Finance & Economics Preparation for Corporate Law? Forum

[wiseguy]

I am currently I am a Finance major in a Top 50 Public School and I have been interested in going into corporate law. I have a huge interest in Economics and I hope to pick up a second major in Economics. Would this combination help me best prepare for Corporate Law/Business Law curriculum in Law School and ultimately prepare someone for corporate law?

[2014]

As a former economics major at a top 5 public school, I personally learned hardly anything that I could practically apply to any position or real world scenario much less corporate law so I wouldn't count on it. I imagine Finance could be marginally more useful if you have to spend time looking at corporate financial statements and documents so that you are not completely lost when looking at them for the first time. Do whatever gets you the best GPA though.

[dailygrind]

As a former economics major at a top 5 public school, I personally learned hardly anything that I could practically apply to any position or real world scenario much less corporate law so I wouldn't count on it. I imagine Finance could be marginally more useful if you have to spend time looking at corporate financial statements and documents so that you are not completely lost when looking at them for the first time. Do whatever gets you the best GPA though.

My prof taught corps from a law and econ perspective, so at the very least it was helpful in doing well in that class. Not sure how helpful it would be in practice, though I assume that having some familiarity with the concepts would be useful when it comes to functionally understanding deals/talking to clients and knowing what to look for when you're balls deep in due diligence.

[Geon]

I am currently I am a Finance major in a Top 50 Public School and I have been interested in going into corporate law. I have a huge interest in Economics and I hope to pick up a second major in Economics. Would this combination help me best prepare for Corporate Law/Business Law curriculum in Law School and ultimately prepare someone for corporate law?

As someone who went to a top finance school, I can tell you they teach you nothing of use in class, besides calculating npv. Unless you work in finance(commercial, investment banking, venture cap, PE) from what I've seen your degree is not going to do anything for you. Your degree means nothing from a work point of view. Everything I learned that was relevant to my work in finance was outside of school. Get 2 years work experience inone of the above, come back in 2 years and go to law school if you can quit the money and you'll get a corporate job even if your grades suck.

[westinghouse60]

I know some school's law and business programs (at UVA/Vandy, for example) require that you either have already taken accounting/finance or take it there, so you could save yourself some time by already having credit for it (although as a 0L I can't comment on whether or not having a concentration in law and business is important to employers, and I don't really see it discussed much on here). Also, if you're at a top school for finance/econ, then having that major makes you more marketable if law school doesn't work out. Personally I added an econ major because I enjoyed it and was considering getting a Ph.D or MA in econ at the time, guess it doesn't matter too much now.

[bceagles182]

I'm focusing on Corporate law and I was an econ major in UG.

My econ background has been useful in a number of courses throughout law school. It'll depend on your professor but many professors (in virtually any subject) will approach the law from a law & economics perspective. So I think economics is definitely a useful background to have coming in, and not necessarily just in corporate law courses. Here's are some things that I've seen come up with reasonable frequency: the Coase Theorem, negative/positive externalities, moral hazards, loss aversion, public goods, the endowment effect, ex poste/ex ante analysis.

I also imagine that a finance background would have been helpful in some of my corporate law classes. I finally got around to taking an accounting class this semester, but before that, I had to learn how to analyze financial statements without much direction in a number of my courses.

With all of that said, you should major in whatever subject you'll get the best grades in.

[wiseguy]

Tax Law sounds interesting as well. Is it necessary to have a MPA or Degree in Accounting to pursue this venture?

[2014]

Tax Law sounds interesting as well. Is it necessary to have a MPA or Degree in Accounting to pursue this venture?

I might be totally off base but I think a valid substitute for those is a tax LLM which a lot of people do.