2009 Guide to Law School - Starting Your Career as a Lawyer

Congratulations! You are on the right path to starting an excellent career as a lawyer, litigator, prosecutor, defense attorney, people's advocate or maybe even a judge. This step by step guide will make it clear why only the truly dedicated and firmly committed excel in this profession. The application process alone is designed to test your stregnth and determination. You will need to conduct research at every step in the process.

1. Prepare for the LSAT / Take an LSAT Course
2. Take the LSAT / Have Your Scores Sent Out
3. Calculate Your LSAT and GPA
4. Research Law Schools
5. Select 10 - 20 Law Schools
6. Prepare Law School Applications
7. Submit Law School Applications
8. Send in Law School Applications
9. Acceptance, Rejection and Waitlists Letters
10. Decide on a Law School
11. Prepare for Law School
12. Make It Through the First Year of Law School
13. Maximize the Second Year of Law School
14. Complete the Third Year of Law School
15. Take the MPRE: Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam
16. Apply to Take the State Bar Exam with Character and Fitness
17. Study for the State Bar Exam with Commercial Course
18. Take and Pass the Bar Exam
19. Apply to Law Firms and Law Offices
20. Celebrate Being Sworn in as an Attorney

This 2008 Guide to Law School will take you step by step from taking the LSAT, through the application process, the first, second and third years of law school, the bar exam and becoming an attorney. The process is long but rewarding at every step along the way. You'll just have to remember to celebrate each major and minor accomplishment. You may also have to over come many obstalces, disappointing scores and financial demands. Move forward passionately and aggressively with the end result in mind; But, step back and take a break through out the process.

The first step in the application process is learning all about the Law School Admissions Test or LSAT. Don't make the mistake and think that because you are highly intelligent and placed at the top of your class that you will be able to sign-up for the test, show up the day of the exam and score 170-180. If you do score 170-180, you will have your choice of law schools and beautiful financial aid packages to go with your numerous acceptance letter.

The reality is that without any preparation, you might hope to score 140-150 which is just below average. Under 150 does not make you competitive for any law school admissions. The LSAT score that you will receive from this one exam is as important as the your undergraduate GPA. Both scores together will determine your competitiveness for law school admissions.

1. Visit the LSAT Website:
2. Check Out the LSAT Dates:
3. Download a Practice LSAT Test:
4. Buy an LSAT Study Guide:
5. Reach a Competitive Score:
6. Sign-Up to Take the Next Exam:

After you have learned about the exam, tested your skill, and determined your starting level of competitiveness, you will need to improve your score by at least ten points. You will need to study at least ten to twelve hours a week initially. It will become a full time job to increase your score just prior to the exam.

Don't panic if you download the exam and score a ridiculously low score. This is just your starting point, not your actual potential. Your actual potential will be determined by your actual intellectual level, your reading skill and speed, your logical aptitude and your level of commitment. In other words, even if you do not believe you are as intelligent, as fast and as good at logic as others, you can still work extremely hard and come out with an amazing score.

By time you take the LSAT exam, you will be an expert, you will need to be to excell. Regardless of how brilliant you are, the truth is that everyone who does extremely well on the LSAT exam takes an expensive commercial course to help them prepare. The commercial courses teach you special techniques to master each type of question and answer in the most effective and efficient manner. The faster you work, the higher score and the more competitive you become. Those who take the course rise to the among the top test takers, those you don;t take the course end up on the bottom.

1. Allow Six Weeks Study Time
2. Prepare to Study Four Hours Everyday
3. Take a LSAT Review Course
4. Acheive a Target Score
5. Focus on the Test Date
6. Every Section Counts

The test date is very important, you should not take the test if you are sick. If you do miss the test, you will have to add an addendum and explain this in your law school applications. If you retake the test, it might be best to write an addendum about your improved score. The test takes all day, it includes five thirty-five minute sections: Three sections will be on reading comprehension, analytical reasoning and logical reasoning. One experimental section will not be graded. One essay writing section will be at the end. You will know your stregnths and weaknesses by time you take the exam.

