How To Earn A Law Degree, J.D Vs. Law Degree
Q: There are so many doctorate level in many different fields. Everyone
wants to become doctor. I have a friend who pick up garbage for 7
years. He shold be call doctor... "Doctor of Grabage." I believe there
should be two types of doctorate level. A medical physician would be
call "doctor." All other doctorate level should be call "Sir." Well,
Sir John Bear, I'm outta here.
A:I don't know the original author of this post, so I have taken John
Bear's attributions out.
There is a bit of confusion. In general, the LL.B. [Bachelor of Legal
Letters] degree is acquired after 3 years of college and then 3 years of
law school. The J.D [Juris Doctor] degree is acquired after 4 years of
collegiate study (and usually graduation, signifying full completion of
baccalaureate studies), and 3 additional years of law studies. Of
course, in both cases, admission to a law school is usually predicated
upon sufficient scoring on the LSAT. Academically, the LL.B. is the
baccalaureate and legal degree combined, and the J.D. is approximating a
master's level in general law.
The Master of Laws (LL.M.) is the Master's level of Law above the J.D.
A thesis is required. This degree is usually utilized by international
students trained in law in their home countries, although domestic
students in the US are eligible for acquisition of the degree. This
confers the equivalent of a master's degree in law, with emphasis on a
special course or topic of study.
However, the Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) is a course of
advanced study _beyond_ the J.D. or LL.B., and is the equivalent of a
doctorate in law in the academic world. One may enter the S.J.D.
program after completion of the LL.B/J.D. degree, without first
attaining the LL.M. degree. This is a highly specialized,
research-oriented program and is open only to individuals with
outstanding academic qualifications and demonstrated research interests
in their field of study. A dissertation is required.
True enough...very few people ever get an SJD. Some folks do get an LLM in
stuff like Taxation, Patents and the like where there really is a significant
amount of highly specialized material needed to practice in the area.
The JD is simply a professionally based Doctorate, and is no different than a
plethora of other professionally based Doctorates such as:MD, DO, DVM, DPM,
DDS etc...
I belivieve Doctor from the original Latin
root may mean Teacher. Accordingly, those academically rooted degrees such as
PhD who teach at universities, contribute an original work to their field via
dissertation and usually numerous subsequent publications and the like are
really the persons who should be called DR.
Unfortunately DR has become identified with health care treaters such as
physicians, podiatrists, vetrinarians, optomotrists, dentists and even
chiropractors. There are several Ethics opinions which make clear that an
attorney can refer to themself as DR because they do indeed have a
professionally based doctorate just as all the above health care professionals.
However, attorneys generally do not partake in this nonsense, and accordingly,
DR is not in common usage nor is putting a JD after one's name. However, many
do finish off their professional name with the old english "Esq" to designate
that they are indeed an attorney. Still...even this is waning as attorneys
identify themselves as such via letterhead, in the content of their letters and
as required by law on pleadings.
The LLB (Bachelor of Law) was the original law degree. It was a bachelor
degree because students went directly to law school without an
undergraduate degree. Thus the LLM and the SJD. Now, law schools give the