The next time you need to close a deal on a new home, write a will or seek advice in a family dispute, you may be sitting down with a doctor. Not a medical doctor; a doctor of laws.

Law students across Canada are pressing to have their degrees upgraded. The traditional bachelor of law (LLB) does not accurately capture the training they go through, they say. Increasingly they want that bachelor's degree re-designated as a doctorate — a JD or Juris Doctor.

To date, five of the country's 21 law schools have indeed stopped granting LLBs and are now conferring JDs: The University of Toronto Law School, Osgoode Hall, the University of British Columbia Law School, the University of Western Ontario Law School and that of Queen's University.

Others, such as Dalhousie, are now in the process of considering the change, as well.

The courses have not changed; just the designation. Law school is still a three-year grind. Fees remain the same but at the end of that tunnel lies a doctorate instead of just another bachelor's degree to hang on the office wall.

So why the push?

Jill Daley, an associate at Ogilvy Renault LLP in Toronto, says it is all about international recognition of Canadian lawyers' superior education. She led the push for the change at Queen's when she was president of the Law Students' Society in 2006.

"In most parts of the world an LLB is an undergraduate degree; they take in 17- and 18-year-olds and three or four years later graduate lawyers," she says. "In Canada it is an advanced degree; today most people applying already have an undergraduate degree and many have post-graduate degrees as well.

"We wanted to differentiate ourselves from places like Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand. We wanted international recognition that Canadian lawyers have advanced degrees."

But there was another reason, as well.

"The University of Toronto had already made the switch and others were following suit," she says. "Queen's graduates wanted the same degree, the same designation and the same recognition."

That notion that Canadian law degrees should stand apart in the English speaking world was indeed the primary motivator when U of T moved to a JD designation in 2001, says Mayo Moran, dean of the law school and chair of the committee that recommended the change.

"Students were tired of explaining to potential international employers that our LLB was a second degree while almost everywhere else in the world it is a first degree," she says. "They wanted the recognition that a doctorate in laws provides."

At that time the University of Melbourne in Australia was about to make a similar move so U of T's law school quickly approved the change, giving the 180 students in each year of its three-year course a choice of an LLB or a JD. The school also extended the same option to alumni. About 170 former graduates jumped at the chance to become doctors, Ms. Moran says.

"If it is what the students want, then law schools are generally willing to consider it," says Philip Bryden, dean of the University of New Brunswick Law School and co-president of the Council of Canadian Law Deans. "Nothing really changes except the designation. The administration stays the same, the courses stay the same but the students get what they feel is the international recognition they feel their training deserves."

While UNB has yet to make a similar move, Mr. Bryden says his school will certainly consider it should they hold something like a referendum, the path taken by law students at other schools.

A twist in the tale, however, is that not all JD degrees granted by Canadian law schools are the same. Some schools, such as the University of Windsor Law School and that of the University of Calgary, also grant U.S. JD degrees in conjunction with universities south of the border. That degree is recognized by the American Bar Association, while purely Canadian JDs are not.

"Because of our proximity to the United States, we have a combined LLB and U.S. JD degree," says U of Windsor Law School dean Bruce Elman. "Our JD is recognized by the ABA and lets graduates practise in the U.S., while the LLB lets them practice in Canada."

He is one dean who does not think the argument that new JD degrees gain extra recognition when graduates seek work internationally makes a great deal of sense.

"Employers looking to hire lawyers have done their homework," he says. "I think they know that a Canadian LLB is a second and not a first degree."

One subtle benefit for the shift, however, may be the future ability of law schools across the country to seek provincial funding for their programs. In Ontario, for example, while the provincial government provides funding for university post-graduate programs it does not extend the same support to law schools.

"Law schools may see it as a way to lay the foundation for the future when it comes to seeking subsidies," Mr. Elman says.

Special to The Globe and Mail