Every section is limited to the 35 minutes, and must be completed in order. Do not try to guess which section is the experimental section, with questions which do not count. You will need to work at a rapid pace, and you will not have time to panic. If you start to panic because of the difficulty of the questions, you should take a deep breath before you proceed. At times the exam may seem like a test of endurance, as it should. Law School in itself is an endurance test. You must build your reserves and pace yourself to make it through the end.

Part of studying for the exam in four hour blocks is to prepare you to take this type of an exam. Another part of studying hundreds of questions and practicing numerous logic games is to help you recognize different types of questions and games immediately. The more familiar you are with the different types of questions and games, the better prepared you will be to answer the questions in an effective and efficient way.

Before you take the LSAT exam, your GPA will be your primary indication of how competitive your are in the law school admissions process. If you have below a 3.0, you should legitimately be concerned. You will need a fairly high LSAT to be competitive (over 160). This does not mean you should be discouraged and give up now. You need to be realistic. If you have an extremely high GPA, over 3.75, you will have more leeway. You could score below 160 and still gain admissions with financial suppot to a Top Tier law school.

1. Competitive Scores for Top Tier Schools
2. Competitive Scores for Second Tier Schools
3. Competitive Scores for Third Tier Schools
4. Admissions to Bottom Tier Schools
5. Evening and Part-Time Programs

A strong GPA with a strong LSAT score is ideal. But you may have just as much power, or competitiveness, in the law school application porcess by being in the top 75% in either category. If you have between a 3.75 and 4.0, a school may select you for top admissions with a nice scholarship, financial aid package to boost the schools overall GPA statistics, regardless of your LSAT score. If you have between a 170 and a 180, a school may select you for top admissions consideration with a great scholarship, financial aid package to boost the schools overall LSAT statistics.

Right now, you may be thinking that you don't have either. With a slightly above GPA, at least a 3.0 and a slightly above LSAT, at least a 155, you might still be in the admissions game. If you do not have a 3.0 and you do not have a 155 GPA, you need to explore your options.Three options come to mind: 1.) Improve your GPA; 2.) Improve your LSAT; 3.) Consider applying to new or lower tier schools. Note: Taking the LSAT a second time is risky because you may not improve by that much if you rush it, and many schools average your score. Also, even bottom tier law schools are selective, and they tend to be extremely expensive.

Once you are satisfied with your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score, you will now how competitive you will be in the application process.. If your GPA and LSAT are not strong enough to speak for themselves, you may need to attach an addendum or address their weaknesses in your personal statement. An addendum is preferable is offered as an option on the application package. Keep it to a minimum. Provide legitiamate, tangible reasons but not excuses. You must have decent scores to be an eligible candidate, in addition to a strong application package.

Unless you are El Woods and need to go to a specific law school for a specific reason, you should keep your options open. Top tier, second tier, third tier and bottom tier colleges of law can all provide an adequate legal education. The most important requirement to keep in mind, other than being accreditied, is that the education you receive prepares you to pass the bar. Check out the schools passing rates for the bar.

Your undergraduate experience may inlfuence what type of law school you want to go to: a public or private university, east coast or west coast college, close to family or away from family. You will need to think about your experience while in law school: will you have a support system, can they provide scholarship support, are there good work opportuntities, can you study at the beach? You should ask how the school will help you after law school: do they have a strong alumni association, do they have a good career services office, will the schools reputation help or hurt you in securing a job as a lawyer?

Your first big consideration should be whether you prefer public or private education. In law school quality and cost are not always synonymous. Financially, in state public law school give you best value for your dollar. After graduation, you will be able to afford working in public service with less overall debt. However, if you get into a top tier private school and maintain a competitive rank, top 25%, you may be able to make six figures in your first year out of law school. Other than finances, you will have to consider the college atmosphere and environment you will excell best in.

