Effect of 'other' degree on your future...

[charlie_charlie]

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Hey all,

I'm currently considering to study law but I'm one of those people who can see myself doing anything from Arts to Commerce..although I *think* I am swinging towards arts and Social Sciences. Anyway, right now, I'm considering Social Inquiry/Law @ UTS. From my understanding (which may be wrong) it focuses mainly on social issues - now, this might be a really dumb question - but would this in anyway affect me in gaining employment at a commerical law firm, later down the track? Do the employers really look at your other degree and say "Oh, you majored in Politics, what are you doing in this (for example) commerical law firm?" Does the Arts/Science/Commerce/Engineering aspect really affect you in this sense, or does the Combined Law degree just provide more flexibility for the other degree (eg Law helping the Science aspect)....

I hope you can understand my convulted post...and thanks in advance to anyone who tries to hammer out a response to this! (If you can understand it) I'm just a naive ex Yr 12 student who wants to study law with...something!

[agent_angel]

congrats on being one of those ppl with 10 million options. detect my sarcasm. grow up

[1000words]

Hi Charlie,

There are a few threads relating to combined degrees, here in the general law forum and other law forums within the specific universities (but not relating to the specific university). It might be worth having a look.

Originally Posted by charlie_charlie

Do the employers really look at your other degree and say "Oh, you majored in Politics, what are you doing in this (for example) commerical law firm?" Does the Arts/Science/Commerce/Engineering aspect really affect you in this sense, or does the Combined Law degree just provide more flexibility for the other degree (eg Law helping the Science aspect)....

Employers will certainly ask and consider your answer very carefully! I think it is one of the major questions in an interview and one that I have been asked at EVERY interview.

I hope that helps! Best of luck.

Regards,
David

[charlie_charlie]

Originally Posted by agent_angel

congrats on being one of those ppl with 10 million options. detect my sarcasm. grow up

Sorry about that, I didn't actually mean it that way. I had something else after that before, but I deleted it before I posted this up. What I meant, I am interested in many combinations with law eg Commerce, Economics, and Arts or Social Science, and can't decide in what to combine it with. I certainly wasn't complaining about my ability to have a choice, just my inability to decide whether I like Commerce, Economics or the Arts more.

Again, I'm really sorry to have caused offence to anyone because of my v poor wording, and rushed typing.



And thanks, David. I thought I read it somewhere, but I just wanted to clarify for sure. By the way, you're a champion for answering so many questions up here!

[Omnidragon]

I can't tell you what you like. But I can give you some insight into what I think will land you a better future.

For starters, I don't know why Commerce and Economics are separated at some universities. At Melb, Economics is a specialisation of Commerce. So I'll just limit my response to the differences I observed between Commerce and Arts.

Every promiment law graduate (and yes I have spoken to a fair few) I've spoken to usually regrets not having studied Commerce. Why? In the later stages of their career, they realise that, as a lawyer, there are many fields they probably can't handle all that well because they haven't had a commerce background.

And on top of that, the general consensus is that Arts doesn't land you a job on its own. Commerce does. Go figure.

[charlie_charlie]

Originally Posted by Omnidragon

Every promiment law graduate (and yes I have spoken to a fair few) I've spoken to usually regrets not having studied Commerce. Why? In the later stages of their career, they realise that, as a lawyer, there are many fields they probably can't handle all that well because they haven't had a commerce background.

And on top of that, the general consensus is that Arts doesn't land you a job on its own. Commerce does. Go figure.

Hm....well the thing is, I had my heart set on Commerce/law throughout the year, but in the last few months, I've had a swing to Arts/Law because I realised that I liked History and english at high school so much more than Eco and Maths. Like, I wanted to do Commerce/Law just for the sake of doing Commerce/Law...if that makes sense. Basically, I thought that Arts would provide me the chance to study what I enjoy whilst the law part would help me in finding a job. That was my logic anyway. But you say that having a commerce backgrond helps in law...but does that just help the lawyer or does it actually seriously affect them? Would it affect their chances in attaining a job in a law firm? Or does it just provide them with a peace of mind?

But it might explain the popularity of commerce/law then ...I don't know. I'm not sure if I'm leaning more towards Arts properly, or I'm just going through my "arts phase"...but I never thought of commerce/law helping a lawyer like that though. Thank you!

[mr EaZy]

i thinkn i was having the same problem, i wanted to combine laaw, with med sci just for fun ,

u were asking about commerce helping law?
well it depends on wat area u specialise in- if u want to get involved in the law where business contractions are involved or even the unions, then commerce may help. u see, in commerce, u study commercial law/ business law and u also get to specialise in particular areas even do a bit of economics.

also, many lawyers later on in life deciede to get an executive job at some commercial firm and so commerce helps in that respect to. usually these are the people who worked with law cases dealing with commerce.

