<p>Great points , would a JD/MBA program guard against this kind of age discrimination. i.e would and MBA mean I am considered good enough to be placed above the 20 yr olds in the food chain at a law firm ? In other words does a joint degree carry higher/lower value at a law firm.</p>
<p>You will never, ever, ever be placed above younger lawyers who have more experience in law than you do. I do not understand why you think there is some mechanism to trick your way ahead of people who know more about law than you do at a business that sells expertise in law. The various age of the parties makes absolutely no difference, what matters is experience doing the thing you are selling. I should add, this attempt to get around people who are younger than you but more experienced is exactly why firms are hesitant to hire older graduates.</p>
<p>Please relax. There is no reason to say “ever ever” 
you give away a lot more on where you are coming from than you probably want to by overreacting.
If the various age of parties really made no difference we would not be having this discussion at all. From following this thread I understood law firms have a bias against hiring older lawyers with less/no experience.
Let me clarify I have no problem reporting to someone younger than myself. But seems like the law firms have problems having me report to someone younger. One cannot reason with the bias
So I say : OK I am willing to do what it takes to avoid that situation. Since I cannot convince anyone who is biased to believe otherwise what are my options ?</p>
<p>I can try to convince them there is no reason to place me under a younger person due to this additional skill that I worked on. I have no problems having younger reports either </p>
<p>I do not understand the use of the term trick JD/MBA is a valid degree not a trick you know </p>
<p>Its really ridiculous… what you are saying is there is an age bias , this is the reason for it and there is nothing you can do about it. Thanks a bunch.</p>
<p>Law firms have an age bias because law is completely hierarchical by seniority. That means the guy with 2 years experience takes orders from the guy with 5 years experience regardless of their respective ages. When the guy with 2 years experience is much older than the guy with 5 years experience, the 2 year guy often ignores or otherwise undermines the 5 year guy because “he’s so much older and more experienced and this is how things really work…” People expect to be superior to those younger than them, not the other way around. Law firms do not care about your age. They care about your ability to do law, which they buy wholesale from you and retail to clients. That means the 5 year guy is more valuable than the 2 year guy, no matter if the 2 year guy is 50 and the 5 year guy 30.</p>
<p>That’s not to say firms don’t hire older grads; they do, all the time. But when they’re hiring they look out for things like “If I got a JD/MBA would I get to be above those young third years?” They catch a whiff of that and you’re done. There’s plenty of eager grads looking for jobs where the firm won’t have to worry it’s insubordination waiting to happen. </p>
<p>What I am trying to drill into you here is that law firms are a business. They buy lawyer time and retail it to clients. Clients pay according to how experienced the lawyer is. Since the cash is hierarchical by experience, so is the authority. If you are willing to play by the rules and meet all the other normal qualifications, firms will hire you. If you show up epitomizing the problems they want to avoid, they won’t.</p>
<p>I think when you say “law firms” hire or don’t hire older recent grads you need to be more specific. A law firm could be two guys or two hundred. My experience as a 16 year lawyer who works with law students frequently is that large national firms almost never hire older first year associates. The reasons include that you aren’t as malleable, won’t dedicate the 80 plus hours a week, and you might already (heaven forfend) consider life balance more than getting to go out for beers. They want to mold you in their image (for example, but not limited to, telling you how to dress/to go get makeup lessons and wear more makeup/buy a better car/to track you on your phone gps etc). Mature folks tend to take offense at being molded. </p>
<p>If you aren’t of the caliber for/interested in a large national or large regional firm, eg top of the class (which is a lot harder than it sounds), than your personality and other skills might be more important.</p>
<p>It’s true that a “firm” can be almost any size. However, generally when people talk about “firms” they mean those paying enough to pay off student loans, which means large firms or specialized boutiques.</p>