1. East Coast and West Coast
2. Single and Family Accomodations
3. Support Systems
4. Employment Opportunies
5. Financial Aid Packages

Only apply to schools which you would attend if they accepted you and provided you with the necessary financial aid package. There are many small bottom tier law schools who may be able to provide scholarships and incentives to attract candidates with an avergae GPA and LSAT score. You might want to apply to this type of school as a backup. But be fair to the law school admissions committee and to yourself about the likelyhood of you accepting placement in their first year law class. If you accept any offer, before to withdraw your application from consideration at other law schools, as a courtesy.

Even before you have received your LSAT scores and final GPA, you should start narrowing down your law school choices. One reason is that the application process can be time consuming and you want to go for quality not quantity, Another reason is that there are application fees associated with each application, so the application process can be quite expensive. Also, based on your LSAT and GPA scores you will have a good idea what tier of law schools you should be applying to.

Keep in mind, there are benefits to applying to schools with in your reach, out of reach and even under reach. You want to apply to schools within your reach, because you obviously want to make certain that you secure a place for the fall. You want to apply to a few schools out of reach, because they may see something special in you that enables them to bend the rules. Every school has the ability to select up to 25% of the incoming class, with out effecting their statistics.

Once they accept students with high GPA and high LSAT scores, their 75 percentile, 50 percentile and 25 percentile statistics are set. They can bring in anyone they want into the bottom quarter. They can create diversity in their incoming class which might otherwise not exist. This provides an opportunity for single parents, low income minority students and otherwise disadvantaged individuals to compete in the application process. On this note, see the schools statistics if diversity matters to you. Social support increases law school retention. It's a very legitimate concern for the minority applicant.

1. High Range/ Top Tier:
2. Mid Range/ Second Tier:
3. Low Range/ Third Tier:
4. Ability to Afford Law School:
5. Proximity to Family:
6. Study Atmosphere:

Once you have your GPA and LSAT score, you will know how competitive you are. Now the question is not as simple as, can you get into the law school you want to go to. The real question is, will the law school want you bad enough to pay big bucks or with they want you just enough to offer you admissions with no financial aid guarantees (other than loans).

You should consider applying to a majority of top tier schools, a few second tier, a few third tier and possibly a couple of bottom tier schools. You want to look at the last year's incoming class statistics to see where your LSAT and GPA fit. You can find these statistics on the school and the LSAT websites. You should submit the majority of your applications to schools that you are in the top 50% or higher. However, take a chance and apply to schools that you would be in the bottom 25%. You want to consider schools that you would be in the top 75% as sure things.

Irrespeective of your undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores, your application package should be as close to perfect as possible. Each law school application package will include several generic and a few specific elements. The time ciommitment will depending on the number of schools you decide to apply to: Each application should take a 4-6 hours to complete. If you decide to apply to 10-20 different schools, you are looking at 40-120 hour commitment. If you are going to school, working or both, this process could end up taking a couple of months.

You will develope the generic elements of your law school application packages, after taking the LSAT and before the law school application season. At the latest, you spend the summer perfecting your personal statement, resume or curriculum vitae, and letters of recommendation request. These three aspects should be completely polished by the beginning of Fall. Starting in the Fall, you should download all of your law school application and have them completed by the end of Fall.

1. Personal Statement
2. CV/Resume
3. Letters of Recommendation
4. Law School Application
5. Law School Application Fee
6. Online Application
7. LSAT Scores and Transcripts

Part of the application process is making sure that all your college transcripts and your official LSAT scores are mailed out to each law school to which you plan to submit an application. In addition to the law school application fee ($50.-$125 average), each official transcript and official LSAT score reporting will add to the cost of each application. Applying to 10 - 20 law schools at an average of $100. each can add up to a couple of thousand dollars.

Even once you have all your law school application materials prepared, you will need to make sure your law school applications are prepared perfectly. Remeber, one day you will be turning legal papers in to the courts, and the readers will assess your ability to turn in quality work starting with your application. Your personal statement, curriculum vitae, and letters of recommendations should be complete, Your LSAT score and official transcripts will need to be sent to each school as well. Additionally, each school you will require a legnthy 4-10 page application and possibly a specific essay on an assigned topic. Your entire application for each school may be fifteen to twenty pages each. Plan to spend several hours on each application package.

