Juris Doctor (JD) Guide

The Juris Doctor (JD) is a graduate-entry degree in Law which qualifies graduates as lawyers in various countries, including the USA, the Philippines and Canada. In these countries it is the highest professional degree in general Law, though Masters degrees like an LLM (Master of Laws) provides further specialisation. A Juris Doctor isn’t the same as a lawyer as graduates still need to pass the relevant bar exam to become licensed lawyers. Despite the name, a JD graduate isn’t typically considered a ‘doctor’ in most countries.

The name may be somewhat confusing, but the JD is the qualification to become a lawyer in certain countries. In other instances (like Australia) it’s instead a conversion course, so watch out for that. I’ll mostly focus on the countries where it’s the primary law qualification, but I’ll still quickly mention the countries where the JD works differently.

Now, I present to the court: what the JD involves, entry requirements, fees, and some other pertinent information for the court record. I’m writing this down myself, though, so the court stenographer can hit the bar (not the exam kind) rather than take notes at the speed of sound. I’m sure they deserve the break.

Also, considering we’re looking at different countries, I’d highly recommend using the table of contents menu to jump around to your preferred section. I won’t be offended, I promise.

Juris Doctor in the Philippines

A JD in the Philippines (replacing the LLB as the main law degree) takes four years of full-time study, and it’ll give you all the education you need to pass the Philippine Bar Exams and become a lawyer. During the course of the programme, you’ll study practice areas such as:

• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law
• Persons and Family Law
• Obligations and Contracts
• Torts and Damages

You may need to complete a thesis / dissertation as part of your programme—whether you will or not varies between institutions.

Entry requirements

Baseline entry requirements for a JD programme include:

• A Bachelors degree
• Passing the law school’s entrance exam

Universities typically put further conditions on the Bachelors degree requirement, but what these conditions are varies between universities. It’s common to have unit requirements (such as at least 12 units of English courses), but some also specify the degree comes from a specific subject (such as arts or sciences) or ask for a certain GPA.

If you have a specific university in mind, I’d recommend checking their JD course page to see whether you meet the requirements (hopefully no unfortunate surprises!).

Tuition fees

There’s a wide range of tuition fees for different JD programmes, with the biggest influence being whether you study at a public or a private university.

At a public university, you’ll be paying around ₱15,000 to ₱30,000 per semester, so around ₱120,000 to ₱240,000 for the full programme.

At a private university, you’ll be paying considerably more—somewhere between  ₱60,000 to ₱90,000 per semester (or higher!), so closer to ₱480,000 to ₱720,000 for the full programme.

Bear in mind there are other costs on top of this (books, living costs, bar fees), so you’ll likely need to budget quite a bit higher for your total costs.

Juris Doctor in the US

In the US, a JD is a three-year full time professional doctorate that’s required if you want to become a lawyer. A four-year part-time route may also be available at certain universities.

Practice areas you’ll study on a JD include:

• Contracts
• Constitution law
• Civil procedure
• Property law
• Torts

In your second and third year, you may study more specialised areas of law (such as tax or family law). You may also have the opportunity to take part in an internship or externship programme. If you’re wondering about the difference, an internship will be longer and give you more hands-on experience completing work responsibilities, while an externship tends to be shorter and mainly involves shadowing others as they complete tasks.

You won’t need to write a thesis for a US JD programme, typically—the most you’ll need to write will be an essay of some kind (a relief to some of you, I’m sure).

Entry requirements

To be accepted on a JD in the US, you’ll typically need the following as a baseline:

• A Bachelors degree in any subject
• Completion of an admission test (commonly the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), but I’ve also seen the GRE around)

Other than the above, some universities have more bespoke requirements. A letter of recommendation isn’t uncommon, typically from your undergrad professor or a former employer, and you may be asked for your official transcripts from your previous education.

Also, it’s unusual to ask for a specific GPA or LSAT score to be admitted—but of course, better scores will make your application more competitive.

Tuition fees

Tuition fees for JD programmes vary considerably between universities, with public universities generally being more affordable than private ones. The average cost across all programmes is $46,029 per year, or $138,088 for the entire programme.

That average is representing considerable variance, though, as I mentioned. Some more affordable schools have fees closer to $11,000-$15,000 per year, while highly prestigious schools (like Ivy League) can charge closer to $80,000 per year.

As with the Philippines example above, bear in mind tuition fees won’t be the only costs—student health insurance, textbooks, living costs and other fees are layered on top. With all that in mind, you might want to look at our USA Masters funding guide for some tips (especially if you’re going for a ~$80,000 a year course, yowza).

