LL.B. to J.D. and the Professional Degree in Architecture

85THACSA ANNUAL MEETING ANDTECHNOLOGY (ONFEKtNCE 585 LL.B. to J.D. and the Professional Degree in Architecture JOANNA LOMBARD University of Miami Thirty-four years ago, the American Bar Association (ABA) (I) that the lack of uniformity in nolnenclature was recotrunended that Ainerican law schools offer a single confusing to the public and (2) that the J.D. terminol- unified professional degree, the Juris Doctor. Sixty years of ogy inore accurately described the relevant academic sporadic discussion and debate preceded that reconmenda- accomplishment at approved law schools. The Sec- tion. The Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) had originated as an tion, therefore, recommended that such schools con- undergraduate prograln which evolved over time to graduate fer the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.) . on those studies while retaining the bachelor's degree designation. In students who successfully coinplete the prograln recognition of the relatively unifonn acceptancc of the 3- leading to the first professional degree in law year graduate prograln as thc first professional degree in law (decapriles 1967, 54). in thc 1960's, a number of law faculty and administrators By 1967, nearly half the law schools had colnplied with the argued for a national consensus confinning the three-year 1964 ABA resolution: a nulnber of law faculty and admin- graduate prograln and changing the first professional degrce istrators continued the debate(deCapri1es 1967, 54). Within from an LL.B. to the J.D. (Doctor of Law). The debate among the next five years, the J.D. emerged as the single, first law faculty and the process through which change occurred professional degree in law and today the J.D. is the first offers an historical reference which may be useful to archi- professional degree in all of the 178 ABA approvcd pro- tecture faculty and academics seeking to reconcile the grams. As the length of time between the 1906 and 1964 current diversity of professional architecture progranls with resolutions and coinplcte coinpliance would suggest, years the 199 1 Declaration of the Five Presidents. The Declaration of discussioll and debate precedcd the final emergence of the states that architecture would "be best served, if by January J.D. Aspects of that historic discussion among law faculty I, 2001, there should be only one designation for the advocating and opposing the change froin LL.B. to J.D. professional degree in architecture offered by all the schools parallel concerns raised today by architecture faculty with in North America." This paper reviews historic discussion regard to thc possibility of a single professional degree regarding the change from the LL.B. to the J.D.; considers designation in architecture. the history and context of the professional architectural George P. Smith 11, then assistant deanat SUNY Buffalo's degrees; and addresses the possibility of architecture schools School of Law, for example, believed that the effort to raise achieving a single professional degree by 200 1. standards was laudable. but admonished schools "seeking to gain 'instant status' by inercly changing the wording of the LL.B. (BACHELOR OF LAWS) TO law degree(1967,18)." Srnith argued for strengthening law J.D. (JURIS DOCTOR) sc11ools In 1906 the Colmnittee on Legal Education of the ABA by acquiring good. productive full-tiine faculties, by recommended the adoption of a resolution favoring the J.D. placing greater emphasis upon the realization of law- degree for those "who have previously obtained a degree in yer-skills through legal education and the develop- arts or sciences (Henley 1964.537)." The University of ment of more effective teaching techniques, by main- Chicago had begun awarding the J.D. to graduates ofits post- taining an up-to-date curricula. by phasing out part- baccalaureate prograln in law. Other universities adopted time, evening law schools, by keeping better research the graduate prograln but retained the bachelor's degree. libraries, by setting higher admission standards for This anomaly persisted until the 1906 resolution was finally soine of thc less prominent schools and requiring reiterated in 1964 by the ABA's Section on Legal Education co~npletecertification of law schools by the Associa- and Admissions to the Bar which stated: tion of American Law Schools (1967,18). ARCHITECTIIRE: MATERIAL AND IMAGINED Similarly, Charles Alan Wright, the McCorlnick Professor as graduate or professional divisions and equate them with of Law at the University of Tcxas complained that the J.D. medical schools (1964,535)" Hervey responded to what he "has had its greatest success among the weakest law schools." listed as his opponents' concerns, including the idea that "the who he believed used the new degree to "achieve a status they J.D. will discourage research degrces in law," with the have not earned through the strength of their accomplish- example of the University of Chicago Law School which, in ments ( 1967,19)." 