1. Online Applications
2. LSAT Scores
3. Official Transcripts
4. Application Packages
5. Early Admissions
6. Timely Admissions
7. Late Admissions

You will be able to apply online to most law schools, infact some schools may only take online applications. It may however be more beneficial to you to download applications and send them in traditionally, so you can ensure all of the required documents arrive at the same time. LSAT scores, official transcripts and letters of recommendation can be sent to the LSAT website for processing. It may be preferable to send personalized letters of recommendation directly to each school.

Early admissions applicantions begin in November. Timely admisions applications generally take place between late November and early January. Late admissions applications may be possible between February and March. Few schools accept law school applications after April. By April, most law schools have made their first offers.

You already have all the materials needed to apply for law school scholarships. You will need to look for law school scholarship deadlines falling between January and May, so you can find out by summer what scholarships you will be awarded, and budget for the next academic year accordingly. If you maintain a certain GPA after your first year of law school, the scholarship awards may be conditionally renewed for the second and third years. Because you have never attended law school before, you do not know how you will perform. Do not automatically assume because you are a 4.0 student that you will be top of your class.

News Alert! Everyone in law school has excellent academic scores and is highly intelligent. Strive for awards which can be automatically renewed, but do not count on being top of the class. Grades in law school are given on a curve, which basically means, not everyone can get an A and a lot of law students end up disappointed when they receive a C or lower.

Since you do not know what your GPA will be in law school, apply for as many scholarships as possible with your strong undergraduate GPA. There will be internal and external scholarships offered. If your law school understands what a valuable addition you can be to their incoming class, i.e you have a high GPA or high LSAT that will boost the school's statistics, they should offer you a strong financial aid packages, including scholarships. If you are a top candidate, you should be offered a three year scholarship - not based on future academic performance.

Many schools offer a first year scholarship, with conditional renewal based on a 2.5 or higher after the first year. Remember, you have never been to law school so you do not know how you will perform. If you accept a scholarship package based on future academic performance, it may place unnecessary pressure on you during exams. Law school exams are already stressful enough. Let the school know you would be glad to accept the offer, if they remove the conditional renewal.

Starting in late March or early April, a first round of acceptance and rejection letters should be sent out. Law schools can determine fairly easily if you are automatically in or automatically out, based on extremly high GPA and LSAT scores, or extremely low GPA or LSAT scores. For example, with a 4.0 undergraduate GPA and a 180 LSAT, you'd be in the perfect pile for automatic admissions to almost all schools. With a 2.0 undergraduate GPA and a 140 LSAT, you'd be in the not even close pile for automatic denial at almost all schools. These acceptance and rejection letters can go out first.

Law schools may wait a set amount of time to hear back from extended offers for admission, before extending additional offers. The good news is, if you receive an early acceptance letter, you can be failry confident that they value you as a strong candidate. If you receive an early rejection letter, you know it's not personal, you were not a competitive candidate at that institution.

1. Acceptance Letters: Make you happy, especially if they are followed with scholarship offers.
2. Rejection Letters: Make you sad, especially if it's the last chance you had to get into a law school this year.
3. Waitlist Letters: Make you nervous, especially if they don't let you know either way until a week before school starts.
4. No Letter: Make a call, law school admission departments are generally small and they understand mistakes happen. Let them look into it for you. Don't just wait and accept that no news is good news.

The rejection letters will hurt for a while because you know you have excellent qualifications and you're a good person too. The waitlist letters will concern you just as much, but there is nothing more you could have done to push it over the top. At this point, its probably all about numbers They like you enough to want you, but only if candidates with high scores don't accept. The acceptance letters will need to be weighed against each other, based on cost, location, reputation and financial aid offers. (For example, you might reject admission to ASU Law School in Phoenix, a top tier school, because prospective employers might think you received my law degree from the University of Phoenix Online Degree Program.) If you get into Harvard, Yale or even UCLA with no scholarship offers, you should go. If you can make it through the first semester financially and academically, the law school financial aid office will find away for you to continue.

