Transferring into a law degree (1 Viewer)

[tracyhuang7]

Hi all,

I am currently on track to transfer into UNSW BComm/Arts within 1 semester with my current WAM but I have recently been offered Macquarie Uni's BComm/BLaw degree. I don't know if I should take the offer or not- I want to become a management consultant but at the same time, I've always wanted to do law. Variables influencing my decisions include:

-Risk of not finding a graduate role at a top tier law firm with a degree non GO8 uni in an already over-saturated market
-Risk of losing touch with my current batch of friends and coping with change at a new uni

So my questions are:

1. What are the career prospects/progression like for both degrees?

2. If I take the Macquarie offer, what are some viable alternative pathways (e.g. getting top ECs/transferring to GO8 Law) I can take to improve my chances of scoring a grad role at a top law firm?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[RivalryofTroll]

I don't know if I should take the offer or not- I want to become a management consultant but at the same time, I've always wanted to do law.
So I'm going to make the assumption that your career goal of being a management consultant is more important than your desire to do a law degree (because you don't need law to be a management consultant).

I'm a UNSW Commerce/Law student (about to be graduate) and I know of people who've made it to top-tier law and MBB - however, I do recommend talking to other students and people who are actually in the profession already (whether it's consulting or law).

1. What are the career prospects/progression like for both degrees?
Well Macquarie's BCom/LLB will give you the opportunity to consider a legal career. See my answer to your second question for more details.

However, if you're primarily keen on management consulting (I'll assume that you're keen on like strategy consulting so firms like McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Oliver Wyman, AT Kearney, LEK - as opposed to consulting/advisory at firms like PwC, EY, Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture, etc.), management consulting firms (especially MBB) tend to focus on recruiting USYD/UNSW in Sydney (it's not impossible to get in from Macquarie/UTS but it's somewhat of a tall order for 99% of people). LinkedIn is your friend here if you want to see the type of people getting into the strategy consulting firms. If you're aiming for MBB or even tier 2 strategy consulting, I think it might be better to do UNSW Commerce/Arts. Also, UNSW is probably the best university when it comes to the amount of consulting clubs/case comp opportunities.

If you're going for like most consulting/advisory lines at the Big 4 (and to a much lesser extent, the strategy divisions of the Big 4 - so like Strategy& at PwC, Monitor at Deloitte, Parthenon at EY), there are Macquarie/UTS students getting in so Macquarie's BCom/LLB is totally fine. Macquarie has consulting ECs like 180 degrees consulting and I believe there's a MCC (Macquarie Consulting Club?).

2. If I take the Macquarie offer, what are some viable alternative pathways (e.g. getting top ECs/transferring to GO8 Law) I can take to improve my chances of scoring a grad role at a top law firm?
- Top-tier law firms do recruit a good amount of non-UNSW/USYD students, in particularly students from ANU, Macquarie and UTS. If you're set on a career in law (as opposed to strategy consulting), I don't think you need to bother trying to transferring again to another university afterwards. If you are a strong candidate (i.e. with the right mix of grades, work experience and ECs) from Macquarie, you can definitely score a summer clerkship from a top-tier law firm (and mid-tier law firms too).
- An alternative option is to do UNSW Commerce/Arts (then focusing on only Commerce subjects or only Arts subjects temporarily), then try to transfer to UNSW Commerce/Law or Arts/Law (however, I would recommend this internal transfer option only -> I would not recommend a lengthy external transfer route of transferring to Macquarie and transferring back to UNSW).
- Ultimately, Macquarie's law school will not prevent you from scoring a summer clerkship at a top-tier. Top-tier law isn't as discriminatory against non-GO8 students as strategy consulting firms (and probably investment banks).

Conclusion
Macquarie's BCom/LLB will be fine for 98% of internship/graduate programs. The 2% represents like strategy consulting and investment banking.