CONTACT: Kimberly Little
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ANDERSON STUDENTS EARN CONCURRENT BUSINESS AND LAW DEGREE
Envisioning a very competitive work force in years ahead, UCLA graduate students are choosing comprehensive programs to give them the cutting edge.
LOS ANGELES, May 4, 2000-- Today's rapidly shifting business environment not only demands creativity and vision from its key players, but an ability to problem solve using a broad base of knowledge and methodologies. Recognizing the variety of skills essential to business management students, The Anderson School in conjunction with UCLA's School of Law, established the MBA/JD. The concurrent degree program is designed to allow graduates to pursue careers in which law and management overlap or where the understanding of both fields is beneficial in their personal goals.
Often attracting the most ambitious of students, the twenty-six year-old program appeals to young professionals hoping to venture into such fields as management consulting, public service, real estate development or international trade. Currently 12 students are enrolled in the four-year program.
Rather than solely offering an MBA or JD, the combined program prepares students for all the components involved in a management career. Those components include: general management skills, in-depth specialization in some functional area or discipline, and management field study, which exposes students to the realities of real-world businesses.
"Law students tend to be very research and detail-oriented," said Gordon Klein, a lecturer at Anderson who also teaches at UCLA's School of Law. "While MBA students are often more quantitative and big-picture oriented."
More specifically, the schools are different in the analyzation methods used, Beth Moeller, associate director of career services at the UCLA School of Law, explained. Anderson often uses a team-oriented approach, utilizing case studies for practice, and in general provides a more quantitative, practical education; while the law school employs a Socratic method, teaching theoretical and analytical skills to solve problems.
Moeller said today's marketplace is desperate for multi-talented employees more than ever.
"The more experience and knowledge a student has, the more marketable he or she will likely be," Moeller emphasized. "Employers are looking for self-starters who are flexible and can view problems from different angles."
Vincent Chow, a 1994 graduate of the MBA/JD program, knows first-hand the wealth of opportunities such a degree offers. Chow chose the program so that he could make wide career changes throughout his professional life.
And at 33, Chow has done just that. After graduation, he fell easily into the role of a general corporate and securities lawyer for Goodsill Anderson Quinn and Stifel, the largest firm in Hawaii. And after more than 5 years experience as a lawyer with different firms, Chow was soon infected with dot-com fever, working for a start-up in San Jose and then, later, as Director of Business Development for ShoppingList.com. Today, Chow is working solo as he starts his own auction web site.
"Having an MBA helped me tremendously as a lawyer because I was expected to give far more than just legal advice at times and to be sensitive to what a client wanted, Chow said. "I have more of the rigorous, logical and often paranoid thinking processes that go with legal training coupled with the creative, decisive and priority setting processes that go with business thinking."
Current students of the program are also aware of the flexibility the joint degree can offer.
When Mark Wintner, 24, completed his undergraduate studies in finance, he was interested in furthering his business and management skills, but at the same time, wanted to attend law school.
In his third year of the program, Wintner plans to pursue a career in investment banking, and someday begin his own firm.
Moeller stresses that the law and business fields are inextricably bound together and a student with knowledge of both worlds will essentially have the cutting edge talent needed to compete in the technology era.
For example, to launch a for-profit website, many typical business issues of marketing, funding and strategy arise, yet a successful launch will also need people who understand the potential legal problems involved, such as intellectual property and licensing.
"Working in a small international start-up company, I saw a need for a variety of skills that I am able to develop while earning this degree," explains Jeffrey Diener, 26, a second-year MBA/JD student. "I approached business school as a way to strengthen some of my quantitative skills, while law school allows me to continue to expand my writing skills."
The Anderson School offers eight other concurrent degree programs, including:
∑ MBA/MD program
∑ MBA/Master of Science in Computer Science
∑ MBA/Master of Arts in Latin American Studies
∑ MBA/Master of Nursing
∑ MBA/Master of Library and Information Science
∑ MBA/Master of Public Health
∑ MBA/Master of Urban Planning
Admission decisions for the concurrent MBA/JD program are made by separate committees from the School of Law and The Anderson School.
ANDERSON/UCLA
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