Getting Business School Skills While in Law School

Prof. Stephen Presser lectures to a combined class at Northwestern's law school.

Some universities have beefed up courses in business, even if they have yet to offer formal concentration programs like Virginia's. New York University School of Law and the University of Michigan Law School have developed mentoring programs for students with business-oriented law faculty. At Michigan, this effort includes special seminars on business with visiting faculty. And many schools bring in outside lawyers working in the field to teach these courses.

At the University of Texas-Austin, the law school is creating clinics to give students hands-on experience with business before graduation. And others, such as Berkeley and Cornell University, are increasing their research efforts and are supporting new institutes devoted to the study of law and business.

Of course, the increased specialization will hardly mean an end to the basic legal training that has been the hallmark of law schools across the country. "It's not anything close to a vocational training," says Evan Caminker, dean at Michigan's law school. But for students like Fowler it's a way to edge up on the competition. And he would know. He already has a job lined up in the corporate division of a Texas law firm.