185 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013
Phone: 212.431.2888; Fax: 212.966.1522
E-mail: admissions@nyls.edu; Website: www.nyls.edu
New York Law School has developed a unique approach to legal education that it calls The Right Program for Each Student. It acknowledges and accommodates our students' differing expectations, ambitions, and levels of ability. New York Law School has developed several individualized programs to meet the needs of the various segments of the student body. The John Marshall Harlan Scholars Program is a rigorous academic honors program which gives students the opportunity to focus their law school studies and gain depth and substantive expertise. The Comprehensive Curriculum Program is unique to New York Law School and provides intensive support for students, helping them turn a weak start to law school into a powerful finish. A focus on collaborative learning is achieved through the project-based learning courses aimed at combining attention to legal theory and practice.
Founded in 1891, New York Law School is one of the oldest independent law schools in the country. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
New York Law School is located in the historic TriBeCa district in Lower Manhattan. It is an extraordinary setting for the study of law and one of the city's most colorful and dynamic neighborhoods. Lower Manhattan is the site of New York's largest concentration of government agencies, courts, law firms, banks, corporate headquarters, and securities exchanges. Federal Courts, New York State Civil and Criminal Courts, Family Court, and the Court of International Trade are within a four-block radius of the Law School.
The opening of a striking new building during the 2009–2010 academic year doubled the size of the school's facilities and provided the most modern and technologically advanced law building in New York City. This new building houses a four-story library that contains more than 500,000 volumes and periodicals, individual and group study space, an auditorium, classrooms, student activity space, and a penthouse dining facility for students.
We are committed to giving students a first-rate law school experience—in and out of the classroom. In return, we demand of them the seriousness of purpose necessary to become ethical professionals—the kind of lawyers sought by clients, law firms, government agencies, advocacy groups, and corporations.
New York Law School has a long-standing and continuing interest in enrolling students from varied backgrounds, including older students, minority students, women, career-changers, and public servants. Students range in age from 20 to 55, with the average age being 25.
The Law School's distinguished full-time faculty is composed of productive scholars who are dedicated educators and who share a strong commitment to the school's vision and philosophy embodied in its core values: embracing innovation, fostering integrity and professionalism, and advancing justice for a diverse society. A national survey of law faculty scholarship includes them among the 50 most prolific law faculties in the country and notes the significant number of their books that are published by university presses. Leading jurists and attorneys who work in nearby offices are members of the adjunct faculty.
The required curriculum, composed of the entire first year and part of the second year, provides a foundation in legal reasoning and in areas of law that are considered indispensable building blocks of a legal education. In the second year and thereafter, students may design their programs with elective courses chosen from an extraordinarily rich array.
Elements such as legal analysis and legal writing, counseling, interviewing, negotiating, advocacy, planning, and strategizing form the core subject areas of the school's Legal Practice Program. Six clinical programs offer students the opportunity to represent real clients.
Externship and judicial internship programs permit students to do actual lawyering work in law offices.
In the admission process, a number of factors are taken into account, including the applicant's academic record and LSAT scores. The admission committee also looks for those applicants who have demonstrated leadership ability, motivation, and a sense of service and responsibility to society. Excellence in a particular field of study, progression of grades, strength of undergraduate curriculum, work and community service experience, graduate study in other disciplines, and extracurricular activities all are considered as well. Writing ability receives particular attention, and the admission committee strongly urges applicants to submit the optional writing sample.
The school seeks to enroll students who, through their diversity of backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and ambitions, promise to enrich the law school community and, ultimately, the larger society. We do not charge an application fee.
The Institute for Information Law and Policy is the home for the study of technology, intellectual property, and information law. It includes our Media Law Center and the Program on Law and Journalism. The Institute offers a certificate of mastery in law office technology and a patent bar preparation curriculum.
The Center for New York City Law focuses on governmental and legal processes in the urban setting.
The Center for International Law focuses on legal issues relating to international trade and finance.
The Justice Action Center seeks to develop students' expertise in civil rights and civil liberties law and international human rights.
The Center on Business Law and Policy focuses on business and corporate law.
The Center on Financial Services Law focuses on law in financial services, including regulatory reforms and other current issues in this global industry.
The Center for Professional Values serves as a vehicle through which to examine the role of the legal profession and alternative approaches to the practice of law.
The Center for Real Estate Studies enables students to study both the private practice and public regulation of real estate.
The Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families exists to ensure that children and the families who care for them receive the legal assistance they need to remain safe and secure, and to thrive.
New York Law School students exhibit well-honed courtroom skills, in recent years winning outright three national moot court competitions and earning awards in many others. The school's annual Robert F. Wagner Sr. Labor and Employment Law Competition is one of the nation's largest student-run moot court competitions.
The Law School currently has three scholarly publications, edited and staffed by students, which are an integral part of the Law School's program: Law Review, Journal of International and Comparative Law, and Journal of Human Rights.
Students have established some 35 interest organizations as well.
New York Law School has established a program of financial aid to assist students in meeting the costs of a legal education through grants, scholarships, work-study awards, and loans. Scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit and financial need.
The Office of Professional Development brings together three key student services: Student Life, Career Services, and Public Interest and Community Service. This innovative structure allows us to offer students personal attention from their first day of study to help them pursue their professional goals. The Career Services Office offers a wide array of services, including individual career counseling, on-campus interview programs, career panels and workshops, alumni network and mentoring programs, online employer databases, and information on summer, full-, and part-time positions, and alternative career opportunities.
This grid includes only applicants who earned 120–180 LSAT scores under standard administrations.
| GPA | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LSAT Score |
3.75+ Apps |
3.75+ Adm |
3.50–3.74 Apps |
3.50–3.74 Adm |
3.25–3.49 Apps |
3.25–3.49 Adm |
3.00–3.24 Apps |
3.00–3.24 Adm |
2.75–2.99 Apps |
2.75–2.99 Adm |
2.50–2.74 Apps |
2.50–2.74 Adm |
Below 2.50 Apps |
Below 2.50 Adm |
No GPA Apps |
No GPA Adm |
Total Apps |
Total Adm |
| LSAT score 170–180 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 24 |
| LSAT score 165–169 | 21 | 19 | 34 | 34 | 35 | 35 | 22 | 22 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 147 | 139 |
| LSAT score 160–164 | 55 | 53 | 106 | 104 | 124 | 123 | 109 | 108 | 49 | 45 | 42 | 30 | 33 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 527 | 489 |
| LSAT score 155–159 | 102 | 100 | 212 | 208 | 274 | 267 | 273 | 267 | 185 | 153 | 85 | 48 | 74 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 1226 | 1086 |
| LSAT score 150–154 | 138 | 96 | 283 | 189 | 398 | 191 | 413 | 145 | 275 | 63 | 179 | 15 | 112 | 7 | 41 | 9 | 1839 | 715 |
| LSAT score 145–149 | 66 | 13 | 162 | 15 | 278 | 37 | 302 | 40 | 202 | 17 | 109 | 5 | 84 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 1232 | 127 |
| LSAT score 140–144 | 27 | 1 | 74 | 1 | 94 | 3 | 124 | 1 | 98 | 1 | 72 | 1 | 74 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 578 | 8 |
| LSAT score Below 140 | 6 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 64 | 0 | 62 | 0 | 51 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 304 | 0 |
| Total | 424 | 288 | 885 | 554 | 1246 | 661 | 1310 | 586 | 888 | 295 | 550 | 111 | 447 | 54 | 131 | 39 | 5881 | 2588 |
Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 99% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.