Can JD graduates work as Investment Bankers Forum

[NYlawhopeful]

Alright, before you criticize this preliminary career plan, please understand that I have put much time and thought into this:

My LSAC gpa is 3.3 and I have taken the LSAT and scored a 178. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Business Administration, which is in economics. My undergraduate institution is a Top 100 university, not a prestigious undergraduate institution. I have only taken the LSAT, and I am torn between these two career paths:

1). With the 3.3/178, try to get in and graduate from the best law school I can get into (or attempt transfer to T 14 after year 1) if my 3.3/178 cant do it during my cycle, and work as a corporate lawyer (NY)

OR

2). Get into the best law school I can (hopefully Top 20), and when I graduate, have a JD from a school with a decent reputation and work in investment banking.

If you graduate from say, a Top 14 law school, and have a business background, with the JD, would some places, hire you as an investment banker? I know they hire Harvard and UPenn grads with a bachelors in business, but would they hire a JD from a top law school?

I am not saying for sure this is what I am going to do. I am torn between these two options (corporate lawyer or investment banker)

[SemperLegal]

Alright, before you criticize this preliminary career plan, please understand that I have put much time and thought into this:

My LSAC gpa is 3.3 and I have taken the LSAT and scored a 178. My undergraduate degree is a Bachelor of Business Administration, which is in economics. My undergraduate institution is a Top 100 university, not a prestigious undergraduate institution. I have only taken the LSAT, and I am torn between these two career paths:

1). With the 3.3/178, try to get in and graduate from the best law school I can get into (or attempt transfer to T 14 after year 1) if my 3.3/178 cant do it during my cycle, and work as a corporate lawyer (NY)

OR

2). Get into the best law school I can (hopefully Top 20), and when I graduate, have a JD from a school with a decent reputation and work in investment banking.

If you graduate from say, a Top 14 law school, and have a business background, with the JD, would some places, hire you as an investment banker? I know they hire Harvard and UPenn grads with a bachelors in business, but would they hire a JD from a top law school?

I am not saying for sure this is what I am going to do. I am torn between these two options (corporate lawyer or investment banker)

For the most part, having a JD is a net negative for finance. However, If you want to try and leverage your amazing LSAT score, you can try to get into a JD/MBA at a b-school where you otherwise would not get into (hoping that say, the dean at NYU Law, hungry for the LSAT gains, might pull some strings at Stern, or maybe NU, which has a lower GPA floor and seems to work closely with Kellog), it might help you get into the elite tiers.

As for a straight JD, I know of graduates who have ended up in finance, but never as true IB.

[SemperLegal]

Also, some lawyers end up doing IB stuff. However its normally, Law school, 8 years at a firm in the banking/finance practice, make partner, make friends with midlevel Goldman Sachs people, hitch themselves to their wagon when they open their own fund, make bank.

[withoutapaddle]

I was looking at IB as well. I'd say a good idea would be to get as many intangibles as you can in the next 3-4 years, have a good story, have a good GMAT, apply to top 10 B-School.

[KaNa1986]

Of the JD's->top tier IB, I've mostly seen two paths.
1. Ivy/feeder UG (majoring in whatever)->IB analyst->T14->top tier IB associate. There are very few people in this category because IB analysts who chose to attend law school usually didn't want to go back to IB.
2. Ivy UG with econ/finance background->HYS JD->Wachtell/S&C/Cravath/etc.->Goldman/JPM/MS/etc. as associate, VP, or Executive Director.

If becoming an investment banker is your goal, it's definitely possible. I would say the key is to position yourself by attending the best law school you get into (I think most of the T14 are possible), and get Wachtell/S&C/Cravath/etc.

[thesealocust]

Most people I've seen make the switch went from a finance-related practice area at a big NYC name to the bank.

If you really want to do IB, I don't think law school is the best bet for starting down that path - there are more direct routes, and it's hard to imagine a case where you can make it happen via law school but couldn't otherwise.