[Iron]

*Marcia Hines voice* Be true to yourself girlfriend; commerce will crush your soul.

[1000words]

Originally Posted by Omnidragon

Every promiment law graduate (and yes I have spoken to a fair few) I've spoken to usually regrets not having studied Commerce. Why? In the later stages of their career, they realise that, as a lawyer, there are many fields they probably can't handle all that well because they haven't had a commerce background.

That's an interesting observation particularly as my personal experience with commerce/law graduates (new and old) has been the exact opposite. Whilst having a commerce degree is great, everyone has mentioned to me that not having done a commerce degree is not something to regret (excuse the double negative) particularly as an undergraduate commerce degree provides fairly basic principles relevant to commercial law. Most importantly, the experienced commercial lawyers (with either commerce or non-commerce undergraduate degrees) have said to me that commercial law is one that is learnt 'on the job'. In other words, having a taste of commerce during university is great but that's only three years compared to 30+ working years. Again, it's not a matter of simply having (or not having) a commerce degree under your belt, it's your practical experience during employment.

This makes me wonder why the law/non-commerce graduates that you have spoken to regret at the 'later stages of their career' for not having a commerce undergraduate degree. They certainly could have pursued post-graduate studies at the very least.

[GoodToGo]

If you find Arts more interesting (and cmon, surely most people would) do Arts.

Do Commerce if you think you might get into an area after uni where a Commerce degree would be critical (banking, management consulting, etc) and NOT law.

[Jesus!]

Originally Posted by Iron woman

*Marcia Hines voice* Be true to yourself girlfriend; commerce will crush your soul.

How true.......

Commerce people that I know at unsw seem to hate the com part but just do it for the sake of doing it.

One thing the commerce people can lack is research skills (again in general). When it comes to doing assingments in law that invovle some research arts people have very little trouble mainly because they have to research in order to write essays for their arts courses all the time. Finding journals, using online databases, using other libraries, knowing what library has what journals and to what date, knowing that unsw doesnt keep the Leftist womans communist law journal for 1981 and that sydney does etc.

You cannot imagine the hysterics some com people were in - and arts people who do non research based majors ie english and a language - when they were given research assingments in criminal law.

Also commerce people tend to be a bit more rusty at writing essays than arts people (again in general). Arts people are asked to write upwards of 6 2500 to 3000 word essays each year. Essentially arts people are usually in the process of writing some kind of essay during session.

Commerce people certainly do not have to write as many essays.

This doesn't mean commerce people can't write good essays. It just means they don't have the practice. Hence I do understand the shocked and saddened look on the face of some law teachers when they hand back essays and have to give the 'how to write essays' lecture - which is really sad when its 2nd year law people who should be able to write essays.

But then again I thought I could write essays in first year. But really i couldn't. I 've only really only been able to write consistant D level arts essays or at least the best quality essay possible in the time in 2nd year after trail and error. It just shows I went to a shitty public school that never bothered to teach me.

[MaryJane]

I'd say that while you may be interested in the arts, if you want to do commercial law, I'd suggest doing commerce or business as your other half. if you can handle it, and have a mind for it, why not do it? and if the structure is anything like MQ, first year you have 3 credit points a semester to do an elective, which is fun. I'm interested in humanities too, hense why I'm doing Psych/Law... mind you, I want to practise family law and thought that law with psych was the best combination to choose.

Good luck, and remember, you can always change your degree throughout uni... preferably not in 5th year though!

[Jonathan A]

Originally Posted by MaryJane

I'd say that while you may be interested in the arts, if you want to do commercial law, I'd suggest doing commerce or business as your other half. if you can handle it, and have a mind for it, why not do it? and if the structure is anything like MQ, first year you have 3 credit points a semester to do an elective, which is fun. I'm interested in humanities too, hense why I'm doing Psych/Law... mind you, I want to practise family law and thought that law with psych was the best combination to choose.

Good luck, and remember, you can always change your degree throughout uni... preferably not in 5th year though!

I am a humanities kind of person myself. Criminology contains psychology units, being a social science. I have always had a passion for understanding crime and its operation. I believe social science is an important part to my law education. It helps me view a situation from an ammoral position, hence not jump to a conclusion. It also provides me with a better understanding on why people behave the way they do. These are key concepts to crime understandings.

I want to practice in Criminal Law, so to be able to major in Criminology will help me understand how forensic evidence is collected, how criminals think, influences and the like. I aim to become a prosecutor, so I think my majors will certainly help.

Furthermore, it would also help me if I were to be a consultant of some sort. If I were to consult with clients in Loss Prevention and Risk Management, I would have a grasp on crime prevention and what the legal position is. Similiar to an accountant who has a law degree is able to know liabilities from their work.

Good luck MaryJane with your Psych/Law degree. Many practicing Psychologists who are also lawyers have had good contribution to the operations of the legal system and evidence law.