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Study Business and Law

J.D./MBA - Master of Business Administration

About J.D./MBA

The Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration program, offered in partnership with the St. Thomas Opus College of Business, is designed for students interested in developing their business acumen as well as understanding the legal framework in which organizations operate. It compresses a five-year program of study into four years by allowing some elective courses to count toward each program’s graduation requirements.

Students begin the program in the fall semester of their third year of law school.

Curriculum Overview

Students begin the part-time flex MBA in the fall semester of their third year of law school.

  • 39 MBA credits required = 10 core courses (21 credits) + elective business courses (18 credits)
  • Enrollment and course loads are flexible each term
  • Three course formats: traditional, blended and online
  • Students self-register each term, choosing from the available schedule and formats
  • Electives can be taken anytime, provided prerequisites are met
  • At least one elective must be designated as a global business/study abroad elective course
  • MBA classes in blended or traditional formats meet in the evenings

Subject to change. The University of St. Thomas reserves the right to amend the degree requirements and to add to or delete from the list of courses that satisfy the degree requirements at any time.

Fall Term

MBA coursework: 9 credits
LAWS coursework: 4-8 credits

  • MGMT 603 – Leading Self & Others (3 cr.)
  • OPMT 600 – Statistical Methods of Decision Making (3 cr.)
  • MGMT625 – Competitive Strategy (1.5 cr.)
  • BETH 625 – Business Ethics Foundations (1.5 cr.)
  • LAWS elective (2-4 cr.)
  • MBA or LAWS elective (3-4 cr.)

January Term

Optional MBA elective (3 cr.) or study abroad

Spring Term

MBA coursework: 9 credits
LAWS coursework: 4-8 credits

  • ACCT 601 – Financial Accounting (3 cr.)
  • MKTG 625 – Marketing Frameworks (1.5 cr.)
  • GBEC 625 – Managerial Economics (1.5 cr.)
  • LAWS elective (2-4 cr.)
  • MBA or LAWS elective (3-4 cr.)

Summer Term

Optional MBA elective (3 cr.) or internship/externship


Fall Term

MBA coursework: 9 credits
LAWS coursework: 4-8 credits

  • FINC 600 – Financial Management (3 cr.)
  • ENTR 625 – Entrepreneurial Thinking (1.5 cr.)
  • OPMT 625 – Operations Strategy (1.5 cr.)
  • LAWS elective (2-4 cr.)
  • MBA or LAWS elective (3-4 cr.)

January Term

Optional MBA elective (3 cr.)

Spring Term

MBA/LAWS coursework: 12-15 credits
(Complete remaining requirements for each degree)
  • MBA elective (3 cr.)
  • MBA elective (3 cr.)
  • LAWS elective (2-4 cr.)
  • MBA or LAWS elective (3-4 cr.)

Opus sign on building

Highly Principled, Global Business Leaders

St. Thomas Opus College of Business

Opus College of Business offers a comprehensive, relevant business education that combines leadership, technical skill building and experiential learning. Its mission is to unlock the talent of future problem solvers and prepare students to be highly principled business leaders.

Alumna Jules Porter with video game character

Alumni Spotlight

Creating Video Games to Change the World

Jules Porter ‘18 J.D./MBA is on a mission to change the face of the estimated $175 billion video game industry, both on the screens and behind the scenes, through her Minneapolis-based start-up Seraph 7 Studios.

Featured Faculty

Wulf Kaal headshot

Wulf Kaal

Professor Kaal is a leading expert at the intersection of law, business and technology. His research focuses on innovation, technology, blockchain technology applications, smart contracts, hedge funds and dynamic regulatory methods.

More About Wulf Kaal
Peter Young headshot

Peter Young

Professor Young holds the 3M endowed chair in international business and leads the Global Business Engagement Initiative, which allows him to provide college-wide leadership in international programming, curriculum development and international partnerships.

More about Peter Young
Brenda Arndt headshot

Brenda Arndt

Professor Arndt served in the legal department at Cargill for 21 years, prior to joining St. Thomas. As a senior international mergers and acquisitions specialist, she served as the legal lead for acquisitions, joint ventures and divestures across a variety of industries, countries and deal sizes.

More About Brenda Arndt
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Mary Slack

Professor Slack is a consultant in human resource and organization development. She specializes in the project, leadership and management development, quality improvement and interpersonal skills. Slack has more than 20 years of corporate experience in training, course development and project management.

More about Mary Slack

J.D./MBA Alumni

Andrew LeJeune headshot Kaiti Wachter headshot

Andrew LeJeune ‘15

"Studying business and law is valuable because the two subjects are inherently intertwined. You can’t study law without understanding business contracts and liability and you can’t study business without talking about legal risks. Combining the two helps to cover natural blind spots in the respective fields. St. Thomas combines the programs well because both schools work together to make the experience seamless."

Kaiti Wachter '18

"Having a J.D./MBA has opened many doors for me. Being able to bridge the gap between the business and law side of things has been an attractive skill set to many recruiters/employers. Law school taught me a specific way of thinking while the MBA program sharpened my EQ skills. I have heavily relied on both degrees in every single one of my positions and would recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in it."