Whenever you come across the names of attorneys, you may wonder why they have different abbreviations attached to their names. Questions especially arise if you are not too conversant with the field and think that an attorney is an attorney anyway and should not have the complicated abbreviations.
After all, they do the same kind of work, right? It is not something that should leave your mind bothered. The very reason for the abbreviations is to help one identify every single attorney by the level of education they have obtained. If there are more abbreviations to an attorney’s surname, there is a high chance that they have had more education.
The Following Are The Abbreviations For The Law Degree And Their Significance
• J.D
– This stands for Juris Doctor. This particular degree is received when an attorney has graduated from law school. This being a graduate degree, the attorney is allowed to practice law while in the United States.
• LL.M
– This is for the attorneys who have the Masters-of-Law. It is achieved after you have already attained the Juris Doctor level. If you want to obtain credentials globally, then you need to ensure that you have attained the La L.M. You have an advantage of attaining certification in legal study for specific areas of law such as international law, human rights law or intellectual property law.
• J.S.D
– This stands for the Doctor-of-Science-Law. This is pretty much equivalent to attaining a Ph.D. in Law. Once you as an attorney get to attain this degree, you have high chances of being selected for opportunities in teaching law studies and other social sciences. As simple as it may sound, it is usually awarded to very few people so have a very high advantage when you attain it.
• LL. B
– This is an abbreviation for Legum Baccalaureus. It is equivalent to the Juris Doctor. The only difference with an attorney who has achieved this is that it is not available in the United States. The advantage of this regardless of it not being available in the US is that wherever you attain it from, you can still practice law.
• The combined initials
– There are some law schools that allow you to study the J.D alongside another degree. It could be another bachelor’s degree as well as an advanced degree or a master’s degree. For example, if your names are Allan Smith, and have a Master’s Degree in Business-Administration, your name will be written as Allan Smith J.D, M.B.A.
Evidently, the more weight there is to your degree, the higher the chances are to enrol you to a school where you can advance your career or even land yourself a job that well fits your description.
Whenever you need to come up with best law essay or need to train someone on the same, you need to have at least the basics of what you need to become an excellent lawyer. This means that you need to have attained the lowest attorney degree which is the Juris Doctor. It is a requirement for attaining these other higher degrees as well as certifying you to work as a lawyer.
Once you have graduated with the Juris Doctor degree, you can proceed to the state bar examination sitting depending on the requirements of the state in which you are in.
