From Legal Training to Business Savvy

A recent ABA Journal article entitled “CEO, Esq.: Why lawyers are being asked to lead some of the nation’s largest corporations” dug into some of the reasons that more and more lawyers are making an impact on the business world.

The article quotes Continental Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek, a former corporate lawyer in Houston as saying

"The CEO role requires the ability to constantly break down problems and analyze issues that are at the core of a decision. As leaders we need to be persuasive to many constituencies in communicating our strategic vision and describing the path where we will take our business. All of those requirements rely in no small part on skills I developed in law school and honed as a practicing lawyer."

Nine of the Fortune 50 companies now have lawyer CEO’s. A decade ago, only three of those CEO’s were lawyers. Experts contend that this trend will continue.

The skills cultivated in law school go a long way in developing a successful business career, a fact that has also been confirmed in the OBCL experience. Take OBCL graduate Tim Andre (JD02A), who started the successful Emma Parker & Company along with fellow OBCL grad Seth O'Dell. Like the business leaders interviewed in the ABA article, Andre has seen his legal education opening doors for him:

"Earning my JD has been akin to being given a key to the city. The doors of opportunity that have swung wide open once I completed my legal education have been incredibly helpful. Everything from gaining greater respect among my colleagues, to closing venture capital investment, to the ends and outs of starting my company, my legal education comes into use every single day.”

The value of a juris doctor degree in business continues to grow. Relatively unknown schools have made their dent in the business world by emphasizing business-related legal skills.

Case in point is SMU’s Dedman School of Law, which boasts 3 of the 11 CEO’s from Fortune 50 companies. Dedman has made preparing for business leadership a priority in their curriculum options. But the price is high: tuition for three years is around $115,000 plus another $14,000 a year in room and board.

Oak Brook graduates have an opportunity to learn to think like a lawyer, negotiate, understand business structuring, contract, torts, and other areas of interest to those in business for around $20,000 altogether.

To close with another thought from Tim Andre,

“The training gained in Oak Brook is extremely applicable to everyday life in the business world. As a small business owner, I would rather hire one law school graduate than ten MBA graduates."

--MJB