The change to the J.D. was going on back when I was in law school. (So was the change from steam power to the internal combustion engine, but that's a different issue.) It appeared to stem largely from the fact that lawyers receiving a mere LL.B. felt socially disadvantaged as compared to MDs. (This is apparently still going on up in Canada, at least at the University of Toronto - http://www.law.utoronto.ca/jd/JDletter.htm ) The JD was simply a new name for the same old LL.B. In fact, if you had received an LL.B, many schools allowed you to send them a check and they'd issue you a new diploma that said J.D instead. This in turn resulted in not a few lawyers advertising themselves as "John Doe, LL.B, J.D." (that'll show those plain old MDs.)
Bob Ryan
Hill Farrer & Burrill
Los Angeles
-----Original Message-----
From: Kent Olson [mailto:kolson@virginia.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2002 3:17 PM
To: Susan Phillips; 'law-lib@ucdavis.edu'
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
===================================
The information contained in this electronic mail message is confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above, and may be privileged. The information herein may also be protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 USC Sections 2510-2521. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please immediately notify us by telephone (213-620-0460), and delete the original message. Thank you.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:36:33 PST