A LEG UP
FIRM FOOTING
All agree that the joint degree was well worth the demands it placed on their time and bank account. In the business world, attorneys are sometimes seen as naysayers, admonishing clients that they can’t do this or that. But an MBA turns them into creative problem-solvers and opens many doors upon graduation and beyond. It often gives grads increased access into and between corporate legal departments, law firms, and tax firms. Assistant Professor David Yosifon, who is faculty advisor for the program, says, “Silicon Valley needs people who can speak both languages—law and business. Especially in times of economic crisis, clients want lawyers who can think about business. Most of the time when a client comes to you for advice there is a business question tangled up in the legal question.” Having both degrees, he says, gives graduates a leg up.
When Francis Jose J.D./MBA ’03 applied to the corporate department of Morrison and Foerster’s Palo Alto office upon graduation, he was told that “the ramp up for a junior associate just to understand where the client is coming from was two to three years,” he says. The MBA, however, shortened that. “The MBA allowed me to relate a lot faster to the client since CFOs and CEOs of companies tend to have gone to business school,” he says. Mount’s MBA got him his first job out of law school as a business litigator. “With an MBA, I understand financial statements, and I know when to litigate,” he says. “We fight about money only when it makes money sense.” His MBA has also helped in the day-to-day management of his firm, Mount & Stolker, in San Jose. “An MBA helps you better understand the service business we are in as lawyers,” he says. Louise McCabe switched from tax to litigation and worked as a partner at Nixon Peabody specializing in complex business disputes. Now a partner in the Southern California offices of Troutman Sanders, McCabe says, “I believe the business education gave me a tremendous advantage as a litigator. [It] made me a better, more well-rounded, and practical lawyer, and provided a heightened sensitivity to the business and financial goals of my clients.” It also made her a highly valued law firm manager. McCabe has served in a number of management positions throughout her career including that of treasurer, where for a time she was responsible for oversight of the accounting department and dayto-day financial operations of a firm. “The MBA and accounting background really enabled my career to soar very early on," she says of her first position with a major law firm after leaving
TAX BASE
CHA R LE S B AR RY
The leg up Kryder got was a job upon graduation in Arthur Young’s (now Ernst & Young) tax department. “They normally didn’t hire directly for that department,” he says, “but because I had a degree in accounting, an MBA, and a J.D., they hired me directly.” In 1988 he became a tax partner, and remained with the firm until 1990, when he joined Quantum as General Counsel and Vice President. Louise McCabe J.D./MBA ’83, who holds an undergraduate joint degree in economics and sociology, landed a solid job in a soft market in the tax department of Touche Ross, now Deloitte. There she joined two other Santa Clara Law graduates, Ted Upland J.D./MBA ’81 and Sam Coffey ’83 and worked with them for the next several years.
DAN MOUNT b.s. ’74, J.D./MBA ’77
Louise McCabe J.D./MBA ’83 SCOTT LEWIS
8 santa clara law | fall 2010
P H O T O C ourtesy o f L ouise Mc Cab e J.D./M B A ’83