What are the educational requirements to get a law degree in the US? Is it the same level as a Masters or a PH.D.?
The American law degree is the Juris Doctor (JD); which is a profesional doctorate, not a research doctorate. IIRC it’s equivalent to a master’s degree, not a PhD. A bachelor’s degree is required for admission to law school. American law schools used to award the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and didn’t always require a previous degree for, but that was phased out over the 20th century. I think the LLB was last awarded in the '60s by one of the Ivies
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If you become a lawyer in the US you get a J.D. degree. A “juris doctor.”
So yes, lawyers can be called Dr. X. That said I have never heard it done. Despite them technically having a doctorate I do not think most other disciplines with a doctorate seem them as such.
My dad was a lawyer. One of his sons (my brother) had a PhD. No one ever referred to my dad as doctor-X. My brother was regularly referred to as doctor-X.
I’ll add, and this comports with **alphaboi867’s ** post:
My understanding is a proper doctorate requires the person to advance human knowledge. They have to do something no one else has done before.
A law degree is not that. A lawyer has learned existing law. That matches to, at best, a Masters degree.
As such, I do not think most lawyers should be called “doctors” since their degree does not merit it. Are there PhD people in law? I dunno…probably. But that is a different thing.
Also, this is relevant: Evil Medical School - YouTube
Typically, as alphaboi867 wrote, you’ll need a four-year B.A. or B.S. degree for law school admission in the United States. The J.D. is a doctorate, but any lawyer who referred to himself or herself as “Dr. Lastname” would be mercilessly mocked by peers. It’s enough (or should be) for others to add “Esq.” after your name. For more: Juris Doctor - Wikipedia
And here’s more on the LL.B. degree: Bachelor of Laws - Wikipedia
How do you apply this to physicians? They’re the people who most widely use the title of doctor. But I don’t think their medical training is based on the premise that they are conducting original medical research.
Can you put Esquire after your name if you have a law degree? Or do you have to pass the bar?
Fair comment.
Doctors require hugely extensive training. Something well beyond what lawyers go through.
And, well, they are doctors. What else do you call them?
That said I wonder…is there something defined worldwide (or near enough) that says who gets to say they are a “doctor”?
Is there a law that prohibits people from calling themself a doctor? (I really do not know.) For example, I have no training or degree that would anyone would consider a doctor but can I say I am Dr. Whack-a-Mole without legal repercussion?
There’s a unpleasant piece of history that the AMA doesn’t like to talk about. Back in the thirties and forties they led a big push to set standards for what credentials were necessary for a person to be able to call themselves a physician and be legally able to practice medicine.
Doesn’t sound like a bad thing, right? But the movement wasn’t intended to raise the standards for American doctors. It was designed to create barriers to keep foreign doctors, many of who were fleeing Europe at this time, from being able to practice medicine in the United States and compete with American doctors.
At one point in the recent past “esquire” or “Esq.” was something you could put after your name if you needed something to put after your name and didn’t have anything else. Lawyers, who felt they needed something after their names, appropriated this. In the legal field, in America, if you see an Esq. you can assume it’s a lawyer. I know lawyers who would never, ever use it, and who kind of sneer at people who do. But if you put it after your name and you are not a lawyer, it’s not like you can be disciplined for the unlawful practice of law just by virtue of using it. But, you know–don’t.
Like, you know, there is (was?) a magazine called Esquire. It was not for lawyers.
An innocent question, several years ago, which sparked a remarkedly heated debate:
And thr column referred to: How can I go about getting the title “esquire”?
My colleague-friend once jokingly insisted for a week or so that I address him as doctor, as he held a JD, and the word’s in the name. I finally agreed on the condition he call me master, by the same logic. He stopped insisting.
Recent thread that discusses Ph.D. doctors and medical doctors:Use of the title “Doctor”.
N. Piper, BA, LL.B., LL.B., LL.M.
Barrister and Solicitor
To make it even funnier, a common degree earned after the J.D., is the LL.M, Master of Laws. Often in the U.S., it’s taken in Tax Law, but there are others issued. I guess it makes sense if the law school awarded a bachelor’s of laws upon graduation. If the LL.M isn’t enough, there’s a Doctor of Juridical (Which my autocorrect already knew how to spell. Weird) Science, the S.J.D.
Talking to senior attorneys at the firm I used to work at, they wondered idly why the whole J.D. program didn’t better resemble other professional Masters programs, like the MSW or MBA, and change the curriculum to a year of classroom and something like a 2,000 hour practicum. A two year program with significant clinical exposure, and then take the Bar Exam. They thought that would better prepare young lawyers for practice than the current system. Shrug.
Yale, I think. In the US, at least. Has continued to be awarded in the Commonwealth countries.
There are definitely people with a JD/Ph.D., and I’ve even encountered a few MD/JDs. (A doctor AND a lawyer? Your mom must be really proud! 
)
Admission to an American law school requires a bachelor’s degree, literally in anything, and the LSAT. Lawyers on this board can fill us in further.
That assumes that the purpose of a law degree is the practice of law, and usually assumed to be private practice. Last time I checked, about one third of people doing a law degree didn’t practise law. Can’t remember where I got that cite from. And, there is a tremendous diversity in the practice of law (barrister work, solicitor work, corporate counsel, public law, family law, immigration law and so on), which is better prepared for by a three year degree in my opinion.
Commonwealth countries generally have a three year degree, coupled with a year of articles to a senior lawyer, for those who want to practise law. That strikes me as a better balance of preparing for both the depth of knowledge and the practicalities of law.
One former premier of Quebec was both a lawyer (served as Attorney General before becoming Premier) and a doctor. I heard that he once said that of all the things he did, being an ER doc was the one that gave him the most personal satisfaction.
The terminal degree (Ph.D equivalent) for law is the DOctor of Juridical Science and is abbreviated as SJD
My sister’s BFF got a law degree, and found the theory fascinating but the practice much less so, and worked as an attorney until she got the loans paid off. I don’t even think she has her license any more.
One of my Facebook friends is a college classmate who also went to law school, and she is licensed in both pharmacy and law and works in the legal department of a health insurance company. She also said that law school was about 10,000 times easier than pharmacy school, and she married her (now ex-) husband and had her first child while she was in law school! :eek:
I have heard that some law schools are doing combination programs like JD/MBA, JD/MPH, etc. usually during the summer, or they go an extra year and get the combined degree at the same time.