Admission requirements for law school and doctoral programs vary. Students need to have a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution to gain admission into law school. These students can choose any field of study. Most doctoral programs, on the other hand, require students to have both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, and their graduate degree should be in the same field--or at least a closely related one--as the Ph.D.
Law school curriculum lengths are standard whereas doctoral program lengths vary. Law school takes three years for full-time students to complete, and most law schools require that students study full-time. Earning a Ph.D., though, is more up to the student and how quickly he matriculates through the program. Some Ph.D. students take part-time classes while working full-time, which can slow down their progress. For example, the University of Texas reports that there is no set length to its Ph.D. in accounting program although it normally takes students four to five years to complete it.
Doctoral students have to jump through more hoops than law students do in order to graduate. Law students typically progress through three years of coursework, starting with basic law courses during their first year and advancing to more specialized courses in their second and third years. Doctoral programs have a course component as well as research and writing components. After completing their coursework, Ph.D. candidates will choose a topic to research or study, write a dissertation proposal and defend it, conduct their research and ultimately write their dissertation. A successful defense of a dissertation results in graduation.
A J.D. prepares students for a profession in law. Therefore, this degree is more of a professional degree than the Ph.D. Many doctoral students' academic and professional interests lie in research, making the Ph.D. a research-focused degree. Although both degrees provide students with advanced studies in their field, the purpose of the degrees is different.