Some Information abour a Law Degree in the USA
The following information was
obtained from the website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_doctorate
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 some legal research, law schools now tell their
students that the J.D. is equivalent to the Ph.D. in most fields.
Whether the J.D. is equivalent to a Ph.D. depends upon the context of
the debate; it is true, however, that law professors generally hold
only the J.D. degree, and that a person having a J.D. degree can be a
full professor, dean, or university president.
LL.M. degrees in the United States are often earned by foreigners who
have previously obtained a foreign law degree abroad. U.S.-educated
lawyers, before proceeding to obtain an LL.M., generally have a total
of seven years of education: four as an undergraduate and three to
obtain a J.D. Foreign lawyers (who may have been trained in
undergraduate institutions, giving the traditional name for the basic
law degree, the LL.B.) generally have a total of five years of
education: four in their home country, and one in the United States as
an LL.M. Although foreigners may obtain an LL.M. after fewer total
years of academic training than their U.S. colleagues, it represents a
greater degree of achievement in legal education.