JEREMYCWILSON.COM

I am so excited for you and can't wait to hear your reactions after the event. Last year, I had the opportunity to hear/see Sandra Day O'Connor speak and I was surprised by how moving and significant the experience was for me.

@P2P–I'ts really cool to hear you had a good experience at a similar event. That's exciting! And by the way, I'm also a big fan of O'Conner, at least in terms of background. Like me, she's spent a lot of time both in AZ (where I grew up) and in Northern CA.

Hey Jeremy. New reader here(found your link on Marquis' blog)
This event sounds so awesome! I just had a quick question about your classmates. Do you know if any of them have interests in healthcare after graduation? I've been considering a JD/MBA program but my primary interest is healthcare so I'm not sure if it would be the right route.

@Karen–Hi Karen, thanks so much for reading and now writing here on my blog. So, when you refer to health care industry, do you mean more of the commercialization of health care products, such as the medical device and life sciences industries, or are you referring to the health care services space (i.e. hospitals)? The answer might be a bit different depending on what you intended.

@Karen–Karen, you can also feel free to email me at jeremyweblog@gmail.com. Thanks!

Hey Jeremy, Thanks for taking the time to reply. I was referring to the health care services space. More specifically, I'm really interested in public-private partnerships as they relate to the delivery of healthcare.

@Karen–Hey Karen, sounds like a really interesting field, albeit one that I'm not super familiar with. But I will try to make a few comments. 1) The program here is multi-disciplinary, and students do not focus on a singular industry, career goal, or function. While many start out in law or business upon graduation, graduates end up in fields that are all over the map, including sports, government, policy, law, finance, non-profit, and healthcare. 2) A lot of JD-MBAs here are quite interested in strategic partnerships, which fits with your PPP interests. It makes a lot of sense that JD-MBAs have this interest, given that someone inthe role would typically spend a lot of time reviewing contracts, negotiation agreements, and looking at business plans. These are things JD-MBAs tend to do well across various professions. 3) The JD and the MBA would both seem quite useful in the healthcare industry. On the JD side, most top law schools spend a lot of class time on policy issues, which seems highly relevant given the state of the health care services industry. Additionally, once you get to the C-suite in any field, I can guarantee that the law becomes of paramount importance, as you deal with partnership, negotiations, financial regulations, annual filings, etc. On the MBA side, things like costs, finance, and leadership are important in the industry, and a lot of the top schools have good healthcare management programs, including Kellogg.

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/academic/health/index.htm

4) Aside from these things, a JD and an MBA program will equip you with a very different set of skills (i.e. law = writing, analyzing details, problem solving, articulating an argument, thinking conceptually), skills I think translate to a large variety of industries, including the health care industry.