This issue sometimes arises in universities where graduate students are doing dissertations in interdisciplinary "law and" areas and might want a law professor on their doctoral committees. In those instances the JD is NOT usually considered a "doctorate," which means that, at most, the law professor can sit on the committee, but cannot direct the dissertation.
James G. Milles
Associate Dean and Director of the Law Library, Visiting Associate Professor of Law
University at Buffalo
State University of New York
205 O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 645-2089, Fax: (716) 645-2860
jgmilles@buffalo.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: Kent Olson
To: Susan Phillips ; 'law-lib@ucdavis.edu'
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 6:17 PM
Subject: Re: Form of Address
At 04:38 PM 6/5/2002 -0500, Susan Phillips wrote:
I had an administrator ask why someone with a J.D. is not commonly referred to as "Doctor."
Does anyone know where there is a written discussion of this point?
I did a quick search in Byyan Garner's Dictionary of Legal Usage but did not see anything.
Thanks.
Dear Abby's sister discussed this issue in her column of 8/17/2000:
Dear Ann Landers: A long time ago, you printed a letter about lawyers using the title "Doctor." You said this practice was improper. Several colleagues who have earned academic degrees are concerned about attorneys who ask to be addressed in this manner. Please elaborate.
Associate Professor in Kansas
Dear Professor: An attorney who has earned a J.D. ( juris doctor) , is a doctor the same as a PhD. It is an academic degree. An attorney can be addressed as "Doctor" if he or she prefers. Socially, however, lawyers and academic professionals should not use their titles. Those who do, I fear, are suffering from a serious case of low self-esteem and feel the need to be pumped up.
I wasn't able to locate the earlier column, but a Nexis search in the Florida Bar News [juris doctor and headline(letters)] will lead to a flurry of opinions on this topic published between July 2000 and October 2001.
Dr. Kent Olson
University of Virginia Law Library
kolson@virginia.edu
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