Hopefully, you have more than one offer from a top tier school, and you can weigh your options. You will need to consider the reputation of the school, the overall cost of tuition and living expenses, how much you will be in debt after three years, what relocation expenses will be involved, where do you want to take the bar and practice after law school, and how strong is the school's career services office. In other words, will you be able to practice law immediately after graduating from law school.

You will probably be contacted by the admissions director several times in writing, feel free to call and speak to him or her in person. A current law student or alumni may call to speak with you about the college of law. Make a list of questions that you need answered. If you have concerns that need to be addressed, let the school know what is holding you back. If its money, or a weak financial aid package, ask the school if they can help. At this point, you'll know how much they want you. Remember, as an attorney you will be negotiating on a regualr basis.

From the minute you accept admission to law school, you will think of nothng but being a law student. It is a competitive and life changing experience, in which you will have to be very self-confident and determined. The advice you will be given may not always be to the best of your advantage. So take everything in with a grain of salt. You will need to learn how law school works from day one. For a competitive edge, research study guides for each of your first year subjects. Your law school professors will tell you on day one that they do not recommend commercial outlines. By the end of the first semester, you will realize everyone uses them, with no shame.

1. Review First Year Curriculum
2. Study Guides on Each Subject
3. Purchase Textbooks as Early as Possible
4. Buy Corresponding Commerical Outlines
5. Prepare Physically, Mentally and Emotionally

Use your summer to visit with friends and family, spend extra time on yourself, go on vacation, and take advantage of any summer bridge programs offered by your law school. This summer may be the last time in your life that you do not feel pressure to work. The next three to four years will be very demanding on your time and social life.

Congratulations, Superstar! You've made it to your first day of law school. The problem is that once your incoming class has been selected to start law school - everyone is a superstar. Law schools at every tier have an abundance of applicants to choose from and they only choose the very best. Even if you graduated Magnum Cum Laude in your undergraduate and graduate degree programs at ivy league schools, so did a handfull of students sitting int he same row.

From the minute you arrive at orientation, the law school wants to know that they have made a good investment in you. If they have offered you solid funding for the duration of your law school career, they will want to know that you are worth every penny. That's why its a good idea to make sure that your scholarships are offered from day one with no strings attached. It's a bad idea to take scholarships based on expected performance.

The truth is that you do not know how you will perform becuase you have never been in law school before, and law school writing and exams are not similar to other course you have taken.

1. Orientation
2. Networking
3. Socializing
4. Competition
5. Ranks
6. Law Review
7. Self-Esteem
8. Tragedy
9. Summer

At the end of your first semester, you will be ranked on your performance during the semester. All of your grades received are based on a curve, so even if you understand the material and feel you mastered it, you could still come out at teh bottom of the class. Your rank will follow you for the rest of your time in law school. Class rank will factor into what jobs you qualify for as a new lawyer. But it will not change who you are inside, unles you let it.

The truly most important realization that you absolutely must understand is that you are the key to your own future. Listen carefully, because every year first year law students forget this and do the unimaginable. Law students sometimes how home on break and never come back, they kill themselves or murder others, the pressure just gets to be too great. So just remember, you are the key to your own future.

On this note, if you need to take the next summer or any other time off, just do it. Otherwise, if your studies are going well, you shoud start to apply for summer law clerkships which could term into permanent job offers after school.

The second year may be the easiest year of law school, without the pressures of being a firt year law student, or the pressures of graduating from law school and seeking employment.During your second year, you will complete required courses, take specialized courses, write a dissertation, write for law review, prepare for the MPRE, participate in moot court, work in a legal clinic, and apply for law clerkhips.

