154 Stuart Street
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617.422.7210; Fax: 617.422.7201
E-mail: admit@nesl.edu; Website: www.nesl.edu
New England Law | Boston offers an exceptional academic program; an engaged, welcoming community; and a menu of experiential learning opportunities that are among the most varied in the nation—all in the heart of Boston's legal community. Founded in 1908 as Portia Law School, the first law school in the nation exclusively for women, New England Law has been coeducational since 1938.
The law school officially announced the shortening of its name from New England School of Law to New England Law | Boston during its centennial celebrations in 2008. The law school is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
The faculty offers elite academic credentials, a wealth of legal practice experience, and a strong desire to help students reach their goals. Because of the school's location in the heart of the legal community, the school's adjunct professors are drawn from a pool of outstanding practitioners, including more than a dozen judges.
Even US Supreme Court Justices have provided their points of view in the school's classrooms. The following five justices all visited the law school, gave lectures, and interacted with students: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., taught in our annual summer programs in Galway, Ireland, and in Malta. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent a day with students, as did Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (retired) during her two-day visit for the school's centennial in 2008. Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy lectured during visits to the law school, and Justice Scalia also taught in our Ireland summer program.
Whether it's a placement at the attorney general's office, with a district attorney, or at the EPA, among many others, the law school offers one of the most wide-ranging, experiential-learning programs in the country. Through 16 clinics, four academic centers, and multiple cocurricular activities, students gain hands-on experience with the benefit of consistent faculty supervision. Programs include a variety of judicial clerkship opportunities.
The law school is one of a handful in the country to place students regularly at a variety of international criminal tribunals—International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (The Hague, Netherlands); Special Tribunal for Lebanon (The Hague); Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (Phnom Penh); and International Criminal Court (The Hague).
The law school has two nationally distributed journals, the New England Law Review and the New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement. The curriculum at New England Law prepares students to practice in any jurisdiction in the United States.
The Center for International Law and Policy provides students with the opportunity to move beyond the walls of the classroom, confront critical social and legal issues, and apply what they are learning to real-world problems. Recently, students have been working on the preparation of issue briefs related to the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council. Students have also provided legal research and analysis to international prosecutors on issues pending before the international tribunals, from the contours of command responsibility to the interpretation of the Genocide Convention.
The Center for Law and Social Responsibility engages students and faculty in public interest work in areas such as the environment, children and families, and wrongful convictions. Some recent projects include representing townspeople who are fighting the construction of a carbon-polluting power plant near an elementary school, and investigating potential wrongful conviction cases.
The Center for Business Law offers a wide range of challenging opportunities, with placements at organizations like NASDAQ, FINRA, and insurance giant Liberty Mutual. Two center projects have involved students working on an article on corporate governance and another on a new style business organizations casebook.
Our newest center, the Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy (affiliated with the Center for Law and Social Responsibility) was established in 2010 with a grant from the New York State Department of Health. The center conducts legal research and provides evidence-based policy support on tobacco-related issues to New York State and its contractors. Reducing the availability of tobacco products, protecting nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, and minimizing tobacco advertising are among the efforts supported through the center's work.
The law school's earliest alumnae broke major barriers blocking the entry of women into the legal profession. (Blanche Braxton '21, for example, was the first African American woman admitted to the Massachusetts Bar.) The school's pioneering roots are evident today as it continues to offer a quality legal education to students from a broad range of backgrounds. The school is one of only a few in the United States offering a program that provides parents with primary child-rearing responsibilities with an opportunity to pursue a legal education.
New England Law fosters a comfortable and supportive atmosphere for students of color. A cornerstone of that commitment is the Charles Hamilton Houston Enrichment Program. The program seeks to address racial bias in the legal profession and the law, promote diversity in the student body, and reduce isolation. The program combines discussion groups with guest speakers and community-building activities.
Students may enroll in the full-time day division, the part-time day or evening divisions, or the Special Part-Time Program. New England Law accepts foreign lawyers in an advanced placement JD program or an LLM program in Advanced Legal Studies.
Students may study in summer-abroad programs in Galway, Ireland; London; Malta; Chile; or Prague; or in semester-abroad programs in Denmark, the Netherlands, Tanzania, Paris X-Nanterre, or Cambodia. An international criminal process clinic in The Hague enrolls students for a summer or semester.
Our generous financial aid program consists of a combination of federal loan programs, merit scholarships, and institutional need-based grants. Federal work-study funding is also available.
New England Law has a Student Bar Association, which oversees more than two dozen student groups. These organizations sponsor speakers, social events, and volunteer activities during the year. Student representatives sit on most faculty committees.
The Career Services Office (CSO) provides students with individual career counseling, job-search resources, and career programs and workshops. The office maintains an extensive resource library and an online Recruitment and Programming Center with services that include a searchable job-posting database, employer recruitment programs, an e-mail service that sends students job postings, an alumni networking and mentoring program, and postings of job-related programs sponsored by the CSO and outside organizations.
As a member of the Massachusetts Law School Consortium, New England Law participates in recruitment programs with the state's six other ABA-accredited law schools. The school is also a member of the Northeast Law School Consortium and participates in recruitment programs with eight ABA-accredited law schools in the region.
Most students take the Massachusetts Bar exam, while many take exams in New York, the District of Columbia, Florida, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.
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 |
2.25– 2.49 Apps |
2.25– 2.49 Adm |
2.00– 2.24 Apps |
2.00– 2.24 Adm |
Below 2.00 Apps |
Below 2.00 Adm |
No GPA Apps |
No GPA Adm |
Total Apps |
Total Adm |
| LSAT score 175–180 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| LSAT score 170–174 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| LSAT score 165–169 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 30 |
| LSAT score 160–164 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 40 | 36 | 33 | 30 | 22 | 17 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 160 | 141 |
| LSAT score 155–159 | 55 | 54 | 102 | 95 | 127 | 118 | 124 | 117 | 83 | 69 | 51 | 45 | 23 | 20 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 576 | 526 |
| LSAT score 150–154 | 73 | 72 | 181 | 176 | 211 | 203 | 259 | 245 | 184 | 159 | 109 | 96 | 39 | 31 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 1083 | 997 |
| LSAT score 145–149 | 31 | 27 | 90 | 57 | 190 | 109 | 198 | 110 | 104 | 56 | 71 | 32 | 31 | 8 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 3 | 742 | 405 |
| LSAT score 140–144 | 4 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 42 | 0 | 61 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 244 | 0 |
| LSAT score 135–139 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 76 | 0 |
| LSAT score 130–134 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
| LSAT score 125–129 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| LSAT score 120–124 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Total | 189 | 176 | 447 | 352 | 627 | 475 | 698 | 511 | 454 | 302 | 303 | 186 | 126 | 68 | 45 | 20 | 19 | 0 | 39 | 12 | 2947 | 2102 |
Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 99% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.