Dr. Robert W. McGee

[sanantone]

I've kicked around the idea of two doctorates (a PhD and a JD), but am very unlikely to do even that. I can't even imagine 13! What's the point?

I didn't even count the JD as a doctorate. It technically is a doctorate, but outside of law schools, it's not seen as the equivalent of a PhD, EdD, PsyD, DBA, etc. It's more of a long master's degree program similar to an MSW. An LLM is higher than a JD. It's a weird hierarchy that was created when the U.S. got rid of the LLB. There's also the SJD, JSD, and other true doctorates in law. It's not unusual for someone with a JD to go back to school for a true doctorate.

I like the way you phrase that, with it not being a "true doctorate", since even though it is *technically* a doctorate, it doesn't FEEL like one, and in many ways is very different.

I don't think most people know that the JD is a doctorate, or they've subconsciously relegated it to something else. A person with just about any other doctoral degree is almost automatically called "doctor," but I've never heard anyone call a lawyer a doctor. The JD is definitely a first professional degree, though.

[jsd]

When I was at Patten, there was a professor with a JD (no other doctoral degrees) who referred to herself as Dr. Whoever. I had never seen that before and was surprised. I asked a couple of my lawyer friends and they both said that was quite a faux pas, one was flabbergasted anyone would think to call themselves a doctor based on it. He brought up the oddity of law degrees where there's a Masters in Law, which comes after a JD.

[mysonx3]

I believe there are ABA ethics guidelines forbidding lawyers from referring to themselves as Dr. So and So unless they have another doctorate.

[jsd]

I believe there are ABA ethics guidelines forbidding lawyers from referring to themselves as Dr. So and So unless they have another doctorate.

What little i could find in a quick google search seems to imply this was the case at one point, but the ABA has reversed that rule... But it is still discouraged. 

The search also led me to this article, which I thought was pretty funny (from popular law blog Above The Law):

Any Lawyer Who Calls Himself ‘Doctor’ Like a Ph.D. Should Get Punched in the Mouth
By ELIE MYSTAL
https://abovethelaw.com/2011/11/any-lawy...the-mouth/