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Current Issue
Envision: Spring 2008
Cover story
Twice as nice: Alumni of Northwestern's JD-MBA program find their dual degree an invaluable career asset
Featured: JJ Ofer (JD-MBA '06), Thomas Cline (JD ’80), Jared Bartie (JD ’93)
Law School Update
From ideation to incorporation: New interdisciplinary program allows students to experience entrepreneurship in action
Featured: Bill Chang (JD '06), Karen Katri (JD '09)
Alumni in the News
Dean's Roundtable
David Sayyed named chair of Young Wigmore Club
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Twice as nice: Alumni of Northwestern's JD-MBA program find their dual degree an invaluable career asset
Preparing for an executive role in his family's UK-based real estate management company, Carlyle MG Limited, JJ Ofer (JD-MBA '06) secured a job with Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell. Zell told him that having a law degree "provided the foundation for business success" — an opinion Ofer had heard from his father, Eyal, as well. But Ofer felt that his own preparation required a law degree and something more: an MBA.
"I couldn't argue with the value of a law degree, but I wanted an MBA as well, so I began searching for dual-degree programs," Ofer says. "I found the Northwestern three-year JD-MBA the most focused and practical program available today." He also found it immediately useful when, two months after graduation, he was representing Carlyle MG as the landlord in a tenant's bankruptcy in Delaware.
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| Bill Brodsky (center) with Dean David Van Zandt and Professor David Ruder. Above: Stained glass murals designed by Ricardo Moñtaño and donated by Adolfo Autrey (MBA ’70) and The Managers’ Program Class of 2002. |
Ten percent of current JD students at Northwestern Law do as Ofer did: They receive an MBA along with a JD. Having both credentials not only prepares them for the many business issues faced in legal practice, but also opens up business career paths such as consulting, investment banking, entrepreneurship, and venture capital.
At Northwestern, students are able to complete both degrees in three years, graduating with the JD and MBA classes with which they entered. That's because the Law School and the Kellogg School of Management cooperated to eliminate redundancies in courses and offer students full credit from both schools for common core courses.
Before the accelerated program started in 1999, four years was the typical time for completing both the JD and the MBA. In the 1990s, three sons of Chicago Mercantile Exchange CEO Bill Brodsky were studying for both degrees. Brodsky thought that the four-year plan was less a program than a jumble, with students applying to and completing the requirements of each school separately. As a Kellogg advisory board member, Brodsky had a forum for expressing his opinion to the schools' deans, Don Jacobs of Kellogg and David Van Zandt of the Law School.
"What I observed was that it was a challenge to obtain two degrees from a great university," Brodsky says. "I was able to get the deans of the two schools to begin a dialogue that resulted in a bona fide program. Now, with the three-year format, two plus two equals five!"
The three-year JD-MBA, the nation's first, is indeed viewed by those who have gone through it as adding up to a bonus. Instead of juggling the requirements for both degrees on their own (as students pursuing the two degrees at other universities generally do), Northwestern students enter and go through the joint program as a cohort.
Students spend their first year of study at the Law School and the summer term counts at both schools. During the second year, they attend Kellogg. During the final year, they take courses at the Law School and may take an elective or two at Kellogg. They complete a minimum of 16 courses at Kellogg and 72 hours of law course work, with a number of courses counting for both the JD and the MBA.
In recent years, 20 to 25 students have entered every fall. But even before the three-year format boosted the program's attractiveness, a fair number of students saw the desirability of getting both degrees. The number graduating with both a JD and MBA climbed through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. By the time the accelerated program was launched, each year 10 to 15 students entered intending to complete both degrees.
Geraldine Alexis (JD-MBA '76) was the first woman to receive both a JD and an MBA from Northwestern. She finished in four years.
