340 JRCB
Provo, UT 84602-8000
Phone: 801.422.4277; Fax: 801.422.0389
E-mail: admissions@law.byu.edu; Website: www.law.byu.edu
Since its founding less than 40 years ago, the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University has been distinguished by the strength of its program and the accomplishments of its graduates. The Law School has produced 13 United States Supreme Court clerkships and has an enviable placement record throughout the country in all branches of the legal profession. The Law School's relatively small entering class size of 150 lends itself to individualized instruction, while the university, with its 30,000 students, provides all the athletic, cultural, and social opportunities that a student may expect from a larger school. The Law School is fully accredited by the American Bar Association, is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and has a chapter of the Order of the Coif.
The Howard W. Hunter Law Library is one of the most technologically advanced law libraries in the world. It houses 475 individual study carrels with full Internet and LAN computer connectivity (hardwired and wireless). Thus, each student in his or her private study space has access to electronic resources that include Westlaw, LexisNexis, and the growing Hunter Law Library Electronic Reserve, which contains archives of past examinations. In convenient locations, printers and scanners are available for students on all library floors. The law library also contains 18 group-study rooms (4 of which are family-support rooms to assist law students who are parents and need to view closed-circuit broadcasts of classes) and spacious casual seating in open areas. Office and research space, along with a conference room for the Law School's four scholarly journals, two advocacy groups, and the Student Bar Association, are also conveniently located. Specialized rooms are dedicated to video viewing, interactive video, microforms, and television hookups. The Rex E. Lee Reading Room and the Law School Conference Center Room provide ample space for special seminars and receptions. The library houses a collection of over 500,000 volumes or volume equivalents. Via interlibrary loan, students have access to many more titles found in the catalogs and collections of over 9,100 other worldwide institutions that, like Hunter Library, subscribe to the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). A mock trial courtroom with state-of-the-art technology provides a superb training ground for learning trial advocacy skills. An open and spacious student commons area provides students with comfortable seating and a place to dine and have conversations with colleagues.
The combination of the small entering class size and our internationally renowned faculty creates unique opportunities for learning. Together, our faculty seek to meet the challenge of making a difference worldwide as they engage in research, publishing, and advocacy. The objective of the Law School's curriculum is to maximize the students' mastery of legal reasoning and other legal skills while teaching the basic substantive rules of law. Approximately 140 courses and seminars are offered each year by a faculty of 28 full-time members and over 50 adjunct faculty members. In addition, the Law School provides opportunities for students to develop practical skills through international and US externships with private law firms, corporations, and agencies, as well as public defenders, legal services, city and county attorneys, judges, attorneys general, and guardians ad litem. Students receive one credit for every 50 hours of work.
In addition to knowing the law, lawyers must synthesize complex information, analyze and formulate strategy, predict outcomes, and present information persuasively. The Rex E. Lee Advocacy Program administers a two-semester required course for first-year law students in the essential skills of legal writing, research, analysis, and oral advocacy. Students receive individualized attention during one-on-one conferences with instructors and teaching assistants and in small classes. In the Advocacy Program, students learn and practice the critical skills that bring success in both law school and the profession.
The BYU International Center for Law and Religion Studies promotes religious freedom by studying and disseminating the laws, principles, and institutions affecting the interaction of state and religion throughout the world. The center sponsors and participates in symposia and conferences with scholars, government leaders, nongovernment groups, and religious organizations from numerous countries and faith traditions, in an ongoing effort to promote religious liberty for individuals and cooperative relationships between governments and religious organizations. Additionally, the center produces US and internationally based scholarship on law and religion topics. Finally, the center sponsors three important websites (www.iclrs.org, www.religlaw.org, and www.strasbourgconsortium.org) dedicated to disseminating in-depth knowledge on law and religion in every country on earth.
The Law School offers an academic externship program as a capstone experience to students following their first year of law school. This program allows students to work with judges, law firms, corporations, public interest groups, and government organizations throughout the world. During the summer of 2011, over 200 students completed an externship, earning an average of four units of law school credit. Forty-seven of those placements were international, with externships in 25 different countries.
The Academic Success Program (ASP) is designed to help students adjust to and meet the rigorous demands of a legal education. The ASP offers legal skills workshops with personal feedback, individual tutoring, and one-on-one legal writing instruction to all students upon request and by dean's referral.
The objective of the cocurricular program at the Law School is to make a law review-quality experience available to larger numbers of students. Comparable standards of excellence in research, writing, and editing are offered in six programs: the Brigham Young University Law Review, the Board of Advocates Moot Court, Trial Advocacy, the BYU Journal of Public Law, the Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal, and International Law and Management Review.
The Career Services Office (CSO) is available to all students and graduates seeking employment. The CSO offers two legal career-planning courses featuring skills training and presentations by practicing attorneys who participate as guest lecturers. The office also publishes a Professional Development Handbook, Job Hunt Book, Public Service Handbook, Alternative Careers Handbook, and Judicial Clerkship Handbook and maintains a webpage with links for both students and employers. About 98 percent of the graduates who are seeking work accept employment within nine months after graduation, and graduates are placed in all 50 states and a number of foreign countries. The CSO brings firms to campus every year for on-campus interviews and has interviewing events and job fairs in Washington, DC; New York; Southern California; and Nevada.
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 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 6 |
| LSAT score 170–174 | 19 | 16 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 26 |
| LSAT score 165–169 | 35 | 32 | 25 | 20 | 21 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 105 | 69 |
| LSAT score 160–164 | 47 | 37 | 66 | 17 | 40 | 7 | 11 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 187 | 66 |
| LSAT score 155–159 | 28 | 12 | 61 | 6 | 53 | 5 | 18 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 179 | 25 |
| LSAT score 150–154 | 23 | 4 | 26 | 1 | 29 | 1 | 22 | 1 | 16 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 126 | 9 |
| LSAT score 145–149 | 7 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 73 | 5 |
| LSAT score 140–144 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 0 |
| LSAT score 135–139 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| LSAT score 130–134 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| LSAT score 125–129 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| LSAT score 120–124 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 165 | 105 | 210 | 56 | 170 | 25 | 85 | 11 | 61 | 6 | 32 | 1 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 23 | 2 | 761 | 206 |
Apps = Number of Applicants
Adm = Number Admitted
Reflects 100% of the total applicant pool; highest LSAT data reported.