A JD and an LLM sit at different layers of legal education.
The JD is the first degree in law — the one LSAC says is needed in almost all cases to practice in the U.S. The LLM (Master of Laws) is a graduate law degree built on top of a first law degree, not a substitute for one.
Below: the difference in purpose, length and cost, bar eligibility, and who needs which.
Purpose of each
| JD | LLM | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | The first degree in law — needed in almost all cases to practice in the U.S. | Graduate law degree added after a first law degree |
| Length | Most are 3 years full-time; part-time about 4 | No standard length confirmed in our research — check each program's materials |
| Bar exam | The degree LSAC says is needed in almost all cases to practice in the U.S. | In some states, internationally educated lawyers may become eligible, subject to each jurisdiction's rules |
| Cost | Median full-time resident tuition of $49,910 per year (ABA 2025 data) | No national figure confirmed in our research — ask each program |
Purpose is where the two separate most cleanly.
The JD — the Juris Doctor — is the first degree in law: LSAC, the Law School Admission Council, calls it the degree needed in almost all cases to practice in the United States.
Admission to a JD program requires a bachelor's degree, so it is the first law degree an American student earns.
The LLM — Master of Laws — is a graduate law degree, and it is not an entry credential.
Per LSAC, U.S. and Canadian students need a JD before starting one, while international students need a first professional law degree, such as an LLB.
Whichever route you take, a law degree comes first: the LLM adds graduate study on top of it rather than replacing it.
This page covers the differences only.
Our guides cover what a JD is and what an LLM is in full.
Length and cost
For the JD, the shape is well documented: most JD programs are three-year, full-time programs, per LSAC, and part-time programs take about four years.
That law-school clock sits on top of the bachelor's degree JD admission requires.
For the LLM, our research did not confirm a standard length.
The degree is built on different starting points — a JD for U.S. and Canadian students, a first professional law degree for international ones — and no verified national figure describes how long the programs run.
The length worth planning around is the one in each program's own materials.
On cost, the verified numbers describe the JD side.
In the ABA's Standard 509 disclosures for 2025, full-time JD tuition ran a median of $49,910 per year for residents — with a range of $11,338 to $85,368 — and a median of $53,640 for full-time nonresidents.
Those figures exclude fees and living costs.
Our research found no comparable national figure for LLM tuition.
Ask each program you are considering for tuition, fees and total cost of attendance before you compare programs on anything else.
Which lets you take the bar
For bar purposes, the degrees are not interchangeable.
The JD is the degree LSAC says is needed in almost all cases to practice in the United States; the LLM's bar role, where one exists at all, is narrow and jurisdiction-specific.
The LLM's bar story is real but narrow.
Per LSAC, in some U.S. states, internationally educated lawyers who earn an LLM may become eligible to take the bar exam, subject to each jurisdiction's rules.
Both limits matter: the pathway LSAC describes concerns internationally educated lawyers, and "some U.S. states" is as specific as a national page can honestly get — the sources we read do not say which states, or how many.
What the research does not support is the reverse move: nothing in it says an LLM substitutes for a JD for a U.S.-educated graduate, and the LLM's own entry rules already place a JD underneath it.
Degree and license are separate questions, too — a degree is education, while admission to practice is controlled by the bar admission authority in the state where you plan to work.
Bar eligibility is decided jurisdiction by jurisdiction
Who needs which
JD or LLM comes down to where you are starting from:
- Aspiring lawyers starting out. The JD. It is the first degree in law, needed in almost all cases to practice in the U.S., and entry begins after a bachelor's degree.
- U.S. and Canadian JD holders. An LLM is a degree added after the JD — per LSAC, the JD is its entry requirement. It is graduate study on top of the practice credential, and our research found nothing supporting it as a second route to licensure.
- Internationally educated lawyers. An LLM may figure into bar eligibility in some U.S. states, subject to each jurisdiction's rules — the one bar-eligibility situation where the LLM, not the JD, is the degree to research first.
What this page cannot settle is what either degree does for hiring or pay: our research did not confirm employment-outcome data for LLM graduates, so no premium can be claimed in either direction.
The requirements on the job listings for the roles you want are the practical check.
Career information, not legal advice. Degree structures and bar-admission rules change — confirm current requirements with the law schools and the bar admission authority in your state before you act on anything here.