a certain industry with a specialized track, and that is also a concern of mine.

TMT90 wrote:Thanks for your help guys. If I ultimately decide to go the finance route, would a general finance track serve me better than one that is specialized (such as energy finance, corporate finance, investment management, etc). HBK I know you mentioned the not wanting to be pigeonholed to a certain industry with a specialized track, and that is also a concern of mine.

there are three things to consider here:

a) the difference btwn finance, mkting, energy finance vs corporate finance are going to make ZERO difference in you law school cycle. it all comes down to LSAT/GPA + URM status
b) the law is all about specialists. someone working on junk bond finance contracts is probably not going to also do energy finance at the same time (obviously they could transition careers if at some point they so desired). they are going to stick with what they already know. so if you think you may be interested in energy finance then great, go for it.
c) consider, however, that what you do in undergrad has almost no bearing on what you choose to do after law school*. while I do not know anything about maritime law I may choose that b/c Tulane is #1 at that and I think it might be interesting. if you could only do what you did in undergrad there would be a lot of political science and american history majors that would not choose to attend to law school cause they still wouldn't have jobs**


*obvious exceptions apply. for IP law it is usually very beneficial to have a science or engineering background. if you studied Beethoven's symphonists in undergrad it is doubtful that you will be able to understand patent applications for gene complex sequencing.

** this stands true at least for the t1, but TTT grads with no expertise and nothing but a law degree from a shitty law school are going to remain unemployed.

It doesn't matter at all.

Echoing the past posters a bit here but I've worked for a large corporation for about 12 years (not in legal) and I think I have seen a large sample of college grads with various majors.

Accounting and Finance are the only two worthwhile business majors. Everything else you learn at work, not at school.

rdcws000 wrote:Echoing the past posters a bit here but I've worked for a large corporation for about 12 years (not in legal) and I think I have seen a large sample of college grads with various majors.

Accounting and Finance are the only two worthwhile business majors. Everything else you learn at work, not at school.

Thanks, i've definitely decided to narrow it down between finance and accounting but I think I have a greater interest in finance. Would you say a degree in general finance is more useful or should I go the specialized path, such as corporate finance or investment management and the others I listed above? I'd like my degree to be a good fall back in case law school plans don't work out.

rdcws000 wrote: Accounting and Finance are the only two worthwhile business majors. Everything else you learn at work, not at school.

What's wrong with a management degree? I learn lots of good stuff I never learned when I worked at E-LOAN. I have all but three books for the finance option, and I can learn that on my free time. Do people generally discriminate against management majors?

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

This is news to me. Could you elaborate? Is this advice specific to corporate law?

JCooper36 wrote:

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

This is news to me. Could you elaborate? Is this advice specific to corporate law?

No, it is what an AVP at Citi told me when I was a sophomore in business school. At the time I was a marketing major, and the VP that told me that was a Marketing major. My marketing classes were very easy. For intro to marketing, I went to class eight times in the semester and got an A. Finance was much harder. In retrospect, maybe I should have stuck with marketing for GPA purposes for applying to law school. But when I was coming out of college, I had never planned to go to law school.

Also, it was true amongst my class mates and in my professional dealings. I've enjoyed a successful corporate career since 2005. I don't know if law firms care as much, but if given the choice between two equal candidates, one with a marketing degree, and one with a degree in finance, we would hire the finance guy... even for a marketing job. They are just more analytical and have a better understanding of how a company makes money.

Edit for clarity: I am a 0L, and only know how the majors are viewed in corporate circles.

HBK wrote:

JCooper36 wrote:

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

This is news to me. Could you elaborate? Is this advice specific to corporate law?

No, it is what an AVP at Citi told me when I was a sophomore in business school. At the time I was a marketing major, and the VP that told me that was a Marketing major. My marketing classes were very easy. For intro to marketing, I went to class eight times in the semester and got an A. Finance was much harder. In retrospect, maybe I should have stuck with marketing for GPA purposes for applying to law school. But when I was coming out of college, I had never planned to go to law school.

