Sam Zell: Get a Law Degree

Sam Zell, Equity Group Investments founder and chairman, says his best career advice is to go and get a law degree, even if you have no interest in practicing law. He's on "Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein." This was recorded June 22 in Chicago.
--------
Follow Bloomberg for business news & analysis, up-to-the-minute market data, features, profiles and more: www.bloomberg.com
Connect with us on...
Twitter: / business
Facebook: / bloombergbusiness
Instagram: / bloombergbusiness

[@tls4022]

He's right. Getting my law degree (even though I didn't have the passion) was probably one of the best strategic decisions I made to benefit my career long term. The skills and knowledge you gain are adaptable and useful in areas of business, investment and politics.

[@MsVoiceOfReason]

I am considering obtaining my Law Degree, I currently have a Paralegal Degree.

[@tls4022]

@@MsVoiceOfReason go for it! The sky is the limit 🙂

[@katie_otoole]

Agree 100%- cool to hear someone at the top strategize their law degree from rationality

[@cesarpanzo5278]

Technical, financial and data engineering these are valuable however, I would not deny that by studying law your start to understand much better how the institutions in a given country works and what you need to do to have access to these institutions without wait long time.. know the rules first and how to apply them in your favour however, a lawyer only needs to know the exceptions within any given legislation.. only the exceptions and with that help your clients achieving what they want..

[@owenlewis2497]

The point sam’s making: you are not going to be an entrepreneur without a knowledge of the rules of the game. Law school teaches you that. Also you don’t need to go into debt, do well on the LSAT go to a 50-100 school in the night program on a 75% scholarship and keep your day job.

[@MB-gd6be]

law school and a day job is a nightmare...! Read his comment and think about what you do during the day, other than working at say, Target.

[@nunya973]

Excuses. 🤣. I ran a shipping agency and got my MBA. Stop bitching and just make it happen.

[@youMatterItDoesGetBetter]

@@nunya973MBA student here, also working full time. You cannot work during your first year of law school. It’s much like medical school. Just fyi. An MBA is not on par with a law degree. Whatsoever.

[@nunya973]

@@youMatterItDoesGetBetter I have a buddy who says that law school being compared to medical school is a joke. He has a PHD in Biochemistry and he was teaching doctors all the while working at the same time. AND now he has an MBA. He thinks that MBA students are lazy as hell. One thing is for certain, The MBA does not teach you sales for B2B, which somehow how MBA students think it does. Do you have your law degree? Reading your sentence you're almost insinuating that you do in making your comparison. Correct me if I am wrong, I think you don't. The final Point here is, stop bitching and just do it. Just because your work life balance gets affected, that is your problem. How bad do you want it? Good luck in your studies. keep grinding!

[@jamelquron8750]

@owenlewis2497 strategic. Thanks for the advice. Is that what you did?

[@mike_valueinv]

For Zell, understanding contracts, negotiations, and the legal landscape is crucial in business, especially in complex industries like real estate. A law degree, in his view, provides a strong foundation for navigating the intricacies of deals, managing risks, and identifying opportunities.

[@enzolopez4453]

I am enrolling to law school tomorrow!!!

[@bernardo6360]

I took a shit dregree and half assed. My partner took law and she's becoming a judge. She's miles away from me in terms of overall competency. She could honestly do anything and do it well. I'm so proud of her. She inspires me, and I too have a desire of proving myself I could get a ''good'' degree. Get a better job and provide for the family I want to create with her. If your going to college graduate in something that will make you good at anything you end up doing. Or at the very least, something that will alllow you to have a good income in that field.

[@explanationforeverything]

hows that relationship going

[@bernardo6360]

@@explanationforeverything amazing

[@jjsan1]

Both Zell and Rubenstein both tgot their law degrees but didn’t end up in Law as their careers. 🧐🥴

[@josep6528]

Well they know how to navigate the business landscape with our getting taking advantage in deals.

[@balkanbaroque]

Because law opens many opportunities

[@qundraygray]

"Go to law school with no interest in practicing law." is by far the worst advice I have ever heard. Everybody can't be a SAM ZELLE or DVAID RUBENSTEIN. That advice will lead you down a dark road of DEBT.

[@damonmoorepage]

It does not seem like a financially wise way to handle your career. However, there are plenty of people who go to law school without intending to practice law. For example, many of the top sports agents in the U.S. attended law school but did not actually practice law.

[@qundraygray]

@@damonmoorepage I agree. But definitely a risk not worth taking.

[@criminallaw9573]

Oh, absolutely. Go to law school and you will be a rocking Sports Agent Like Tom Cruise in Show Me the Money! I am amazed and people's stupidity. . .you would have a much better chance of winning the lottery than becoming one of "the top sports agents in the U.S." with a law degree. . .or ever getting into the field in the first place.@@damonmoorepage

[@tls4022]

@@qundraygray thats subjective though

[@henlohenlo689]

studying law is good. but law degree itself is bad. the colleges are no longer good and self education improved alot. u could be MORE educated in less time and save ALOT of money if you self educate on law.

[@wildrift-xh5yu]

Simply by the way you type, I can tell that your not particularly an articulate person. Not using correct punctuation and using incorrect capitalization really shows that you should lay off on the “millionaire’s gurus” on KZbin. Don’t fall for the scheme’s. These individuals who lease lambos and have the cool flashy stuff probably make around 90k-125k a year, now this is good if your single and don’t have a mom and dad to take care of no pets or kids.

