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First JD-MBA Social of the Year

JD-MBAs are some of the most interesting students on campus. New students in the program go to classes like contracts and torts, and then they start thinking about law firms such as Kirkland & Ellis, Mayer Brown, and my firm Vedder Price.  Second year students are a world apart. They move up to Evanston start taking classes in finance and marketing,and then they spend the next few months looking at firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Blackstone, among others. And then there are the third year students. We  head back and forth between both campuses, split their time with classmates in Chicago and in Evanston, and are trying to decide whether to go into law or business. And because of all these disparate experiences, we often come together in a big group to support each other through the process.

Well just yesterday we formally came together for the very first time.  Most people arrived about twenty minutes after the event started and found their way to the top floor of the building where the event was held. We spent most of the time there trying to meet some of the 1Js (first year JD-MBAs) and also reconnecting with ones that we had already met.

The 1Js had the goal of trying to better understand the student experience. They wondered how their first midterms and finals would be. If law school would be as hard as people say it is. If they’d have to keep working hard for all three years.

The 2Js had the goal of asking about how hard Kellogg would be. Would recruiting be competitive? Should they recruit for one industry or another? And what would be the impact of working in the law for the summer? On the other hand, the 2Js also provided real time practical advice for the 1Js. Given they just finished their first year, they not only remembered vivid details of the experience but they also had strong opinions.  Things like when to move to Evanston. How to schedule your finals. What exams to pass out of. And how to make it through 1L.

3J had the goal of meeting the people they hadn’t met yet. Give some of us are smack dab in the middle of recruiting right now, some of us still haven’t met as many people as we’d like.  We were fielding questions from both the 1Js and 2Js about our experiences so far, and how it was finally splitting our time between two campuses.

But more important than giving tips on how to maximize the JD-MBA experience is that just yesterday we all took a moment to meet everyone in the program. To not only discuss how to fine tune your career strategy at Kellogg or the law school but also think about ways to connect with everyone in the program and hear about all the interesting paths many JD-MBAs had taken.

We heard about Js that are going to Cravath, Cooley, and Kirkland on the legal side. Others who are in a highly competitive Venture Capital program here at Kellogg and starting their own businesses that span a number of industries. Others who spent time at Lehman and Goldman before the program. And some recruiting with McKinsey, Bain and BCG as we speak.

And in the end, no matter how tough the program feels at times, events like this remind us that we indeed have a pretty special group.

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