There is not a law school in the nation whose tag line reads “we only graduate people who practice law.” It would simply be foolish to say such a thing when it has long been acknowledged that practicing law is only one way to utilize a law degree. Indeed, a J.D. is a versatile degree, just ask 25 of 44 U.S. Presidents how they used theirs. So, why are the various regulators and reviewers of law schools making a sharp delineation between those graduates that are practicing law in the traditional sense which requires the Bar exam and those graduates using their degree in other ways?
It seems that in these changing times, our focus should be less on holding steadfast to tradition and more on expansion of the profession. Instead, our regulators, reviewers and surveyors have decided to categorize our new law graduates into several categories, the largest of which are “Bar passage required” and “J.D. advantage.” “Bar passage required” is the traditional bar-required, practicing lawyer position whose title is commonly “associate” or “attorney.” “J.D. advantage” positions are professional positions that utilize the J.D. degree skill set but do not require that the candidates necessarily take and pass the bar exam (although most do). This issue is much more than the regulating bodies proposing these two distinctions. The real problem is one of perception because the J.D. advantage position is actually perceived as “less than” a J.D. required position. In my view, this is misguided, and in fact hurtful to the legal industry.
