<p>I am currently a graphic design student at my university, and my ultimate dream is to start my own advertising company (and basically take over the world). I like to be in charge and I want to COMPLETELY run this dream company one day. I have always been interested in a law career as well. Over the years, I have jumped from all the various types of attorney jobs, but now I'm really thinking corporate law might be ideal.</p>
<p>Basically what I am asking is whether or not this is even the way to go. I don't know much about corporate law and would really appreciate further information on what that career really entails.</p>
<p>When you say corporate law do you mean working for a firm who represents corporations in litigation or transactional work or do you mean in-house work in a corporation? Or do you not know the difference?</p>
<p>Edited to add…do you want to sit around looking at documents like contracts and leases all day?</p>
<p>Your post is puzzling. I have never met a successful advertising executive with a law degree, nor a successful corporate lawyer who would excel in the ad world. The required skill sets don’t overlap much, other than both requiring attention to detail and possibly long work hours. Corporate law demands high levels of reading comprehension professional writing analytical thinking, leadership and public speaking skills, and a very strong work ethic.</p>
<p>I wrote this post really fast before class, and now that I am looking back on it, I realize it is quite vague. Sorry!
I have it in my head that I am going to law school no matter what. It is something I’ve always wanted to do, and I am too stubborn to change my mind so time, money, and issues of that sort don’t really concern me. </p>
<p>@TempeMom - I’m pretty sure I want to do in-house work. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about hiring someone for my business, and I would be more comfortable knowing I was the one in charge of that area. Does that make sense? Like would that even work? I know taking that route means I probably won’t have as big of a paycheck, but this is just something that I am considering at the moment. I don’t necessarily want to be a big time corporate lawyer, but I do want total control over my own business. This could totally be a pipe dream for all I know.</p>
<p>@niceday - I understand your confusion. Lots of people that do not know me think there is no way I can make this happen. However, in the least conceited way possible, I’m very talented in multiple areas, and my skill sets do actually overlap quite a bit. I have this strange desire to constantly stay busy, and attention to detail is one of my biggest strengths. And again, I’m sorry this post was a bit vague and confusing!!</p>
<p>If you want to start an ad business, you should work in the ad business. Going to law school and doing corporate work won’t help you much. Though you may think yourself “too stubborn” and that “time, money, and issues of that sort don’t really concern [you],” you should be aware they very much matter to banks. Banks are the institutions that give loans to people to start new businesses. You’d be astonished how unimpressed they are with people who are “talented in multiple areas.”</p>
<p>If you want to do in-house work, that generally means going to work in a firm for a few years and then lateraling over to one of their clients. You won’t be in charge in either place. If you start your own business you’ll be in charge (meaning clients will tell you what to do instead of a boss) but you’ll almost certainly be too busy to handle your own legal work (also, it would be foolish to do so). </p>
<p>In short, law and starting an ad agency are totally different endeavors. Pick which you want, and go for it.</p>
<p>Sorry to say your answer doesn’t work for me either. </p>
<p>Merely going to law school isn’t going to teach you what you need to know to protect your future company. You graduate and take the bar often without ANY INKLING of how to actually do the business (the oft heard refrain is they “teach you how to think like a lawyer”). Unlike medicine you needn’t have done any “clinicals” or rotations. The only way you can learn how to protect your future company is by practicing for several years in that environment. </p>
<p>So, if you want to practice law than practice law. If you want to run an ad agency than run and ad agency and hire the lawyers. You hire lawyers for the same reason you don’t do your own dental work. COULD you pull your own teeth? Sure, but it’s expensive and painful when you screw up.</p>
<p>Most lawyers aren’t really in charge of much of anything. Their clients are basically in charge. Their power is usually the power to persuade.</p>
<p>That’s true of advertising agencies, too.</p>
<p>I’m sure it will strike most people as rather odd that I spent my last year of law school thinking about going into advertising, after getting no offers from the law firms I interviewed with my second year. I ended up being offered a job with a law firm after I created a successful ad campaign for them.</p>
<p>The corporation I work for now does a lot of business with ad agencies; that’s one of the few businesses that appears to be shrinking faster than the business of lawyering, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Techsan: you should work for a couple of years and start to learn that there are a lot of things you don’t know. Very few people are good at more than one or two skills; a successful business requires many different skills. You are far better off having specialists who do their own thing very well, rather than be the one person who mucks up everything. </p>
<p>Don’t ask me how I know these things, but potential adversaries will take your lawyer more seriously than they will take you as a lawyer. </p>
<p>As always, if you are thinking about a particular job (eg in house counsel), look at job postings for that to determine what qualifications you need. Most in-house attorneys have a dozen years of BigLaw experience under their belts. I know of exactly one person who went in-house immediately after law school, and his father was VP and General Counsel. (That is not merely “knowing someone” in the business. Unless your parents are VP/GC, don’t count on that.)</p>