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| Clockwise from top left: JJ Ofer, Geraldine Alexis, Robert Knuepfer, and Peter Braffman |
"At the time I started practicing law, women in business law were a new phenomenon," says Alexis, now a partner at Perkins Coie in San Francisco specializing in antitrust law. "Not only did my MBA assist me in understanding the substantive nature of commercial transactions, such as commodity futures contracts and complex long-term supply contracts, it also helped me overcome what I perceived to be a presumption that commercial law was no place for a ‘lady lawyer.'"
Alexis says her business background has been especially helpful in analyzing financial statements, business operations, and managerial decision making. Understanding the economics of her clients' businesses helps her offer practical as well as legal advice backed up by financial evidence. She can interact with economic and finance experts at a level many lawyers cannot. As an example, she offers her work in 1984 and 1985 with Myron Scholes, developer of the Black-Scholes option pricing model, who later won a Nobel Prize.
"I was working with Myron Scholes to formulate a damage model in the multibillion -dollar antitrust case MCI v. AT&T," Alexis says. "AT&T was our client. Myron's novel model was based on an ex ante approach to estimating damages, as opposed to the ex post model that was prevalent at the time and that MCI used. With the assistance of Dean Jacobs of Kellogg and Stewart Meyers of AT&T, we persuaded a number of jurors to accept AT&T's damage model, saving AT&T billions of dollars."
Robert Knuepfer (MBA ‘77, JD '78) was another dual-degree graduate of the 1970s, when, he recalls, "the first year was law or business, the second year was the other curriculum, and the third and fourth years were law during the day and business at night. The Law School did not offer evening classes, and the business school did."
Knuepfer says he never resented the grind because "the two degrees were a perfect blend of my interests. I still use what I learned in both programs every day." After graduation, he was a federal court of appeals clerk and federal prosecutor before being hired at Baker & McKenzie, where he has made his career. Knuepfer chaired Baker & McKenzie's central Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States practice from Budapest before returning to Chicago to specialize in business advice for corporate managers. He also is an adjunct professor for both JD and MBA courses.
"Having an MBA definitely helped my legal career," he says. "I have credibility with business clients who see the MBA as a credential, and my knowledge of business practices provides better advice for business problems."
Don Rebstock, associate dean of enrollment, career strategy, and marketing at the Law School, expects that program enrollment will grow as students realize the boundary between law and business is increasingly blurry.
"With the changes going on now in society, an MBA is a great benefit for anyone pursuing a legal career," Rebstock says. "Clients need new attorneys who have a business perspective. Attorneys need quantitative skills as well as training in organizational behavior and team dynamics. Anyone looking at law school should consider the JD-MBA."
Furthermore, although people coming out of the program typically begin their careers as lawyers, the MBA provides the credential to later move into senior corporate management. Peter Braffman (JD-MBA '95), for example, is a New York–based senior vice president at Zurich Alternative Asset Management investment group. He specializes in acquiring and managing commercial real estate investments.
Braffman had been working in banking when he decided to return to school for post-baccalaureate study.
"I was focusing on structured asset-backed finance transactions in a boutique investment bank," Braffman says. "It required a lot of legal expertise as well as financial structuring, so getting both a JD and an MBA seemed very relevant and helpful to my career."
After Northwestern, Braffman went to work for Kirkland & Ellis, where his JD was required, of course, "but what was really valued was my business experience and degree." He then moved to Goldman Sachs, which "was also attracted to that skill set," and finally to his present employment in business.
"It's very common for our graduates to move back and forth between law and business," Rebstock says. "Having both degrees is a great benefit in the long-term for those aspiring to be CEOs or to start their own businesses down the road. They'll have to make strategic as well as legal decisions."
With about 340 people having received both degrees from Northwestern, the JD-MBA Alumni Association has been expanding its programming. Large events were held in November 2006 in Chicago and June 2007 in New York.
Graduates also join Kellogg and Northwestern Law alumni for events — making them in effect members of three graduating classes: MBA, JD, and JD-MBA. Many feel that having this extended network of classmates is one of the biggest benefits of the program.
