Batch of 2029 here.

I have seen multiple posts about people in lawschools considering CAT. So is there some other scope related to mba in law or do people attempt it purely to change their career? It would be great if someone could confirm this.

Although, I have heard of some possible prospects in law. But if someone could write down here whatever they know about this, that could help immensely.

Thanks

Bro been there and prepared well. Landed a mid tier IIM after taking a year off from my PPO as A1. Began and resumed my law firm slog. I'll explain 2 factors to my decision'

1) the finances don't add up at all. 25L on MBA with 2 years of course which in most cases goes to 3-4 with drops. 25L also goes upto 30 with coaching and all.

2) Jobs matching your T1 salary are only via Consultancy, IB, Finance and Sales (but for the very few est colleges for sales). That is also the best case scenario. An average Joe from IIM ABC would probably not be earning too well than you as a Law Firm person in your mind 30s. Post that you may be better because equity or in cases of consultancy/IB they might be earning more but that's a problem of privilege. I don't see the point of having to fight over 7 crores or 10 crores in my ac. Both put you in upper upper middle class easily.

2) the work hours at T1s are bad compared to other standard 9-5 corp (which are also not 9-5 as many would tell you). But leave LI and talk to some lawyers not all despise their job. It's about finding the right boss and fit for the team too. Infact some lawyers like their job but almost all have been lucky to get good partners. Which is a hot or a miss right after law school. If you get a bad partner then talk to your alumna and shift in 2-3 years to better partners. Makes life easy.

We only get lawyers perspective, talk to consultants and investment bankers - they are as content as lawyers are. Work hours are fucked but good money. That's also most jobs. We get a myopic view of our career choices from people around us but before making or dedicating any time talk to passouts from IIMs too, different specialisations. They'll give you a bird's eye view of the MBA job culture. It's not easy if you want a govt job type wlb. Digressing but even CAs and Engineers who were with me in school have times when they don't enjoy their work. But that's work - you gotta stick it out.

Finally only do an MBA if you feel you wanted to from the very beginning. Which is probably not true because you made an informed choice to pick law instead of saying BBA/BCOM from a DU. If you chose law and want to pursue MBA just by the scary thought of joining the law firm life then probably not the best combos, leaving aside the very less probability you'll get a T1 MBA college. This apples to 95% of average aspirants like me, for 5% brilliant ones you can do anything they put their soul and mind to, I wish you the best. Whatever suits you.

OP here.

"Digressing but even CAs and Engineers who were with me in school have times when they don't enjoy their work. But that's work - you gotta stick it out."

This is 100% true. My uncle is a CA too. Has been one for 25ish years now. I have seen him work 12hrs all 7 days of the week. He does not even get sat and sundays off. Always sitting with that laptop and typing, looking stressed and all. Few people ik recently joined workforce and from what they have told me corporate as a whole is a very toxic place and not just law one. So from this I have understood whether I do law or maybe something else, there is very high possibility that I will still have to be in this toxic culture along with working atleast 10-12 hrs a day. So it doesn't make much sense to me to change careers just because of this after spending a whole year diligently preparing for entrances.

Thankyou for all the time you took out to make me understand about mba, I greatly appreciate it but I think you misinterpreted what I actually meant. I was asking along with mba what are the other prospects in law. I have seen many people saying to others in LI that you have not explored all the options in law. So I wanted to confirm whether I actually know all of them or not. Like I know there's litigation then there's judiciary, there's in house counsel work then law firms, ngo works, investigator, upsc, entrepreneurship, academia, international law (public and private both), govt jobs. Am I missing anything else?

I disagree for multiple reasons while I agree with your rationale.

The salary growth is much higher and there is diversity of roles. In corporate law once you become SA+ the number of people who can afford you is miniscule. This is why it becomes very difficult to leave or switch without a pay cut.

Everyone hires MBAs at a obscene salary whether it may be for Marketing/ HR/Ops/Finance/Consultancy .

MBA offers a good route for lawyers, consultants love hiring lawyers. Work for 3-4 years then switch in-house. Unlike in house legal jobs where they are seen as cost and underpaid with MBA while you are a cost companies are willing to pay.

Beyond that you don't need a LLM to go abroad, the opportunities are diverse and flexible. However yes if you stay with consultants then it will be sort of like law firm with better pay.

Consultants out earn corporate lawyers at all levels if you discount tax.

If you reread the comment. The person said they prepared for CAT leaving their T1 job and got into a mid tier IIM, which is a very reasonable outcome infact with probability still against you. Most lawyers who would drop for CAT would rarely make the cut for ABCL. In such cases a T1 corp job is a decent option. When we say outearn corp laywers we're going into details and talking like a 80-100 difference, which even though considerable is not big enough to make you any pooorer or richer.

On the point that management side recruiters are awaiting lawyers with an MBA, sorry to burst your balloon but talk to any MBA grad and they'll narate the sad story. Bottom line is your law career sadly depends on the kind of partner you're working under, it it happens to a decent human (50-50 chances) then an MBA does not make any sense. If a bad partner then it's a route you'll inevitably job towards due to your own experiences.

A tier MBA Schools > A tier Law Schools.

if you have what it takes to crack CAT (98 percentile and above), by all means, do it. (saying it from the point of view of a general male non engineer), given B schools consider law degree under their so-called diversity Quota and are inclined to call you for an interview if you put in efforts to make your CV and application good enough, pointing out synergies in terms of how you can leverage law and business. My honest opinion though, it also largely depends on your area of interest, you're in your first year & therefore may or may not no what you want rn, I'd suggest to try new things apart from interning which you eventually will, people switch to B schools due to a lot of reasons (pay, different career path, different interests). Just something to think about.