1900. was the first to require a baccalaureate degree for An even-handed review of discussion of the proposed admission and to award the J.D. Hervey found Chicago's change from LL.B. to J.D. occupies the opening of Marcus J.D.s no less likely to pursue graduate studies than LL.B.s Schoenfeld's article for the Clevelat2d-Marshall Law Re- and noted that comparable research degrees in other profes- view. An instructor at Cleveland-Marshall Law School and sional disciplines such as dentistry and medicine were a doctoral candidate at New York University, Schoenfeld masters' degree programs ( 1964,536). examined the issues he felt relevant to decision-making. Miguel decapriles, then dean of the New York University Schoenfeld first traced the history of baccalaureate degrees Law School, cautioned proponents of the J.D. that to apprenticeships in a specialty, such as law, medicine or it would be unwise to underestimate the influence of theology. After reviewing the history of the LL.B., and a the leading schools who tnay decide to stand pat on the survey of his contemporaries' arguments for and against the LL.B. partly for reasons of tradition, but possibly also J.D., Schoenfeld contended that discussion should be rooted because of a bit of reverse snobbery-the sort of in one question, "What is the appropriate title for the first attitude that suggests "my bachelor's degree is better professional degree (1 963,575)?" than your doctorate (1967,54)." Schoenfeld likened the legal profession to medicine and dentistry which award the M.D. and D.D.S. respectively as Dean decapriles concluded that the movement to the J.D. their first professional degrces. After distinguishing the first would gain lnornentuln and raised the issue that alumni with professional degree program in law from research master's LL.B.s would likely seek retroactive application of the programs in the humanities and sciences which are typically J.D.(1967,60). one or two years in duration, Schoenfeld explained that "the Although by the early 1960's the structure and organiza- first degree in law should be a Doctorate simply because the tion of legal education had evolved to a relatively consistent very high level of achievement over three years is not three years of graduate level work, protest against the J.D., sufficiently rewarded by a Mastership (l963,579)." a change which both proponents and opponents labeled In reviewing the discussion from the 1900's through the semantic, persisted. Eventually the number of schools 1930's to the debate of his own colleagues in the 1960's. offering the J.D. produced a groundswell strong enough to Schoenfeld found that although proponcnts of the LL.B. withstand the vocal and in some instances derisive opposi- often argued in favor of tradition, no current faculty pro- tion as well as the resistance of what law faculty termed the moted the study of law as an undergraduate curriculum. "leading" institutions. As the benefits ofjoining the ranks of Given the consensus that had cvolved over the previous sixty the professional schools convinced students, faculty and years on law as a post-baccalaureate program, Schoenfeld alumni, many of whom sought retroactive degrees, the J.D. characterized the LL.B. vs. J.D. debate as "essentially one prevailed. of semantics (1963,579)." The precedent of the shift from the LL.B. to the J.D. While Schoenfeld took a scholarly approach, John Henrey, illuminates the manner in which academic controversy stalls then dean of Oklahoma City University's School of Law, movement for ycars, even when the change is nominal. The discussed the implications for law schools within the univer- J.D. may or may not be responsible for the clarity of law's sity and beyond to the professio~lalworld. Hervey main- professional status, its parity with medicine, or its preerni- tained that the LL.B. "tends to impair the image of the legal nent position in many universities and in the professional profession. It also lessens the image of the law school in the world. The Occuipational O~itlookHaizdbook of the Bureau minds of those who instruct in the other divisions of the of Labor Statistics, for example, lists starting salaries for law parent institution." Henley predicted that "conferral of the graduates in 1993 averaging $37.000, with some starting J.D. as the first professional degree in law would eliminate salaries at $80,000 (Fullerton 1996,9). Despite an elite the existing conhsion among the schools" since "there is no status, law school has become more inclusive; the participa- uniformity among the law schools as to thc name of the first tion of women has grown from 4% of the student body in professional degree in law." Looking at the nomenclature 1967 to 43% in 1995(ABA.1995,67).

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