About the Law School Admission Council
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is a nonprofit corporation whose members are more than 200 law schools in the United States and Canada. It was founded in 1947 to coordinate, facilitate, and enhance the law school admission process. The organization also provides programs and services related to legal education.
All LSAC-member law schools have been approved by the American Bar Association (ABA). Fifteen Canadian law schools recognized by a provincial or territorial law society or government agency are also included in the voting membership of the Council.
Headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Philadelphia, the Council is best known for administering the Law School Admission Test (LSAT®). An average of 140,000 prospective law students take this test each year. With the guidance and support of volunteers representing its member schools, LSAC provides a growing number of important services and programs for law schools and their applicants. LSAC does not engage in assessing an applicant’s chances for admission to any law school; all admission decisions are made by individual law schools.
Below you will find a brief description of LSAC’s services and programs. At the core of each is an ongoing commitment to expanding educational opportunities for underrepresented minorities, educationally disadvantaged persons, and people with disabilities.
- The Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
- The Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS)
- Candidate Referral Service (CRS)
- Law School Forums
- Office of Diversity Initiatives
- Test Preparation Publications and Law School Guides
- Questions
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT)
LSAC administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) four times a year at designated centers throughout the world. It is required for admission to all ABA–approved law schools, most Canadian law schools, and many non–ABA–approved law schools. Many law schools require that the LSAT be taken by December for admission the following fall. However, taking the test earlier—in June or October—is often advised.
The LSAT helps law schools make sound admission decisions by providing a standard measure of acquired reading and verbal reasoning skills that law schools can use as one of several factors in assessing applicants. Prospective law students come from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, ethnic groups, and cultures. Diversity of experience among applicants—both personal and academic—serves to enrich the law school applicant pool and, ultimately, the legal profession. The LSAT is not, of course, the sole factor law schools use to make their admission decisions. But it is the only common yardstick by which the ability of all prospective law students can be measured fairly. A copy of LSAC's LSAT Fairness Procedures is available on this site.
The LSAT is a half–day, standardized test designed to measure some of the skills considered essential for success in law school: the reading and comprehension of complex texts with accuracy and insight; the organization and management of information and the ability to draw reasonable inferences from it; the ability to think critically; and the analysis and evaluation of the reasoning and arguments of others. The test consists of five 35–minute sections of multiple–choice questions. Four of the five sections contribute to the test taker's score. These sections include one reading comprehension section, one analytical reasoning section, and two logical reasoning sections. The unscored section typically is used to pretest new test questions or to preequate new test forms. The placement of this section, which is commonly referred to as the variable section, varies for each administration of the test. The LSAT is scored on a scale from 120 to 180, with 180 being the highest possible score. A 35–minute writing sample is administered at the end of the test. LSAC does not score the writing sample, but copies are sent to all law schools to which a candidate applies.
For information about the LSAT, including an online registration option, visit the LSAT Registration section of this website.
Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS)
The Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS) centralizes and standardizes the undergraduate academic records of law school applicants to simplify the law school admission process (for US law schools only). Nearly all ABA–approved law schools (and some non–ABA–approved schools) require that applicants use this service. Canadian law schools do not participate in the LSDAS and do not require its use. The LSDAS prepares a report for each law school to which you apply. The report contains information that schools use, along with your application, personal essay, letters of recommendation, and other criteria, to make their admission decisions. Information contained in the report includes:
- an undergraduate academic summary
- copies of all undergraduate, graduate, and law/professional school transcripts
- LSAT scores and writing sample copies (Canadian law schools receive an LSAT Law School Report containing scores and writing sample copies)
- copies of letters of recommendation processed by LSAC
The LSDAS registration fee includes law school report preparation, letter of recommendation and transcript processing, and access to electronic applications for all ABA–approved law schools. To register, visit the LSDAS section of this website.
Candidate Referral Service (CRS)
If you create an account with LSAC for any purpose, including registering for the LSAT, the LSDAS, a law school forum, or even simply purchasing publications from LSAC, you have the opportunity to authorize the release of information about yourself to eligible law schools and organizations. Law schools use LSAC’s Candidate Referral Service (CRS) to search for potential applicants. A school may, for example, indicate an interest in men or women who belong to minority groups, reside in certain states, have undergraduate grade–point averages or LSAT scores within specific ranges, or have combinations of these and other characteristics. By registering for CRS, you authorize the release of all of your biographic, academic, and employment information, as well as information you have provided about your law school preferences, to eligible law schools for use in the recruitment and admission processes.
After reviewing information about you provided by CRS, a law school may contact you with information about its programs, or a school may invite you to apply.
Law School Forums
Prospective law students nationwide receive an open invitation to meet with representatives of LSAC–member law schools at one– and two–day forums held in nine major cities each year. At the forums, students meet face–to–face with admission professionals, prelaw advisors, and law students and collect admission materials, catalogs, and financial aid information. Participants can also attend workshops where admission and financial aid professionals, and law students and graduates, offer information on particular topics of relevance to candidates seeking a legal education. Some of these workshops focus specifically on issues of relevance to minority candidates. Brief videos on the law school admission process and legal education and careers also are available for general viewing.
For more information about this year’s forums and other events of interest, visit the Law School Forums area of this website.
Test Preparation Publications and Law School Guides
LSAC publishes a variety of materials to help prospective law students make decisions about their education. For a complete listing of all of our publications, including online ordering options, visit the Shop section of this website.
Questions?
Please feel free to contact our candidate service representatives at LSACinfo@LSAC.org or at 215.968.1001 weekdays between 8:30 am and 7 pm (ET), September–March, and between 8:30 am and 4:45 pm (ET), April–August.
