Law Degree Programs
Law remains to be one of the most in-demand courses today, which is why more schools, colleges, and universities are now making their law degree programs available for more people who want to pursue a career in law. The most common setup for legal education is the classroom setting, although distance learning is now allowing more people to take law degree programs.
If you are interested in taking up legal education, and you have already completed pre-law education or accomplished a bachelor's degree for law school, the next step is to choose a law degree program to pursue in law school. You might want to take note of the major law degree programs that you will encounter whether you choose land-based or online legal education.
The Juris Doctor program (JD program) mainly involves courses for those who wish to become practicing lawyers. This law degree program aims to arm law students with enough legal knowledge and critical analytical skills for them to be competent law practitioners in the near future. The Juris Doctor program is perfect if you want to be a practicing lawyer, an in-house legal counsel for corporations, a legislative analyst, or a risk manager. The Juris Doctor law degree program usually takes three years of full-time attendance in most land-based law schools such as University of Pennsylvania Law School. (1)
The Master of Laws (LL.M. program) is an advanced one-year law degree program usually taken by students who want to gain a more in-depth or specialized knowledge on a wide range of subjects such as environmental law, tax law, bankruptcy law, and human rights law. (2) Students taking this law degree program are usually tasked to engage in intermediate legal research, comparative legal study, and pursue a specialization in the various fields such as business, environment, and information technology. Law schools such as Cornell University Law School usually requires students to have twenty credits of law education in order to qualify for this law degree programs. (3)
The Juris Doctor program and the Master of Laws program are the most common law degree programs offered by most online and land-based law schools today. Most law students are required to take the Juris Doctor program first before they can qualify for advanced law degree programs such as the Master of Laws program. Contact your desired law school for more information on the requirements, curriculum, and class schedules of the law degree program of your choice.
Literary Citations & Article References:
(1) http://www.law.upenn.edu/registrar/requirements.html
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LL.M.
(3) http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/international/degrees.cfm