It is called law school, not lawyer school

[DontQuestionMe]

Law is the opposite of every other professional degree. In law, you receive your J.D. (Juris Doctorate) before receiving (if someone chooses to get it) and LLM (Master of Laws). So, law school is backward, you get your doctorate and then your masters.

[DontQuestionMe]

Mr. mintz should look into an LLM and a JPS (I believe these are the right letters for a Law PhD).  That's where you're going to get the academic stuff that he wants that doesn't mean jack in the practice of law. 

There are many reasons to get an LLM. The popularity of LLMs is on the rise. Here are a few of the reasons:

1) Attorneys from foreign countries become bar eligible in the United States after completing an LLM program, which can be done in a year at many schools.

2) If you graduate from a high T2, finished 10-25% class rank, you have an undergraduate degree in accounting, you have an interest in practicing taxation law at a v25 firm, but you can't get hired. Get an LLM in taxation law from Georgetown and your chances of getting picked up by a v25 increase.

I know several attorneys with LLMs and it definitely makes them more employable. An LLM will not allow you to overcome a T3, where you had mediocre grades, but an LLM from a prestigious school can boost someone's career.

[philibusters]

Law is the opposite of every other professional degree. In law, you receive your J.D. (Juris Doctorate) before receiving (if someone chooses to get it) and LLM (Master of Laws). So, law school is backward, you get your doctorate and then your masters.

Its debatable whether the the Juris Doctor degree is a doctorate in the sense of how people usually think of the term.  Its the highest professional degree in law, but the S.J.D. or J.S.D. is the actually degree equivalent to a Ph.D because that is the the highest academic/research degree in law.  The JD is much more similar to a MD than a Ph.D in the sense that they are considered professional degrees (they mean you are qualified to practice a certain profession).

[Freak]

JD = Juris Doctor not Doctorate

[Freak]

Actually, you can obtain a LLM w/o a JD, but would be barred from practicing law in most states.

International students often obtain LLMs because most countries only require a BA to practice law. The LLM gives them a leg up in credentials w/o requiring the intense 3 year JD experience. 

Some JD students obtain the LLM to emphasize a legal specialty because it's not too difficult to add a LLM to a JD due to classes which count towards both degrees.

So I'm quite certain a JD is greater than an LLM which would be equivalent to an MBA type degree.

[Freak]

I stand corrected, but I still assert that a LLB + a LLM is less than a JD. 

[Cloggie]

In places where LLBs are offered, you do not necessarily have to have one to get an LLM.  Many of my BA classmates went onto LLMs (which I would have done if I'd stayed in the Netherlands).  This does not qualify them for the equivalent of the bar.  Its very academically (rather than professionally) oriented.  I can't speak too all countries but in England, Scotland and the Netherlands, you have to take a barrister/solicitor/judgeship vocational program to qualify.  No LLM required.   

[DontQuestionMe]

JD = Juris Doctor not Doctorate

You could have fooled Northwestern:

http://www.jdmba.northwestern.edu/

Or Loyola Chicago:

http://www.luc.edu/students/career/

Or Baker Botts:

http://www.bakerbotts.com/infocenter/newsroom/Detail.aspx?id=90243f11-5c9e-4704-b5ec-0d2a658d00e9

Maybe their partners are lying about their partners law degree? Maybe they are just confused? 

[Freak]

Hey if they want to call it a Doctorate, I'm all for it...

Still Harvard (who first began awarding JDs) calls it a Juris Doctor.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/about/

[nailemlaw]

good point