A law degree is required for a career in corporate law, but some law schools have better corporate law preparation programs than others. Choosing the best corporate law schools usually necessitates extensive research and persistent questioning. Law schools in most jurisdictions provide a uniformly broad education; schools rarely identify themselves as solely corporate law schools. Nonetheless, schools with stronger business law offerings, corporate law clinics, and internship and job placement programs in the corporate sector often gain a reputation as primarily corporate law schools in the legal market. Finding these schools usually entails a market analysis, interviews with practitioners, and a search for alumni statistics.
A broad understanding of the law is required for corporate legal training. In many ways, law schools around the world are designed to provide this type of foundational breadth to all students, as most legal programs have a fairly consistent curriculum across jurisdictions. The majority of the time, the goal of legal education is to provide lawyers with a broad base of knowledge that they can apply to a variety of fields.
It is uncommon for law schools to allow students to declare specialties in the same way that a college or university allows them to declare a major. Nonetheless, many schools allow upper-level students to enroll in a limited number of elective courses. Business entities, corporate tax, international finance, and other related subjects have a disproportionately high number of courses offered corporate law schools. For business-minded students, some schools also provide extensive corporate law clinics, internship programs, and contextual, on-site study opportunities. Examining the breadth and depth of business study available is one way to identify corporate law schools.
The quality of corporate law faculty is frequently used to determine which corporate law schools are the best. Many of the top law schools hire former government attorneys and corporate counsel to teach classes, either full-time or on an adjunct basis. Corporate legal training provided a professor with national or international experience is often superior to that provided a professor who has only practiced corporate law in a local law firm.
The quality of a corporate law school can sometimes be determined its reputation in the business community. When looking for the best school, consider the schools from which top corporations and corporate-focused law firms hire their new employees. Inquiring about different law schools’ corporate preparation reputations, as well as examining a school’s course offerings, is a good place to start. Speaking with law school admissions officers can also help determine whether a school is truly a corporate law school or if it only offers corporate law classes.