Changing Career from Legal to Quant?

[JDtoMS]

Hi everybody,

I have been contemplating a switch from the legal field to finance. I graduated undergrad with as a math major in 2003 (hi ranked school, 3.8 GPA), went straight to law school (3.3 GPA) and then worked at a large NYC firm (vault top 20) for 3 years. While I was in the litigation department, I had exposure to several Inv. Banks and wrote a few legal compliance opinions for hedge funds. The legal market in NY is aweful the majority of the work I've encountered so far has been disappointing. I think I would enjoy a job in the financial sector, and it appears that there are significantly more job openings as well (albeit still far below '05-'07 numbers, but MUCH better than law in Manhattan).

I've been curious about my chances for being accepted to either the Columbia MAFN or MSFE programs. If I can get a high GRE score, would I make a good candidate? I chose these two programs based on location and the fact that they are only 1 year degrees (a two year program isn't really feasible for me at this point money and time-wise). Also, I would probably be graduating as a 32 year old. Is this too late in the game to begin a new career in this field?

I've been reading some intro quant books to get a feel for the material and whether it would be something that interests me. However, I've been curious about what books people reccomend for folks like me who have been out of school for a while. I took all of the reccomended classes in college, but I would probably need to do some serious review if accepted. Any input would be much appreciated.

 

[euroazn]

Hey, is there really any reason you want to do quant finance, as opposed to another form of finance? I think legal knowledge would be useful in other scenarios; M&A comes to mind.

That said, I'm a noob.

 

[JDtoMS]

Hi Euroazn,

While you are correct about M&A departments traditionally hiring lawyers, they usually only consider applicants with finance, capitol markets, or M&A experience at a large NYC firm. Since I would be coming from litigation, there aren't really any openings. There are a ton of misplaced lawyers in NY right now as well, so any job that would normally be filled by an attorney either doesn't exist, or gets 500 applications from Harvard JD's (not an exagerration). I'm also trying to distance myself from my legal background since I want to be identified as a banker and not an in-house attorney.

As for why I would want to do quant specifically, I really enjoyed my prior math studies and this field seems to be centered around the application of these concepts towards other thing I feel would be interesting (banking, hedge funds, trading, etc.). I was hoping to narrow my focus through on campus recruiting and networking while in school.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I would also see you as a better fit for the banking side than the technical nut and bolts of trading/modeling. But you can see for yourself if that's indeed the case by starting with the reading list that we provide for anyone interested in the field
Master reading list for quants, MFE students | Quant Network

I know someone entering the MAFN program at Columbia who has first person impression. If you want me to make a connection, send me a private message and I'll have you two dig it out.