Juris Doctor: Difference between revisions

'''J.D.''' is an abbreviation for the [[Latin]] '''''Juris Doctor''''', or '''Doctor of [[Law]]''', and is the law degree typically awarded by an accredited [[U.S.]] [[law school]] after successfully completing three years of post-graduate law study. Generally, a 4-year [[undergraduate]] degree is required to be eligible for entry into a J.D. program. In states with an "integrated bar association," a J.D. holder is required to be member of the [[bar association]] of the state in which he or she intends to practice. Most states, however, do not require membership in a bar association, it is purely voluntary. Washington, DC is a special case-- —the DC bar allows attorneys who recently passed the bar exam of another state and who were subsequently admitted to the bar of that state, to 'waive' in to DC, in effect not having to sit for the full DC bar exam (though they still must attend to other formalities in order to practice in DC). Admission to a state's bar requires that the applicant either sit for the bar exam in that state and submit to that state's procedures for verifying "character and fitness", or obtain admission administratively through reciprocity provisions providing that in some states, lawyers who have practiced in other states for a set period of time, may be admitted upon application.

The J.D. was formerly known as the [[Bachelor of Laws|LL.B.]] in most U.S. universities, and was only changed out of sheer vanity. Hence the [[LL.M.]], "Master of Laws", is a higher degree than the so-called "doctor of law" (J.D.), which is really just an overly vanevain title for the "Bachelor of Laws", employed only in the United States. For this reason, doctors of law who are admitted to the practice of law often append the suffix [[Esquire|Esq.]] to the end of their names, but are not commonly referred to as "Doctor". (While the ''Juris Doctor'' is a professional [[doctorate]], similar to the ''Medicinæ Doctor'' ([[Doctor of Medicine]]), legal convention stipulates that lawyers do not use the title.) Unlike the J.D., however, the Doctor of Juristic Science (J.S.D.), Doctor of the Science of Law (L.Sc.D.), and the Legum Doctor or Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) do confer the title of "Doctor".