Juris Doctor

: J.D. redirects here; for alternate uses, see JD.

History

Historically, a law student would attend a four-year undergraduate program culminating in a LL.B. degree. He could then go on to get an LL.M., "Master of Laws" and then an LL.D., "Doctor of Laws" degree.

Related Topics:
LL.B. - LL.M.

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Eventually, to raise academic standards, law schools started requiring undergraduate college work for admission. For instance, according to the website for the University of Virginia Law School (one of the nation's oldest law schools):

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1826: First law classes taught;

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1840-1845: First LL.B. granted;

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1894-1895: UVa requires six law courses over 2 years for an LL.B.;

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1904: UVa requires high school diploma to study law;

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1909: UVa requires three years of study for law degree;

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1920: UVa requires one year of college to enter Law School;

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1922: UVa requires 2 years of college to enter Law School;

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1939: UVa requires 3 years of college to enter Law School.

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To get accredited by the ABA, a school only needs to require three years of undergraduate work. (This little-known fact also applies to medicine, dentistry and veterinary programs.) However, the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), requires a four-year degree, and today virtually all law school students have at least a four-year undergraduate degree.

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Although the entry-level law program was revamped as a graduate program, the degree conferred continued to be called an LL.B. For graduates with high grades, some schools started conferring a degree titled Juris Doctor as an honor. This led to the situation where two students could complete the exact same program and one would receive a degree titled "Bachelor" and the other would receive a degree titled "Doctor". Eventually, schools abandoned the distinction and called all degrees conferred a doctorate. Yale Law School was one of the last to rename the degree--it was still conferring the LL.B. in 1970.

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A Juris Doctor, or Doctorate of Jurisprudence, is generally considered to be a professional degree. In the United States, professional degrees refer to graduate degrees that are specific to a particular vocation, or profession. Law, medicine, and dentistry are all examples of subject matters in which professional degrees can be earned.

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Though the J.D. degree is styled Juris Doctor (i.e., containing the word Doctor), U.S. universities are not in consensus as to whether the J.D. degree is or is not a graduate degree. For example, the website of the University of California at Berkeley indicates that the J.D. degree is a graduate degree, while the websites of the law schools at Yale University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan do not list the J.D. amongst post-J.D. graduate degrees, listing graduate degrees such as the LL.M and higher degrees. , http://www.law.harvard.edu/academics/graduate/, http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospective/graduate.html and http://www.law.umich.edu/prospectivestudents/graduate/graduate.htm.

Related Topics:
University of California at Berkeley - Yale University - Harvard University - University of Chicago - University of Michigan

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The LL.M., "Master of Laws", is a post J.D. degree (similar post professional doctorate programs at the master's level can also be found in dentistry and veterinary medicine). Like an M.D. degree, a J.D. program consists mainly of survey courses. An LL.M. program consists of specialty and/or more in-depth courses. Often, LL.M. degrees are specialized (e.g., taxation law, intellectual property law, international law, advanced tort law) but sometimes they are more general in perspective, depending on the interests and career goals of the student.

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The LL.D. degree ("Doctor of Laws") is now only awarded as an honorary (unearned) degree in the United States, although in Canada it can still be earned after the LL.M. Hence, law graduates are not referred to as "doctor of law". The J. D. is referred to as either Juris Doctor or Doctor of Jurisprudence.

Related Topics:
LL.D. - Canada

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Licensed attorneys often append the suffix Esq. to the end of their names. The title "Doctor" is rarely used. The most likely explanation for this is that historically many aged experienced judges and law firm partners had LL.B. degrees and new lawyers had J. D. degrees from exactly the same law schools. Law is largely about politics, and a newbie telling the law firm owner or the judge, "Call me Doctor" would not go over well. In the legal profession, a J.D. is not considered a Bachelor's Degree. Since law schools in the United States require completion of a Bachelor's Degree before admission into a J.D. program, and since completion of a J.D. program entails a greater number of semester hours, as well as legal research, law schools now tell their students that the J.D. is equivalent to the Ph.D. in most fields. Arguably, the J.S.D. described as follows may be considered superior to the Ph.D.

Related Topics:
Esq. - Bachelor's Degree - Ph.D. - J.S.D.

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The graduate law degree of Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) confers the academic and social title of "Doctor". Unlike a J.D., a J.S.D. program includes a doctoral dissertation and other features common to academic doctorates such as a Ph.D. Few U.S. lawyers earn a J.S.D. degree, because it deals mainly with legal philosophy and has no practical application. It is mainly law professors who obtain this doctorate. Practicing U.S. lawyers who hold doctorates in other fields (i.e., M.D./J.D., Ph.D./J.D., etc.) are more likely to use the title of "Doctor".

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