:: Law Degrees
Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular jurisdiction, to provide a greater breadth of knowledge to those working in other professions such as politics or business, to provide current lawyers with advanced training or greater specialisation, or to update lawyers on recent developments in the law.
Legal education can take the form of a variety of programs, including:
- Primary degrees in law, which may be studied at either undergraduate or graduate level depending on the country.
- Advanced academic degrees in law, such as masters and doctoral degrees.
- Practice or training courses, which prospective lawyers are required to pass in some countries before they may enter practice.
- Applied or specialised law accreditation, which are less formal than degree programs but which provide specialised certification in particular areas.
- Continuing legal education, which do not lead to a qualification but provide practicing lawyers with updates on recent legal developments.
In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister, solicitor, or civil law notary. However, there is a substantial amount of overlap between the practice of law and various other professions where clients are represented by agents. These professions include real estate, banking, accounting, and insurance. Moreover, a growing number of legal document assistants (LDAs) are offering services which have traditionally been offered only by lawyers and their employee paralegals. Many documents may now be created by computer-assisted drafting libraries, where the clients are asked a series of questions that are posed by the software in order to construct the legal documents.
In many countries, including most of those in the Commonwealth of Nations, the principal law degree is an undergraduate degree, usually known as a Bachelor of Laws (LLB). Graduates of such a program are eligible to become lawyers by passing the country's equivalent of a bar exam. In these countries, graduate law programs are advanced degrees which allow for more in-depth study or specialisation.
In the United States, the primary law degree is a graduate degree known as the Juris Doctor (JD). Students may pursue such a degree only after completing an undergraduate degree, usually a bachelor's degree. The undergraduate degree can be in any field, though most American lawyers hold bachelor's degrees in the humanities and social sciences. American law schools are usually an autonomous entity within a larger university.
Primary degrees in law are offered by law schools, known in some countries as faculties of law. Law schools may have varying degrees of autonomy within a particular university or, in some countries, can be entirely independent of any other post-secondary educational institution.
Continuing legal education (also known as continuing professional development) programs are informal seminars or short courses which provide legal practitioners with an opportunity to update their knowledge and skills throughout their legal career. In some jurisdictions, it is mandatory to undertake a certain amount of continuing legal education each year.
A paralegal is an individual who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency, or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. Paralegals perform tasks requiring knowledge of the law and legal procedures, but the exact nature of their work and limitations that the law places on the tasks they are allowed to undertake vary between nations and jurisdictions. A paralegal is not a lawyer but is typically employed by a law office or internal legal department of a company; paralegals are typically not allowed to offer legal services independently in most jurisdictions. Paralegals operate under a form of independent legal ethics, but with few exceptions must also typically conduct their work under the formal supervision of an attorney. In some jurisdictions, paralegals can conduct their own business and are called Law Agents, providing services such as settlements, court filings, legal research and other auxiliary legal services; these tasks often have instructions from a solicitor attached.
In the United States, a paralegal is protected from some forms of professional liability under the theory that paralegals are working as an enhancement of an attorney, who takes ultimate responsibility for the supervision of the paralegal's work and their work product. Paralegals often have taken a prescribed series of courses in law and legal processes. Paralegals may analyze and summarize depositions, prepare and answer interrogatories, draft procedural motions and other routine briefs, perform legal research and analysis, draft research memos, and perform case and project management. Paralegals often handle drafting much of the paper work in probate cases, divorce actions, bankruptcies, and investigations. Consumers of legal services are typically billed for the time paralegals spend on their cases. In the United States, they are not authorized by the government or other agency to offer legal services (including legal advice) except in Washington State in the same way as lawyers, nor are they officers of the court, nor are they usually subject to government-sanctioned or court-sanctioned rules of conduct. By contrast, in some jurisdictions (Ontario, Canada, for example) paralegals are licensed and regulated the same way that lawyers are and these licensed professionals may be permitted to provide legal services to the public and appear before certain lower courts and administrative tribunals.
Select from the following list of current Legal Degrees:
top |
