E. FEATURE – SPECIALIZED DEGREES OFFER A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Specialized degrees offer competitive advantage
By Oliver Bertin
Toronto
Dan Bereskin had a tough choice when he finished university - pursue a career
in law or a career in engineering.
It was a hard decision at the time, but in retrospect, the choice was natural.
He combined his two areas of expertise and followed a career in patent law.
Thirty years later, Bereskin is head of Bereskin and Parr LLP, one of
Canada's best-known intellectual-property specialists with 60 professionals
and 200 staff who concentrate on patent, trade-mark and copyright law.
"It was the fact that I took engineering that convinced me to seek a
career in intellectual property law," he said. "You need a technical
degree to do patent law. You need an MSc or preferably a PhD."
Bereskin was a pioneer in the use of a specialist degree. Now, these degrees
are commonplace at legal boutiques as well as the full-service downtown
firms.
"Everybody has double degrees nowadays," said Mary Jackson, director
of legal personnel at Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP in Toronto. "We
get people applying with PhDs and master's degrees."
These specialist degrees are usually welcome. "There's no question,"
she said. "We look at what peoples' degrees are in."
Lang Michener LLP has a similar philosophy. "Students are more and more
qualified all the time," said Scott Whitley, director of professional
development at the Toronto law firm. Education is "one of the first
things I look at, a second degree can only help."
Firms such as Blakes and Lang Michener have a wealth of talent among their
staff. Second degrees run the gamut from classical Greek to nuclear physics,
with medicine and sociology thrown in. There are MBAs and accounting degrees,
pharmacists, biochemists, even a music degree or two. "A music degree
teaches you to perform under stress," Jackson said.
A staff with a broad educational background helps the law firm as well as the
individual lawyer, said Michele Martin, director of career services at the
University of Western Ontario's Faculty of Law.
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Lawyers with specialist degrees help firms compete in the tough corporate
market, giving them the talent depth they need to handle a wide range of
clients, from financial institutions to manufacturers, construction
companies, biotech firms or, in the case of the music degree, entertainment
companies.
Often the key factor is language. A lawyer with a degree in electrical
engineering, or pharmacy, or music composition can talk to clients in their
own language, and that gives an important edge when signing up new clients.
"It gives a genuine understanding of the clients' business," Martin
said, adding "everything has to do with connecting with your
client."
Many areas of law require specialist degrees. Warren Bongard, vice-president
of ZSA Legal Recruitment in Toronto, believes an engineering degree is
necessary for patent law, while a degree in pharmacy, biochemistry or biotech
is key in the litigious and fast growing field of pharmaceutical law. Combine
a technical degree with strong litigation skills and the law firm has a winner,
Bongard said.
The student also benefits from a broad education, Martin said. "The
student has two careers to fall back on. What an irresistible combination to
have."
The combination can work in two ways, she said. A focused degree can make a
student a better lawyer, while a law degree is a good basis for a business or
political career.
"A law degree can be very valuable to support a career in business or
law," Martin said, noting several lawyers who have become key business
leaders. "They have taken a professional degree and married it with law
to create a professional career."
But not all specialist degrees are considered equal. Bongard praises
"science degrees, any science degree," but especially those that
deal with chemistry, biochemistry or pharmacy. These degrees - combined with
strong litigation skills - are needed by firms that practise intellectual
property law. Lawyers with a science background are hard to find but easy to place,
making them a valuable commodity for legal recruiters.
Andr Bacchus, recruiting manager with Robert Half Legal in Toronto, agrees on
the importance of the life sciences. "That is definitely an important
place to be," he said. "A biology or chemistry background is
definitely a good thing."
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Engineering degrees are highly sought after for intellectual property law and
medical degrees are more common than one would suspect, given the number of
years of training involved. These degrees can be valuable for health and
medical malpractice law, but they are not considered necessary because most
lawyers in the health field develop a fluency in medical terminology.
Computer degrees, geology, high tech, psychology and sociology are all useful
degrees, but they don't offer special benefits. As with medicine, lawyers
tend to pick up the language they need for their practice.
Business degrees can be useful, but the experts said they aren't mandatory in
corporate law. A degree in accounting or finance can give a lawyer a step up
the ladder.
"It helps when reading financial statements and understanding securities,"
Whitley said. But Bacchus said an MBA doesn't really help in the early stages
of a lawyer's career, and perhaps not even later.
"I look for an MBA or a BA in business or commerce because it gives a
basic understanding of Canadian business," Jackson said. But those
degrees aren't necessary for a career in corporate law.
"Some of our best corporate lawyers come from a psychology or political
science background," she said.
This article originally appeared in the Februay 18, 2005, issue of The
Lawyers Weekly.
Note for an interesting American perspective on this issue visit:
http://www.junglelawonline.com/main.cfm?inc=inc_article.cfm&chid=1&schid=0&WT=10&artid=50015&template=0&refid=g3
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