Lawyers need to understand business

According to yesterday's WSJ, more and more of the nation's leading legal firms are sending their newly hired attorneys to learn about business, especially finance.  For instance Fullbridge (founded by two Harvard MBAs) offers an eight week program that covers the following topics: finance, project management, innovation, presentation skills, spreadsheets, selling (not marketing!), and ethics.  One reason for these programs appears to be cost: clients do not feel they are getting their $300 plus per hour from junior attorneys straight out of law school with no business experience or knowledge.

Fullbridge gets paid by the law firms to provide this training.  One might guess that in today's market for entry level legal positions that law students would make a point of obtaining these skills on their own, so that they can better compete for the limited number of positions available.  Shameless plug: applications will soon be accepted for the entering fall 2012 class of Campbell JDs and NC State MBAs.