LSAC Launches Program to Offer New, Holistic Pathway to Law School

The Law School Admission Council announced today a bold initiative that will offer undergraduate students a new, holistic pathway to law school. LSAC’s new Legal Education Program will help students develop the skills necessary for success in law, navigate the law school admission process, and build a supportive community of belonging in law.  

“LSAC has a long history of promoting equity in legal education with evidence-based products and services that ease the enrollment journey and advance student academic success,” said Kellye Testy, LSAC president and CEO. “LSAC’s Legal Education Program’s focus on helping students develop and demonstrate mastery of the skills necessary for success in law school – as part of their regular undergraduate academic coursework – will have a profoundly positive impact on students, schools, and the legal profession as a whole.”

In addition to equipping more students with the skills and support to pursue legal education, the Legal Education Program will provide a second, equally valid and reliable alternative for law school admission in the future that will complement the proven LSAT exam. While studies consistently show that the LSAT is the single best predictor of law school success and that the LSAT’s predictive validity is consistent across all demographic groups, LSAC is innovating to create an additional pathway to law school that meets potential students earlier, via a holistic approach to building the skills and support needed to help them define, pursue, and succeed in their educational goals.

LSAC is developing its Legal Education Program in partnership with students, law schools, undergraduate institutions, DEI advocates, and members of the legal profession. This development will be rooted in measurement science, using LSAC’s deep expertise in assessment science and research to build an additional tool that will reliably predict law school success.

In order to guide the development process, some of the nation’s leading academics and legal leaders have joined LSAC’s Legal Education Program Advisory Committee. The committee’s current members include:

• Jason Barnwell, general manager and associate general counsel, Microsoft Corporation

• Jonathan Brand, president, Cornell College

• Erwin Chemerinsky, dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law

• Danielle Holley-Walker, dean and professor of Law, Howard University School of Law

• Hari M. Osofsky, dean and Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

• Eduardo Peñalver, president, Seattle University

• Andrew M. Perlman, dean and professor of law, Suffolk University Law School

• Choi Portis, senior attorney, DTE Energy, and chair, ABA Young Lawyers Division

• L. Song Richardson, president, Colorado College

• Joseph West, partner and chief diversity officer, Duane Morris LLP

• Sarah C. Zearfoss, senior assistant dean, University of Michigan Law School

“We are grateful to our partners and have been delighted at their and other stakeholders’ enthusiasm for a program offering students a chance to explore a legal education journey and a new pathway toward becoming part of the next generation of lawyers,” said John Valery White, chair of LSAC’s Board of Trustees.

LSAC will begin to pilot the Legal Education Program with undergraduate institutions this fall, and will share additional updates, including the program’s permanent name, in the coming months.

The creation of the Legal Education Program is in keeping with LSAC’s mission of supporting enrollment and learning journeys from prelaw through practice. Over the past months, the organization has enhanced its ability to pursue that mission by adding new tools and resources to LSAC LawHub through its acquisitions of the Institute for the Future of the Law Practice (IFLP) and Law School Transparency (LST). LawHub is quickly evolving as a legal education destination, giving prelaw students, law students, and legal professionals a range of products and services to make informed decisions about their legal education and continue their professional development journeys.

To learn more about LSAC’s Legal Education Program, please visit LSAC.org.