Lawyers in consulting
March 12, 2009 9:08 AM
Do consulting firms such as Mckinsey, Boston Consulting hire lawyers for consulting work specifically? What are the skills that lawyers have that make them good management consultants
At BCG, I knew at one lawyer who was hired as a consultant, and another who persuaded the company to let him do a JD/MBA instead of the usual MBA (though I'm not sure if the company sponsored both degrees, or just covered the MBA costs).
That said, times are tough all around, and hiring PhDs and JDs is something management consulting firms seem to do more when they can't get enough high-quality MBAs, since the PhDs and JDs usually have to go through a special accelerated business skills training.
I can't really comment on what skills lawyers have that make them good consultants, beyond the general stamp of approval that comes from attending a top-flight graduate school. Ability to put up with harsh working conditions? (And unfortunately, the one ex-lawyer I worked with washed out pretty quickly.)
posted by CruiseSavvy at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2009
That said, times are tough all around, and hiring PhDs and JDs is something management consulting firms seem to do more when they can't get enough high-quality MBAs, since the PhDs and JDs usually have to go through a special accelerated business skills training.
I can't really comment on what skills lawyers have that make them good consultants, beyond the general stamp of approval that comes from attending a top-flight graduate school. Ability to put up with harsh working conditions? (And unfortunately, the one ex-lawyer I worked with washed out pretty quickly.)
posted by CruiseSavvy at 11:11 AM on March 12, 2009
This is common. Currently, about 2% of McK consultants have a JD (~180 out of 9,000 consultants). Their website is undergoing changes right now, but here is the link to their Other Advanced Degree recruiting section. (BTW, at McK: 44% are MBAs, 24% non-MBA masters degree, 22% MD or PhD, 8% no grad degree, and 2% law degree.)
The analytical, reasoning, analysis, research, and presentation skills transfer over from legal work to consulting very well.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:19 PM on March 12, 2009
The analytical, reasoning, analysis, research, and presentation skills transfer over from legal work to consulting very well.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:19 PM on March 12, 2009
McKinsey and BCG recruit substantial numbers of candidates for their (usually) MBA-level consultant position at the top law schools. It's a standard part of their recruiting processes, and has been for many years. I don't know that you'd call a fresh JD a "lawyer," though -- the person who goes through this path has never practiced law in the first place. It reflects a view by those firms that business schools don't have a monopoly on the quantitative and qualitative skill set that makes one a good consultant. It also reflects the fact that many scary-smart people enroll in law school and quickly figure out that being a lawyer isn't for them, and McKinsey and BCG wants to tap that resource...
Lateral hiring of actual lawyers -- bringing into the consulting practice people who are in law firms or otherwise actively practicing law -- is pretty rare and (as CruiseSavvy notes) tends to be something that happens during boom times, when they rapidly lose consultants to clients and when the comparatively modest consultant pay scale has difficulty attracting as many top tier MBAs as they might like. (Consultant pay runs very close to big firm lawyer pay, while both lag far behind securities industry pay or tech industry equity upside...)
posted by MattD at 12:21 PM on March 12, 2009
Lateral hiring of actual lawyers -- bringing into the consulting practice people who are in law firms or otherwise actively practicing law -- is pretty rare and (as CruiseSavvy notes) tends to be something that happens during boom times, when they rapidly lose consultants to clients and when the comparatively modest consultant pay scale has difficulty attracting as many top tier MBAs as they might like. (Consultant pay runs very close to big firm lawyer pay, while both lag far behind securities industry pay or tech industry equity upside...)
posted by MattD at 12:21 PM on March 12, 2009
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posted by anniecat at 10:41 AM on March 12, 2009