For decades, law schools have specialized in teaching students how to interpret and practice law, but recently many J.D. programs have increased their focus on helping students develop business savvy.
In addition to offering J.D.-MBA programs, schools have created new ways for law students to learn the fundamentals of business in a semester or two.
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Harvard Business School launched the HBX Credential of Readiness Program in June 2014, which allows incoming law students to take courses in subjects like business analytics the summer before starting law classes. The year before, the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, in collaboration with the Wharton School, started offering a one-semester certificate in management.
About five years ago, the University of Notre Dame Law School started offering programs of study — which are similar to concentrations — and one of the originals is in business law, says Lloyd Mayer, a law professor at the school who teaches one of the program’s foundational courses. Because the program does not award students a certificate, there are no hard requirements about classes to take.
Law school experts say that knowing a little about business can be an asset for any student.
“Lawyers, in every sector of the legal practice, need to understand more than just how to counsel as a lawyer. They need to understand the principles of business management that are so critical to the clients that they serve,” says Jennifer Leonard, the director of the Center on Professionalism at Penn’s law school.
Harvard law students take three online courses and in-person final exams for the Credential of Readiness program, which teaches them how law and business overlap.
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Students learn methods for analyzing data, the fundamentals of supply and demand, and analytical tools that firms use to figure out customer demand or competitor’s costs, Patrick Mullane, executive director of HBX, said in an email.
They also learn how to prepare financial statements and read a balance sheet, among other skills.
“We have heard feedback from students that after taking CORe they are more prepared to serve their clients because they better understand their client’s businesses and concerns,” he wrote.
At Notre Dame, students in the program of study in business law are encouraged to take two foundational courses: business associations and federal income taxation, says Mayer.
In business associations, J.D. candidates “learn about the legal form that businesses can take under state law and the laws governing how those forms operate,” he says. “Federal income taxation introduces students to the basic concepts under the Internal Revenue Code.”
For Jamal Hill, 26, interning in corporate law over the past summer helped him decide to get a certificate in management during his last year at Penn Law. He will work in corporate law full time once he graduates at the end of this semester.
Based on some of his summer assignments and consultation with some attorneys, Hill looked at what he wanted his course load to be this year and said the certificate was a “no-brainer.”
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In corporate law, he’ll work on things like mergers and acquisitions and assist with corporate governance, Hill says.
The certificate program gave Hill, who majored in public policy in undergrad, some business knowledge he lacked.
“I definitely learned some of the basic concepts that would, I think, give me a strong foundation,” he says.
Law school experts say it’s important that all students, no matter which area of law they enjoy most, know at least these three areas of business to be strong practitioners.
1. Business transactions: J.D. candidates should have some familiarity with how business transactions work, says Mayer, and “what are the general economic considerations that go into place?”
In learning about business transactions, students can understand what drives businesses or individuals to make certain decisions.
In Notre Dame’s foundational courses for law students in the business program, students delve into the basics of business transactions.
“In those courses, we try to explain the business motivations and the reasons for the cases that we discuss and the disputes that arise,” Mayer says.
2. Finance and accounting: “Clients expect for their lawyers to understand their business,” says Leonard, from Penn. “You want to be able to send a financial document to your lawyer and have him or her be able to understand that document so that they can integrate it into their counseling work.”
3. Organizational dynamics: Knowing how companies are structured is also an asset for law students, Leonard says.
This understanding can help them realize, she says, “What are the hierarchies within a corporate structure? How do human beings and teams interact to achieve a particular outcome?”
Overall, a background in business can help students’ employment prospects, experts say.
“I think it has a clear positive influence because most lawyers have to interact with businesses, whether as clients or as opponents in negotiations or litigation,” says Mayer. “It’s natural for employers to ask, ‘What do you know about business transactions?’ or when someone’s doing, for example, a summer associate position with them, to expect them to understand basic business transactions.”
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