But they could....
Titles
The J.D. is a professional doctorate degree,[127] and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of "Doctor" in professional[128] and academic situations.[129] In countries where holders of the first law degree traditionally use the title of doctor (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Macau, Portugal, Argentina, and Italy),[130] J.D. holders who are attorneys will often use the title of doctor as well.[131] The J.D. in Japan is known as Hōmu Hakushi (法務博士)[132] and in China it is called 法律博士 (Faat Leot Bok Si in Cantonese, or Falü Boshi in Mandarin).[133] The characters 博士 in Japanese and Chinese mean "doctor" and this is the same title given to holders of both professional and academic doctorate degrees.[134]
Although persons licensed as attorneys in the United States often use a variety of titles and suffixes, the titles "Attorney," "attorney-at-law," "Esquire" ("Esq.") and "lawyer" must be distinguished from "J.D.". Generally, the designation "J.D." indicates a person who has received the degree from a law school, whereas "Attorney" and the like indicate the person is licensed to practice law. Some states restrict the use of the "J.D." suffix to those licensed to practice law. Arizona, for instance, forbids the use of "J.D." as a title if it is "reasonably likely to induce others to believe the person or entity is authorized to engage in the practice of law in Arizona".[135] (In all states, a person who is not admitted to practice law but who represents or implies that he or she is an attorney may be subject to penalties for the unauthorized practice of law or impersonating a lawyer, both of which are criminal offenses in many jurisdictions.)[136]
There has been much debate in the United States as to whether J.D. recipients may use the title of Doctor and refer to themselves as "Doctor". (See debate section) ABA Informal Opinion 1152 (1970) and Disciplinary Rule 2-102(E) permit those who hold a Juris Doctor (J.D.) to use the title doctor.[137] Some local bar associations in the U.S. have also released their own opinion papers stating that J.D. holders may use the title of "doctor" in those jurisdictions.[138] The J.D. is not considered by some to be a terminal degree, which causes questions about the status of the J.D. as a doctorate and the ability of J.D. holders to use the "doctor" title. (See debate section below). However, the degree is the highest level professional degree in law in the United States, and is treated as a terminal or doctorate in U.S. academic practice. For example, the highest degree of some university presidents--a position that typically requires[139] a Ph.D. or comparable[140] (i.e. terminal) degree--is a J.D. (e.g. University of California president Mark Yudof, former Harvard president Derek Bok, and the presidents of Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities).
At my school, in California, USA, I will eventually get a MBA-JD.
The MBA is a master's degree in business administration, which is usually the absolute minimum required to teach a business class at a California Community College.
The JD, in California, is the "basic" law degree, which for over 200 years was called the bachelor's of law, or LL.B.
In 1976, this degree, the basic law degree, was renamed the Juris Doctor and accepted as such, by name, by the California Bar.
It's still a basic law degree and the next degree is the Masters in Law, or LL.M.
The true PhD equivalent in law is the J.S.D. and those graduates of this program can call themselves "Doctor".
So to sum it up, a JD is a second bachelor's for practical purposes, the LL.M is the
graduate law degree most people go to if they want to specialize and become a scholar of great distinction, and the JSD is a very, very rare
PhD level law degree that is not necessary, but is the true PhD of Law. This is how it was when I worked for the California Bar Association, Howard Street, San Francisco, California. Other states have different designations.
Louisiana, for instance, considers any LL.B or American JD a
"doctor". An LL.M is a "master" of law, which is far, far more prestigious, and a JSD is basically a
guru in law in Louisiana. They don't go by an American standard of law of statutes, or even a British standard of Common Law (judge made law), but adhere to the
Civil Law of Medieval France. At least that's how one Louisiana lawyer explained their sometimes interchangeable titles of esquire and doctor.
Outside of that state, I don't think any basic law graduate, with a JD, can call themselves a "doctor" unless they do the legwork and get the LL.M and later the research oriented JSD. A mere JD calling themselves a doctor is considered a conflict of interests. There are some who are an MD and JD and they are lawyers that can truly call themselves a doctor.
Another name for the American JSD, which is two degrees above and beyond the mere JD, is the SJD (as an alternate degree title). But all this is so far from the MBA thread I started, and I should change it to Master of Business Administration to make the distinction from the more well know Mac Book Air on this site.
EDIT: I changed the title to the more appropriate masters of business administration. Sorry, MBA laptop users for the confusion.
