are entering a business that will require them to have business development skills for their professional success,” offered Wanda Woods, senior attorney recruitment administrator in Nixon Peabody’s New York office. She says law schools should consider adding the following to the curriculum: “The economics of running a law business, how to develop new business, networking, how to interact with opposing counsel, how to conduct client meetings, the need for efficiency, and the importance of time and project management.”

In fact, says Marc S. Fried-man, a partner in the New York office of Sonnen-schein Nath & Rosenthal,

“I would offer non-cred-it courses in the above topics to prepare law students to become legal professionals.”

The Rankings

What Frims Want

Our respondents point out that they aren’t expecting new attorneys to understand profit and loss statements or to get involved in the billing and collections arm of the business, but to realize that a law firm is a business: that it lives and dies on fees; that expenses have to be monitored; that their time has to be carefully tracked; that the latter is not some torture system devised for them alone, but part of the necessary running of a law firm.

They want new hires to recognize and respect the business realities, and realize that in addition to serving clients, their job is to help contribute to

the bottom line. As one respondent explained:

“Every law firm is a business, solo practitioners run a business, even government and public interest law have business aspects to them. So it makes sense to teach business skills, including marketing, management, basic accounting and finance, and how to create a business plan.”

While a handful of law schools offer joint degree programs combining the J.D. and M.B.A., few, if any, are

New hires must respect the business realities and realize that, in addition to serving clients, their job is to help contribute to the bottom line.

really addressing the law firms’ desire to have new attorneys think like lawyers and business people. One that is trying is the University of Virginia School of Law, which allows students to declare an outside concentration in business organization and finance.

One of the courses offered is “Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements.” This makes a lot of sense to one of our survey participants, who said that law schools should make “accounting or some finance courses required for all lawyers, since numbers are part of every issue.”

The emphasis, according to our respondents, should be on understanding basic law firm economics. Emily Busse, manager of recruiting and professional development in the Washington, D.C. office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, suggests that new attorneys should be familiar with “realization, utilization, the concept of leverage, and law firm terminology like WIP (work in progress), origination, RPL (revenue per lawyer), and NIPP (net income per partner).”

She adds that lawyers who understand the business aspects of the industry will become the leaders; those who don’t will always be followers. To put it simply, she says,

“Students who graduate from law school able to think like a lawyer, but also like a business person, are likely to be more successful.”

And of course it is no shock that respondents want new associates to be aware of business development opportunities early in their careers.

“Entry-level attorneys are surprised how soon they need to start thinking about strategies for business development,” notes Ms. Woods. “Careers can get off to a positive start the sooner attorneys learn the basics of business development, starting with keeping in touch with college and law