A JD — Juris Doctor — is the first degree in law in the United States: LSAC, the Law School Admission Council, calls it the credential needed in almost all cases to practice.
Most JD programs run three years of full-time study after a bachelor's degree; part-time programs take about four.
Here is what the degree involves, why accreditation matters, and how it differs from the titles and degrees it gets confused with.
What is a JD?
JD stands for Juris Doctor — the degree American law schools award.
LSAC, the Law School Admission Council, calls it the "first degree" in law: the degree needed in almost all cases to practice in the United States.
It sits after a bachelor's degree, which admission to a JD program requires, and before whatever licensure steps the state where you want to practice sets for lawyers.
The degree is also awarded at real scale.
About 196–197 law schools hold ABA approval: 196 schools filed ABA Standard 509 disclosures for 2025, and other counts put the ABA-approved total at 197.
In the fall 2025 data, those schools reported 517,099 applications (counted per school, so one applicant can appear many times over), 137,721 admission offers and 42,812 first-year enrollees.
Total JD enrollment across ABA schools came to about 120,047, and schools reported about 36,340 JD degrees awarded.
There is no single JD student profile, either.
In the fall 2025 ABA data, school median LSAT scores ranged from 139 to 175 — the median across schools was 159 — and median undergraduate GPAs ranged from 3.09 to 4.00, with a median of 3.67.
Schools at different points in those ranges admit different classes, which is why school-level numbers say more than any national figure.
One thing the JD is not, by itself: a license.
The degree is the education step.
The steps that turn a graduate into a practicing lawyer are controlled separately by the bar admission authority where you plan to work, under that jurisdiction's own rules.
How long does a JD take?
Most JD programs are three-year, full-time programs, per LSAC.
Part-time programs take about four years to complete.
Part-time study is a real option rather than an edge case: 86 of the 196 ABA schools that filed 2025 disclosures reported part-time first-year students in fall 2025.
The trade is time — about four years instead of three — for a schedule that can absorb work or family commitments alongside class.
Both figures sit on top of the bachelor's degree a JD program requires for admission, so the total run from starting college to holding the degree is longer than the law school years alone.
Why does ABA accreditation matter?
The American Bar Association approves — accredits — American law schools.
About 196–197 schools hold that approval: 196 filed the ABA's Standard 509 disclosures for 2025, and other counts put the ABA-approved total at 197.
The ABA's own list of accredited schools was not accessible when we researched this page, which is why the range stands.
Accreditation buys applicants something concrete: a fixed rulebook the school operates inside, plus standardized annual data.
Every number in this article about applications, offers, enrollment, class sizes, LSATs and GPAs comes from the Standard 509 disclosures accredited schools file.
The rulebook itself — the ABA's Standards — is where the JD's shape gets set.
Our research notes requirements around minimum credit hours, required experiential coursework and graduates' bar passage, but we could not verify the current figures against the ABA's standards document, which was not accessible when we researched this page.
If an exact number matters to you — credit minimums, coursework requirements, passage thresholds — take it from the ABA's own Standards rather than from secondhand summaries.
Accreditation is the school-side check — licensure is separate
What can you do with a JD?
The direct answer: it positions you to practice law.
LSAC calls the JD the "first degree" in law — the degree needed in almost all cases to practice in the United States — and it is the degree behind the attorney titles you see on legal job boards.
The ABA's outcome data shows what graduates do next.
Among the class of 2025, graduates who took a bar exam for the first time passed at an aggregate 84.2% — 29,300 of 34,806 takers across 195 ABA schools — per the ABA's 2026 bar passage report.
The ABA also tracks two-year ultimate bar passage, which counts graduates who pass within two years of graduation: the class of 2023 reached about 92.3%, 31,030 of 33,638 takers.
Both figures describe ABA-approved schools' graduates in aggregate.
Practice is what the degree is built for, and it is where this site's jobs live.
The attorney career guide covers what attorneys do and the roles, settings and career paths the work leads to; this page stays with the degree itself.
JD vs Esq.: what's the difference?
The two belong to different categories.
JD is a degree — the Juris Doctor, the credential this page describes.
Esq.
(Esquire) is a term that follows a lawyer's name, not a degree.
Our research found no statute or court rule that defines it or says who may use it.
The ethics opinion our research verified treats Esq. as a question of not misleading people about a lawyer's status.
New York State Bar Ethics Opinion 1147 (March 23, 2018) says a lawyer not admitted to practice in New York may use "Esq." in connection with a non-legal business conducted in New York, provided that care is taken to avoid confusion about the lawyer's status.
That is one state's ethics opinion, not a national rule.
The JD sits elsewhere in the sequence: LSAC calls it the degree needed in almost all cases to practice, and licensure follows under the rules of the state where a lawyer works.
If you ever need to know whether a particular use of Esq. is appropriate — on a signature block, a business card, a court filing — ask the state bar in that state.
The confusion is understandable: both marks attach to the legal profession.
The useful test when you see either is what it can and cannot tell you — a JD tells you someone holds the degree, not that they are licensed to practice, while Esq. identifies no school or course of study.
JD vs LLM vs MLS
Three acronyms, three different positions:
- JD (Juris Doctor). The first degree in law — the one LSAC says is needed in almost all cases to practice in the U.S. Entry comes after a bachelor's degree, and most programs run three years full-time.
- LLM (Master of Laws). A graduate law degree, not an entry credential. Per LSAC, U.S. and Canadian students need a JD first, while international students need a first professional law degree such as an LLB. 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 own rules.
- MLS (Master of Legal Studies). The one our research did not cover. It is a master's by name, but the research behind this page documents the JD and LLM pathways and holds no verified detail on MLS curricula, admissions or outcomes — so we will not characterize it further. Check the programs directly, and if licensure is the goal, ask the bar admission authority in your state how any degree you are considering is treated.
The practical summary: the JD is the entry degree, and the LLM is a graduate layer on top of it — or on top of a first law degree earned abroad.
On the MLS, the verified trail ends where this list does; the programs themselves and your state's bar admission authority can answer the rest.
Career information, not legal advice. Degree specifics change — confirm current requirements with the law schools and the bar admission authority in your state before you act on anything here.