"I attend reunions at both the Law School and Kellogg and have professional and social contact with many of these classmates," says Knuepfer. "In fact, I think the great strength of the program and Northwestern is the close personal relationships. The education was first-rate, but the relationships have made all the difference in my life."
As the number of JD-MBA alumni grows, past graduates with already established careers believe the JD-MBA Alumni Association can play a role beyond organizing reunions.
"I think the association should provide assistance in career planning, placement, and mentoring," Knuepfer says, "and should develop an active network through online communication and in-person events."
"Networking is an important part of business and the practice of law," Alexis agrees. "I think the association can facilitate networking as well as help keep both the practicing lawyers and business executives current on new developments in their fields."
From ideation to incorporation:
New interdisciplinary program allows students to experience entrepreneurship in action
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| Professor Clinton Francis (left) and alum Bill Chang assisted students with the legal aspects of "Medical Innovations," a new interdisciplinary course. |
Bill Chang (JD '06) always thought there should be more practical experience in law school — it helps prepare students for the real world, he says.
That sentiment, in large part, was what spurred Chang on to volunteer as an assistant instructor for Northwestern Law's new two-semester course, "Medical Innovations." The interdisciplinary course combines practical innovation and commercialization with formal classroom instruction. It gives students the opportunity to experience the entire innovation life cycle — from ideation to prototyping, legal protection, business plan development, and investor presentation.
"It's a unique course and a great opportunity for current law students to see entrepreneurship in action," says Chang, a patent attorney who will begin a clerkship with Suzanne B. Conlon, United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois, in July. "Working with different groups — doctors, engineers, business people — gives them a small-scale version of what they'll be experiencing when they enter practice."
Chang was tapped to help with the course by Professor Clinton Francis, his former faculty advisor and current "Medical Innovations" legal instructor. He helped Professor Francis advise students on patent issues.
"To get four schools to work together is quite an achievement," says Francis. "You have to work with four different cultures, four different faculty groups, four different grading systems. It takes a lot to develop that, to figure out the inter-school dynamics."
Students met for three hours per week to discuss and develop their invention. They also attended interdisciplinary lectures, including ones on intellectual property, patenting, confidentiality, and business law. Law students were immersed in real-world contract, regulations, business formation, corporate and venture finance, and intellectual property issues.
At the end of the course, students presented their business plans to venture capitalists and executives from large health care companies in the hopes of securing commercialization of their invention, with an end-goal of possibly forming a start-up enterprise.
Inaugural course
Eighty-two students participated in the inaugural course. Participants were broken into 11 interdisciplinary teams, each of which focused on one of 10 areas: cardiology, cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics, emergency medicine, urology, neurosurgery, general surgery, radiology, and otolaryngology.
Second-year law student Karen Katri (JD '09) signed up for the program as soon as she read its description in the course catalog.
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| Karen Katri with a brochure from the company she plans to form with other students from the Medical Innovations program. (photo by Nathan Mandell) |
"Basically this was the ideal class for me," says Katri, who has a strong interest in entrepreneurship and chose Northwestern Law in part because of its close connection with Kellogg. "I'm not a JD-MBA, and this course allowed me to take business/law courses."
Katri was on the orthopedics team. Her first few weeks were spent shadowing doctors and staff at the medical school. During their rounds, Katri's team observed that retractors, instruments used to hold back organs and tissues so that body parts underneath may be accessed, were uncomfortable and caused fatigue in users. They decided to design a more ergonomic retractor.
While Katri's expertise was used primarily to develop a business plan and an intellectual property protection strategy for the product, she says her input was valued no matter the issue at hand.
"No one group said, ‘You're a law student, you're not part of this,'" she says. "I was able to participate in every stage of the process, and everybody respected each other and was willing to cede the leadership position when the focus was on the other disciplines."
Overall, Katri says the class was one of the most fulfilling academic experiences she has had. In addition to traditional learning, it gave her real-world experience in managing different personalities, dealing with scheduling conflicts, and setting priorities, she says.