1. Specialization
2. Dissertation
3. Required Courses
4. MPRE
5. Law Review
6. Legal Clinics
7. Moot Court
8. Summer Clerkship

Everything you choose to participate in, or do not participate in your second year can have a profound impact on your legal career. This i also the perfect time to experiment with your class schedule, take a bankruptcy or family law clas, and see if you are interested in a particular area of the law. You will be exposed to many general areas of the law, but a specialization could make you more marketable.

One year to go, with several important tasks to accomplish. Just as with all degrees, the final year is an opportunity to make sure that you have completed all the required courses. You will need to check with the registrar and file for graduation at the beginning of your third year. You will also complete your dissertation, apply to the bar, and fill out a character and fitness application about every aspect of your life including finances and past employment. You will need to start planning for the bar, taking a commercial bar course and applying for jobs. Think twice before accepting a full time job which may nto give you the time you need to study for the bar.

1. Required Courses:
2. Thesis/Dissertation:
3. Apply To Bar/Finger Prints and Pictures:
4. Character and Fitness Application:
5. State Bar Fees:
6. Commercial Bar Review Courses:
7. Apply for Jobs:
8. Job Interviews:
9. Law School Graduation:

When you graduate from law school, you will want to come back and read this, to see just how much you accomplished. The most important taks to accomplish at this step, is of course to graduate, but may be even more important is to actually celebrate your accomplishment. Don't forget to celebrate the little victories along the way.

At this point, it will be easy to become overwhelmed by needing to complete your dissertation, find a job and pass the bar. Don't be afraid to take time off. Take a week to celebrate if you can. Take a year to study for the bar if you need. You've finished law school and you can decided what the best way to proceed.

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam must be passed before you become a lawyer. You can take it durign your second or third year or after graduation. It does correspond with a required course in law school, it is valuable to take them during the same semester. Each state sets their own passing scaled score, between 75 and 86. Your MPRE score will last for two years.

You will apply to the bar at the end of your fifth semester, usually during the middle of your third year. This would be January 2012, if you plan to take the bar in July 2012. You will need to submit passport type pictures and a finger print clearance.The fees for each bar cost hundreds of dollars. It is very difficult to sit for more than one bar, because of set dates every year (most state bar exams occur during the last week of July, and the last week of February.)

As soon as you graduate from law school, you will start preparing for the bar. Most law school professors will agree that it is extremely important to pay for a bar review course. The most popular and successful courses cost on average two or three thousand dollars. An IPOD version may be available, for a few hundred dollars more, which must be returned after the exam. So it will not help, as insurance, for retaking the exam.

The course may be offered during the day, approx four hours a day, or in the evening. The courses are designed to start the week after law school graduation and run up until the week before the bar exam. This is important to understand, before you accept employment. Most law firms will expect this if they hire you right out of law school.

Passing the bar will require extreme discipline. If you did not learn the material during law school you will be screwed. There is just no other way to put it. You will need to reveiw everything you learned in law school, and understand it well enough to write a detailed essay.

Addiitonally, you will need to take the multistate exam, which is hundreds of multiple choice questions. SImilar to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, you will be able to narrow it down to two out of the four answers, but two may be very close to correct. You must select the best answer. Unfortunately, you will not have a life line or be able to call a friend during the exam. Studying with a friend before the exam can only take you so far, as well.

You should apply to law firms, and law offices, every year you are in law school and hope a summer clerkship turns into a full-time job offer. Still you may find yourself graduating without a job offer. If you can sustain yourself over the summer without working, you should just focus on passing the bar.

After the bar exam, you can start your job search, Generally, you will not know whether you have passed the summer bar until late fall. You do not need to wait until results are in to seek employment. Of course, once you pass the bar that will be a great confidence boost and help you in securing employment. You will need to weigh the pros and cons, between working for a private law firm or in public legal services.

The final step after you have passed the bar will be to get sworn in as an attorney. This means you have passed your character and fitness test, MPRE and state bar. Congratualtions on being admitted to the bar. You can now enter the practice of law.