<< > For example, in your first year and a half of law school,
> they really do teach you stuff you need to know, and which
>But law school, like med school, is really more akin to *trade*
school, than university. Law and Medicine are the only fields
where you get a 'doctorate' without doing any research -- it's
as much practicum as possible with the minimum amount of
theorizing. Like learning to be a bench tech or a plumber at
the local tech school. >>
Well, yes and no. Law school is a trade school. The "doctorate" is not comparable to a Ph.D--no onme thinks it is. The LLM, a masters degree, is the academic research degree for practical purposes. There is an SJD, but almost no one gets it. In fact, most law profs only have the JD. As to "not doing any research," this is not accurate. In law school you learn two things: how to "think like a lawyer," i.e., the ropes and the kinds of moves that judges expect, and how to do legal research--how to find, analyse, and deploy the law. They don't teach most of the things you actually need to practice, like how to conducta deposition or a cross examination or indeed negotiate a settlement, although many school offer "practicum" courses in which you handle real cases under supervision. Most law schools also require a seminar or two with a research paper that is like a seminar paper in grad school. If you do the law review route youi have to write a publishable note or comment. It's not like getting a Ph.D, of course. But lawyers aren't supposded to be scholars of that sort. I will remark that in my experience, most lawyers are pretty awful at their trade. --jks