Law School Application Process

The overwhelming majority of law schools require at least one letter of recommendation, and occasionally ask for up to three.

The strongest letters of recommendation come from faculty members or others who are familiar with a candidate's intellectual abilities, leadership potential and other qualities and skills relevant to a law school admissions committee. Although many are tempted to do so, you should avoid seeking recommendation letters from members of Congress, judges, politicians or practicing attorneys merely because you think that they might hold some "pull" or clout with an admissions committee. Irrespective of his or her title, if your recommender does not know you well and cannot speak directly to the intellectual qualities that law schools will ultimately be concerned with, their letter will at best be disregarded and may even serve to offend or turn off an admissions committee.

Even among academics, the professional rank and scholarly reputation of your recommender are essentially irrelevant. Ignore the prestige factor, and focus on finding a faculty member who knows you well and who can deliver a positive, substantive and forthright evaluation of your academic abilities. Ideally, at least one of your letters should come from someone who can critically evaluate your writing skills, for instance a teacher for whom you wrote a major paper.

You should choose your letter writers carefully, but do not be afraid to ask a professor for a recommendation. Academics write such letters all the time, and are usually flattered that you have chosen them to be your recommender. You would be surprised at how willing people generally are to support you, and how favorable an impression you may have made without even knowing it.

The counterpoint, however, is that crafting a strong letter of recommendation does take some time and effort, and does require a good deal of familiarity with a candidate and their work. If a recommender seems hesitant or lukewarm about writing on your behalf, you will be best served by looking elsewhere for a recommendation. It is far better to have someone decline to write a letter outright than to have him or her submit a tepid or unfavorable letter. You may even wish to politely and tactfully inquire as to whether someone feels they know you well enough and are comfortable enough with your work to write on your behalf, and then gauge their response accordingly. Along the same lines, if a recommender appears unsure about what type of content would be most helpful to law schools, feel free to have them contact the Pre-Law Office for suggestions and direction.

For current undergraduate students who have had significant work, internship or volunteer experiences, you may wish to get an additional recommendation from one of these sources in order to round out your application. Bear in mind, however, that strong letters of recommendation from non-academic sources should still focus on the qualities and skills that law schools are ultimately concerned with. For instance, letters that focus on how well you follow directions or the fact that you generally showed up to work on time will not really help your cause. Furthermore, barring unusual circumstances you should avoid submitting more than three letters of recommendation, as there are many good reasons not to burden busy admissions offices with what promises to be redundant information.

As your recommenders are performing such an important function, and because they are going above and beyond their required duties to help you, you should make every effort to facilitate the process for them. This means that you should always give your recommenders as much time as possible to prepare the letter-at least a few weeks-and should never ask someone for a letter of recommendation at the last minute. It is often helpful to provide your recommenders with copies of any significant papers or projects that you did for their class, so as to refresh their recollections of your work. You should also provide them with a resume and a copy of your personal statement in order to familiarize them with your academic and extracurricular achievements and to give them a sense of your motivations for attending law school. If you prefer, this can also be accomplished by sitting down and having a conversation with your recommenders about your past involvements and your goals for the future.

You will want to keep your recommenders apprised of your schools' application deadlines and when you plan to have each school's file completed. Your recommenders are likely to be busy people, and even if you have given them plenty of time to write the letters, it may take some gentle pestering to keep them on track. You do not want schools to keep an otherwise completed file on hold while they await further recommendations or have them begin evaluating you before they have received your strongest letter. By keeping all of your recommenders informed, you are likely to avoid these unfortunate circumstances and give yourself the best possible chance of gaining acceptance to the school of your choice.

For those individuals who have been out of school for a year or more at the time of their application, the importance of faculty letters diminishes somewhat. If a significant amount of time has passed since graduation, you may wish to substitute or supplement academic letters with recommendations from employers or others who can speak to relevant skills and abilities. If you have remained in contact with professors or instructors, academic letters will of course be very helpful, but schools understand that this is quite often simply not practical.

Using the LSDAS letter of recommendation service is the most efficient way to submit letters. For information about using the LSDAS letter of recommendation service, visit http://www.lsac.org/LSAC.asp?url=lsac/letters-of-recommendation.asp.