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Legal education

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Legal education is the education of individuals who intend to become legal professionals or those who simply intend to use their law degree to some end, either related to law (such as politics or academic) or business. It includes:

  • First degrees in law, which may be studied at either undergraduate or graduate level depending on the country.
  • Vocational courses which prospective lawyers are required to pass in some countries before they may enter practice.
  • Higher academic degrees.

In addition to the qualifications required to become a practicing lawyer, legal education also encompasses higher degrees such as doctorates, for more advanced academic study.

In many countries other than the United States, law is an undergraduate degree. Graduates of such a program are eligible to become lawyers by passing the country's equivalent of a bar exam. In such countries, graduate programs in law enable students to embark on academic careers or become specialized in a particular area of law.

In the United States, law is a graduate degree, which students embark upon only after completing an undergraduate degree in some other field (usually a bachelor's degree), and is considered to be a graduate or professional school program. The undergraduate degree can be in any field, though most American lawyers hold bachelor's degrees in the humanities and social sciences; legal studies as an undergraduate study is available at a few institutions. American law schools are usually an autonomous entity within a larger university.

Faculty of law is another name for a law school or school of law, the terms commonly used in the United States. This term is used in Canada, other Commonwealth countries and the rest of the world. It may be distinguishable from law school in the sense that a faculty is a subdivision of a university on the same rank with other faculties, i.e. faculty of medicine, faculty of graduate studies, whereas a law school or school of law may have a more autonomous status within a university, or may be totally independent of any other post-secondary educational institution.

In addition in some countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and some states of Australia, the final stages of vocational legal education required to qualify to practice law are carried out outside the university system. The requirements for qualification as a barrister or as a solicitor are covered in those articles. See advocate for details of the requirements for qualification as an advocate in Scotland.

United States

Main article: Legal education in the United States

(The following information can also be found cross-listed at "Education of Lawyers in the United States")

The Education of Lawyers in the United States is generally undertaken through a law school program.

The professional degree granted by U.S. law schools is the Juris Doctor or Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.). Once a prospective lawyer has been awarded the J.D. (or other appropriate degree), he or she must pass a state bar examination in order to be licensed to practice as an Attorney at Law.

The Juris Doctor (J.D.), like the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), is a professional doctorate. The Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.S.D.), Doctor of Judicial Science (S.J.D.), and Doctor of Comparative Law (D.C.L.), are research and academic-based doctorate level degrees. In the U.S. the Legum Doctor (LL.D.) is only awarded as an honorary degree.

Academic degrees for non-lawyers are available at the baccalaureate and master's level. A common baccalaureate level degree is a Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies (B.S.). Academic master's degrees in legal studies are available, such as the Master of Studies (M.S.), and the Master of Professional Studies (M.P.S.). Such a degree is not required to enter a J.D. program.

Foreign lawyers seeking to practice in the U.S., who do not have a Juris Doctor (J.D.), often seek to obtain a Juris Master (J.M.), Master of Laws (LL.M.), Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.) or a Master of Jurisprudence (M.J.).

Legal education in the United States normally proceeds along the following route:

  • Undergraduate education (usually 4 years)
  • Law school (usually 3 years)
  • Admission to the bar (usually by taking a state's bar exam)
  • Legal practice

A number of law students apply for an optional judicial clerkship (less than 10% end up in such position), to be taken after law school and before legal practice. Some take the bar exam before a clerkship but this is not required, clerkships usually last a year but can be longer.

Law School

Main article: Law school in the United States

A law school is an institution where prospective lawyers obtain legal degrees. In the United States, law is a graduate degree, the pursuit of which students undertake only after having completed an undergraduate degree in some other field (usually a bachelor's degree). The law school program is considered to be a graduate or professional school program. The undergraduate degree can be in any field, though most American lawyers hold bachelor's degrees in the humanities and social sciences. American law schools are usually an autonomous entity within a larger university.

In most other countries, law is an undergraduate degree and graduates of such a program are eligible to become lawyers by passing the country's equivalent of a bar exam. In such countries, graduate programs in law enable students to embark on academic careers or become specialized in a particular area of law.

In most cases the degree awarded by American law schools is the Juris Doctor, or J.D., degree. In contrast, the LL.B. degree is still the standard qualification in other common law jurisdictions, mostly in the Commonwealth of Nations. Other, higher, degrees that are awarded include the Master of Laws degree (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science degree (J.S.D. or S.J.D.).