"As much as we can learn from academic courses and textbooks, nothing compares to having a real problem and learning how to handle it yourself," she says.
Future innovations
Six of the 11 Medical Innovations teams, including Katri's, have decided to move forward with their inventions. The graduate schools continue to give the students guidance, albeit informally, as the groups incorporate, raise funds, and finalize their business plans.
"It's going to be a challenge," says Kartri about her team's desire to incorporate. "But it's also very exciting."
The Law School plans to offer the course again next year, with a few tweaks.
"We're all conscious of the need to develop the program incrementally," says Francis. "Next year we're looking to modify the curriculum and refine the grading system and time requirements."
The course has an advisory board currently made up of representatives from 10 medical device companies and may add law firms to the board as the course evolves, Francis says.
"The participation of a law firm, especially one active in the medical innovation area, would add a legal dimension to the feedback the advisory board offers," he says. "It is also possible that I would call on the firm to provide counseling to students on intellectual property protection, entity formation, and other issues the teams encounter during the course."
In the future, Francis says NUvention may look to expand the program beyond the medical field into other applied sciences, such as information technology, nano technology, and material sciences, or other areas of innovation, such as movie production.
"While there are no concrete initiatives underway to extend the course for next year, the core curriculum could be applied to other areas of innovation that involve product development and require similar marketing and capitalization," he says. "We're open to talking with contacts in these fields who could help us get these new courses off the ground."
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| Spring Dean’s Roundtable Speakers (from left): Adam C. Cooper, Nancy Pacher, Judge Stephen F. Williams, and Matthew W. Ferguson |
For each one-hour event, the guest speaker joins the Dean, along with a small group of students, for lunch and an informal discussion about his or her career, both in its current stage as well as how it may have evolved since graduation.
Most of the Dean's Roundtable speakers have had career paths that have taken them outside of the traditional large law firm and into various fields and industries. The goal is for students to meet and learn from alumni and increase their understanding of the many career paths and opportunities available as a future graduate of Northwestern Law.
Thanks to the Dean's Roundtable speakers who participated this spring:
- Adam C. Cooper (JD '87), Citadel Investment Group, L.L.C.
- Nancy Pacher (JD '75), U.S. Equities Realty
- Judge Stephen F. Williams (Howard J. Trienens Visiting Judicial Scholar, 2007–2008), United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Matthew W. Ferguson (JD '92), CareerBuilder.com
David Sayyed named chair of Young Wigmore Club
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David Sayyed (JD-MBA '04) says he was attracted to Northwestern's JD-MBA program for three reasons: the program's integrated approach to earning the two degrees, the length of the program (three years instead of four), and the location of the school.
Four years after graduation, Sayyed says he is certain he made the right choice for a different reason: he acquired a lasting sense of community from the Law School during his time as a student.
Even as a "lowly 1L," Sayyed says he felt welcomed into the Law School community by faculty, staff, and students, all of whom created an atmosphere of knowledge, respect, and kindness.
"My experience at Northwestern Law changed my life for the better," Sayyed says. "I know what the Law School did for me, and the least I can do is give back with my time."
Sayyed says he feels a strong connection with the Law School, even though he currently does not practice law. As a brand manager for Georgia Pacific, he manages the day-to-day business operations of Quilted Northern Bath Tissue, a product with an annual revenue of $1 billion. While his position draws more on his MBA, his legal background gives him an advantage in reading contracts, negotiations, and legal claims, he says. He also often acts as a translator for his colleagues, converting legalese into business language.
As the Young Wigmore chair, Sayyed says he feels honored to play a prominent role in the giving society and a tremendous responsibility to help the program reach its goals. He says it is important for young alumni to give back to the school so that current students can share in its traditions.
"The Law School influenced us when we were students, and participation in the Young Wigmore program is our chance to influence where the Law School will be tomorrow," he says.
