it takes a minimum of seven years post secondary education to qualify as a lawyer in the us, and then you need to take the bar exam. contrast this with the uk system, where you either take an llb (perfect equivalent of a jd) as an undergraduate or a one year conversion course if you have an unrelated degree, and then a further year for the legal practice course.
there is afaik no real preference for students with an llb - there is no pretence that a further two years of case reading (and drinking) has much professional value
American lawyers, once they are barred, can immediately go to the any court they are barred in. In England, it seems like it is quite the process before you are allowed to court. I assume that overall both Americans and Brits end up being similarly qualified. Americans just get more up front education before they get paid. Brits have to "pupil" with a barrister for a while before they can go to court; repeating myself, Americans have no such requirement.
IIRC it takes 6-7 years to become a lawyer in the UK.
- 3 years undergrad law degree (or 3 year unrelated undergrad plus 1 year law conversion)
- 1 year legal practice course
- 2 years traineeship (working at a law firm) before the final exam to be a solicitor
The process for a barrister is similar but not the same. I don't know what the restrictions are on what barristers can do that solicitors can't, and vice versa.
Worth pointing at that there isn't a single legal system in the UK - Scotland's system is quite different at all levels from England & Wales (I have no idea about NI).
In Scotland it is 4 years for an LLB (or 2 if you already have another degree), 1 year legal practice and 2 years traineeship - but there is no "final exam". Trainees can start appearing in court at a low level after 1 year. Fully qualified solicitors can appear in Sheriff Court. More serious stuff is dealt with in the Court of Session (civil) and High Court (criminal) - where you need to be an Advocate to appear - the Scots equivalent of barristers. You can be dual qualified as a solicitor and an advocate, although this is fairly rare. Advocates can't represent clients directly, only act on the instructions of solicitors, and solicitors can't appear in the higher courts.
Qualifying as an advocate requires passing exams and then doing a period of devilling to qualified advocates (usually senior non-QCs) - during this time you are an "Advocates Devil" ;-)
yes, but you are a full time paid employee throughout the traineeship, so it's not really comparable to the years spent studying for a jd. i don't think there is any qualitative difference in the work a trainee solicitor does vs. a newly minted jd in the US.
qualifying as a barrister is a tortuous and, to an outsider, bizarre process, but they are definitely a minority of the legal workforce.
there is afaik no real preference for students with an llb - there is no pretence that a further two years of case reading (and drinking) has much professional value