Also, it was true amongst my class mates and in my professional dealings. I've enjoyed a successful corporate career since 2005. I don't know if law firms care as much, but if given the choice between two equal candidates, one with a marketing degree, and one with a degree in finance, we would hire the finance guy... even for a marketing job. They are just more analytical and have a better understanding of how a company makes money.

Edit for clarity: I am a 0L, and only know how the majors are viewed in corporate circles.

as a biz major I look at a marketing major as above a Comm major but below international business(ibus), finance is above ibus and ibus/finance beats all.

gwuorbust wrote:
as a biz major I look at a marketing major as above a Comm major but below international business(ibus), finance is above ibus and ibus/finance beats all.

I don't remember IB being anything spectacular when I was in school. Accounting and Finance were the top two, with IB and MIS behind, then Management and Marketing.

Graduation was a kick in the butt, when the Marketing majors graduated and we all realized that all of the hottest girls were Marketing majors.

HBK wrote:

JCooper36 wrote:

HBK wrote:They are just more analytical and have a better understanding of how a company makes money.

Well that's not very nice. Economics, Finance and Accounting can help make good decisions, but it's not efficient for everything. Oh well, I want to work for myself anyway.

BTW - My school technically offers business administration degrees with options. Is that the way most schools work, or do others offer an actual degree in marketing or whatever. The lower and upper division cores are the same for all of our options with just eight or ten different classes for the options.

HBK wrote:

gwuorbust wrote:
as a biz major I look at a marketing major as above a Comm major but below international business(ibus), finance is above ibus and ibus/finance beats all.

I don't remember IB being anything spectacular when I was in school. Accounting and Finance were the top two, with IB and MIS behind, then Management and Marketing.

Graduation was a kick in the butt, when the Marketing majors graduated and we all realized that all of the hottest girls were Marketing majors.

see at my school Accounting majors were a separate part of the biz school so nobody interacted with them. ibus isn't that special, but IMO it is better then marketing and when combined with finance make a great combo.

though I found that if you really want to find the hot girls go to COMM classes. 3:1 ratio, easy.

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

/McCombs grad- Finance

Nice, a fellow McCombs Finance alum. Class of 05 here.

OP, choose the major in which you'll be able to earn the highest GPA.

I am currently working in NYC at a large corporate law firm. The people with finance or investment banking backgrounds have the easiest time transitioning. possibly even accounting.

TMT90 wrote:I am undecided business major at McComb's School of Business at UT Austin and as a junior, I need to choose a major quick. I want to pursue corporate law and while I originally thought management would be ideal, now I am considering finance and the many tracks I can choose from, such as general finance, corporate/investment, financial markets, investment management, etc. So, which major provides the best background for a career in corporate law?

Finance, Accounting or Econ. Everything else is pretty much fluff. Really accounting is pretty much the only serious business major.

HBK wrote:

JCooper36 wrote:

HBK wrote:Whatever you do, stay away from management and marketing. Those are the Communications majors of the business school. Employers (and probably law firms) know this.

This is news to me. Could you elaborate? Is this advice specific to corporate law?

No, it is what an AVP at Citi told me when I was a sophomore in business school. At the time I was a marketing major, and the VP that told me that was a Marketing major. My marketing classes were very easy. For intro to marketing, I went to class eight times in the semester and got an A. Finance was much harder. In retrospect, maybe I should have stuck with marketing for GPA purposes for applying to law school. But when I was coming out of college, I had never planned to go to law school.

Also, it was true amongst my class mates and in my professional dealings. I've enjoyed a successful corporate career since 2005. I don't know if law firms care as much, but if given the choice between two equal candidates, one with a marketing degree, and one with a degree in finance, we would hire the finance guy... even for a marketing job. They are just more analytical and have a better understanding of how a company makes money.

Edit for clarity: I am a 0L, and only know how the majors are viewed in corporate circles.

My opinion is that it is severely dependent on the program and the industry. There are marketing programs in schools that rely heavily on a foundation of research and statistical analysis. I'm sure VPs at Citi and those type of industries agree that finance and accounting programs are more in line with the majority of their business. It might be a bit different at consumer packaged goods companies.