[@henlohenlo689]

@@wildrift-xh5yu i'm gonna disect your comment by responding to each paragraph labeling them 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. 1. a. my grammer used is irrelevant. it doesn't significy the strength of an argument itself. it's inadmissable to use this as part of your intro. 1.b. when i said self education, i was not refering to youtubers, although some can help you get more familiar with basic concepts like a channel called business professor. but this is NOT valid research. when i said my comment i was refering to VALIDresearch. sources for from government webpages, court web pages. law library stuff. primary and secondary law sources. and even website called "cebonlaw" at california law library is a solid resource. i was also refering to studying the actually state and federal statutes, and the constitution, and understanding how law making works in general and how government works in general. from the president all the way down through all the states and districts and government agencies and accountability of government agencies, etc. i was also refering to studying the CFR aka code of federal regulations, which is basically regulations of government agencies and actions but it's not law itself and needs to be constitutional regulations. they are a subset of the laws but can be used to help in knowing if people are breaching their duties or not. i was also refering to studying the court rules state and federal. etc. all of these resources of education is accessible to the public and online. you can download pdf's and have speechify read them to you. it's not illegal downloading of the pdf's the government webpages allow it. 2. i dont know what your really saying much in paragraph 2, it lacks foundation. or specifics of who you are talking about. maybe you are refering to misleading advertising of colleges. which is a thing. 3. what you read online about income of lawyers most of that information with in law profession but also ALL profession, is misleading information posted online about it. and the companies hiring also post misleading information about their jobs. they generally misrepresent earnings costs, and do misleading job advertising. this is societal norm in california but it's spans across most career fields. 4. my reply to this is pretty much what i said in the reply to paragraph 3. i guess those 2 paragraphs are related to the same/similar topic. 5. this is general invalid statement you made that applies to all or no jobs. most jobs can make a similar statement. especially if you want to earn more you need to work harder. so that's generally common. across alot of career paths.

[@billballer7779]

'even if you have no interest' so you want students to lie to university admissions en-mass about being passionate in a subject they don't want to do, just to end up unemployed because it wasn't an ivy league that accepted them? 🤣this boomer's advice is out-dated.

[@maestro1168]

Don't need to go to the IVY league. That's a misconception. IVY league give the prestige and higher starting salary but it's not necessary. Most lawyers gets 6 figures within 5 years or less.

[@damonmoorepage]

He did not say students should lie to university admissions. Law school admissions committees know students will attend law school and never actually practice law. It really is okay to say you want to be a state legislator, activist, sports agent, Human Resources director, real estate investor, entrepreneur, or any number of other things that people do after graduation. It is also okay (but not necessarily advisable) to apply to law school without having any idea of what you are going to do when you leave.

[@tls4022]

it's called strategic thinking and tbh you have no idea how beneficial a law degree is until you launch your career. law has definitely helped him navigate through real estate investment very well.

[@criminallaw9573]

@@maestro1168 You are so wildly out of touch with reality that you should go into stand-up comedy. I am a six-figure earning lawyer, and was 10Y ago before the dollar collapsed, back when 10 figures a year was actually good money. It was VERY difficult to get there and took more like 15Y, and a lot of hard work, and a fair amount of luck. A modern US law school grad is far more likely to earn $22.00 per hour doing "Temporary Document Review Projects" than six figures, ever, in his or her lifetime.

[@criminallaw9573]

Absolutely! It is, in fact, barely possible to get a law degree--tuition, books, and living expenses--for only a quarter-million dollars and three years of your life! Lawyers then hustle to get jobs paying $22.00 per hour doing "Temporary Document Review Projects" while trying to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt! It's a fantastic ROI!

[@nunya973]

Learn how to sale professionally stop complaining. Leverage the law degree to your advantage.

[@youMatterItDoesGetBetter]

Also don’t pay money to go to law school. They give out rides like crazy.

[@criminallaw9573]

@@youMatterItDoesGetBetter No. . .predatory law schools like to give "conditional scholarships". This means that the scholarship lasts for the first year, and then most recipients are told "your GPA is too low to keep your scholarship, now you can spend 200,000 in tuition, books, and living expenses for your next two years of Law School. People get burned on these predatory "scholarships" all the time.

[@m.k.s.7417]

I wander, how Italian: FOOTball ("Soccer"/FOOTie/"Calcio"); could: get more: Investment/investor's?? -(M.K.S.).

[@snittsel]

Law degree? Do something useful like engineering.

[@SouL1Jacker]

You are an arrogant fool.

[@dassa0069]

Masters in Biotechnology

[@maestro1168]

Not everyone loves math or is good at it. Law degrees are great for liberal art students.

[@balkanbaroque]

Yea because I’m good at math and physics 😂

[@fromnytomd]

a degree in engineering is not as useful unless you want to become an engineer. If you want to learn how to think, strategize, and write critically, then a law degree is the way to go. Those skills are highly sought after and transferable.

[@dassa0069]

You are not a real lawyer until you serve time as a public defender.

[@tls4022]

disagree lol

[@dejbararahima]

ترجمة إلى العربية

[@craigrodriguez8384]

Lol Comical