Juris Doctor in Canada

The JD in Canada is a three-year graduate programme that’s required to become a lawyer in most Canadian provinces (we’ll get to Quebec). Part-time programmes may also be available, typically completed in four to six years depending on your pace of study.

Practice areas you’ll study on a Canadian JD include:

• Torts
• Criminal Law
• Contract Law
• Constitutional Law
• Property Law

You won’t normally be required to complete a thesis for a JD in Canada, but there may be other written assignments to complete (such as research papers).

As for Quebec, the JD isn’t the dominant legal qualification over there. Instead, you’d complete an undergraduate degree in civil law and potentially a Masters depending on if you want to be a notary or an advocate (two distinct types of lawyers). I won’t say much more about it since it’s out of scope for this article, but know that you’ll need to retrain in some way if you trained in Quebec but want to work in another province (or vice versa).

Entry requirements

For a Canadian JD, baseline entry requirements typically include:

• A Bachelors degree in any subject
• Completion of the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), similar to US universities

Some universities also ask for letters of recommendation, personal statement, transcripts and GPA, though as with the US, a minimum GPA or LSAT requirement isn’t common (but better scores will certainly help). If you have a particular university in mind, I’d recommend checking their admissions page for more information.

Tuition fees

The majority of Canadian universities are public, but even so, fees still vary considerably. Still, I’ve done a little sleuthing, and this is what I’ve got:

From the universities I looked at, average tuition fees (in Canadian dollars) came to $22,732 per year for domestic students, and $56,522 per year for international students. In addition, some universities have cheaper fees for in-province students, with the ones I looked at being around 10%-20% cheaper than the general domestic fees.

As with the US, the fees you see aren’t the fees you get—you’ll usually have additional fees on top (Students' Union fees, for example) along with other financial considerations like living costs.

Juris Doctor in other countries

For brevity, I’ve kept it to some of the more popular study-abroad countries for the JD.

Australia

Like some of the above, Australia’s JD is a three-year graduate-entry degree, meaning you need an undergraduate degree to apply. Unlike the above, however, Australia also has an undergraduate law degree (the LLB), which is the more common route into law. Instead, the JD in Australia is more of a conversion course for those with an unrelated undergraduate degree, similar to the PGDL in the UK.

Typical entry requirements (on top of the undergrad) are a GPA of 5.0, a personal statement, a CV, and letters of recommendation. Fees vary significantly, but are typically in the realm of $43,000 and $115,000 AUD per year. Some universities offer Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP), which are often significantly cheaper, but they’re in short supply and have specific eligibility requirements.

China

In China, the JD is a postgraduate-level alternative to the undergraduate Bachelor of Laws, for students who studied an unrelated subject for their Bachelors. Unlike in many other countries, the Chinese JD requires a dissertation. It’s also completed in two years rather than three.

United Kingdom

The Juris Doctor isn’t generally offered in the UK. Most non-Law graduates wishing to qualify as lawyers in the UK will take the Solicitor’s Qualifying Examination (SQE) (for solicitors, naturally), or the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) followed by the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) for barristers.

The only university offering a standalone JD qualification in the UK is Queen’s University Belfast. There are also a handful of universities offering joint JD/ LLB qualifications in collaboration with overseas institutions, which are predominantly designed for UK students who want to practise overseas.

Tips from the author

#1 Remember that you’ll still need to pass the local bar exam to be fully qualified

If all goes well your course should prepare you well for passing the bar, but it’s still something to keep in mind. Sometimes the bar fees are included as part of your fees package, but it’s not super common, so you may need to budget for those as well. At least you’ll (hopefully) be good at managing money by the end of your course? Sorry, just trying to look on the bright side.

#2 You can’t normally transfer JDs between countries

Even if both countries are united under common law or civil law, the intricacies of each system will make porting a JD between countries a no go. There are a few exceptions (dual JDs that cover both countries exist), but by and large, you’ll need to complete further training to practice law in other countries. You probably won’t need to do a brand new JD, though, in case your wallet is already crying out in pain.

#3 Funding support is available, so make sure to look into it!

As you’ve probably noticed reading this article, a JD isn’t the cheapest of degrees (regardless of where you study it). With that in mind, assuming you’re not wealthy, you should definitely check out funding support from both local governance and the university. The former isn’t always amazing (and may not even exist) if you’re an international student, but it’s still worth a look. Scholarships are probably the best bet, though they’re competitive, of course. Best of luck!

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