Queen's University School of Business

Queen's MBA, Full Time Program (1 year)

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MBA for Lawyers

State examination passed, several years of professional experience - and now? With an MBA for lawyers, you can specialize in new levels on the career ladder. We have compiled an overview of which MBAs are suitable for lawyers, what the differences are and what experiences graduates have had.

Are you a lawyer? When was the last time you opened Excel on your computer? Elmar Jordan admits at Legal Tribune Online : "I recently opened the Excel program on my computer for the first time ever." Graduates of a law degree are experts in their field, but when it comes to later career stages around acquisition, financing or the Assessment of economic corporate development, many reach their limits. An MBA could therefore be a way to equip yourself with non-legal management skills.

Of course, we don't want to pull all the lawyers together: Of course, even without an MBA as a lawyer, you can create a career in top management, be familiar with Excel and be fit in business administration and management without a degree and successfully run your own law firm. This is demonstrated by thousands of lawyers every day. But if you are constantly dealing with profit and loss calculations, complex balance sheets and transactions in your advisory work, the investment could be worthwhile. Especially if you consider the option of not continuing your career as a lawyer but in economic functions.

Such as Clemens Schülke, managing director of a municipal GmbH. In the interview he says :

“I wouldn't necessarily recommend an MBA to a family lawyer. But someone who is aiming for a career as a corporate lawyer or specialist lawyer for commercial and corporate law and wants to speak a language with his client. Law is not an end in itself, an entrepreneur is primarily looking for economic success, not necessarily justice. Managers and lawyers look at the same world from different perspectives, so it is helpful if you understand the motives of your counterpart. ”

Matthias C., lawyer in an auditing company, gave us the following recommendation when we asked Xing:

"An MBA for:

• In-house lawyers in companies or consulting companies: In addition to interface subjects law / business administration, there are other career opportunities in non-original legal positions
• Lawyers with management responsibility: Many MBA programs attach great importance to leadership aspects such as soft skills, project management fundamentals, etc., which are helpful for this.

However, an MBA is not recommended:

• When the current position is unrelated to business topics. Learned knowledge is then dead knowledge.
• at the start of the course without the support of the employer: Without support (ideally / not necessarily financially) it is difficult to complete an MBA part-time. Free days to prepare study papers or take a breather after a lecture weekend are important and should also be granted flexibly. In addition, by adapting the task area, knowledge that has been learned theoretically can also be applied in practice."

MBA courses for lawyers: you are not alone

An estimated one fifth to one quarter of all participants in MBA programs are lawyers. Not everyone works as a lawyer, but you can see that there is a great demand for high-quality further training in the business sector in this professional group. The MBA is just right for this.

Despite this high number of participants, unlike doctors, for example, there are no specialized MBAs for lawyers. The reason for this is that in the vast majority of cases, it is desirable to develop know-how from business management. And a generalist course is best suited for this.

Suitable MBA courses

The MBA that can be used by law graduates can be divided into two areas:

• Generalist

These include courses such as business administration, general management, business management or business administration. In short: Anyone who has no specialization in an industry or a specialist area. The content is broad, from controlling to financing, tax law, cost / performance accounting, marketing and project management to logistics and information management.

These MBA courses are always suitable for lawyers, because the participants are enabled to carry out problem analyzes from a commercial and economic perspective and thus to break away from a purely legal point of view.

• Industry specific

During our research, we also came across a lawyer specializing in media law who holds a media MBA. Or a lawyer with an insolvency administrator who had completed the MBA International Insolvency and Restructuring Management (meanwhile no longer exists). Such combinations can of course also be very useful because you not only acquire basic business knowledge, but also industry-specific detailed knowledge.

So there is no one way to get ahead with an MBA. As is so often the case in life, you have to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of various study options before you can make a decision.

Conclusion: decision must be carefully considered

To put it bluntly: for the majority of lawyers, especially those who work as lawyers, an MBA is not necessarily the right training. For example, if you specialize in family law, you don't usually need a lot of economic knowledge. And those who do not plan a career up to top management are usually poorly advised with a Master of Business Administration, because costs and benefits are out of proportion.

However, if you are career-oriented and do a (legal) job that has a lot to do with economic issues (M&A, corporate law, etc.), an MBA can be exactly the right decision. Especially if you do not complete a purely German course, but make sure to also integrate foreign modules.

Our tip for decision making:

• Research which MBA courses are offered in your area or which are available as distance learning courses.
• Compare exactly how the content is conveyed. Distance learning is, of course, optimal to do alongside the job, but the exchange with fellow students, which is considered very important by many graduates, and mostly the stay abroad, are missing. You also have to be the right type of learner. On the other hand, part-time face-to-face studies force you to limit your professional activity quite considerably.
• Request information material from the relevant universities and compare other important data such as costs and course content.
• Opt for an MBA and do the thing uncompromisingly! I wish you success!