Yes, I am aware of what JD stands for. Glad that we can agree that it's not really equivalent to a PhD.
A little known fact is that provided one can pass their local bar exam, they're still a lawyer/officer of the court, regardless of whether they attended law school or not.
It's not really a thing anymore, but historically a lot of lawyers served a kind of apprenticeship in lieu of law-school.
We give people shit education, and they wind up not being able to read at a 6th grade level.
Then you basically have to navigate an entire world where you are required to pick how to sign away some of your rights/enter deals written beyond their comprehension.
This is a system that breeds suckers as sets them up as suckers, to screw them later.
On the other hand, always targeting the lowest common denominator has negative consequences also. There needs to be a balance, and equity to close the gaps.
The solution to that isn't to dumb down everything, it's to lift everyone else up. Mandate that adults be educated and provide remedial classes at community colleges for free. Failure to comply results in losing the ability to hold gainful employment or vote. Anonymize testing and tie test results to social security numbers.
It's either do that, or allow civilization to collapse while other countries that do force their citizens to be educated flourish.