First Class in Only Three-Year JD/MBA Program Is Off to Summer School

CHICAGO --- The first class of Northwestern University students enrolled in the country’s only three-year JD/MBA program are now taking courses that are part of the intensive curriculum that will allow them to graduate early and start their careers.

The three-year (rather than four-year) joint-degree program enrolls one of the largest percentages of students of the nation’s JD/MBA programs, including 45 students and 10 percent of this year’s entering Law School class.

The program is among the most integrated programs of its kind with one application process and a complementary course of study at the Law School and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, one of the finest business schools in the world.

Students receive a thorough grounding in management and law, enabling them to pursue a wide range of career opportunities in both legal and business fields.

"Clients want service by lawyers who understand business processes and principles and who are plugged in to what other members of the team are doing," says David E. Van Zandt, dean of Northwestern University School of Law. "In addition, business people benefit from an understanding of law. This program expands the range of career choices for our graduates and prepares them to succeed in whatever they do."

JD/MBA students are not the only Law School students who learn skills to succeed in business. Whether in the JD/MBA program or not, law and business students at Northwestern increasingly come together in classroom courses such as business law, finance, accounting, mergers and acquisitions, and negotiations.

A class in negotiations, for example, may include simulated exercises in which business students act as clients and law students as lawyers, with both sets of students experiencing the often eye-opening dynamics of relationships that they will need to negotiate quickly and successfully in their careers.

Law School students also come together in real world projects at the Law School’s Small Business Opportunity Clinic, a center that provides legal and business assistance for aspiring entrepreneurs, emerging and established businesses and nonprofit community organizations. They work together in an atmosphere that stresses teamwork and strategies to succeed in a marketplace that rewards cooperation as well as competition.

"Unlike in the past, most law school graduates will not retire from the law firm they joined right out of law school, says Van Zandt. "We are preparing our graduates for multi-job careers that may take them from law to business to government to public service all within their lives."

5/30/01