Once a student has graduated from law school he or she is expected to pursue admission to the bar in order to practice. Requirements for membership the bar vary across the United States. In addition, attorneys must meet certain Continuing Legal Education (CLE) requirements

Canada

See also List of law schools in Canada

In Canada, the situation is somewhere between that of the U.S. and the majority of the rest of the world. The first-professional degree in law is the Bachelor of Laws or the Juris Doctor for common law jurisdictions and the Bachelor of Laws, Licenciate of Law or Bachelor of Civil Law for Quebec, a civil law jurisdiction. While technically most of Canada's common-law law schools will allow people to apply to study law after only two or three years of study in an undergraduate programme in another field, the vast majority of those who are admitted have already earned at least an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. In the case of Quebec civil law degrees, students can be admitted after CEGEP .

Generally, entry into common-law LL.B programs in Canada is based almost exclusively on a combination of the student's grades as well as his score on the LSAT. This is, at the time of writing, unique from Medical School admission, where factors such as community involvement, personal character, extra-curricular activities and references are taken into account, with the admission test (MCAT) having only a small influence on the admission decision. However, McGill University law school takes into account those personal factors. Quebec civil-law law schools do not require the LSAT, nor does Université de Moncton law school which offers the common-law LL.B. program in French only. In the case of the University of Ottawa's common-law law school, the LSAT is required for the program given in English but not for the program given in French. The requirement for the LSAT is likely because it is generally believed that a student who performs well on the LSAT will generally perform well both at law school as well as as a legal practitioner. Most law schools receive far more applicants than they can accommodate; the examination offers admissions officers a simple and generally effective way to eliminate a large number of applicants from the pool.

After completing the LL.B. or equivalent, students must article for one year. (In Quebec, "stage" is the equivalent to "articling".) This can be a challenge for those with lower grades, as there are often a shortage of articling positions and completion of articles is required to be able to practise law in Canada. Articling involves on the job training, for low pay, working under the supervision of a licensed lawyer by the Provincial Bar (e.g., the Law Society of British Columbia) who has been practising for a minimum of 5 years. After a year of articling and call to the bar, many students are hired by the same lawyer or firm for which they articled, some start their own independent practices while others choose to work for a different firm. Others may leave the private practice of law to work in government or industry as a lawyer or in a law-related position.

In Canada, the vast majority of lawyers do not seek a graduate degree in law, such as a Master of Laws, unless they intend to become a professor at a law school or they are practising lawyers taking an LL.M. program geared to practising lawyers to gain or expand knowledge in a specialized area of law.

United Kingdom

See Legal education in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom law is studied as an undergraduate degree. After obtaining the degree it is necessary to complete certain vocational courses and to serve a period of on the job training before one is able to qualify to practice as a barrister, advocate, or solicitor.

Australia

See List of law schools in Australia

In Australia the situation is similar to Canada. Most reputable universities offer law as a graduate course (LLB, 3 years), undergraduate course (LLB, 4 years) or combined degree course (eg, BSc/LLB, BCom/LLB, BA/LLB, BE/LLB, 5 - 6 years). Some of these also offer a 2 year postgraduate JD program. Students in combined law would spend the first 3 years completing their first bachelor degree together with some preliminary law subjects, and then spend the last 2 years completing the law degree. Alternatively, one can finish any bachelor degree, and providing their academic results are high, apply for graduate entry into a LLB program. Notable law schools are at ANU, Monash, UNSW, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Queenland University of Technology, and the University of Queensland.

Japan

The Japanese legal education system is driven more by examination than by formal schooling. The profession of barristers, known as bengoshi, is highly regulated, and the passage rate for the bar exam is around three percent. Prospective attorneys who do pass the exam must take it three or four times before passing it, and a number of specialized "cram schools" exist for prospective lawyers. After passing the bar exam, prospective barristers undergo a one-year training period at the Legal Research and Training Institute of the Supreme Court of Japan. During this period, the most capable trainees are "selected out" to become career judges; others may become prosecutors or private practitioners.

In 2004, the Japanese government passed a law allowing for the creation of three-year law schools (法科大学院, hōka daigakuin). The 2006 bar examination will be the first in Japanese history to require a law school degree as a prerequisite. In the past, although there has been no educational requirement, most of those who passed the examination had earned undergraduate degrees from "elite" Japanese universities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Waseda, Keio and Chuo.

A number of other legal professions exist in Japan, such as patent attorneys (benrishi), tax attorneys (zeirishi), scriveners, etc., entry to each of which is governed by a separate examination.

See also

References



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